Badruddin Tyabji

Badruddin Tyabji (10 October 1844 – 19 August 1906) was an Indian lawyer who served as the third President of the Indian National Congress.

He was born on 10 October 1844 in Mumbai, India. He was the son of Mullah Tyab Ali Bhai Mian, a member of the Sulaimani Bohra community, and a scion of an old Cambay emigrant Arab family. He sent all of his seven sons to Europe for further studies, at a time when English education was considered anathema for Muslims in India. Badruddin Tyabji returned to India in 1867 and became the first Indian solicitor. One other brother was sent to Najran province of Saudi Arabia for religious studies. Apart from Badruddin Tyabji, several of his other brothers were prominent in the field of law.

After learning Urdu and Persian at Dada Makhra's Madrassa, he joined Elphinstone Institution (now Elphinstone College) in Bombay, after which he was sent to France for eye treatment. Next he joined Newbury High Park College in London at the age of sixteen. He passed the London Matriculation and joined the Middle Temple. He became the first Indian barrister in Mumbai in April, 1867. He accepted a Judgeship of the Bombay High Court in 1895. In 1902, he became the first Indian to hold the post of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court(Mumbai).

Tyabji was active in women's emancipation and worked to weaken the zenana system. He was considered among the moderate Muslims during the freedom movement of India. However, his political career showed that he, like other leaders of the time, was impacted by a general bias regarding the conflict between conservative Muslims and the Indian National Congress. This bias endangered his and other politicians' attempts to unify Indian politics. During his time as President of the Indian National Congress (1887–88), he focused on uniting the Muslim community and gaining influence internally. He, along with Pherozshah Mehta, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, and others, formed the Bombay Presidency Association in 1885.

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