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Dina Wadia

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Dina Wadia
دینا واڈیا
Wadia, c. 1948
Born
Dina Jinnah

(1919-08-15)15 August 1919
London, England
Died2 November 2017(2017-11-02) (aged 98)
New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican[1]
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1938; sep. 1943)​
Children2, inc. Nusli Wadia
Parents
Family

Dina Wadia (née Jinnah; 15 August 1919 – 2 November 2017) was the only child and daughter of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, and Rattanbai Petit.[2][3][4]

Wadia belonged to some of the most prominent families of the Indian subcontinent, notably, the Jinnah family through her father and the Wadia family through her marriage to Neville Wadia in 1938.

Early life and background

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Dina was born in London, shortly after midnight, on 15 August 1919, to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and his second wife, Rattanbai Petit (whose name was legally amended to "Maryam Jinnah" after her conversion to Islam and marriage, though she did not use her new name).[5] As Stanley Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan records: "Oddly enough, precisely twenty-eight years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah's other offspring, Pakistan." Her premature arrival was unexpected — her parents were at the theatre but "were obliged to leave their box hurriedly."[6] She was reported to be "a dark-eyed beauty, lithe and winsome, with a smile like her mother's."[7]

Dina's paternal family were upstart merchants of high social status. Dina's paternal grandfather, Jinnahbhai Poonja, was a merchant who hailed from Gondal in Kathiawar, Gujarat, and had moved to Karachi in the mid-1870s.[8] He had made money, but only a few of his many children managed to complete school. Nevertheless, he had been able to send one of his more academically promising sons, Muhammad Ali, to England for higher education. The family belonged to the Ismaili sect of Shia Muslims who are followers of the Aga Khan, and to the Lohana caste, Lohana Hindus who had converted to Islam centuries earlier.[9] Dina's father, Jinnah, was the leader of the Pakistan movement and the founder of Pakistan.[3] After achieving the partition of India on a religious basis and secured the creation of Pakistan as the homeland of British India's Muslims, Jinnah became the first Governor General of Pakistan.[10] He was bestowed with the title Quaid-i-Azam or "Great Leader."[4][11]

Dina's maternal family, the Petit family were rich, titled, well-educated and highly Westernized. They belonged to the Parsi community and followed the Zoroastrian faith. Dina's great-grandfather, Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, founded the first cotton mill in India.[12] This and many other contributions to industry, trade and philanthropy had earned him a baronetcy. Dina's mother, Rattanbai, was the daughter of the second baronet.[13] The Petit family disowned Dina's mother, Rattanbai, when she married Jinnah, who was twenty-four years older than her.

Dina's parents were mismatched in age, religion, habits, temperament and views. These differences led them to separate shortly after Dina's birth, and Ruttie began living in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai along with her infant daughter, Dina. After Ruttie's death in 1929, Jinnah's sister, Fatima Jinnah, moved in with Jinnah to help raise Dina, who was then 10 years old.[14][15][failed verification][16] Jinnah raised his daughter as a Muslim.[8] According to Jinnah's chauffeur, Bradbury, Jinnah asked Fatima, "to teach her niece, Dina, about Islam and The Holy Qur'an."[17] During Jinnah's time in London, during 1930–33, Wolpert commented, "Dina was [Jinnah's] sole comfort, but Dina was away at school most of the time and home only for brief times, yet still the pampered daughter could be a joy to her doting father."[citation needed] In November 1932, Jinnah read H. C. Armstrong's biography of Kemal Atatürk, Grey Wolf, and seemed to have found his own reflection in the story of Turkey's great modernist leader.[citation needed] It was all he talked about for a while at home, even to Dina, who consequently nicknamed him "Grey Wolf."[16]

Marriage and rift with her father

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Dina's relationship with her father became strained when she expressed her desire to marry the Parsi-born Neville Wadia, who was the son of Sir Ness Wadia and Evelyne Clara Powell. Jinnah tried to dissuade her but failed. M. C. Chagla, who was Jinnah's assistant at the time, recalls: "Jinnah, in his usual imperious manner, told her that there were millions of Muslim boys in India, and she could have chosen anyone. Reminding her father that his wife had also been a non-Muslim and a Parsi as well, the young lady replied: 'Father, there were millions of Muslim girls in India. Why did you not marry one of them?' And he replied that, 'She became a Muslim(indicating that she had converted)'."[citation needed]

Chagla recounted in his autobiography Roses in December that when Dina married Neville, her father said to her that she was not his daughter anymore. This story, however, is contentious as some say that Jinnah had sent a bouquet through his driver, Abdul Hai, to the newly married couple.[6] Their relationship was a matter of legal conjecture as Pakistani laws allow for a person to be disinherited for violating Islamic rules (in this case by a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim), and hence no claim of hers was entertained on the Pakistani properties of Jinnah.[18] The Wadias lived in Bombay and had two children, a boy named Nusli and a girl named Diana.[19] The marriage did not last long, however, and she separated from Wadia in 1943; the couple never formally divorced because divorce was illegal in India at the time.[20]

Following the marriage, the father-daughter relationship became extremely formal, and he addressed her formally as 'Mrs. Wadia'. This, too, is contentious as Dina rebuffed this information calling it a rumour.[6][21] In an interview with Hamid Mir, she said: "My father was not a demonstrative man, but he was an affectionate father. My last meeting with him took place in Bombay in 1946. When I was about to depart, my father hugged Nusli (who was two years old then). The grey cap (Jinnah was wearing) caught Nusli’s fancy, and in a moment, my father put it on Nusli’s head, saying, 'Keep it my boy.'"[22][6][23]

After Dina's death, her personal diary revealed that her relationship with her father was no more formal, and they had reunited as a family. The diary also revealed that Dina had visited Pakistan twice, once on her father's death, and then again for the 2004 India-Pakistan cricket match. She had been in regular touch with her aunt, Fatima.[20] On 28 April 1947, In one of her letters to her father, Dina had said:

"My darling Papa, First of all I must congratulate you — you got Pakistan…. how hard you have worked for it…I do hope you are keeping well — I get lots of news of you from the local newspapers in Bombay. The children are just recovering from their whooping cough, it will take another month yet. I am taking them to Juhu on Thursday for a month or so. Are you coming back here? If so, I hope you will drive out to Juhu and spend the day if you like. Anyway, I have a phone so I will ring you up and drive in to see you if you don’t feel like coming out. Take care of yourself Papa darling. Lots of love & kisses, Dina."[6][24]

South Court mansion in Bombay

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Dina Wadia was involved in litigation regarding her father's house in Bombay, informally called the Jinnah House, claiming that Hindu Law was applicable to Jinnah as he was a Khoja Shia. The house, which was built in 1936, had been classified as evacuee property after partition in 1947. In 1948, it was subsequently leased to the British Deputy High Commission which occupied it until 1982. Pakistan had since 1979 requested that India sell the property, or at least lease it to its government as a tribute to its founder in order to convert it into their Consulate. Though P. V. Narasimha Rao, India's foreign minister in 1980, agreed in principle to lease Jinnah House as the residence of the Pakistani Consulate-General, the plan was never realised. Indian government sources subsequently said that the claim by Jinnah's heirs will be treated "sympathetically" and have no intention of handing it to Pakistan. In 2007, Dina filed a writ petition before the Bombay High Court, claiming that Jinnah House could not be classified as "evacuee property", as her father had died without leaving behind a will and demanded that the house be handed over to her.

Visit to Pakistan in 2004

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In March 2004, Wadia visited Lahore, Pakistan, to watch a cricket match between Pakistan and India. She considered "cricket diplomacy" to be an enthralling dimension that illustrated an entirely new phase in relations between India and Pakistan. But she and her son Nusli chose not to share their thoughts with the public on what was certainly a highly emotional encounter. Wadia had not traveled to Pakistan since her father's funeral in September 1948.

Wadia, Nusli and her grandsons Ness Wadia and Jehangir Wadia also visited the mausoleum of her father to pay homage. In the visitors' book, Wadia wrote: "This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his dream for Pakistan come true." Reports said that she asked for copies of three pictures she saw in the mausoleum's antiquities room. In one picture, she is standing with her father and Fatima Jinnah. The other is a painting of her mother. In the third, her father is dictating a letter, showing his political persona. Dina also went to the tomb of Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah to pay respects to her aunt, to the Flagstaff House Pakistan to hoist the flag of Pakistan, and to her father's house Wazir Mansion.[25]

Death

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Dina died from pneumonia at her home in Madison Avenue in New York City on 2 November 2017, at the age of 98. Her death was deeply mourned by the people of Pakistan and was described as the "nation's grief."[24][26][27] Several political leaders, including the then Prime Minister and President of Pakistan issued official statements on her death, and later said that she was "greatly respected and admired in Pakistan".[28][29] The Sindh Assembly in Pakistan observed a one-minute silence in her remembrance and offered Al-Fatiha for her and her father.[30]

References

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  1. ^ "Dina Wadia was highly respected in dad Jinnah's Pakistan". The Indian Express. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Quaid-i-Azam's daughter Dina Wadia passes away at 98 in New York". The Express Tribune. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  3. ^ a b Walsh, Judith E. (10 July 2017). A Brief History of India. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438108254 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b "Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Founder of Pakistan & Former 1st Governor-General of Pakistan". 25 October 2013.
  5. ^ InpaperMagazine, From (3 March 2012). "First lady: The Flower of Bombay". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Dina Wadia and her darling papa". Geo News. PTI. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  7. ^ "Dina Wadia & Muhammad Ali Jinnah: A daughter's journey". WION News. Zee Media Corporation Ltd., Essel Group. 1998. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  8. ^ a b "Muslim law doesn't apply to Jinnah, says daughter". The Indian Express. 14 October 2008.
  9. ^ "Mohammed Ali Jinnah". britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Gujarat's gifts to India and Pakistan". The Express Tribune. 23 February 2012.
  11. ^ Guriro, Amar (30 June 2009). "Aslam Jinnah's claim of being Quaid's family disputed". Daily Times. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  12. ^ Vijayraghavan, Kala (24 June 2015). "Business baron Nusli Wadia attends to his ailing mother". The Economic Times.
  13. ^ "The truth about Aslam Jinnah". 10 July 2009.
  14. ^ "A closed fist worth millions". Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  15. ^ Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji; Moon, Vasant (10 July 2017). "Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches". Education Department, Government of Maharashtra – via Google Books.
  16. ^ a b "Girl who made Jinnah walk many miles". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  17. ^ "Jinnah & Islam" – Mr. Qutbuddin Aziz quoting Bradbury, who had been chauffeur during his London years (1930–35)
  18. ^ "Two nations and a daughter at war over house". South China Morning Post. 21 October 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2017. Ms Wadia, who moved to New York after divorcing her husband, divides her time between New York, London and Mumbai, where her son Nusli runs one of India's largest textile companies.
  19. ^ "Jinnah's Daughter Dina Wadia Dies, Leaves Behind Disputed Property". 2 November 2017.
  20. ^ a b "Fact file: Jinnah's family". Dawn. 26 December 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2017. Dina and Neville lived in Mumbai and had two children, a boy and a girl, before the couple divorced.
  21. ^ "Dina Wadia, Mohammad Ali Jinnah's only child, passes away". The Times of India. PTI. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  22. ^ "Girl who made Jinnah walk many miles". Telegraph India. 3 November 2017. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  23. ^ "Dina Wadia's last meeting with Quaid-e-Azam–in her own words | SAMAA". Samaa TV. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  24. ^ a b "Remembering Dina". Tribune.pk. 17 November 2017.
  25. ^ "Dina Wadia visits mausoleum of Quaid". DAWN.COM. 27 March 2004.
  26. ^ "President, PM convey nation's grief at Dina Wadia's funeral". Dawn.com. 5 November 2017.
  27. ^ "Pakistan mourns the death of Jinnah's only child Dina Wadia". Hindustan Times. 5 November 2017.
  28. ^ "Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia dies in New York". The Hindu. 2 November 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  29. ^ Richa Taneja (3 November 2017). "All About Dina Wadia, The Only Daughter Of Pakistan Founder Jinnah". NDTV. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  30. ^ "Dina Wadia's death: Sindh Assembly observes a minute of silence". Samaa TV. PTI. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.

Further reading

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