The family Jinnah: Mohammad Ali with his sister Fatima and his only child Dina | Photos from the book
The marriage of Rattanbai ‘Ruttie’ Petit and Mohammad Ali Jinnah seemed to be a match made in heaven. At 40, he was at the peak of his career — president of the All India Muslim League, architect of the Lucknow Pact with the Indian National Congress, president of the Home Rule League in Bombay [Mumbai] and chairman of the board of directors of the leading nationalist daily Bombay Chronicle. Indian politician Diwan Chaman Lall wrote that there was scarcely a woman who could hold a candle to Petit in charm and beauty. At 16 she had read widely and was sophisticated well beyond her years. The daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit, Baronet, she had everything a girl would want.
She found her love in Jinnah not only because he was strikingly handsome, but also because he was a fierce opponent of British rule. So was she. Petit died young in Bombay on her 29th birthday on Feb 20, 1929. Jinnah was in Delhi when he was informed of her death by his father-in-law, who had cut off all ties with his daughter since her conversion to Islam on Apr 18, 1918, and her marriage the next day to Jinnah.
Literature on the short-lived marriage is as sparse as speculation about the causes of its failure but its impact on Jinnah’s personality and politics is plentiful. The couple’s close friend Kanji Dwarkadas’s memoir, Ruttie Jinnah: The Story of a Great Friendship, was published in the 1960s. Kanji remained devoted to Jinnah after Petit’s death till Partition separated them.
Despite the love between them, lifelong companionship was not meant to be for ‘Ruttie’ and ‘J’
Ruttie Jinnah: Life and Love by Shagufta Yasmeen was published by the Royal Book Company in Karachi in 2010. Ruttie Jinnah: The Story, Told and Untold by Khwaja Razi Haider was published by the Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, in 2004. It is a substantial work. Appendix I lists the books on literature, history and spiritualism that she devoured. There would be few, if any, of her age even now to claim so wide a readership. Petit’s intellectual attainments have not received their due.
Sheela Reddy’s book, Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage that Shook India, is a product of great research, well-written and very evocative of the times, blending the personal with the political. In Jinnah’s case it is impossible to separate the two. Petit was also intensely political.
Much of the book is based on correspondence between Dwarkadas, Jinnah’s close friend Sarojini Naidu, and her daughter Padmaja Naidu who was a friend of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi on one side and Petit on the other. The mother and daughter did a lot to comfort Petit during the crises in her marriage and her illness.
The author brings to light much that was not known, for which one is grateful, but an understanding of the nuances and complexities of the relationship between this remarkable couple eludes her. To fill the gaps in the narrative, she speculates and makes trite and absurd comments. On the political aspect, she has not been wise in her choice of sources.
To Jinnah, his marriage and deep love for Petit were part of his intensely political life, which he fancied Petit would share. There is no reason to believe that she did not intend to do so. But she had other interests, too. Jinnah was extremely indulgent, but he preoccupied himself mostly with politics — and neglected her with fateful and, sadly, fatal results. She drove herself to death.