Book Description

Mohammad Ali Jinnah was forty years old, a successful barrister and a rising star in the nationalist movement when he fell in love with pretty, vivacious Ruttie Petit, the daughter of his good friend, the fabulously rich Parsi baronet, Sir Dinshaw Petit. But Ruttie was just sixteen and her outraged father forbade the match. However, when she turned eighteen, they married. Bombay society was scandalized, and Ruttie and Jinnah were ostracized. It was an unlikely union that few thought would last. But Jinnah, in his undemonstrative, reserved way, was unmistakably devoted to his beautiful, wayward child-bride. And Ruttie, on her part, worshipped him, and could tease and cajole the famously unbending Jinnah. But as tumultuous political events increasingly absorbed him, Ruttie felt isolated and alone, cut off from her family, friends and community. She died at twenty-nine, leaving behind her daughter, Dina, and her inconsolable husband, who never married again. Sheela Reddy uses never-before-seen personal letters of Ruttie and her close friends as well as accounts left by contemporaries and friends to portray this marriage that convulsed Indian society. A product of intensive and meticulous research in Delhi, Bombay and Karachi, this is a must-read for all those interested in politics, history, and the power of an unforgettable love story.