She was born, “precisely twenty eight years to the day and
hour before the birth of Jinnah’s other offspring, Pakistan.” She was Dina Jinnah, born 15th
August, 1919 in London and was raised as a Muslim. Her relationship with her
father became strained when she expressed her desire to marry a Parsi, Neville
Wadia. Jinnah told Dina that there were a million Muslim boys and she could
choose from any one of them. The daughter was adamant and did not budge from
her stance on a husband of her choice. She reminded her father that he too had
married a non-Muslim, Rattanbai, who was coincidentally a Parsi. Quaid-e-Azam
was left a most disappointed man.
Dominique Lapierre
and Larry Collins in the book, Freedom at Midnight wrote,”Jinnah had been 41, seemingly a confirmed bachelor, when he fell madly
in love with Ruttie, the 17 year old daughter of one of his close friends in
Darjeeling. Ruttie had been equally mesmerized by Jinnah. Her furious father
had obtained a court order forbidding his ex-friend to see his daughter, but on
her eighteenth birthday, with only the sari she was wearing and a pet dog under
each arm, a defiant Ruttie stalked out of her millionaire father’s mansion and
went off to marry Jinnah.”
On 15th
of August 1947, Jinnah celebrated the day by assuming full powers for his
ceremonial office without the comforting presence of his closest relative: 500
miles from Karachi, on the balcony of a flat in South Bombay, a young woman had
decorated her balcony with two flags, one for India and one for Pakistan. They
symbolized the terrible dilemma Independence Day had posed for her and so many
others. Dina, the only child of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had been unable to decide to
which country she wished to belong, the land of her birth or the Islamic nation
created by her father.
During the early
years of struggle for independence, another Parsi was born in Bombay, Feroze Jehangir
Ghandy (later changed to Gandhi). In the 1930, Vanar Sena, a wing of Congress Freedom Fighters was formed
where Feroze joined the movement and met Kamala Nehru and her daughter Indira.
In 1933, Feroze proposed to Indira but she and her mother rejected it. He grew close to the Nehru family, especially
Kamala Nehru, and was beside her till the very end in 1936. In the following
years, Indira and Feroze grew close to each other while in England. Indira’s
father Jawaharlal Nehru opposed her marriage and even approached Mahatma Gandhi to dissuade the young couple. Mahatma Gandhi, however, did not support Jawahar and also wrote to the other people who were against this marriage in a public statement which
included a request, “I invite the writers
of abusive letters to shed your wrath and bless the forthcoming marriage.” Feroze
and Indira finally got married in March 1942 despite an upset Jawaharlal Nehru.
It doesn’t
matter whether you’re a Parsi Millionaire or Quaid-e-Azzam or Pandit Nehru,
fathers will be fathers and it was then that I could truly appreciate Steve
Martin’s lines in the final wedding scene in the movie Father of the Bride. “I realized at that moment that I was never
going home again and see Annie (his daughter) at the top of the stairs, that
I’d never see her again at our breakfast table in her nightgown and socks. I
suddenly realized what was happening: Annie was all grownup and leaving us.
Something inside began to hurt”.
Dedicated to all fathers of the brides- you're in great company.
SS
Father's and Daughters are always going to have a special relationship and bond!
ReplyDeleteVery few father's express like in the movie!
But we daughters know that we are special!
Well written from the old to the new generation!