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'{{refimprove|date=December 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Rattanbai Jinnah | image = Maryam Jinnah portrait.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date ={{Birth date|1900|02|20|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[British India]] | death_date ={{Death date and age|1929|2|20|1900|2|6|df=y}} | death_place = London, United Kingdom | nationality = | spouse = [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]]<br><small>(m. 1918–1929; her death)</small> | children = 1 ([[Dina Jinnah]]) | religion = | family = [[Petit baronets|Petit]]–[[Tata family]] <small>(by birth)</small><br>[[Jinnah family]] <small>(by marriage)</small> }} '''Rattanbai "Ruttie" Jinnah''', (born '''Rattanbai Petit''') – was the second wife of [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]]—an important figure in the [[Pakistan Movement|creation]] of [[Pakistan]] and the country's founder. Rattanbai was the only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit, who in turn, was the son of [[Dinshaw Maneckji Petit]], a member of the [[Petit baronets|Petit family]] and the founder of the first cotton mills in India. Her mother, Sylla Petit, was the daughter of [[Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata]] and sister of [[JRD Tata]], one of the shareholders of [[Tata Sons]] and a part of the [[Tata family]]. ==Family and background== {{See also|Petit baronets|l1=Petit family|Tata family}} Ruttie was born on 20 February 1900 in [[Bombay]], British India, into an extremely affluent and well-connected business family belonging to the [[Parsi]] community. She was the only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit, 2nd Baronet, by his wife Sylla Tata, a niece of [[Jamshedji Tata]]. Her paternal grandfather, [[Dinshaw Maneckji Petit]], [[Petit baronets|first baronet Petit]], had built some of the earliest cotton mills in India. Her maternal grandfather, [[Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata]], had been a first cousin and close associate of [[Jamshetji Tata]]. Ruttie's maternal uncle, [[J. R. D. Tata]], would later become the longest serving chairman of the [[Tata Group]], one of India's leading business conglomerates. Her maternal grandmother, [[Suzanne Brière]] (mother of JRD Tata), a French Catholic woman, was the first woman in India to drive a car.<ref name="Suzanne5">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=Zu6mLkpQVlUC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=Suzanne+converted+to+Zoroastrian+faith+community+can+accept+That+so+her+and+her+marriage.&source=bl&ots=3Pzdmf9fzt&sig=IWiapJIgwcwqpg6u_f89kAgYMBQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTtMiTsfHOAhXhJJoKHcKuDlAQ6AEIMTAE#v=onepage&q=Suzanne%20converted%20to%20Zoroastrian%20faith%20community%20can%20accept%20That%20so%20her%20and%20her%20marriage.&f=false/|title=Icons of Indian Industry|accessdate=2 September 2016}}</ref> Ruttie's parents spoke French to each other, and Ruttie grew up very proficient in that language. ==Courtship and wedding== {{See also|Jinnah family}} [[Jinnah]] was only three years younger than Ruttie's father, and the two men were good friends. Jinnah was a frequent guest at Petit Hall, the sprawling seaside residence of the Petit family at the foot of [[Malabar Hill]] in Mumbai. It was in this setting that Ruttie and Jinnah became acquainted. Despite an age difference of twenty-four years, and the fact that Ruttie was hardly sixteen years old at this time, the two decided to get married. [[File:Nikahnama-jinah.png|thumb|left|upright|225px|Marriage certificate of Ruttie and Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] Jinnah broached the topic with his friend by first discussing the question of interfaith and intercommunity marriages, always a hot potato in India. Here he was sure of drawing a favorable response from the baronet, who had himself married a woman half-Indian-Parsi and half-French-Catholic. Having drawn his friend out to make a general statement in support of mixed marriages, Jinnah then made his proposal to marry his friend's daughter. The baronet was shocked beyond words; he had never imagined anything other than a benign paternalistic relationship between his friend and his daughter. He reacted with violent indignation to the idea and almost ordered Jinnah out of his house. Since Ruttie was underage, her father was able to prevent the marriage for the time being, and the matter brewed for more than an year with no resolution. Ruttie was the only child of her parents, and they always celebrated her birthday in grand style. Despite the tensions within the family, they could hardly give her coming-of-age birthday a miss, and a grand banquet was held on the occasion at the [[Taj Mahal Palace & Tower|Taj Mahal Hotel]] in Mumbai, owned by Ruttie's mother's family. After the baronet had regaled his guests with a witty after-dinner speech, Ruttie stood up saying "Thank you, Papa..." and went on to drop a bombshell. She calmly inform the gathering that she had accepted a proposal of marriage from Jinnah, and that they would be married shortly; she asked the audience to wish them joy. She sat down to thundering silence, but despite the palpable outrage and opposition, a matter which had become so public could not be undone, and Ruttie could not be persuaded to change her mind. Even to the end, her parents could never reconcile themselves to the turn of events. When the time came for Ruttie to abandon the Parsi religion and be received into the Muslim community, she was disowned and thrown off by her family. In 1918, just weeks after her 18th birthday, Ruttie [[converted to Islam]], took the name "Maryam Jinnah" (though she never used it),<ref name="dawn/3march2012">{{cite news|last1=InpaperMagazine|first1=From|title=First lady: The Flower of Bombay|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/699973|accessdate=24 May 2017|work=DAWN.COM|date=3 March 2012|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Newspaper|first1=From the|title=Maryam Jinnah|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/772879|accessdate=24 May 2017|work=DAWN.COM|date=21 December 2012|language=en}}</ref> married [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], and cut ties with her family. In 1918, only weeks after her 18th birthday, Ruttie [[converted to Islam]], took the name ''Maryam Jinnah'' (though she never used it),<ref name="dawn/3march2012" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Newspaper|first1=From the|title=Maryam Jinnah|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/772879|accessdate=24 May 2017|work=DAWN.COM|date=21 December 2012|language=en}}</ref> married the 42-year-old [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], and cut off all ties with her family. ==Marital problems== The Jinnahs resided mainly at [[South Court|South Court Mansion]] in Malabar Hill, a stone's throw from Petit Hall. However, there was no contact between them and the Petit family, and the estrangement continued even after the birth of Ruttie's only child, [[Dina Wadia|Dina]], the following year. Ruttie and Jinnah also made frequent trips to Europe and spent considerable lengths of time there. They made a head-turning couple, not just because they looked an unlikely mismatched couple, but also because Ruttie aspired to define the acme of fashion during this period, and money was no object. Her long hair would be decked in fresh flowers, she wore vibrant silks and chiffons, accentuated by headbands and tiaras lavish with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Jinnah doted on his child-like bride and indulged her every wish, and she was likewise content to be pampered by her beloved sugar-daddy whom she called “J”. According to most sources, the couple could not have been happier in their first few years of marriage.<ref>[http://pakistaniat.com/2007/09/10/a-look-at-the-personal-life-of-jinnah-ruttie-jinnahs-last-letter-to-her-husband/ Ruttie Jinnah's Letters]</ref> Their only child, [[Dina Wadia|Dina]], was born on 15 August 1919. By mid-1922, Jinnah was facing political isolation as he devoted every spare moment to be the voice of separatist incitement in a nation torn by Hindu-Muslim antipathy. His increasingly late hours and the ever-increasing distance between them left Ruttie isolated.<ref>[http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/life_quaid05.htm Ruttie Jinnah – Story of Pakistan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024215548/http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/life_quaid05.htm |date=24 October 2008 }}</ref> Ruttie's complex relationship with her husband can also be elaborated by reading some extracts of her last letter to him ''"...When one has been as near to the reality of Life (which after all is Death) as I have been dearest, one only remembers the beautiful and tender moments and all the rest becomes a half veiled mist of unrealities. Try and remember me beloved as the flower you plucked and not the flower you tread upon." ... ".. Darling I love you – I love you – and had I loved you just a little less I might have remained with you – only after one has created a very beautiful blossom one does not drag it through the mire. The higher you set your ideal the lower it falls. I have loved you my darling as it is given to few men to be loved. I only beseech you that the tragedy which commenced in love should also end with it..."''.<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimu/886400838/in/set-72157600711943677 The life of Ruttie Jinnah in pictures]</ref> Jinnah is seen as a very private person and he hardly showed emotions but he is known to have cried twice in public. One of the occasions was the funeral of his beloved wife Ruttie in 1929 and the other one in August 1947, when he visited her grave one last time before leaving for Pakistan. Jinnah left India in August 1947, never to return again.<ref>[http://pakistaniat.com/2007/09/10/a-look-at-the-personal-life-of-jinnah-ruttie-jinnahs-last-letter-to-her-husband/ A look at the life of Ruttie's last letter to her husband Jinnah]</ref> ==Last days and death== After Ruttie's death from cancer it appeared that Jinnah missed her a great deal. G Allana in "Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah: The Story of a Nation" based on the narrative of a chauffeur of Mr Jinnah writes: ''"You know servants in household come to know everything that is going around them. Sometimes more than twelve years after Begum Jinnah's (Mrs. Jinnah) death, the boss would order at dead of night a huge ancient wooden chest to be opened, in which were stored clothes of his dead wife and his married daughter. He would intently look into those clothes, as they were taken out of box and were spread on the carpets. He would gaze at them for long with eloquent silence. Then his eyes turn moisten..."''<ref>Ganje Firishte pp 9, 1955, Saadat Hassan Manto</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==Bibliography== * Chagla, M. C. (1961), ''Individual and the State'', Asia Publishing House. * Reddy, Sheela (2017), ''Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage that Shook India'', Penguin India. * Wolpert, Stanley (1984), ''Jinnah of Pakistan'', Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-614-21694-X}} {{Jinnah}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Jinnah, Ruttie}} [[Category:Jinnah family]] [[Category:Converts to Islam from Zoroastrianism]] [[Category:1900 births]] [[Category:1929 deaths]] [[Category:Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] [[Category:Parsi people]] [[Category:Burials in India]] [[Category:Tata family]]'