Abbas Tyabji (1 February 1854 – 9 June 1936) 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. Family and background Abbas Tyabji was born to a Sulaimani Bohra Arab family of Cambay in Gujarat. He was the son of Shamsuddin Tyabji and grandson of Mullah Tyab Ali, a merchant. His father's elder brother was Badruddin Tyabji, first Indian to become a Barrister later on a judge of the Bombay High Court and an early, loyalist president of the Indian National Congress. Early life Abbas Tyabji was born in Baroda State, where his father was in the service of the Gaekwad Maharaja. He was educated in England, where he lived for eleven years. His nephew, the ornithologist Salim Ali, says in his autobiography, [Abbas Tyabji], though a moderate nationalist at heart, would stand no adverse criticism of the British as a people, or of the Raj, and even a mildly disparaging remark about the King-Emperor or the royal family was anathema to him. . . If he had any strong sentiments about Swadeshi, he certainly didn't show it by precept or example. . . This being so, he naturally disagreed vehemently with Gandhiji and his methods of political mass agitation. . . In other respects, his moderate but simmering nationalism and his absolute integrity and fairness as a judge were widely recognized and lauded, even by leftist Congressmen and anti-British extremists. As an England-educated barrister, Tyabji landed a job as judge in the court of Baroda State as a matter of course. With a generous salary added to his sizable family inheritance, and the respectability of a high-government appointment, the family was ensconced in the higher echelons of elite, westernized society, as compradors of the British Raj. For the entirety of his career, Tyabji remained a staunch loyalist of the Raj. He raised his children in a westernized manner, sending his children to England for higher education, and in time, he rose in the judiciary to become Chief Justice of the High Court of Baroda State and retired. He was an early proponent of women's rights, supporting women's education and social reform. He broke with the prevailing custom of the times by disregarding purdah restrictions and sending his daughters to school. His daughter, Sohaila, was the mother of the eminent