Rattanbai "Ruttie" Petit Jinnah; February 20, 1900 – February 20, 1929), was the second
wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah—an important figure in the Indian Independence Movement
and later founder of Pakistan. She was the only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit,
who in turn, was the son of Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, founder of the first cotton mills in
India. The Petits were textile magnates and one of Bombay's wealthiest Parsi families.
Ruttie
"Ruttie" as she was affectionately called, was bright, gifted and graceful. She was 16
the year she met Mohammad Ali Jinnah. She had diverse interests ranging from romantic
poetry to politics. With her maiden aunt she attended all public meetings held in Bombay
and was familiar with the movement for swaraj. She was a fierce supporter of India for Indians
and many years later when asked about rumours of Jinnah's possible knighthood and whether
she would like to be Lady Jinnah, she snapped that she would rather be separated from her
husband than take on an English title. First meeting with Jinnah
In the summer of 1916, Jinnah was invited to escape the Bombay heat at the summer home
of his client and friend Sir Dinshaw. There, in Darjeeling, Jinnah was enchanted with Ruttie's
precocious intelligence and beauty, and she in turn was enamoured by J, as she called
him. Jinnah's proposal
Jinnah approached Sir Dinshaw with a seemingly abstract question about his views on inter-communal
marriages. Sir Dinshaw emphatically expressed his opinion that it would be an ideal solution
to inter-communal antagonism. Jinnah could not have hoped for a more favourable response,
and immediately asked his friend for his daughter's hand in marriage.
M. C. Chagla, who was assisting Jinnah at his chambers in those days, recalled later,
"Sir Dinshaw was taken aback. He had not realized that his remarks might have serious personal
repercussions. He was most indignant, and refused to countenance any such idea which
appeared to him absurd and fantastic." Jinnah pleaded his case, but to no avail.
Not only was this the end of the friendship between the two men, but Sir Dinshaw forbade
Ruttie to meet Jinnah as long as she lived under his roof. As she was still a minor,
the law was on his side, so Ruttie and Jinnah decided to wait out the two years until she
attained the age of maturity. The wedding
Two months later, on April 19, 1918, they were married at his house South Court in Bombay.
The wedding ring which Jinnah gave Ruttie was a present from the Raja of Mahmudabad.
The Raja and a few close friends of Jinnah were the only guests at the wedding, and later
the couple spent part of their honeymoon at the Mahmudabad palace in Nainital. The rest
of their honeymoon was spent at the Maidens Hotel, a magnificent property just beyond
the Red Fort. Early years of marriage
Ruttie and Jinnah made a head-turning couple. She used to call her husband “J”. Her
long hair would be decked in fresh flowers, and she wore vibrant silk and headbands lavish
with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. According to most sources, the couple could not have
been happier in those early years of their marriage. The only blot on their joy was Ruttie's
ostracism from her family. Sir Dinshaw mourned Ruttie socially even after his granddaughter
Dina Jinnah, their only child, was born on August 15, 1919.
The marriage problems By mid-1922, Jinnah was facing political isolation
as he devoted every spare moment to be the voice of moderation in a nation torn by Hindu-Muslim
antipathy. The increasingly late hours and the ever-increasing distance between them
left Ruttie isolated. In September 1922, she packed her bags and
took her daughter to London. The echoes of her loneliness are apparent in a letter which
she sent to her friend Kanji, thanking him for the bouquet of roses he had sent as a
bon voyage gift; It will always give me pleasure to hear from you, so if you have a superfluous
moment on your hands you know where to find me if I don't lose myself. And just one thing
more, 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.
Upon her return to India, Ruttie tried to see more of her husband but he was too busy
campaigning for elections as an independent for the general Bombay seats. Ruttie withdrew
into a world of spirits, séances and mysticism. Although she tried to interest Jinnah in the
metaphysical, he had little time to devote to her.
In 1925, Jinnah was appointed to a subcommittee to study the possibility of establishing a
military college like Sandhurst in India. For this purpose he was to undertake a five-month
tour of Europe and North America. Jinnah decided to take Ruttie with him – on what he hoped
would be a second honeymoon. Instead the trip simply magnified the growing personal gulf
between them. By 1927, Ruttie and Jinnah had virtually separated,
and the move of the Muslim League's office to Delhi was just the final blow to a relationship
that was already disturbed. Deteriorating health
Ruttie's health deteriorated rapidly in the years after they returned from their final
trip together but she kept her interest in her pets and her close friends. Even as a
frail, weakened woman, Ruttie attempted to remain in touch with those around her, going
so far as to travel in bedroom slippers even though her feet were swollen and painful.
Last days and tragic end Ruttie lived at the Taj Hotel in Bombay, almost
a recluse as she became more and more bed-ridden. Kanji continued to be her constant companion.
By February 18, 1929 she had become so weak that all she could manage to say to him was
a request to look after her cats. Two days later, Ruttie Petit Maryam Jinnah died. It
was her 29th birthday. She was buried on February 22 in the Khoja Shia Isna 'Ashari Cemetery,
Mazgaon, Bombay, according to Muslim rites. Later, Chagla said in his book ‘Roses in
December‘, Jinnah sat like a statue throughout the funeral
but when asked to throw earth on the grave, he broke down and wept. That was the only
time when I found Jinnah betraying some shadow of human weakness. It's not a well publicised
fact that as a young student in England it had been one of Jinnah's dreams to play Romeo
at The Globe. It is a strange twist of fate that a love story that started like a fairy
tale ended as a haunting tragedy to rival any of Shakespeare's dramas.
In the future it became evident 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 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..." Romance and legacy
Although not much is known about Jinnah’s personal life, when he was a law student in
London, he regularly participated in theatre and seriously considered acting as a profession.
Ruttie's complex relationship with Jinnah 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 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...". Jinnah is believed to be 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. Professor Akbar Ahmeds movie Jinnah tried, to some extent,
throw some light on Jinnah’s personal life. Bibliographic references
Chagla, M. C. Individual and the State, Asia Publishing House, 1961
Wolpert, Stanley Jinnah of Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-614-21694-X
References