Daughter of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Dina Wadia passed away at her home in New York on Thursday. 98-year-old Wadia had been living in United States since last few decades and was the only child of Jinnah.
Married to a Bombay-based Parsi businessman Neville Wadia, Dina Wadia’s marriage was a source of contention between the father and daughter as the former was unhappy over his daughter’s marriage with a non-Muslim. Despite that, the two got married and stayed back in India even after partition, before finally settling in United States.
According to a Firstpost report, Dina is survived by her daughter Diana N Wadia, son Nusli N Wadia, her grandsons Ness and Jeh Wadia and two great-grandchildren Jah and Ella Wadia.
Born in London in 1919, Jinnah had raised Dina alone after his separation from his wife Rattanbai Petit and her subsequent demise.
According to a report in The Dawn, Jinnah loved her deeply, but their relationship had become strained after Dina’s marriage to Neville Wadia at the age of 17.
Writing about his personal meeting with Dina Wadia in 2002 for The Wire, academic Andrew Whitehead said: She[Dina] says her father rang her from Delhi to say “We’ve got it!” when he won the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan. Her own temperament and personality, she reckoned, came more from her father than her mother.
Tributes poured in from various sections of India, Pakistan government and political leaders across the spectrum.
Sad on the demice of Jinnah’s daughter
Met her once : true copy of her father.#RIP #dinawadia— Suhail Warraich (@suhailswarraich) November 2, 2017
During her lifetime, Dina visited Pakistan only few times. She made her first visit to Pakistan in 1948 when Jinnah died. She also made two subsequent visits to the country to meet her aunt Fatima, Jinnah’s sister. Her last visit to Pakistan came in 2004 when she was accompanied by her son, Nasli Wadia, and grandchildren, Jehangir and Ness, the Dawn report said.
On her visit to her father’s mausoleum, she had written in the visitors’ book: “This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his [Jinnah’s] dream for Pakistan come true.”
Feature image source: Twitter/Government of Pakistan