Dina Wadia was not estranged daughter

Published: Thu 9 Nov 2017, 9:00 PM

Last updated: Thu 9 Nov 2017, 11:33 PM

The negative perception about Dina Wadia needs to be corrected (Dina Wadia, Jinnah's estranged daughter, KT Nov 6). Jinnah's daughter was born in 1919 in London and was named Dina after her maternal grandmother. After the early death of Jinnah's wife Ratti (named Maryam as she accepted Islam before marriage) Jinnah moved to London with his sister and daughter Dina. Dina was sent to Mrs Francis Brown's private school in Sussex. They returned to Bombay later and lived at their South Court residence so that Dina could remain close to her maternal grandmother. In 1938 Dina got married to Neville Wadia, a marriage Jinnah did not approve of.
The marriage lasted only five years. During this time Jinnah included Dina in his will written in 1939. Dina's letter dated April 28, 1947, addresses Jinnah as ' My Darling Papa' and congratulates him on his political successes and requests for some of her mother's books as mementos. She again wrote to Jinnah on June 2 ,1947, further praising his achievements towards the Pakistan movement. She visited Pakistan on her father's death and twice thereafter. Her last visit was on the invitation of Pervez Musharraf in 2004. In 2007 Dina wrote to Manmohan Singh that she would like to spend her twilight years in Jinnah's Bombay residence but it was ignored. After the death of Jinnah and his sister, being the sole heir, Dina filed a claim in the Bombay High Court which remains inconclusive. Dina never returned to India after 2008 and passed away in New York on November 2, 2017 as an American citizen.
Mohammad Hamza, Dubai

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