Surayya Tyabji Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Full Name	Surayya Badruddin Tyabji
Other Name	Surayya Ali
Profession	Artist, Designer
Famous for	Contribution to the design of the Indian National Flag
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	4' 8" (142 cm)
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	24 February 1919 (Monday)
Birthplace	Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, British India (now Telangana, India)
Date of Death	1978
Place of Death	Mumbai
Age (at the time of death)	59 Years
Zodiac sign	Pisces
Nationality	• British Indian (24 February 1919 - 15 August 1947) • Indian (15 August 1947 - 1978)
Hometown	Mumbai
School	Mahboobia Girl's High School, Hyderabad
Religion	Islam
Food Habit	Non-Vegetarian
Political Inclination	Indian National Congress
Hobbies	Cooking
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Married
Marriage Date	22 December 1939
Family
Husband/Spouse	Badruddin Tyabji (1907-1995) (former Indian Civil Service Officer)
Children	Son(s)- 3 • Hindal Haider (Former Chief Secretary Jammu and Kashmir) • Adil Tyabji (Senior Editor, Oxford University Press) • Khalid Tyabji (actor) Daughter- 1 • Laila Tyabji (Social Worker, Fashion Designer, Novelist, Craft Activist)
Parents	Father- Aamir Ali (1892-1919) Mother- Leila Hasan Latif (Hydari) (1898-1990)
Siblings	Half-Brother(s)- 2 • Idris Hasan Latif (retd. Air Chief Marshal) • Nazir Hasan Latif (retd. Chairman and Managing Director of Mackinnon Mackenzie & Company Ltd)
Other Relatives	Grandfather- Sir Muhammad Akbar Nazar Ali Hydari (statesman, former prime minister of Hyderabad state) Grandmother- Amina Hydari (social reformer) Uncle- Salim Ali (Ornithologist, Bird man of India) Grandfather-in-law- Badruddin Tyabji (1844-1906)(third President of INC, Madras, 1887) Brother-in-law- Saif Faiz Badruddin Tyabji (1904-1957)(mathematician, social reformer) Sister-in-law- Kamila Tyabji (1918-2004)(lawyer) Nephew-in-law- Mario Miranda (cartoonist and painter)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Surayya Tyabji

• Surayya Tyabji belonged to a family of civil servants, social reformers, and freedom fighters.

• When she was under a year old, her father passed away at a very young age due to illness.
  

  Childhood image of Surayya Tayabji

• Her stepfather, Hasan Camruddin Latif, the chief engineer of the Hyderabad State, and her mother encouraged their children to be adventurous and adaptive.

• She was raised in a secular environment, learning about every religion and celebrating every religious festival.

• She always wore a saree, even when she played competitive sports and adventure activities.
  

  Surayya Tyabji rock climbing wearing a saree

• She worked as a teacher at Mahboobia Girl’s High School in Hyderabad for a brief period.

• She won a gold medal for learning art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Still, she did not pursue it as she married Badruddin Tyabji, an Indian Civil Service Official in 1939.
  

  Surayya Tyabji with her paintings

• Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned Badruddin Tyabji to design the National Emblem as he was part of the constituent assembly formed in 1946. He intimated the major art schools but the designs received lacked originality.

• Her daughter Laila Tyabji wrote in one of her social media accounts that her parents liked period sculptures from which they got the idea of lions and chakra atop the Ashoka column. The first design was printed at the Vice Regal Lodge Press in Delhi.

• The flag designed by Pingali Venkayya had the charkha (spinning wheel) in the centre which was used at the meetings of the Indian National Congress. The national leaders wanted to give a new flag for the new nation.

• Surayya Tyabji contributed to the Pingali Venkayya’s original design of the National Flag by adding the Ashoka Chakra at the centre replacing the charkha and the final design of the National Flag in its present form was approved by the constituent assembly on 22 July 1947.

• The course of incidents was noted in the book, The Last Days of the Raj (1989), by historian Trevor Royle.

• In Surayya Tyabji’s design, the Ashoka Chakra was given the colour black which Mahatma Gandhi did not approve. So, it was changed to the blue colour that it has now.

• According to their daughter Laila Tyabji, her parents never claimed their contribution to the design of the national flag.

• According to historian Trevor Royle, she also supervised the sewing of the first Indian Flag.

• As the ambassador’s wife, she resided in Brussels, Jakarta, Tehran, Bonn, and Tokyo from 1948 till 1960.

• Surayya Tayabji appeared in a Belgian magazine when her husband opened the first embassy in Brussels, Belgium.
  

  Surayya Tyabji’s image which was published in a Belgian magazine

• When she had depression in the last decade of her life as she was not able to draw and paint as she wished, she wrote a book Mirch Masala (1975) in which the illustrations were done by cartoonist and painter, Mario Miranda, who is her niece Habiba’s husband.
  

  The Book Mirch Masala authored by Surayya Tyabji

• Surayya Tyabji had a close relationship with Indira Gandhi.

• In 2018, Capt. L Panduranga Reddy, historian and a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, mentioned Surayya Tyabji’s contribution to the design of the National Flag which was backed up by the research conducted by the Flag Foundation of India.