Badruddin Tyabji

Who was Badruddin Tyabji?

Badruddin Tyabji 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 Sulaimani Bohra, and a scion of an old Cambay emigrant Arab family. He sent all of his eight 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 Farsi at Dada Makhra's Madrassa, he joined Elphinstone Institution after which he was sent to France for eye treatment following which 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 in Mumbai.