Gira Sarabhai Co-founder Of National Institute of Design Passes Away At 98

Gira Sarabhai, co-founder of the renowned National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad passed away on Thursday. The pioneer of design education in the nation has played a vital part in establishing several other institutions and also made remarkable contributions in the field of art and architecture.

Gira Sarabhai’s niece Mallika Sarabhai, who is a noted dancer, shared the news with a Facebook post and wrote, “The last of the Sarabhais from papa’s generation just passed away. My aunt Gira, who built up the extraordinary textile museum, one of the best in the world."

Along with her brother Gautam Sarabhai, the 98-year-old founded the NID which laid the foundation for design education in India.

Gira Sarabhai, who was born in 1923 to industrialist Ambalal Sarabhai and Reva, was the eighth child of the family. They never received formal education and were homeschooled together. At a young age, she moved to New York along with her family where she trained with Frank Lloyd Wright at his Taliesin West Studio from 1947 to 1951.

Gira and Gautam have set another notable institution which is the Calico Museum, one of the most famous private museums in the country. The Calico was one of the textiles mills run by their father Ambalal Sarabhai, along with a range of other businesses in Gujarat.

The Calico Museum was set up in 1949 and inaugurated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The inspiration came from Dr Ananda Coomaraswamy, who had suggested the chairman of the mill in 1946, Gautam Sarabhai, to establish a textile museum in the hub of the major textile Ahmedabad which is also known as the ‘Manchester of the East’.

Gira Sarabhai’s other brother Vikram Sarabhai and their family is well-known for their contributions in setting up other leading institutions in the city such as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), BM Institute of Mental Health, and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), and several other educational institutes of the Gujarat University.