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writer’s word: Sheela Reddy

Portrait of Jinnah as a married man

Sheela Reddy, a senior journalist, is savouring the success of her book, Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage that Shook India.

Portrait of Jinnah as a married man

Sheela Reddy Tribune photo: ravi Kumar



Harvinder Khetal 

Sheela Reddy, a senior journalist, is savouring the success of her book, Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage that Shook India. And rightfully so as Reddy has able portray the underlying currents splendidly. The appeal of the love story — of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Ruttie Petit — lies in Sheela having intricately woven the story of forbidden love with history, politics, power, and opulence. When Jinnah, 43, a successful barrister and a rising politician, married 18-year-old pretty, vivacious Ruttie, the daughter of his friend, the fabulously rich Parsi baronet, Sir Dinshaw Petit, her father was outraged and the Bombay society scandalised. Drawing on a cache of exquisitely-written letters of Ruttie to her friends, Sheela keeps one absorbed with the account of how the young bride is eventually doomed to a lonely life as her husband's political career zooms. Already ostracised by her family and community, Ruttie tragically dies of drug-induced ailments at 29, leaving behind her daughter Dina and an inconsolable husband.

These are the times of biopics. And, the title of your book, Mr and Mrs Jinnah: A Marriage that Shook India, is the stuff that attracts filmmakers. Is there is any such offer of collaboration with you?

I did not realise it while I was writing it, but apparently the book has great cinematic appeal, and several filmmakers have shown interest in buying the rights. I have just optioned the rights for a good sum of money. But I'm discovering how these things work, and it may take up to two years before anything comes of these plans. 

What were the hardships you faced during the research into the little-known aspects of the marriage of two well-known personalities of their time? How challenging was it to put together the information you had that was basically a stack of letters? 

It did not take me long after I started digging around for the relevant material to realise that I had embarked on a foolhardy venture. There was simply no personal information available on either Jinnah or his wife, Ruttie, let alone about their marriage. All letters between them, except one, were lost and the one or two contemporaries, who were close enough to the couple to write honestly about their marriage, kept a studied silence on the subject. I almost despaired of being able to delve into the subject I had chosen until I made a serendipitous discovery of Ruttie's letters to Padmaja Naidu. These letters, dating from the time the two girls were fifteen years' old and continuing till a year before Ruttie's death, are in the archives of the Nehru Memorial Library in Delhi, but somehow have been ignored by historians. Once I got over the initial excitement of being the first to read these letters, I understood why historians had not paid any attention to these letters — they were too slight and not informative enough to tell the story of Jinnah's marriage. That required another four years of meticulously digging out all relevant information wherever I could find it — from newspapers, memoirs of contemporaries, personal correspondence of their friends, political diaries and dispatches, even margin notes from the Jinnahs' private collection of books. It was hard work but also fascinating, to put together these random pieces and see the big picture emerging from it.

How has life been for you post the book release? A happy spree of talks, interviews and literary functions...

One of the great joys of writing a book — apart from the relief of having finally finished and done with it — is to find that it has struck a chord with readers. It's so rewarding to meet readers wherever I go who found the book compelling and underwent the same experience I did in understanding the hearts and minds of both Mr and Mrs Jinnah and the times they lived in. I don't think I will ever grow tired of hearing from readers and what they thought of the book. It's fascinating as strangers seek me out in every new place I go to in order to tell me how much they loved the book and how they, in turn, have gifted it to their friends.  

Your readers, both old and young, are eager to know of something more than what is there in the book. What aspect of Mr and Mrs Jinnah's lives induces the most queries?

I think in Mrs Jinnah's case, it is her lack of maternal attachment to her daughter that intrigues readers, especially women. And nearly all readers want to know how Jinnah, who had strong integrity and honesty and a dry sense of humour, turned into the bitter misanthrope. 

Writing about Jinnah could not have been without a fair share of involvement in the tumultuous politics of that period that still finds resonance today, both in India and Pakistan. How would you rate that time?

What struck me was that the politics of that time was much more communally divided than our history books tell us, and that no one leader deserves to take all the blame or credit for what happened.

How do the Pakistani readers rate your version of the personal life of their Qaid-e-Azam?

The response from the Pakistani readers has been generally positive. Considering that little information is available about Jinnah's marriage, my book has been appreciated for its detailing as being in the genre of a historian's work.

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