Legal whiz: The cover of An Indian Portia (top); And (below) Kusum Vadgama (left) with her mother (centre) at a family celebration

An Indian Portia come to judgement

The London-based historian Kusoom Vadgama, who has written two excellent books about Indians in Britain, in 1984 and in 1997 respectively, is just about to bring out her third — An Indian Portia: Selected Writings of Cornelia Sorabji (1866 to 1954).

Sorabji, the first practising woman barrister in India, was a social reformer who worked in Calcutta for 30 years.

As “one of the most outstanding women of India”, she has long been one of Kusoom’s inspirational heroines.

The Portia is a reference to the brilliant lawyer in The Merchant of Venice “who had to dress up as a man”, explains Kusoom.

Similarly, Sorabji could offer legal opinions but, as a woman, was not allowed to represent clients in court.

Kusoom’s day job is as an ophthalmologist and optician but it has always seemed to me that she has poured much of what has earned into funding her scholarship.

She has done much to highlight the contribution of Indian soldiers in two world wars. Prince Charles and Indira Gandhi wrote forewords to Kusoom’s first book, India in Britain: The Indian contribution to the British way of life.

That some Britishers in Britain supported India’s struggle for independence is made clear in Kusoom’s second book, India: British-Indian Campaigns in Britain for Indian Reforms, Justice & Freedom, 1831-1947.

Cornelia Sorabji was one of seven children of Kharsedji Sorabji, a Zoroastrian who had converted to Christianity, and Franscina Ford, an Indian brought up as a Christian by a British army officer and his wife, Sir Francis and Lady Cornelia Ford.

Kusoom says: “For an extensive and an exceptional record of writings of an Indian in Britain during the Raj, one must turn to the Cornelia Sorabji archives in the British Library.”

There are 233 volumes. “Her noble career and valuable archives have left behind a heritage to the people of India and their causes.”

Sorabji’s “extraordinary life of dedication to public service, evident from her writings and ceaseless hard work deserve to be acknowledged and publicised,” says Kusoom. “With the publication of this book I hope to achieve both.”

Kusoom is a young 77. Last week she took time off from doing last minute things on her book to organise an elegant 100th birthday party at her home in Finchley, north London, for her mother.

Champaben who was born in Amreli, then in Baroda and now part of Gujarat, on June 26, 1909, went to Nairobi when she got married at 14 and came to Britain on September 9, 1955.

As is traditional on such occasions, the Queen sent a birthday card last week.

Pride of place: Nehru’s bust outside India House

Nehru restored

Coming out of India House last week, something caught my eye — almost hidden by the sunlit leaves of a nearby tree was Nehru’s bust happily back on the plinth that is positioned in a passageway between Aldwych and the Strand.

In the early hours of April 9, the bust was dislodged from its plinth during the days when Tamil protestors were crowding into Parliament Square to draw attention to the plight of civilians trapped in a war zone back in Sri Lanka. Some protestors, who had blamed India for not putting enough pressure on the Sri Lankan government, had also demonstrated outside India House.

Today’s militants are tomorrow’s heroes but even in an ultra liberal society such as Britain’s, it may be some time before a bust of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is placed similarly on a plinth outside the Sri Lankan mission or anywhere else for that matter.

Dying words

Obituaries, which are essentially mini-biographies, are an important part of British broadsheet newspapers.

There is the old joke about the ageing aristocrat who would peruse the obituary columns of The Times first thing in the morning: “If I was not in there, I would get up.”

Legend has it The Times killed off the Nizam of Hyderabad but published an apology when it was discovered that although he was very ill, he hadn’t actually died. Then the Nizam promptly died.

This brings me to the recent publication of The Daily Telegraph Book of Imperial and Commonwealth Obituaries, of which I have a copy kindly presented by David Twiston Davies, the paper’s chief obituary writer.

Some of the entries seemed familiar — for example, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Sunil Dutt, Nirad C. Chaudhuri — possibly because I wrote them or contributed the “anecdotes” that David always desired in an effort to bring the subjects to life.

I remember when a man called “Sandy” retired years ago as obits correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, his colleagues teased him: “People are always dying to get into your columns.”

New bend

The literary world is shocked by Sir V.S. Naipaul’s decision to replace Gillon Aitken as his literary agent with the New York-based Andrew Wylie.

Wylie apparently gets his authors much more money but as the London Evening Standard reported in an item, ‘A new bend in Naipaul’s literary river’, Aitken “was thought to be more than just an agent to Sir Vidia”.

Aitken has been Naipaul’s friend and agent for more than 30 years.

Wylie represents Salman Rushdie and, among other Indians, Nandan Nilekani. Patrick French left David Godwin in London to join Wylie. But what could be Naipaul’s reason for abandoning the loyal Aitken?

Some detect the influence of the author’s wife, Nadira, but maybe Naipaul feels he must periodically destroy close relationships in order to make further progress as a human being. Incidentally, Naipaul is 76.

Meanwhile, there is news also about Vikram Seth. Penguin are said to have offered £1.7m for worldwide rights for A Suitable Girl, a follow up to A Suitable Boy.

Indian summer

The Indian summer continues in the UK with an Indian summer. For about a week, temperatures have been hovering around 33 degree centigrade. This is an especially good time for burglars because householders open windows and forget to shut them.

Climate experts say that future summers will be much hotter. There may come a time when people escape to Calcutta to get away from the heat of London.

Tittle tattle

Young guns: Indians at the Yi meet

To George Bernard Shaw is credited the quip, “Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.”

I now have a similar subject for the senior Cambridge literature exam: names on the top please, write neatly, one side of the foolscap paper only, no cheating and no phoning a friend.

The topic arises from a meeting of personable young Indian men and women — both from India and the UK — who turned up to a well attended function in London organised by Young Indians (Yi), an offshoot of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

Yi is setting up a London chapter, which will be the first outside India. Young is anyone aged 20-40 — so Dev Anand is comfortably in but his heroines would be too young.

Anyway, Rahul Mirchandani, national chairman of Yi, declared confidently: “There’s no better time to be Indian and to be a young Indian is the best thing in the world.”

Is he right? Wrong?

OK, you may begin.