Surayya Tyabji

Surayya Tyabji was an Indian artist who designed 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.

Work

Historian Trevor Royle wrote in his book The Last Days of the Raj that Badruddin Tyabji designed the final form of the current Indian national flag. Surayya Tyabji made the first copy that flew on Jawahar Lal Nehru's car on the night of independence:

She also served as the member of various committees under the Constituent Assembly.

Surayya Tyabji's daughter, social worker, designer and activist Laila Tyabji wrote in 2018 that both her mother and her father were involved in the design of the flag, having been commissioned by Nehru to do so, as a development of a design by the soldier, scientist and lecturer Pingali Venkayya. She was the niece of Sir Akbar Hydari, who served as the Prime Minister of Hyderabad from 1937 to 1941, and granddaughter of Lady Amina Hydari, who championed the cause of Muslim women's education in Hyderabad. She was married to Badruddin Tyabji, a civil servant and later the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.