Reasons behind Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia's decision not to move to Pakistan

Here is a man who is considered to be a great man (Quaid E Azam) by Pakistanis and is hated by a sizable number of Indians and he was instrumental in creating world’s 5th largest country (by population) in 1947. But Jinnah failed to convince his only child to come to Pakistan. This is the irony of life.

Jinnah was one of the most modern Muslims in British India. He rarely cared for traditional believes in his own life. He used to eat Pork and drink alcohol (later he changed his habits) and he married daughter of his friend (A born Parsi who later converted to Islam). But when his daughter talked about marrying a non-Muslim, he virtually disowned his own daughter. Jinnah asked Dina “ there are millions of Muslim boys in India, is he the only one you were waiting for? and Dina replied, There were millions of Muslim girls in India, why did you marry my mother then ?” Jinnah’s defense was that his wife accepted Islam but his son-in-law never accepted Islam. Dina Wadia could not inherit the properties of his father in Pakistan because she was married to a non-Muslim.

Jinnah was a busy lawyer and politician and its obvious that he could not have given sufficient time to his daughter. But is said that both father and daughter had great affection towards each other despite their differences. Dina might have been hurt by the troubled relationship of their parents. After the death of her mother, her Aunt Fatima Jinnah stated to live with Jinnah. It is often said that she was instrumental in widening the difference between Jinnah and Dina. Dina refused to relocate to Pakistan because her husband and in laws stayed in India (as they had established business in Mumbai and they were Parsis). Dina tried to visit her ailing father in Pakistan but she was denied Pakistan’s Visa. Some say that Jinnah denied the visa and some say that Fatima played a role in denial of Visa. Fatima was always insecure about his own position in Pakistan with respect to Dina. She was sister of Quaid E Azam but Dina was daughter of Quaid E Azam and Dina could have easily inherited the legacy of Jinnah. But this didn’t happen and Fatima remained an important figure in Pakistan and she narrowly lost one Presidential election.

But Pakistan had to give the Visa to Dina for the funeral of Jinnah. Pakistan’s PM sent special invitation to her to attend the funeral. A few years after creation of Pakistan, Dina separated from her husband (but not officially) but she didn’t go to Pakistan. Dina visited Pakistan only twice 1948 and 2004. She died in 2017 and her grand children live in India and they run a group pf companies under Wadia group banner. I remember one statement from a Pakistani news channel Dina inherited the qualities of her father. She was firm on her stand like her father to take her own decisions.