Ruttenbai "Ruttie" Petit (The Flower of Bombay) born on February 20, 1900, was the only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit . The Petits were textile magnates and one of Bombay's wealthiest Parsi families. Their surname was not traditionally Parsi and had come about in Sir Dinshaw's great grand-father's time in the 1700s. He had worked as a shipping clerk and dubash or interpreter for the British East India Company. French merchants who dealt with the lively, short Parsi clerk called him 'le petit Parsi'.
Ruttie
Ruttie as she was called affectionately, was bright, gifted and graceful. Although she was only 16 the year she met Mohammad Ali Jinnah, she was intellectually much more mature than other girls her age. 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 ,(home-rule). She was a fierce supporter of India for Indians and many years later when asked about rumors 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 decided to escape the Bombay heat by vacationing at the summer home of his client and friend Sir Dinshaw. the Petit`s chateau overlooked Mount Everest in Darjeeling or Town of the Thunderbolt, The town was aptly named considering what was to happen to him there. In spite of the tremendous age difference (she was 16, he was 40)he was enchanted with Ruttie`s precocious intelligence and beauty, and she in turn was enamoured by Jay 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. Justice 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." Although Jinnah pleaded his case as perhaps only a brilliant orator and a man passionately in love could have, 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 in his mansion. As she was still a minor, law was on his side but instead of diminishing their love for one another this merely served to make them more committed. Patiently they waited out the two - year period till Ruttie attained her majority. She converted to Islam adopting the name Mariam , and on April 19, 1918 the two of them were married at his house South Court in Bombay.
The Honeymoon
The Raja of Mahmudabad gifted the ring which Jinnah gave Ruttie. The raja and a few friends of Jinnah were the only guests at the wedding, and later the couple spent part of their honeymoon at the Mahmudabad lodge in Nainital. The rest of their honeymoon was at Maideraja of Mahmudabadns , a magnificent hotel just beyond the Red Fort in Delhi .
Early Years of Marriage
Ruttie and Jinnah made a head-turning couple. Her long hair would be decked in fresh flowers, and she wore vibrant silk and headbands lavish with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. And Jinnah in those days was the epitome of elegance in suits specially stitched in London. And no two people could have been happier or more fulfilled than the Jinnahs in the beginning 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 was born.
The Rift Begins
By mid 1922, Jinnah was facing political isolation as he devoted every spare moment to be the voice of moderation in a nation tone by Hindu-Muslim antipathy. The increasingly late hours and the personal distance between them lacerated Ruttie with feelings of desolation. That September 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.
After her return, Ruttie tried to see more of her husband but he was too busy campaigning for elections as an independent Muslim for the general Bombay seats. Jinnah too was grieving (photographs of him in this era never show him smiling) but the task he had under taken was too immense for him to move away from for personal reasons. As a result, Ruttie withdrew into a world of spirits, seances and mysticism. Kanji remained a life line as she turned more and more to him for understanding and support. She wrote to him about her desire to visit a medium and communicate with spirits. When Kanji sent her information about dream travels, her response effectively told about her state of mind;
There is nothing I would welcome with greater rejoicing then an experience of a sort to which you refer in your letter. But in my heavy drug like sleep there is no redeeming feature...a restive mind and correspondingly restless physical state...I don't dream expecting very rarely.
She tried to interest to Jinnah in metaphysical matters but his growing conservartism not with standing, his legal practice alone remained so demanding that he had little time to devote to the whims of a wife half his age. She wrote to Kanji,
My soul is to clogged...and thought I aspire and crave,God knows how earnstly, my researches to remain uncrowned,even by thorns. She was only 25 years old.
In 1925, Jinnah was appointed to a subcommittee in of studying the plausibility of establishing a military college like Sandhurst in India. For this purpose he was to under take a 5 month tour of Europe and North America. He 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.
Deteriorating Health of Ruttie and Estranged Jinnah
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 when her health was frail and her feet were swollen, she often went out in bedroom sleepers, for as she wrote,
No shoes are large enough to accommodate my elegant and lily like feet.
By 1927, Ruttie and Jinnah had virtually separated, the shifting of the Muslim League`s office to Delhi was the final blow to a relationship which was in essence over.
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, and by February 18, 1929 she had become so weak all she could manage to say to him was to look after her cats. Two days later, Ruttie petit Jinnah passed away. It was her 29th birthday. She was buried on February 22 in Bombay according to Muslim rites. Jinnah sat like a statue throughout the funeral but when her body was being lowered into the grave, and he as the nearest relative was asked to throw the earth on the grave first, he broke down and wept. Later, Justice Changla said, 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.
Last updated: 10-16-2005 01:02:30
