On the occasion of Soli Sorabjee’s (the former Attorney General of India) 92nd birth anniversary, Penguin Random House India announces the acquisition and publication of his authorized biography. Titled, Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times, this biography is chronicled by advocate and legal scholar Abhinav Chandrachud. The book is slated to become one of the most illuminating accounts of a person who left an indelible mark on India’s legal history. To be released in April 2022 under the Viking imprint, this book is currently available on pre-order on all major e-commerce websites.
A gripping narration of Soli Sorabjee’s life and times will open a window into his ways of thinking, his fight to champion civil liberties and press freedom and his remarkable work in the field of law. Revealing astounding details of his personal life, his family background, his journey in becoming a practioner of law to a U.N. human rights rapporteur, and repeatedly defending the fundamental right to free speech and expression in the Supreme Court of India, Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times is a captivating and unputdownable book.
Commenting on the upcoming book, the author, Abhinav Chandrachud, says, ‘I’m excited to finally see the Sorabjee biography being published. I hope readers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.’
How does a Parsi lawyer, deeply influenced by the principles of Roman Catholicism, fall in love with a Bahai and go on to become the Attorney General of India for a Hindu nationalist BJP government? How does a boy with a broken leg, who studied in a Gujarati medium school and lost his father at the age of nineteen, go on to mount a heroic defense of the Janata government’s decision to dissolve Congress state legislatures in the Supreme Court in 1977? How does a newspaper columnist who admires Nehru, who criticizes the BJP for being ‘obsessed’ with ‘demolishing mosques’ and advises them to replace ‘Hindutva’ with ‘Bharatva’ or ‘Indianness’, get chosen by Prime Minister Vajpayee to represent the government in the Supreme Court in many cases including the Ayodhya case? Find the answers to all these questions and much more in the first and only authorized biography of Soli Sorabjee.
Premanka Goswami, Associate Publisher at Penguin and the commissioning editor of the book says, ‘This first authorized biography of Soli Sorabjee, written by Abhinav Chandrachud, will bring to light the life, philosophy and works of Sorabjee. We’re thrilled to publish it at Penguin.’
Meru Gokhale, Publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India says, ‘Soli Sorabjee was a fine mind, a quick wit and an extraordinary lawyer. In Abhinav Chandrachud’s hands, his life story takes on the narrative flair and eloquence that Sorabjee himself was known for in his shrewd legal arguments. It is our privilege to publish the only authorised biography of one of our most brilliant attorney generals.’
About the author
Abhinav Chandrachud is an advocate who practices at the Bombay High Court. He graduated from the LL.M. program at Harvard Law School where he was a Dana Scholar, and from the JSM and JSD programs at Stanford Law School where he was a Franklin Family Scholar. He has worked as an associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a global law firm. He is the author of Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India (2017) and Supreme Whispers: Conversations with Judges of the Supreme Court of India 1980-1989 (2018). He has also written for several leading newspapers in India including The Hindu, Indian Express and Times of India, and taught at Cornell Law School and NALSAR University of Law.