In the 1920s when girls did not even dream of going to college, Yasmin Kharshedji Surveyor fought her way through, enrolling as a student of commerce at Bombay’s Sydenham College. She obtained the BCom degree in 1925, with advanced banking as her special subject. The certificate, which was in the possession of her nephew, consultant oral physician Dr Aspi B. Surveyor, was presented by him to the Sydenham College in 2003, and has been preserved there to serve as an inspiration for students.
Recounting India’s first woman commerce graduate’s determination, the dentist says, "I was told that in those days commerce was offered only to boys… and a writ petition was filed. It was subsequently withdrawn as admission was granted. The College had infrastructure problems as there were no ladies’ toilets, common rooms, etc,” reveals a press clipping from Bombay Times of August 20, 2003, brought to Parsiana by her nephew. Subsequently Yasmin became the first woman to join the Central Bank of India, and after retirement offered her services to the Ratan Tata Institute where she worked until her death at the age of 81.
A vintage clipping from Eve’s Weekly dated October 4, 1947, also brought by Surveyor, provides valuable insights into his aunt’s life and work. By that time she had already served at the bank for 22 years, rising to the post of superintendent in the statistical section where she worked with about 40 other women. Though in appearance she seemed a "slightly orthodox housewife,” wearing the sari in the Parsi manner with the sor "now so seldom seen on Parsi women, and rarer still, displaying the sudreh,” the magazine mentions that one would "hardly think that behind this façade there ticks one of the keenest banking brains in the city.”
Right from the start Yasmin believed in equality between the sexes and was determined to have a career, continues the article. Her parents must certainly have been ahead of their times, though the fact that they were of modest means meant that every member "had to pull his or her weight.” Though "mild and patient” while explaining matters to a client, she would become militant on the subject of rights for women. Interested in politics, she made a vow not to play her beloved violin until India was freed from British rule. Ironically, after Independence, she no longer had the time to do so.
The Eve’s Weekly clipping mentions that in 1946 Yasmin was invited to speak at a conference convened by the Bombay Province Women’s Council on careers for women. The qualities she stressed were: "Shrewdness, foresight, the power of insight into human nature, the gift of managing with tact, balance of mind, sympathy and good judgment, and most important of all, character, grit, determination… unflinching integrity, all these lie dormant in women and await development if only given an opportunity.”
