# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Tyabji, Badruddin

​TYABJI, BADRUDDIN (1844–1906), Indian judge and reformer, born at Bombay on 10 Oct. 1844, was fifth of the six sons of Tyabji Bhaimai, a Sulimani Bhora, by his wife Aminabibhi. (The Bhoras are Gujerati Musalmans converted from various Hindu castes, and the Sulimanis seceded from the general body in the sixteenth century.) Tyabji' s father, a native of Cambay, was the first of his family to settle in Bombay, and, building up a large business there, he became both the secular and religious head of his community. At a time when the Indian Mahomedans held aloof from Western influence, he sent all his sons to be trained in Europe. The third son, Camruddin, the first Indian to come to England for a professional education, was the first Indian to be admitted a solicitor in England (25 Nov. 1858), and established a lucrative business in Bombay.
Badruddin received his early education at the Elphinstone Institution (now College), Bombay, and in April 1860 came to England and studied at the Newbury Park high school. He entered the Middle Temple as a student 27 April 1863, and matriculated at the London University in the same year. Returning to India in October 1864, owing to eye-trouble, he was not called to the English bar till 30 April 1867; he was the first Indian to attain that honour.
Settling in Bombay, he became the first native barrister of an Indian high court, and soon built up a prosperous practice. About 1879 he first engaged in public affairs outside his professional work. At a town meeting in May 1879 he urged a memorial to parliament against the abolition of the import duties on Manchester goods. In 1882 he was nominated by government to the Bombay legislative council, and served for the customary period of two years. In December 1885 he associated himself with the first Indian National Congress, which met at Bombay, and he was president of the third annual session held in Madras in December 1887. His presidential speech was moderate and sensible. Unlike Syed (afterwards Sir) Ahmed Khan, who largely influenced Mahomedan feeling, he deprecated the aloofness of Mahomedans from the ​movement. A warm supporter of the Syed in establishing the Mahomedan and Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, Tyabji took a keen interest in the annual Mahomedan educational conferences, presiding over the session held in Bombay in 1903. He was an ardent advocate of higher education for Indian women, and gave three of his daughters advanced training — one in England and two in Bombay. A fellow of the Bombay University, he took a prominent part in debates of the senate. He was a founder of the most progressive Moslem institution of Western India, the Anjaman-i-Islam (Islamic Society), serving first as hon. secretary and from 1890 till death as president.
In June 1895 Tyabji was made a judge of the Bombay high court, being the first Indian Moslem and the third Indian of any race to reach this dignity. He sat chiefly on the 'original' (as distinct from the appellate) side. His courtesy was notable, but he proved a strong judge, who was more of a practical than a scientific lawyer (Times of India Weekly, 1 Sept. 1906). In 1903 he acted for some months as chief justice. Unlike many educated Indians, he did not Anglicise his attire. He reprobated the extreme nationalism in Indian politics of his closing years. He died suddenly in London of heart failure on 19 Aug. 1906, and was buried in the Sulimani Bhora cemetery at Bombay on 10 Oct. 1906. Memorial meetings were held in London and Bombay. In January 1907 the governor of Bombay, Lord Lamington, presided at a large public meeting at the town hall to promote a permanent memorial, the form of which has not been decided. A painting of Tyabji, by Mr. Haite, subscribed for by the Bombay bar, hangs in the Bombay high court.
Tyabji married in 1865 Rabat Unnafs, daughter of Sharafali Shujatali of Cambay. She took a prominent part in the ladies' branch of the National Indian Association, Bombay, and similar movements for the advancement of Indian women and for the relaxation of the purdah restrictions. There were five sons, of whom one, the eldest, joined the Indian Civil Service, and two the legal profession, and seven daughters.
[Times, 21 August 1906; Foster's Men at the Bar, p. 476; Eminent Indians, Bombay, 1892; Indian Nat. Congress, Madras, 1909 booklet biog. published by Natesan, Madras Indian Mag. and Review, September 1906 Bombay Law Reporter, September 1906, Times of India, weekly edit. 25 Aug. and 1 Sept. 1906; information kindly supplied by Mr. C. Abdul Latif; personal knowledge.]
F. H. B.