Dina Wadia

Dina Wadia (née Jinnah; 15 August 1919 – 2 November 2017) was the only daughter of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and his second wife, Rattanbai "Ruttie" Petit. Born in London, she grew up in an influential and politically active family. Her paternal family was of Khoja heritage, while her maternal family was Parsi.
Wadia's early years were shaped by personal loss, including the death of her mother when she was young, after which she was raised by her aunt, Fatima Jinnah. She received her education in India and England. Despite her father's significant role in the creation of Pakistan, Wadia maintained a relatively private life and chose to live in Bombay following the 1947 partition of India after which she acquired an Indian citizenship. She had also spent time in London before settling in New York City later in life. She married Bombay-based businessman, Neville Wadia in 1938 and had two children: Nusli Wadia and Diana Wadia.
On 2 November 2017, she died at the age of 98 from pneumonia in her New York City home.
Dina Wadia was born Dina Jinnah shortly after midnight on 15 August 1919 in London. Historian Stanley Wolpert notes it is "precisely twenty-eight years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah's other offspring, Pakistan." Her arrival was unexpected as her parents were at the cinema at the time. She named herself after Lady Dinabai Petit, her maternal grandmother, who raised her. Her parents, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Rattanbai "Ruttie" Petit, had separated but later reunited during her mother's illness.
Jinnah's paternal family were upstart merchants of high social status. Her paternal grandfather, Jinnahbhai Poonja, had moved from Gondal to Karachi in the mid-1870s. They were Khojas, descendants of the Lohana caste, who had converted from from Hinduism to the Ismaili sect of Islam and were followers the Aga Khan. Her father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was a lawyer and the leader of the All-India Muslim League, which called for a separate Muslim homeland following the end of British rule in India.
Jinnah's maternal family were rich, well-educated and westernized. They were Parsis who traditionally followed Zoroastrianism. Her great-grandfather, Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, founded the first cotton mill in India and earned a baronetcy for his contributions to industry, trade, and philanthropy. Her mother, Rattanbai Petit, was the only child of Sir Dinshaw Petit. Rattanbai converted to Islam to marry Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 19 April 1918, resulting in a permanent estrangement from her family and Parsi society.
In 1929, Jinnah's mother, Rattanbai, passed away when she was only 9 years old. That year, Jinnah moved to London with her father and aunt, Fatima Jinnah, who raise her as a Muslim, teaching her the Quran and salah. She was educated in a convent boarding school in Panchgani and a private school in Sussex. Jinnah affectionately 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 on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's life.
On 16 November 1938, Wadia married Parsi business man Neville Wadia, from the prominent Wadia family, at All Saints' Church. Although Jinnah 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. In an interview with Akbar Ahmed, she said "He was very disapproving, and we didn’t speak for a few years."
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 that Jinnah had sent a bouquet through his driver, Abdul Hai, to the newly married couple. 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.
The couple resided in Bombay and had two children, Nusli and Diana. They separated in 1943, after which Wadia moved to New York City.
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. 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.'"
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.
Wadia was involved in a legal dispute over the ownership of her father's house in Bombay, which she referred to as 'South Court'. Built in 1936, the house had been ultimately classified as evacuee property in 1948 like other property left by muhajirs following independence. Until 1982, it was leased to the British Deputy High Commission, and in 2007, Pervez Musharraf requested that it be converted into Pakistan's consulate. In August of that year, Wadia filed a petition before the Bombay High Court, claiming to be the rightful heir under Hindu law (which applied to Khojas). Although the court determined that Fatima Jinnah was the heir in Jinnah's will, Wadia contested this, arguing that Fatima had been declared an evacuee and was therefore ineligible to legally own property in India and the house should be transferred to Jinnah's legal heir, herself. In response, the Union government claimed the petition was not maintainable and was barred after an unexplained delay.
Wadia was living in an apartment in Madison Avenue. Despite physical distance, Nusli spoke to Wadia every day. In a 2002 interview with historian Andrew Whitehead, Wadia stated that although she had been invited to Pakistan multiple times, including by Benazir Bhutto, she declined these invitations, expressing concerns about being used as a mascot. She also warned that democracy had not been successfully established in any Muslim country and criticized leaders whom she accused of having 'robbed' the nation. In a 2008 interview with Times of India, Indian actress Preity Zinta, who met Wadia several times, stated: "She carries an aura of unmistakable strength."
In March 2004, Wadia visited Lahore 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.
At the age of 98, Wadia died from pneumonia in her New York City apartment on 2 November 2017. The private funeral was held in New York, with Pakistan's consulate sending the family four bouquets, signed by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Mamnoon Hussain and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. In a statement, Abbasi and Hussain said that she was "greatly respected and admired". Political leaders including, Naz Baloch, Imran Khan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shahbaz Sharif expressed their condolences. Marriyum Aurangzeb described her as "the last symbol of our leader and nation’s founder". The Sindh Assembly held a minute of silence in her remembrance and offered prayers for her and her father. Andrew Whitehead remarked that "the last remaining link with South Asia's independence era leaders has been broken."