Dina Wadia
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Dina (Deenbai) Wadia is the daughter of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan.
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[edit] Early life
Dina was born in London shortly after midnight on August 14-15 in 1919. 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".
According to Wolpert, referring to Jinnah's time in London in 1930-33, "Dina was [Jinnah's] sole comfort, but Dina was away at school most of the time and home only for brief holidays. She was a dark-eyed beauty, lithe and winsome. She had her mother's smile and was pert or petulant as only an adored, pampered daughter could be to her doting father. He had two dogs, one formidable black Doberman, the other a white West Highland Terrier".
In November of 1932, Jinnah read H. C. Armstrong's biography of Kemal Ataturk, Grey Wolf, and seemed to have found his own reflection in the story of Turkey's great modernist leader. It was all he talked about for a while at home, even to Dina, who consequently nicknamed him 'Grey Wolf'. Being only thirteen, her way of cajolingly pestering him to take her to High Road to see Punch and Judy was, "Come on, Grey Wolf, take me to a pantomime; after all, I am on my holidays." [Wolpert]
[edit] The rift with her father
Dina's relationship with her father became strained when Dina expressed her desire marry a Parsi-born Christian, Neville Wadia. Jinnah, a Muslim, tried to dissuade her, but failed. Mahommedali Currim 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 anyone she chose. Reminding her father that his wife (Dina's mother Rattanbai), had also been a non-Muslim, 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 "
It is known that when Dina married Neville, Jinnah said to her that she was not his daughter any more. The father-daughter relationship became extremely formal after she married. They did correspond, but he addressed her formally as 'Mrs. Wadia'. Dina and Neville lived in Bombay and had two children, a boy and a girl. Dina's son Nusli Wadia born a Christian, but converted back to Zoroastrianism and settled in the industrially wealthy Parsi community of Bombay. Dina did not travel to Pakistan until her father's funeral in Karachi in September 1948.
[edit] The Jinnah mansion dispute
After Jinnah returned to Bombay from England to take charge of the Muslim League, he built himself a palatial mansion in Bombay, which became his residence during the politically momentous decade preceding the creation of Pakistan. The house was designed by Claude Batley, a British architect, and was built in 1936 at a total cost of Rs. 200,000/-. The 2.5 acre (10,000 m²) property, South Court, overlooking the sea, located at 2, Mount Pleasant Road (now Bhausaheb Hirey Marg), Malabar Hill, is in Bombay's most expensive real estate. In 1948, it was leased to the British High Commission which occupied it till 1982.
Successive Pakistani governments have often expressed deep interest in acquiring the property for sentimental reasons. During his visit to India, President Pervez Musharraf had renewed Pakistan's claim to the house which The president had suggested to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that it should be given to Pakistan so that it could be turned into a consulate.
However, this came to nought; Dina Wadia (who lives in New York), wrote to the Indian prime minister demanding that the house on the Malabar Hill, now worth $15 million, be handed over to her. According to The Observer, London, Dina and her son, who lives in Mumbai, have made it very clear to the Indian government that they consider Pakistan's claim to the house "inappropriate". Nusli Wadia said: "Jinnah's house has absolutely nothing to do with Pakistan. It was my grandfather's personal residence and one that he loved dearly. How does that involve Pakistan?" According to the Observer, Nusli had recently hinted that his grandfather, who believed in democracy, would be less than delighted at the way Pakistan had turned out. Indian government sources say that the claim by the Jinnah heirs will be treated sympathetically" and have no intention of handing it to Pakistan.'
[edit] Present times
In March 2004, Dina came to 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 Wadia chose not to share their thoughts with the public on what was certainly a highly emotional encounter. Dina had not travelled to Pakistan since her father's funeral in September 1948. A great sense of drama was embedded in an old woman's visit, as a foreigner, to a country that was founded by her father.
In the visitors' book, Dina wrote: "This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his dream for Pakistan come true." This would appear to be a very appropriate summation of a life-experience that is essentially inexplicable. 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 aunt, Fatima Jinnah. The other is a painting of her mother, Rattanbai Petit. In the third, her father is dictating a letter, showing, in a sense, the Mohammad Ali Jinnah's political persona.
[edit] Bibliographic References
- Chagla, M. C. Individual and the State, Asia Publishing House, 1961
- Wolpert, Stanley Jinnah of Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-614-21694-X
[edit] External links
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