The Tyabji family, also known as Tyabji-Hydari,[1]Tyabji-Fyzee,[1] and Tyabji-Futehally[1] family, consists of Mullah Tyab Ali and his descendants.[2][1] The Tyabji family has gained prestige for its involvement in India's independence movement with individuals being prominent politicians, diplomats, academics, scientists, activists, and athletes. Other members gained prominence for their roles in India's Navy and Air Force and contribution to Indian film and fine art. Individuals within the Tyabji family belong to the Indian royal families of the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Bengal, Raja of Wanaparthy, and the Nawab of Janjira.
The family is descended from Mullah Tyab Ali Bhai Mian, a member of the Sulaimani Bohra community, and a scion of an old Cambay emigrant Arab family. The Tyabjis adopted the -ji suffix as a result of their high social status in Gujarat and Mumbai. Currently, the lingua franca of the Tyabjis is English.[3]
Hydari was pivotal in the foundation of the Doon School, working to obtain the former estate of the Forest Research Institute, in Dehradun, from the government on favourable terms for the site of the school. Of the four original houses Hyderabad House was named after Akbar Hydari, who secured a contribution from the Nizam of Hyderabad's government.[citation needed]
Danial Alma Latifi was the first Indian to practice as barrister in the Bombay High Court and the first Muslim to rise to position of Senior Advocate in the Indian Supreme Court. Latifi attended Government College Lahore and Rugby School and graduated with a BA and MA from St John’s College, Oxford. Latifi was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1939. Among Latifi’s well-known cases was the Shah Bano Case, Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum which became household knowledge in India. Latifi presented St John’s College with a set of silver pattens in 1958, which remain in the College’s silver store.[14]
“Be moderate in your demands, be just in your criticism, be accurate in your facts, be logical in your conclusions, and you may rest assured that any propositions you may make to our rulers will be received with that benign consideration which is the characteristic of a strong and enlightened Government.” From the Presidential Address - Badruddin TyabjiIndian National Congress Session, 1887, Madras.[22]
Surayya Tyabji is recognised to have assisted in designing the flag of India. In the weeks leading up to Indian independence Jawaharlal Nehru instructed Tyabji’s husband Badruddin Tyabji to present a final design. This involved forming a committee with Dr Rajendra Prasad and contacting several of India’s top art schools. English historian Trevor Royle stated in The Last Days of The Raj: “Originally the tricolour was to have contained the spinning wheel symbol (charkha) used by Gandhi but this was a party symbol, which Tyabji thought might strike the wrong note. After much persuasion Gandhi agreed to the wheel because the Emperor Ashoka was venerated by Hindu and Muslim alike. The flag which flew on Nehru’s car that night had been specifically made by Tyabji’s wife”.[23]
Nawab Sidi Sir Ahmad Khan Sidi Ibrahim Khan III, GCIE, was the king of the princely state of Janjira. Khan was a descendent of a North African seafaring Islamic tribe known as the Siddis. They were referred to as the best sea fighters in the Muslim world.[26]
Humayun Abdulali was an Indian ornithologist and biologist who contributed greatly to bird collections at the Bombay Natural History Society. Abdulali graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Abdulali published 356 notes in his lifetime and covering birds, snakes, frogs, and other fauna. Abdulali authored 270 scientific papers and wrote 50 book reviews. Abdulali was elected to the Executive Committee of the BNHS in 1942 and served as Joint Secretary of the BNHS. Abdulali played a major role in drafting the Bombay Wild Animals and Wild Birds Protection Act of 1951. Abdulali obtained permission from the Prince of Wales Museum to house the BNHS in its premises. Several Taxa have been named in his honour including Nyctibatrachus humayuni.[33]
Romulus Earl Whitaker, Padma Shri, an American Indian herpetologist and wildlife conservationist, is the founder of the Madras Snake Park, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust, and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. Whitaker is a winner of a Whitley Award for outstanding leadership in nature conservation. Whitaker is a member of the advisory committee and the editorial board of the Bombay Natural History Society. Whitaker’s 1996 wildlife documentary, The King and I, received an Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement.[34]
Atiya Begum Fyzee was an author and the first woman from South Asia to attend the University of Cambridge. Fyzee was a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah who allotted a palatial residence to her in Pakistan after the Partition. Fyzee published numerous works including a collection of anecdotes from her diary, Atiya's Journeys: A Muslim Woman from Colonial Bombay to Edwardian Britain.[35][36]
Captain Nadir Salahuddin Tyabji was in the Royal Indian Navy and assisted in the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Indian settlers from Burma. Tyabji played a role in reducing Japanese advancements in Burma during World War II.[48]
Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin is an Indian painter of portraits, figures, landscapes, and murals. Rahamin studied at the School of Art, Bombay, and for four years at the Royal Academy Schools, London under John S. Sargent and Solomon J. Solomon. Rahamin is considered to be the first Muslim artist to enter the collection of the Tate Modern Art Gallery, and possibly the first non-European artist. Rahamin has exhibited with the Bombay Art Society and assisted the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in the reorganisation of their oriental sections. The collection of Rahamin’s own paintings and other works of art which he presented to the Aiwan-e-Riffat Museum in Karachi is now housed in a separate building as the Fyzee Rehamin Art Gallery.[50]
Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "Birdman of India", Salim Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several bird books that popularized ornithology in India. He became a key figure behind the Bombay Natural History Society after 1947 and used his personal influence to garner government support for the organisation, create the Bharatpur bird sanctuary and prevent the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park.
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences, organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in December 1932. They were conducted as per the recommendation of Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Viceroy Lord Irwin and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and by the report submitted by the Simon Commission in May 1930. Demands for Swaraj or self-rule in India had been growing increasingly strong. B. R. Ambedkar, Jinnah, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, K. T. Paul and Mirabehn were key participants from India. By the 1930s, many British politicians believed that India needed to move towards dominion status. However, there were significant disagreements between the Indian and the British political parties that the Conferences would not resolve. The key topic was about constitution and India which was mainly discussed in that conference. There were three Round Table Conferences from 1930 to 1932.
Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the educational landscape of the city. It also played a pivotal role in the inception of the University of Mumbai.
Abbas Tyabji was an Indian freedom fighter from Gujarat, and an associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He also served as the Chief Justice of Baroda State. His grandson is historian Irfan Habib.
Badruddin Tyabji was an Indian lawyer, activist, and politician during the British Raj. Tyabji was the first Indian to practice as a barrister of the High Court of Bombay. He also served as the third President of the Indian National Congress. He was one of the founding member and first Muslim president of Indian National Congress. He founded the Anjuman-i-Islam College in Bombay in 1874. It started with one school and today it has more than eighty institutions from pre-primary schools to graduate and postgraduate level. Tyabji is often referred to as one of the most prominent members of Tyabji family.
Syedna Tahir Saifuddin School, better known by its initials STS School, and by its former name Minto Circle, is a K–12 semi-residential high school under Aligarh Muslim University at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School in 1875, it later evolved as Aligarh Muslim University and is one of the five senior secondary schools run by the university.
Mohammad Habib (1895–1971) was an Indian historian, who worked at the Aligarh Muslim University. He was involved in the Indian Independence movement, and was an associate of both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Saif Faiz Badruddin Tyabji (1904–1957) was a solicitor, mathematician, an educationist passionately devoted to the cause of female education, and a nationalist committed to the idea of India. He was closely associated with the Anjuman-i Islam of Bombay from the 1930s till his death in November 1957. He was a Congress Member of Parliament in 1957 from Jalna in Maharashtra.
Zafar Rashid Futehally was an Indian naturalist and conservationist best known for his work as the secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society and for the Newsletter for Birdwatchers a periodical that helped birdwatchers around India to communicate their observations. Awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India in the year 1971, Zafar Futehally was also honoured with Dutch order of merit the Order of the Golden Ark in 1981 and Karnataka Rajyotsava award by the Government of Karnataka in 1983.
The Aligarh Movement was the push to establish a modern system of Western-style scientific education for the Muslim population of British India, during the later decades of the 19th century. The movement's name derives from the fact that its core and origins lay in the city of Aligarh in Central India and, in particular, with the foundation of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. The founder of the oriental college, and the other educational institutions that developed from it, was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He became the leading light of the wider Aligarh Movement.
Badruddin Faiz Tyabji (1907–1995) was a senior Indian Civil Service officer, who served as vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, from 1962 to 1965. While serving as a diplomat in 1948, he had undertaken the task of starting the Embassy of India, Brussels. He also served as Indian ambassador in Jakarta, Tehran, Bonn and Tokyo.
Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee was an Indian educator, jurist, author, diplomat, and Islamic scholar who is considered one of leading pioneers of modern Ismaili studies. He also served as India's second ambassador to Egypt from 1949 to 1952, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu and Kashmir from 1957 to 1960.
Atiya Fyzee was an Indian author and the first woman from South Asia to attend the University of Cambridge.
Islam is the second largest religion in Maharashtra, India, comprising 12,971,152 people which is 11.54% of the population. Muslims are largely concentrated in urban areas of the state, especially in Mumbai and the Marathwada region. There are several groups of Muslims in Maharashtra: Marathi and Konkani Muslims, whose native language is various dialects of Marathi and Konkani, Dakhni Muslims, whose native language is Dakhni Urdu, and more recent Urdu-speaking migrants from North India.
Nazli Rafiya Begum, born Naazli Rafiya Sultana Hassanally Fyzee (1874-1968) was an Indian princess.
Ahmereen Reza is a British Pakistani architect, social worker and political activist. Her academic and professional interests have centred on revitalisation of low income and ethnic minority rich neighbourhoods through a combination of enhanced community participation, imparting skills training to create employment opportunities, informing policy on low-income housing, and the empowerment of local women.
Kamila Tyabji was an Indian philanthropist and lawyer. As a lawyer, Tyabji was renowned for being London's only woman barrister and the first to argue a case before the Privy Council.
Surayya Tyabji (1919–1978) was an Indian artist who assisted in creating the current Indian national flag by adding the Ashoka Chakra from the Lion Capital of Ashoka, replacing the Charkha on the 1931 flag of the Indian National Congress.
Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin was an Indian painter and artist who is known as one of the founders of modern Indian painting. One of the first Indians to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he rejected his western academic training to paint in a distinctly Indian style, inspired by traditional Rajasthani paintings and Mughal miniatures. He married Atiya Begum, a pioneering Muslim intellectual and feminist with whom he also collaborated creatively. Globally acclaimed by the 1920s, his most significant work was the frescoes he did on the Imperial Secretariat in New Delhi towards the end of the 1920s. Following the Partition of India, he emigrated to Pakistan with his wife where he died in poverty in Karachi in 1964.
Zehra Fyzee (1866–1940) was a writer, playwriter and editor working in India in the early part of the twentieth century. She was a leading contributor to Urdu women's journals of the time.
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