In 1938, Wadia married Bombay-based businessman Neville Wadia with whom she had two children: Nusli Wadia and Diana Wadia. Following the partition of India, she remained in Mumbai and spent time in London before settling in New York City later in life.[1] She visited Pakistan occasionally. On 2 November 2017, she died at the age of 98 from pneumonia in her New York City home.
Wadia's maternal family were rich, titled, well-educated and westernized. They were Parsis and traditionally followed Zoroastrianism. Her great-grandfather, Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, founded the first cotton mill in India.[9] This and many other contributions to industry, trade and philanthropy had earned him a baronetcy. Her mother, Rattanbai "Ruttie" Petit, was the only child of Sir Dinshaw Petit.[10] Petit converted to Islam—though she never practiced it—adopted the name Maryam—though she never used it—and married Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was 24 years her senior, on 19 April 1918, resulting in a permanent estrangement from her family and Parsi society.[11]
Childhood and early years
Wadia was born Dina Jinnah shortly after midnight on 15 August 1919, in London.[12] Historian Stanley Wolpert notes it is "precisely twenty-eight years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah's other offspring, Pakistan."[13] Her arrival was unexpected as her parents were at the cinema.[14] She was named after Lady Dinabai Petit, her maternal grandmother, with whom she shared a close relationship.[7][15] Wadia's parents had separated, but reunited during her mother's illness.[16]
After Petit's death in 1929, Wadia's aunt, Fatima Jinnah, moved in,[17] who raised her as a Muslim, teaching her the Quran and salah.[18] Wadia was educated in a convent boarding school in Panchgani and a private school in Sussex.[19] Wadia nicknamed her father "Grey Wolf" after his admiration for the biography Grey Wolf: An Intimate Study of a Dictator on the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.[20]
Marriage and rift with her father
On 16 November 1938, Wadia married Parsi business man Neville Wadia, from the prominent Wadia family, at All Saints' Church, as he was a Christian at the time. Although Jinnah had himself had an inter-faith marriage, he expected Wadia to marry a Muslim, which led to a strained relationship between them. He was not in attendance at the wedding ceremony.[21]
M. C. 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[who?] that Jinnah had sent a bouquet through his driver, Abdul Hai, to the newly married couple.[22] 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.[23] The Wadias lived in Bombay and had two children, a boy named Nusli and a girl named Diana.[24] 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.[25]
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.[22][26] 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.'"[27][22][28]
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.[25] 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 – we have got Pakistan, that is to say the principal has been accepted. I am so proud and happy for you – how hard you have worked for it.
I do hope you are keeping well – I get lots of news of you from the newspapers. The children are just recovering from 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.."[22][29][21]
South Court mansion in Bombay
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 KhojaShia. 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 realized. 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
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.[30]
Death
Dina died from pneumonia at her home in Madison Avenue in New York City on 2 November 2017, at the age of 98.[22] Her death was deeply mourned by the people of Pakistan and was described as the "nation's grief."[29][31][32] 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".[33][34] The Sindh Assembly in Pakistan observed a one-minute silence in her remembrance and offered Al-Fatiha for her and her father.[35]
↑ "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.
1 2 "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.
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