Ruttie Jinnah – An Observance

Mazhar M Chinoy

They would’ve been married for 90 years last April 19, the staid, steadfast man and the au
courant, beautiful woman; he nearly a quarter of a century senior in age, and she smitten by
his charm. It was an unlikely love story, and one that in all of its contrasts, was likely to fail.

Ruttie Jinnah died a heart-broken young woman nearly 80 years ago, and for many Pakistanis, a
visit to her graveside still remains elusive primarily because very few know where she is, and
that she is, buried in an old cemetery at Mumbai. Even fewer have actually visited her final
resting place to pay respects to one of the only two women ever publicly associated with the
Father of the Nation.

I have visited Bombay many times but had always missed out on paying respects at her
graveside. But on my last trip early this year, with little time at hand to brave the Bombay
traffic and catch the plane back for home, I nonetheless gambled on visiting the Shia Ithna
Ashari Cemetery located at Mazgaon, central Mumbai where she is eternally reposed

I arrived at the serene graveyard and asked for the attendant who patiently led me through a
labyrinth of tombstones and sepulchers, some very ancient, and presented Ruttie’s grave. An
imposing structure made of aging marble that rose nearly four feet from the ground, it did not
appear very well maintained, testifying to a neglect of many years.

“Do very many people visit her grave?” I asked the attendant. “Not too many”, he answered.
“Only people visiting from Pakistan or an occasional curious local.” As it transpired, apparently
no relative, near or distant, visits Ruttie. Many of these are the present scions of the wealthy
Wadia family, notable Parsi Industrialists. Ruttie and Jinnah’s only child Dina married into the
Wadia family, and Ness, famously friends these days with the pretty Priety Zinta is none other
than her great grandson.

None of that glamour was evident at Ruttie’s graveside. The marble grave, carved out in floral
motifs and small ionic columns must have presented a riveting sight when it was built, and
even now appeared somewhat majestic, if only because of the other old, dilapidated graves
that surrounded Ruttie’s

The inscription on the tombstone pronounced her as “Ratanbai Mahomed Ali-Jinnah. Born 20th
February, 1900. Died 20th February, 1929”, which suggests that she died the same day she was
born. A bit of a misnomer when most historians believe she actually passed away five days shy
of her 30th birthday on February 15, 1929. This discrepancy has seemingly been a bit of dogged
debate with many believing that this was an inadvertent error while many others suggesting
that this was done as an intriguing honorific suitable for a tragic, fallen angel which many
believe she was. While she was buried in a Muslim graveyard, this was still as “Ruttie” and not
with her adopted name Mariam

Very little is known of Rattanbai Dinshaw Petit, except that she was a beautiful and intelligent
Parsi woman who married a brilliant lawyer, changed her religion for it and suffered as he went
about his political business with apparently little time for her child-like adventurism and
romantic interludes. With her family ostracized and Jinnah unable to provide attention, she
withdrew into the surreal world of the supernatural and the metaphysical. She began to
participate in seances, looking to contact the spirits of people long dead, perhaps hoping to
gain some consolation in the hope of a better after-life.
Within 10 years of her marriage, she was virtually separated from Jinnah, and in 1927, moved
into the fabled Taj Mahal Hotel overlooking the India Gate in Bombay with little more than her
personal attendant and beloved cats to keep her company. Here she was to spend the last two
years of her life. Her love for Jinnah was no less different than on the first day they met. She
requested a close friend in one of her last letters – “go and see Jinnah and tell me how he is,
he has a habit of overworking himself and now that I am not there to tease and bother him he
will be worse than ever.”

When Ruttie finally passed away, Jinnah was there at the funeral. He was morose but not
inclined to display his feelings publicly. Ruttie was buried with Muslim rituals and the moment
the body was interred provided for the first cracks in Jinnah’s armor. He broke down and wept
openly –the only time Jinnah was ever seen weeping in public. The cold, unemotional politician
credited with the creation of the largest Muslim state, of single-handedly withstanding the
combined political might of the British and Congress was an emotive human being after all. And
one that fell in love in a fairy tale affair that became a tragedy.