Dina Wadia | |
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Wadia (left) with her aunt Fatima (right) at the funeral of her father, 1948
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Born |
London, United Kingdom |
15 August 1919
Spouse(s) | Neville Wadia |
Children | Nusli Wadia |
Parent(s) |
Muhammad Ali Jinnah Rattanbai Petit |
Family |
Jinnah family (by birth) Wadia family (by marriage) |
Dina Wadia (born as Dina Jinnah; 15 August 1919) is the daughter and only child of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his wife Rattanbai Petit. Her father was a part of the Jinnah family, while her mother was a member of the Petit baronets. Through her marriage to Neville Wadia, she belongs to the Wadia family.
Wadia was born in London shortly after midnight on the morning of August 15, 1919 to the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (informally known as "Jinnah"), and his second wife Rattanbai Petit. As Stanley Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan records: "Oddly enough, precisely twenty-eight years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah's other offspring, Pakistan". Her premature arrival was unexpected—her parents were at the theatre, but "were obliged to leave their box hurriedly." She was a dark-eyed beauty, lithe and winsome. She had her mother's smile and was pert or petulant as only an adored child is wont to be.
Dina's paternal great grandfather, Premjibhai “Meghji” Thakkar, was a Hindu of Lohana caste, who converted to Islam, and became a Khoja Shia, in the 19th century. While, her maternal grandparents were Parsi, who disowned her mother, Rattanbai, when she married Jinnah and converted to Islam. Her paternal grandparents were from Gujarat, who moved to Karachi for business in the mid 1870s, where her father, Jinnah, was born. Her father, Jinnah, and her aunt, Fatima, are extremely important and well-respected figures in Pakistan, who started the Pakistan movement. Jinnah's struggle for Muslims eventually led the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Jinnah became the founder as well as the first Governor General of Pakistan. Jinnah and Fatima, were also bestowed with the titles "Father of the Nation" and "Mother of the Nation" respectively.