One such person was Badruddin Tyabji, a Muslim lawyer and judge at the turn of the century and president of Gandhi’s Congress Party decades before Gandhi took control of the organization. “In the main, he was concerned to life the Muslims from the decadence of their recent past and guide them into the national mainstream so that they could be at one with the rest of their countrymen in India’s march to her destiny, and yet remain true to themselves—ardent Indians and devout Muslims at the same time,” writes biographer A. G. Noorani. His central project was the education and upliftment of Muslims and to preserve the secular and composite nature of Indian society. He had a huge impact on future Indian President Zakir Husain (profiled later in this chapter), who said, “The influence of great personalities, even at second hand, can be the most effective educative force. And this was the case with me with the late Badruddin Tyabji.”
Tyabji achieved greatness in two legal spheres. He became the first Indian barrister and the first Indian judge in Bombay. “In India’s legal history, there have been great lawyers and great judges, but very few who have been both,” writes Noorani. Tyabji was one of the pivotal figures in the early Indian nationalist movement. “The staunch and unflinching support he so constantly extended to the Indian National Congress was a source of great strength to that organization in its infancy,” Noorani writes. “Perhaps his greatest service lay in articulating his broad, tolerant outlook in delineating for the Muslims a course of action which would conduce both to national integration and to the preservation of Muslim culture and the values dear to Muslims.” Gandhi recalled with admiration on a number of instances Tyabji’s services to his party, saying that “Badruddin Tyabji was for years a decisive factor in the deliberations of the Congress.”
“His aim was Indian unity—a united India,” the Madras Standard newspaper wrote in a eulogy when he passed away in 1906. “He had the sagacity to see and the energy, capacity and patriotism to work for a brighter and more prosperous future for India.” Another tribute summarized his contribution both to the Muslim community and to India, saying that he excelled in both spheres since he “represented a principle, and not a class or a community. . . . Great as he was as a leader among Muslims, he was greater still as a leader of Indians.”
Peace and Pacifism in Early Christian World
