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Category: India

  • Indonesia’s bullion banks, new mining policies pose threat to West Papuan sovereignty

    ANALYSIS: By Ali Mirin

    Last week, on 26 February 2025, President Prabowo Subianto officially launched Indonesia’s first bullion banks, marking a significant shift in the country’s approach to gold and precious metal management.

    This initiative aims to strengthen Indonesia’s control over its gold reserves, improve financial stability, and reduce reliance on foreign institutions for gold transactions.

    Bullion banks specialise in buying, selling, storing, and trading gold and other precious metals. They allow both the government and private sector to manage gold-related financial transactions, including hedging, lending, and investment in the global gold market.

    Although bullion banks focus on gold, this move signals a broader trend of Indonesia tightening control over its natural resources. This could have a significant impact on West Papua’s coal industry.

    With the government already enforcing benchmark coal prices (HBA) starting this month, the success of bullion banks could pave the way for a similar centralised system for coal and other minerals.

    Indonesia also may apply similar regulations to other strategic resources, including coal, nickel, and copper. This could mean tighter government control over mining in West Papua.

    If Indonesia expands national control over mining, it could lead to increased exploitation in resource-rich regions like West Papua, raising concerns about land rights, deforestation, and indigenous displacement.

    Indonesia joined BRICS earlier this year and is now focusing on strengthening economic ties with other BRICS countries.

    In the mining sector, Indonesia is using its membership to increase exports, particularly to key markets such as China and India. These countries are large consumers of coal and mineral resources, providing an opportunity for Indonesia to expand its export market and attract foreign direct investment in resource extraction.

    India eyes coal in West Papua
    India has shown interest in tapping into the coal reserves of the West Papua region, aiming to diversify its energy sources and secure coal supplies for its growing energy needs.

    This initiative involves potential collaboration between the Indian government and Indonesian authorities to explore and develop previously unexploited coal deposits in West Papuan Indigenous lands.

    However, the details of such projects are still under negotiation, with discussions focusing on the terms of investment and operational control.

    Notably, India has sought special privileges, including no-bid contracts, in exchange for financing geological surveys — a proposition that raises concerns about compliance with Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws.

    The prospect of coal mining in West Papua has drawn mixed reactions. While the Indonesian government is keen to attract foreign investment to boost economic development in its easternmost provinces, local communities and environmental groups express apprehension.

    The primary concerns revolve around potential environmental degradation, disruption of local ecosystems, and the displacement of indigenous populations.

    Moreover, there is scepticism about whether the economic benefits from such projects would trickle down to local communities or primarily serve external interests.

    Navigating ethical, legal issues
    As India seeks to secure energy resources to meet its domestic demands, it must navigate the ethical and legal implications of its investments abroad. Simultaneously, Indonesia faces the challenge of balancing economic development with environmental preservation and the rights of its indigenous populations.

    While foreign investment in Indonesia’s mining sector is welcome, there are strict regulations in place to protect national interests.

    In particular, foreign mining companies must sell at least 51 percent of their shares to Indonesian stakeholders within 10 years of starting production. This policy is designed to ensure that Indonesia retains greater control over its natural resources, while still allowing international investors to participate in the growth of the industry.

    India is reportedly interested in mining coal in West Papua to diversify its fuel sources.

    Indonesia’s energy ministry is hoping for economic benefits and a potential boost to the local steel industry. But environmentalists and social activists are sounding the alarm about the potential negative impacts of new mining operations.

    During project discussions, India has shown an interest in securing special privileges, such as no-bid contracts, which could conflict with Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws.

    Implications for West Papua
    Indonesia, a country with a population of nearly 300 million, aims to industrialise. By joining BRICS (primarily Brasil, Russia, India, and China), it hopes to unlock new growth opportunities.

    However, this path to industrialisation comes at a significant cost. It will continue to profoundly affect people’s lives and lead to environmental degradation, destroying wildlife and natural habitats.

    These challenges echo the changes that began with the Industrial Revolution in England, where coal-powered advances drastically reshaped human life and the natural world.

    West Papua has experienced a significant decline in its indigenous population due to Indonesia’s transmigration policy. This policy involves relocating large numbers of Muslim Indonesians to areas where Christian Papuans are the majority.

    These newcomers settle on vast tracts of indigenous Papuan land. Military operations also continue.

    One of the major problems resulting from these developments is the spread of torture, abuse, disease, and death, which, if not addressed soon, will reduce the Papuans to numbers too small to fight and reclaim their land.

    Mining of any kind in West Papua is closely linked to, and in fact, is the main cause of, the dire situation in West Papua.

    Large-scale exploitation
    Since the late 1900s, the area’s rich coal and mineral resources have attracted both foreign and local investors. Large international companies, particularly from Western countries, have partnered with the Indonesian government in large-scale mining operations.

    While the exploitation of West Papua’s resources has boosted Indonesia’s economy, it has also caused significant environmental damage and disruption to indigenous Papuan communities.

    Mining has damaged local ecosystems, polluted water sources and reduced biodiversity. Indigenous Papuans have been displaced from their ancestral lands, leading to economic hardship and cultural erosion.

    Although the government has tried to promote sustainable mining practices, the benefits have largely bypassed local communities. Most of the revenue from mining goes to Jakarta and large corporations, with minimal reinvestment in local infrastructure, health and education.

    For more than 63 years, West Papua has faced exploitation and abuse similar to that which occurred when British law considered Australia to be terra nullius — “land that belongs to no one.” This legal fiction allowed the British to disregard the existence of indigenous people as the rightful owners and custodians of the land.

    Similarly, West Papua has been treated as if it were empty, with indigenous communities portrayed in degrading ways to justify taking their land and clearing it for settlers.

    Indonesia’s collective view of West Papua as a wild, uninhabited frontier has allowed settlers and colonial authorities to freely exploit the region’s rich resources.

    Plundering with impunity
    This is why almost anyone hungry for West Papua’s riches goes there and plunders with impunity. They cut down millions of trees, mine minerals, hunt rare animals and collect precious resources such as gold.

    These activities are carried out under the control of the military or by bribing and intimidating local landowners.

    The Indonesian government’s decision to grant mining licences to universities and religious groups will add more headaches for Papuans. It simply means that more entities have been given licences to exploit its resources — driving West Papuans toward extinction and destroying their ancestral homeland.

    An example is the PT Megapura Prima Industri, an Indonesian coal mining company operating in Sorong on the western tip of West Papua. According to the local news media Jubi, the company has already violated rules and regulations designed to protect local Papuans and the environment.

    Allowing India to enter West Papua, will have unprecedented and disastrous consequences for West Papua, including environmental degradation, displacement of indigenous communities, and human rights abuses.

    As the BRICS nations continue to expand their economic footprint, Indonesia’s evolving mining landscape is likely to become a focal point of international investment discourse in the coming years.

    Natural resources ultimate target
    This means that West Papua’s vast natural resources will be the ultimate target and will continue to be a geopolitical pawn between superpowers, while indigenous Papuans remain marginalised and excluded from decision-making processes in their own land.

    Regardless of policy changes on resource extraction, human rights, education, health, or any other facet, “Indonesia cannot and will not save West Papua” because “Indonesia’s presence in the sovereign territory of West Papua is the primary cause of the genocide of Papuans and the destruction of their homeland”.

    As long as West Papua remains Indonesia’s frontier settler colony, backed by an intensive military presence, the entire Indonesian enterprise in West Papua effectively condemns both the Papuan people and their fragile ecosystem to a catastrophic fate, one that can only be avoided through a process of decolonisation and self-determination.

    Restoring West Papua’s sovereignty, arbitrarily taken by Indonesia, is the best solution so that indigenous Papuans can engage with their world on their own terms, using the rich resources they have, and determining their own future and development pathway.

    Ali Mirin is a West Papuan academic and writer from the Kimyal tribe of the highlands bordering the Star mountain region of Papua New Guinea. He lives in Australia and contributes articles to Asia Pacific Report.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesia’s bullion banks, new mining policies pose threat to West Papuan sovereignty

    ANALYSIS: By Ali Mirin

    Last week, on 26 February 2025, President Prabowo Subianto officially launched Indonesia’s first bullion banks, marking a significant shift in the country’s approach to gold and precious metal management.

    This initiative aims to strengthen Indonesia’s control over its gold reserves, improve financial stability, and reduce reliance on foreign institutions for gold transactions.

    Bullion banks specialise in buying, selling, storing, and trading gold and other precious metals. They allow both the government and private sector to manage gold-related financial transactions, including hedging, lending, and investment in the global gold market.

    Although bullion banks focus on gold, this move signals a broader trend of Indonesia tightening control over its natural resources. This could have a significant impact on West Papua’s coal industry.

    With the government already enforcing benchmark coal prices (HBA) starting this month, the success of bullion banks could pave the way for a similar centralised system for coal and other minerals.

    Indonesia also may apply similar regulations to other strategic resources, including coal, nickel, and copper. This could mean tighter government control over mining in West Papua.

    If Indonesia expands national control over mining, it could lead to increased exploitation in resource-rich regions like West Papua, raising concerns about land rights, deforestation, and indigenous displacement.

    Indonesia joined BRICS earlier this year and is now focusing on strengthening economic ties with other BRICS countries.

    In the mining sector, Indonesia is using its membership to increase exports, particularly to key markets such as China and India. These countries are large consumers of coal and mineral resources, providing an opportunity for Indonesia to expand its export market and attract foreign direct investment in resource extraction.

    India eyes coal in West Papua
    India has shown interest in tapping into the coal reserves of the West Papua region, aiming to diversify its energy sources and secure coal supplies for its growing energy needs.

    This initiative involves potential collaboration between the Indian government and Indonesian authorities to explore and develop previously unexploited coal deposits in West Papuan Indigenous lands.

    However, the details of such projects are still under negotiation, with discussions focusing on the terms of investment and operational control.

    Notably, India has sought special privileges, including no-bid contracts, in exchange for financing geological surveys — a proposition that raises concerns about compliance with Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws.

    The prospect of coal mining in West Papua has drawn mixed reactions. While the Indonesian government is keen to attract foreign investment to boost economic development in its easternmost provinces, local communities and environmental groups express apprehension.

    The primary concerns revolve around potential environmental degradation, disruption of local ecosystems, and the displacement of indigenous populations.

    Moreover, there is scepticism about whether the economic benefits from such projects would trickle down to local communities or primarily serve external interests.

    Navigating ethical, legal issues
    As India seeks to secure energy resources to meet its domestic demands, it must navigate the ethical and legal implications of its investments abroad. Simultaneously, Indonesia faces the challenge of balancing economic development with environmental preservation and the rights of its indigenous populations.

    While foreign investment in Indonesia’s mining sector is welcome, there are strict regulations in place to protect national interests.

    In particular, foreign mining companies must sell at least 51 percent of their shares to Indonesian stakeholders within 10 years of starting production. This policy is designed to ensure that Indonesia retains greater control over its natural resources, while still allowing international investors to participate in the growth of the industry.

    India is reportedly interested in mining coal in West Papua to diversify its fuel sources.

    Indonesia’s energy ministry is hoping for economic benefits and a potential boost to the local steel industry. But environmentalists and social activists are sounding the alarm about the potential negative impacts of new mining operations.

    During project discussions, India has shown an interest in securing special privileges, such as no-bid contracts, which could conflict with Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws.

    Implications for West Papua
    Indonesia, a country with a population of nearly 300 million, aims to industrialise. By joining BRICS (primarily Brasil, Russia, India, and China), it hopes to unlock new growth opportunities.

    However, this path to industrialisation comes at a significant cost. It will continue to profoundly affect people’s lives and lead to environmental degradation, destroying wildlife and natural habitats.

    These challenges echo the changes that began with the Industrial Revolution in England, where coal-powered advances drastically reshaped human life and the natural world.

    West Papua has experienced a significant decline in its indigenous population due to Indonesia’s transmigration policy. This policy involves relocating large numbers of Muslim Indonesians to areas where Christian Papuans are the majority.

    These newcomers settle on vast tracts of indigenous Papuan land. Military operations also continue.

    One of the major problems resulting from these developments is the spread of torture, abuse, disease, and death, which, if not addressed soon, will reduce the Papuans to numbers too small to fight and reclaim their land.

    Mining of any kind in West Papua is closely linked to, and in fact, is the main cause of, the dire situation in West Papua.

    Large-scale exploitation
    Since the late 1900s, the area’s rich coal and mineral resources have attracted both foreign and local investors. Large international companies, particularly from Western countries, have partnered with the Indonesian government in large-scale mining operations.

    While the exploitation of West Papua’s resources has boosted Indonesia’s economy, it has also caused significant environmental damage and disruption to indigenous Papuan communities.

    Mining has damaged local ecosystems, polluted water sources and reduced biodiversity. Indigenous Papuans have been displaced from their ancestral lands, leading to economic hardship and cultural erosion.

    Although the government has tried to promote sustainable mining practices, the benefits have largely bypassed local communities. Most of the revenue from mining goes to Jakarta and large corporations, with minimal reinvestment in local infrastructure, health and education.

    For more than 63 years, West Papua has faced exploitation and abuse similar to that which occurred when British law considered Australia to be terra nullius — “land that belongs to no one.” This legal fiction allowed the British to disregard the existence of indigenous people as the rightful owners and custodians of the land.

    Similarly, West Papua has been treated as if it were empty, with indigenous communities portrayed in degrading ways to justify taking their land and clearing it for settlers.

    Indonesia’s collective view of West Papua as a wild, uninhabited frontier has allowed settlers and colonial authorities to freely exploit the region’s rich resources.

    Plundering with impunity
    This is why almost anyone hungry for West Papua’s riches goes there and plunders with impunity. They cut down millions of trees, mine minerals, hunt rare animals and collect precious resources such as gold.

    These activities are carried out under the control of the military or by bribing and intimidating local landowners.

    The Indonesian government’s decision to grant mining licences to universities and religious groups will add more headaches for Papuans. It simply means that more entities have been given licences to exploit its resources — driving West Papuans toward extinction and destroying their ancestral homeland.

    An example is the PT Megapura Prima Industri, an Indonesian coal mining company operating in Sorong on the western tip of West Papua. According to the local news media Jubi, the company has already violated rules and regulations designed to protect local Papuans and the environment.

    Allowing India to enter West Papua, will have unprecedented and disastrous consequences for West Papua, including environmental degradation, displacement of indigenous communities, and human rights abuses.

    As the BRICS nations continue to expand their economic footprint, Indonesia’s evolving mining landscape is likely to become a focal point of international investment discourse in the coming years.

    Natural resources ultimate target
    This means that West Papua’s vast natural resources will be the ultimate target and will continue to be a geopolitical pawn between superpowers, while indigenous Papuans remain marginalised and excluded from decision-making processes in their own land.

    Regardless of policy changes on resource extraction, human rights, education, health, or any other facet, “Indonesia cannot and will not save West Papua” because “Indonesia’s presence in the sovereign territory of West Papua is the primary cause of the genocide of Papuans and the destruction of their homeland”.

    As long as West Papua remains Indonesia’s frontier settler colony, backed by an intensive military presence, the entire Indonesian enterprise in West Papua effectively condemns both the Papuan people and their fragile ecosystem to a catastrophic fate, one that can only be avoided through a process of decolonisation and self-determination.

    Restoring West Papua’s sovereignty, arbitrarily taken by Indonesia, is the best solution so that indigenous Papuans can engage with their world on their own terms, using the rich resources they have, and determining their own future and development pathway.

    Ali Mirin is a West Papuan academic and writer from the Kimyal tribe of the highlands bordering the Star mountain region of Papua New Guinea. He lives in Australia and contributes articles to Asia Pacific Report.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thailand extends visa of Vietnamese monk on barefoot pilgrimage to India

    Read more on this topic in Vietnamese.

    Thailand on Monday extended the visas of Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue and five of his companions who are on a 2,700-kilometer (1,600 mile) barefoot pilgrimage to India.

    Minh Tue, 43, became an internet celebrity in Vietnam last year as he walked across the country, carrying a rice cooker pot to collect alms.

    Late last year, he left Vietnam to embark on a journey by foot to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. After crossing Laos, he entered Thailand about two months ago and has been walking about 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day, often on scorching asphalt, through the countryside.

    But his Thai visa was at risk of expiring this week while he and his entourage were still hundreds of kilometers away from the Myanmar border, meaning he could be deported.

    Vietnamese monk Minh Tue, center, walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 14, 2025.
    Vietnamese monk Minh Tue, center, walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 14, 2025.
    (Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)

    On Monday, the immigration office of Thailand’s Phichit province extended the visas for Minh Tue and five monks walking with him for 30 days, according to Buddhist layman Phuoc Nghiem, who has volunteered to handle legal procedures for the group.

    Attempts by RFA Vietnamese to contact the Phichit Immigration Office to confirm the extension went unanswered Monday.

    Myanmar decision looms

    The group is still in the middle of Thailand, and the monks are trying to decide how to proceed given that Myanmar — which lies between Thailand and India — is engulfed in a civil war. Crossing it may be dangerous.

    Minh Tue — “Thich” signifies that he’s a monk — has said he intends to avoid the closer Mae Sot crossing, citing fighting in the area between rebels and the Myanmar military, which seized power in a 2021 coup.

    Instead, he’s leaning towards crossing at Mae Sai, in Thailand’s far north, into Myanmar’s Shan state.

    He has also raised the possibility of flying to Sri Lanka, and then going to India, tracing the route in reverse along which Buddhism first arrived in Thailand.

    A Vietnamese monk's pilgrimage
    A Vietnamese monk’s pilgrimage
    (RFA)

    Last year, Minh Tue and his simple lifestyle struck a chord in Vietnam where social media posts of his barefoot walks went viral and well-wishers came out in droves.

    Vietnam’s state-sanctioned Buddhist sangha has not officially recognized him as a monk, but he has nonetheless garnered widespread admiration and support.

    At one point, Vietnamese authorities, leery of his popularity, announced he had “voluntarily retired.”

    RELATED STORIES

    Vietnamese monk weighs danger of crossing Myanmar on India journey

    EXPLAINED: Why is an internet-famous monk on a trek to India?

    Unofficial monk who became internet sensation ends pilgrimage

    Vietnamese state media had not broadcast any news about Minh Tue’s pilgrimage — until Feb. 22, when Hanoi Television posted a report on its YouTube channel titled “YouTubers Cause Chaos to Monk Thich Minh Tue’s on-foot Pilgrimage.”

    The report focused on the YouTubers following the monk group, accusing them of spreading “sensational” and “divisive” information for “personal gain.”

    It also highlighted what it describes as “internal conflicts” within the group, calling it a “clash of group interests.”

    Vietnamese monk Minh Tue, right, walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 14, 2025.
    Vietnamese monk Minh Tue, right, walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 14, 2025.
    (Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)

    Minh Tue’s group “disturbed the security and public order” in areas they passed through and the local police had to “take them to their headquarters for resolution,” according to the report.

    When RFA contacted YouTubers accompanying the monk in Thailand about Hanoi Television’s claims, one YouTuber named Tran Nguyen said that he and others are adhering to Thai law, and not disturbing local public security and order.

    In a conversation with RFA, independent journalist Nam Viet from Ho Chi Minh City said that if state media is criticizing the YouTubers following Minh Tue for “unprofessional reporting” and “spreading chaotic information,” Hanoi Television should have sent its own reporter to cover the journey.

    Translated by Ann Vu. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Tragic Tale of a Flower that Wilted too Soon (Part 2 of 2)

    Ruttie Jinnah and M.A. Jinnah IMAGE/Dawn

    Read Part 1    .

    Drugs

    Ruttie’s rush to dash off to Paris was to get drugs. Mrs. Naidu’s letters from Paris and New York to Padmaja make that clear.

    While in Paris in 1929, Mrs. Naidu incidentally discovered from a princess (cousin of queen of Italy), who knew Ruttie, the reason for her visits to Paris. She said that “Madam Zhinna” had been getting drugs through “the long needle,” that is, morphine since her Paris visit in 1924. The concerned princess informed Mrs. Naidu that she had warned Ruttie: “she was ruining her life with drugs and how all her beauty was being destroyed.” (Reddy, p. 314-15.) But Ruttie was in no mood to listen; she just wanted to cope with the crisis, chaos, and commotion that were destroying her from the inside.

    Incidentally, Mrs. Naidu was told the same thing by another person, Princess Journevitch (wife of a famous Russian sculptor), with whom she had lunch in New York in 1929 who said that years ago in Paris Madam “Zhinna’s” drug habit was playing havoc with her gorgeousness and life. (Reddy, p. 364-65.)

    In the US, Mrs. Naidu learned from Syud Hossain that Ruttie was taking drugs while she was in the US. Hossain alerted her of the harmful effects. (For religious violation, Gandhi had ejected Hossain out of India, see note <9> below.)

    That means halfway through their marriage, Ruttie started taking drugs the kamikaze way, i.e., carelessly taking drugs and ignoring warnings of their harmful effects on her mental and physical health. It must have been depressing to watch such a brilliant person travel over 4,000 miles to find solace in drugs.

    Moved out

    On January 4, 1928, Ruttie and Jinnah got down from the train at Bombay’s Victoria train station. They came back after attending the Muslim League session in Calcutta. Mrs. Naidu was on the same train too. Ruttie informed Jinnah that she’s moving to Taj Mahal Hotel. She left with Mrs. Naidu and got a room next to hers. Jinnah went to South Court alone. Kanji helped Ruttie in moving her belongings. Mrs. Naidu’s letter to her daughters:

    “It is extraordinary how few people have even an inkling of what has happened in the very heart of Bombay. Fortunately, everyone is so used to seeing her [Ruttie] here at all hours [that is, in Mrs. Naidu’s room] that no one suspects her being here with her cats and he at home alone.”

    Reddy, p. 333.

    Ruttie and Jinnah’s separation had disturbed Mrs. Naidu more than the couple who got separated, as is obvious the way she put it to her friend Syud Hossain: “The really tragic part of it is that both seem so relieved.” (Ibid, p. 336.)

    An old Parsee friend tried to reunite them. Jinnah shouldered the blame:

    “It is my fault: we both need some sort of understanding we cannot give.”

    In April, Ruttie, joined by her mother Dinbai Petit, left for Europe. Jinnah was already in London with his friend Chaman Lal who had gone to Geneva to attend the ILO (International Labour Organization) Conference.

    Chamanlal then went to Paris. Upon learning of Ruttie’s illness, he headed to the Champs Elysee clinic where Ruttie was bedridden and had 106 degree fever. Ruttie handed him a book of poems by Oscar Wilde and requested him to read. Chamanlal:

    “When I came to the closing lines of The Harlot’s House:

    ‘And down the long and silent street,
    The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet,
    Crept like a frightened girl.’

    “I looked up and Ruttie was in coma.”

    Chamanlal’s impression of Ruttie:

    “… I had always admired Ruttie Jinnah so much: there is not a woman in the world today to hold a candle to her for beauty and charm. She was a lovely, spoiled child, and Jinnah was inherently incapable of understanding her. …”

    Ritu Marwah, Jinnah’s daughter, India Currents.

    Chaman Lal informed Jinnah that Ruttie wasn’t feeling well. Jinnah, who was in Ireland, rushed to Paris where he booked a room at George V. Jinnah went to the clinic as Chaman Lal waited for him at a nearby cafe. Jinnah returned after three hours in a relaxed mood and informed him Ruttie was to be transferred to a new clinic with a new medical adviser.

    Money was no deterrent. Jinnah held constant vigil by her side. He stayed with Ruttie at the clinic for over a month. He took care of her and even shared the clinic food with her. She recovered and left for Bombay but without Jinnah.

    Could any one have saved their marriage?

    Interceder

    The thought that crosses one’s mind when reading Ruttie and Jinnah’s story is they needed intercession and someone should have mediated to save their marriage. Was there anyone who could have saved their marriage? The only person who had such credentials and could have gotten any success in reconciling Jinnah and Ruttie was Sarojini Naidu — a devoted friend of Jinnah and a mother figure to Ruttie. And she, in fact, did try to mediate.

    Actually, it was the pitiable state of Ruttie that had prompted Mrs. Naidu to make an effort. Mrs. Naidu’s letter to Padmaja:

    “Well, Ruttie has only us really. Her own people are strangers to her. Her poor mother loves her but drives her distracted … She loves us and trusts us and so she comes to me for sanctuary., poor child. She feels safe here. Safe in her soul.”

    Reddy, p. 335-6.

    It was her genuine love for Ruttie that led Mrs. Naidu to talk to her very good friend Jinnah. Mrs. Naidu continues:

    “Jinnah has grown so dumb. No one can even approach him. I think he is hurt to the core because she left him like that, almost without warning. In any case no one can interfere with him. He is too hard and proud and reserved for even an intimate friend to intrude beyond a certain point. All he says is, ‘I have been unhappy for ten years. I cannot endure it any longer. If she wants to be free I will not stand in her way. Let her be happy. But I will not discuss the matter with anyone. Please do not interfere.’ And he is I suppose like a stone image in his loneliness and Ruttie is, although reveling in what she believes to be the beginning of liberty for her–liberty costs too dear sometimes and is not worth the price.”

    Ibid, 336.

    Mrs. Naidu was writing to her elder daughter but her younger Leilamani was not far from her mind. She continued:

    “I am writing a line to Papi today. Poor child. She must like Ruttie be clamouring for ‘freedom.’ This freedom!!”

    Ibid.

    The only person whose mediation could have bore some fruit, failed. If Mrs. Naidu couldn’t, then probably no one could.

    Author Sheela Reddy believes Ruttie should have consulted Gandhi.

    Could Gandhi have played the savior?

    Reddy (p. 271.) writes: “… Ruttie, without sharing Jinnah’s animus against Gandhi, turned away from the one man who might have saved her.”

    Ruttie, as far as her own life or marriage were concerned, was a very private person. She never mentioned the inner turmoil she was going through or her marital problems even to Kanji, one of her best friends. With Mrs. Naidu and her daughter Padmaja, she was close in that regard and would vent her exasperation and would tell them her problems and frustrations.

    Gandhi and Ruttie met a few times. They did correspond sometimes. Once Ruttie donated money to his fund for Jallianwala Bagh memorial. Jinnah didn’t know about it — not that Ruttie was hiding it from him, it was an spontaneous act. Gandhi wrote in his newspaper column:

    “Mrs Jinnah truly remarked when she gave her mite to the fund, the memorial would at least give us an excuse for living.”

    Reddy, p.230.

    Gandhi’s April 30, 1920, letter to Ruttie asked her to cajole Jinnah to learn Gujarati and Hindustani (a mix of Hindi/Urdu):

    “Please do remember me to Mr. Jinnah and do coax him to learn Hindustani or Gujarati. If I were you, I should begin to talk to him in Gujarati or Hindustani. There is not much danger of you forgetting your English or your misunderstanding each other, is there? … Yes, I would ask this even for the love you bear me.”

    (Kanji was another person to be reminded by Gandhi that his mother tongue was Gujarati. See the letter written in 1947 here. ( https://pennds.org/doing-research/exhibits/show/dwarkadas/gandhi )

    In a June 28, 1919 letter to Jinnah, Gandhi had urged him to learn those languages:

    “I have your promise, that you would take up Gujarati and Hindi as quickly as possible. May I then suggest that like Macaulay you learn at least one of these languages on your return voyage? You will not have Macaulay’s time during the voyage, i.e., six months, but then you have not the same difficulty that Macaulay had.”

    Unlike Ruttie, Jinnah’s background was that of a middle class family from Gujarat and spoke Kuchchhi and Gujarati “beautifully,” per Chagla. His Hindustani was not that good. Both Jinnah and Ruttie were comfortable speaking English. Gandhi knew his letter was unnecessary, but couldn’t resist playing politics.

    (For Jinnah’s Gujarati handwriting, see “Rare Speeches and Documents of Quaid-E-Azam,” compiler, Yahya Hashim Bawany (Karachi: Mr. Arif Mukati, 1987, p. 39. Jinnah was answering questions for a Gujarati monthly Vismi Sadi or Twentieth Century in 1916. The questions were about favorite author, flower, etc. Jinnah is known as Quaid-E-Azam that translates to a Great Leader. See also Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh, “History: Becoming Jinnah,” Dawn,)

    In the above letter, Gandhi also asked Jinnah to inform Ruttie,

    “Pray tell Mrs Jinnah that I shall expect her on her return to join the hand-spinning class that Mrs Banker Senior and Mrs Ramabai, a Punjabi lady, are conducting.”

    Ruttie never joined the spinning classes. (Her mother Lady Petit had joined and she used to go to those classes).

    In 1924, Gandhi wanted Ruttie to convince Jinnah to boycott British and all other foreign goods. Ruttie didn’t see any political wisdom or practicality in such actions. (Dwarkadas, p. 18. Kanji had similar ideas as Ruttie and he elaborated those in an interview to the Evening News of India May 1924. Ibid. p. 19-20.)

    The question remains: would Gandhi have been the right person to save Ruttie?

    Looking at Gandhi’s

    • married life,
    • his views on sex,
    • his relations with several women (including philosopher/poet Rabindranath Tagore’s niece Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, an educationist and political activist, and
    • “young, golden-haired, blue-eyed Danish beauty,” Esther Faering1, a devout Christian missionary), and
    • his mistreatment of his wife Kasturba,
    • his constant juggling to please and/or to save his girls/women friends from Kasturba’s justified wrath,
    • his experiments of sleeping with young girls to control his sexual urge,
    • his idea of restricting sexual activities to just procreation without any element of pleasure,
    • asking husbands and wives to consider each other as brothers and sisters,
    • and his so many other eccentricities don’t seem the right qualities to qualify him for that role.

    Here is one of the Gandhi advices to Indians:

    “It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.”

    B. R. Gowani, “Was Gandhi Averse to climax?”

    Very strange and unhealthy advice, indeed. The institution of marriage was and, to a great extent, is still a legal outlet for most people to relieve themselves of troublesome hormones.

    And what was the guarantee that Gandhi, a hardcore politician, wouldn’t have played Ruttie’s request for help to further humiliate Jinnah?2

    Ruttie was a very reserved person when it came to her personal life and so would have never allowed Gandhi to play any role in resolving any of her problems. Gandhi’s intervention wouldn’t have solved anything but could have had detrimental outcome.

    Let’s assume that Ruttie had approached Gandhi for help. (Jinnah would not have stopped Ruttie from approaching Gandhi.) The most Gandhi could have done was to convince Ruttie to join his Ahmadabad ashram where, undoubtedly he would have given her special treatment (as he had offered to Motilal’s daughter Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit who was sent there to wean her away from her Muslim husband). For Ruttie, the stay there would have been worse than the “slave” like life with Jinnah. She was a free bird and thus couldn’t be caged — not only she would have flown out of the ashram in no time but would have probably persuaded many other ashramites to flee with her.

    Another thing Gandhi would have done was to assign Ruttie some social or political work to keep her busy and thus caused her to forget her depression and other problems. But then, she was already doing some of those things with Kanji, but it seems that she didn’t stay too long in those ventures. Dewan Chamanlal had asked her to join trade union but she declined that.

    The final letter

    On a ship back to India, Ruttie poured out her torment and hurt in her letter to Jinnah:

    S. S. Rajputana.
    Marseilles 5 Oct 1928.

    Darling – thank you for all you have done. If ever in my bearing your over tuned senses found any irritability or unkindness – be assured that in my heart there was place only for a great tenderness and a greater pain – a pain my love without hurt. When one has been as near to the reality of Life – (which after all is Death) as I have been dearest, one only remembers the beautiful and tender moments and all the rest becomes a half veiled mist of unrealities. Try and remember me beloved as the flower you plucked and not the flower you tread upon.

    I have suffered much sweetheart because I have loved much. The measure of my agony has been in accord to the measure of my love.

    Darling I love you – I love you – and had I loved you just a little less I might have remained with you – only after one has created a very beautiful blossom one does not drag it through the mire. The higher you set your ideal the lower it falls.

    I have loved you my darling as it is given to few men to be loved. I only beseech you that our tragedy which commenced with love should also end with it.

    – Darling Goodnight and Goodbye

    Ruttie

    I had written to you at Paris with the intention of posting the letter here – but I felt that I would rather write to you afresh from the fullness of my heart. R.

    Shagufta Yasmeen, “Ruttie Jinnah: Life and Love” (Islamabad: Shuja Sons, no date, p. 71-2, for the original letter in Ruttie’s handwriting). For online, see Letters of Note.

    Final months

    Ruttie left Paris just a few days before Mrs. Naidu arrived on October 10. Mrs. Naidu wrote to Padmaja:

    “I think Jinnah tried very hard to get her to come back.” “But Ruttie is, so I am told, beyond all appeal. Her health is still very precarious. But I have had no talk with Jinnah as yet.”

    Reddy, p. 348-9.

    She met him the next day and discussed the political situation in India where politicians were waiting for Jinnah’s arrival and response to Nehru Report.

    Once in India, he got busy. On December 28, at the All-Parties Convention in Calcutta, Jinnah’s demand for 33% Muslim representation in the central legislature was met with derision. One of the Congress leaders Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru ridiculed him and said give whatever this “spoilt child was asking for and be finished with it.” (Wolpert, p. 100.) M. R. Jayakar, spokesman for the Hindu Mahasabha, a communal outfit, said Jinnah represents “a small minority of Muslims.” (Ibid. p. 101.) (The Muslim population was around 25%. Jinnah wanted some kind of parity to secure Muslims with the majority Hindu population.)

    Jinnah calmly requested:

    “… Minorities cannot give anything to the majority….Believe me there is no progress of India until the Musalmans and Hindus are united, and let no logic, philosophy or squabble stand in the way of coming to a compromise and nothing will make me more happy than to see a Hindu-Muslim union.”

    Ibid.

    He also said:

    “We are all sons of the soil. We have to live together… If we cannot agree, let us at any rate agree to differ, but let us part as friends.”

    A. G. Noorani, “Assessing Jinnah,” Frontline ( https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30205988.ece )

    Jinnah’s plea fell on deaf ears; he failed miserably. (This is a universal problem, the majority lacks a genrous spirit to concede something concrete to the minority which could make it feel secure.)

    All through January and February 1929, Ruttie remained ill which in turn made her depressed.

    Depression was not restricted to Ruttie, it affected many of her friends in her age group or younger, Reddy notes (p. 352). Mrs. Naidu’s son Ranadheera was addicted to alcohol and so was his sister Leilamani who was teaching in Lahore and surviving as a single woman. Their older brother Jaisoorya was in a Berlin sanatorium, the city where he was studying medicine. Padmaja drowned in melancholy at her own problems. (Years later, Padmaja had a live-in relationship with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.) The only difference between the Naidu children and Ruttie was that the former had their father Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu who was a source of great support to their children while Ruttie didn’t have that kind of continuous help. Lady Petit’s visits to Ruttie were not helpful either. Sarojini Naidu was in North America. In February, Jinnah was off to Delhi for government work. Only Kanji was around who tried his best to give Ruttie as much time as possible.

    Jinnah regularly visited Ruttie in the evenings where Kanji was present too. Their discussions reminded Kanji of the good old days when all three of them used to meet, eat, and discuss politics.

    Ruttie who loved going out, had almost confined herself indoor except for short walks with Kanji. Theosophist Krishnamurti and his secretary came for tea on February 1 at Ruttie’s place. Kanji was there too. Krishnamurti then invited Ruttie at Kanji’s friend’s place for dinner which she attended with Kanji. Around February 11, Jinnah had to leave for Delhi. A couple of days later, Ruttie, Kanji’s wife, and Kanji went for a night show movie.

    On 16 and 17 February, Kanji was on night duty as an honorary magistrate due to the riots in Bombay. On the 17th morning, Kanji picked Mrs. Besant from the train station and had lunch with her. After that he went home for a little while where Ruttie showed up “terribly depressed and unhappy.” (Dwarkadas, p. 56.)

    After four hours he went to drop Ruttie at her place where she served him tea. (Kanji was supposed to have tea with Mrs. Besant.) Kanji stayed there till 7pm due to Ruttie’s “terrific depression,” and left with a promise to return back at 10:15. Mrs. Besant understood and asked him to take care of Ruttie. Upon his return, Kanji was horrified to find Ruttie unconscious but was able to revive her.

    On the 18th morning, Ruttie called and told him to drop by on the way to his office. Her state of depression hadn’t disappeared yet; he did his best to cheer her up. Before leaving, he said: “I’ll see you to-night.” Ruttie’s gloomy reply:

    “If I am alive. Look after my cats and don’t give them away.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 57.

    Kanji writes: “These were the last words Ruttie spoke to me.” Kanji stopped by at 11:15 at night but Ruttie was asleep. He left as he hadn’t slept for two nights. A telephone call on the 19th afternoon informed Kanji that Ruttie had lost consciousness and her surviving chances are minimal. Right away he went to her place but couldn’t find her. (Dwarkadas, p. 57.)

    Ruttie no more

    Jinnah was in Delhi for the Budget Session of the Assembly. On the night of 20 February, 1929, Chamanlal was in Jinnah’s Western Court house in Delhi when Jinnah received a trunk call about Ruttie’s illness. He told Chaman Lal:

    “Rati is seriously ill. I must leave tonight.” “Do you know who that was? It was my father-in-law. This is the first time we have spoken to each other since my marriage.”

    Dewan ChamanLal, “The Quaid-i-Azam As I Knew Him” in Jamil-ud-din Ahmad compiled “Quaid-I-Azam as Seen by his Comtemporaries” (Lahore: Publishers United Ltd., 1966, p. 172.)

    Actually, his father-in-law had communicated the sad news of Ruttie’s death to Jinnah. She had passed away in the evening.

    One hundred and thirty eight days after her last letter, Ruttie died of an overdose – exactly on her 29th birthday. The clutches of sickness, insomnia, drugs, inner anguish, piecemeal companionship instead of constant comradery, inability to cope with life, and anxiety had gotten to the resplendent Ruttie.

    Mrs. Naidu’s January 1928 letter to Padmaja had mentioned about Ruttie’s previous attempt at suicide, “… as I have only now learned–how difficult have been those ten years,” “and how she even tried to put an end to herself deliberately …” (Reddy, p. 335.)

    Ruttie must have thought death was the only way out; so she annihilated herself.

    Funeral

    On the morning of 22nd February, Kanji with Col and Mrs. Sokhey picked up Jinnah from the Grant Road station.

    Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Kanji Dwarkadas, M. C. Chagla, and a good many people (both men and women) had gathered at Arambagh, a Shia Muslim cemetery in Mazgaon (Bombay), for the burial ceremony.

    Jinnah sat next to Kanji during the five hour long rites, and gave an impression that he was alright. After a while, he broke the silence and started talking hastily how he assisted Vittalbhai Patel, speaker of the Assembly, who had gotten himself in a tight corner with the government. He also talked about his work in the Assembly.

    But when the process of placing Ruttie’s body in her final abode began, Jinnah couldn’t maintain the facade of stoicism any longer. Kanji described the scene:

    “Then, as Ruttie’s body was being lowered into the grave, Jinnah, as the nearest relative was the first to throw the earth on the grave and he broke down suddenly and sobbed and wept like a child for minutes together.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 58.

    Jinnah was followed by Kanji:

    “I followed Jinnah and looking for the last time through sorrowful and tearful eyes at the mortal remains of the lovely and beautiful immortal soul, I promised to Ruttie that one day I would write her full story….”3

    Ibid.

    M. C. Chagla described it thus:

    “She was buried on February 22 in Bombay according to Muslim rites. Jinnah sat like a statue throughout the funeral but when asked to throw earth on the grave, he broke down and wept. 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. ”

    Darwaish, “The Softer Side of Mr. Jinnah” (Globeistan.com).

    Religion restricts, politics prohibits

    her parents would have consigned her
    to a     Tower of Silence
    she wanted to be cremated
    but as Jinnah’s wife
    she was caged underground

    religion restricts
    politics prohibits

    Mahbano, Masoumeh, and Morvarid
    are to be left at dakhma
    Manisha, Manorama, and Menka
    are destined to be burned
    Mariam, Mahjabin, and Mominah
    are to be imprisoned 6 feet under …

    religion is like a life sentence,
    freedom or parole are hard to come by

    Jinnah meets Kanji

    Next evening, Jinnah met Kanji to know about her final days. Kanji:

    “Never have I found a man so sad and so bitter. He screamed his heart out, speaking to me for over two hours, myself listening to him patiently and sympathetically, occasionally putting a word here and there. Something I saw had snapped in him. The death of his wife was not just a sad event, nor just something to be grieved over, but he took it, this act of God, as a failure and a personal defeat in his life. I am afraid he never recovered right till the end of his life from this terrible shock.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 58.

    Jinnah and Kanji received condolence messages from India’s Viceroy Lord Irwin, Sarojini Naidu (who was in North America at that time), Jiddu Krishnamurti, and others.

    Could anyone be blamed?

    We know about Ruttie’s pain and suffering through her correspondence with Mrs. Naidu and her two daughters, Leilamani and especially Padmaja. and the exchange of letters between the Naidu women. Also Ruttie’s friendship with and her constant need for Kanji throws some light on her sadness and depression. But from Jinnah’s side we know almost nothing of his intense sorrow except for a few sentences spoken to his close friends here and there on rare occasions.

    Thirty nine years after Ruttie’s passing, Kanji was interviewed by an Urdu writer from Pakistan Syed Shahabuddin Dosnani in February 1968, in his apartment in Bombay. Acording to Kanji, sleeping pills were always by Ruttie’s bedside and she ended her life with it. Kanji:

    “She [Ruttie] chose to die on her birthday.”

    Reddy, p. 358.

    It is very tragic that such a wonderful person went to waste and met an untimely death.

    Years later, Jinnah told a friend’s wife:

    “She was a child and I should never have married her. The fault was mine.”

    Reddy, p. 362.

    Let us suppose Ruttie was born in 1880. and was in her mid thirties at the time of their marriage, would it have made their married life more workable? That is doubtful. The problems of time, attention, intimacy, and communication would have cropped up even with a spouse of same age group whether it was with Ruttie or some other person. It was not Ruttie’s age but her passion to live life to fullest and her need for companionship that would have created problems. The marriage would have worked whether the spouse was a “child” or same age person if that person was of a quiet and introverted nature, and not as needy.

    One could say that with Ruttie, Jinnah’s was a second marriage — in a sense that Jinnah was already wedded to politics and was committed to it. But then one has to take into account the fact that Ruttie was almost cut off from her family and from her community (Parsis). Also, Ruttie’s age and her vulnerability made her dependent on Jinnah for all kinds of support, so Jinnah was somewhat right at the assessment.

    To be fair to Jinnah, Ruttie also caused, consciously or unconsciously, immense pain to Jinnah. It is almost impossible to find any of Jinnah’s contemporaries with similar tolerance power as him. One wonders who would have tolerated in the 1920s India, hundred years ago, that his wife was living alone in Paris for months while he was paying the expenses. And his door was open for her upon her return. Jinnah was a very liberal person, ahead of his time. What needed was a bit less solemnness and a little more fun on part of Jinnah which his serious personality and commitments didn’t permit. It was unfortunate.

    When Ruttie was in Paris for a long period, she had met Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (1861 – 1936), a friend of Hamabai Petit, Ruttie’s aunt. Madam Cama, as she was known, was a wealthy Parsi woman who had separated from her husband in India and was residing in Paris and was involved in women’s rights and Indian freedom movement. Upon learning from Ruttie about her nightclub visit with some nobleman whose overdrinking caused a car collision on their way back, Madam Cama flared-up:

    “When such a remarkable man has married you, how could you go to a nightclub with a tipsy man?”

    Reddy, p. 272.

    Madam Cama’s admonishment was harsh but could be overlooked because she was unaware of what Ruttie was going through.

    Ruttie’s was a restless soul full of energy, ideas, curiosity, intellect, bravado, knowledge, literary treasure, and more. She was a romantic but was unable to instill similar feelings in Jinnah, after a couple of years into their marriage, because of his heavy involvement with his professional and political engagements.

    Her illness and reliance on drugs cut her life prematurely short. If she would have gotten more attention from Jinnah, the multi-talented Ruttie could have utilized her potential to the maximum and could have lived longer. She would have been Pakistan’s First Lady if death had not brutally snatched her. And who knows, after Jinnah’s death, she may have been a governor of a state in Pakistan like her contemporaries Vijaya Laxmi Pandit and Padmaja Naidu were in India- or an ambassador, or she would have represented her country at United Nations or would have become a renowned poet/author. Sadly, it was not to be so.

    Two and a half decades after her death, people in Bombay reminisced about Ruttie to Hector Bolitho in these words:

    “Ah, Ruttie Petit! She was the flower of Bombay.” “She was so lively, so witty, so full of ideas and jokes.”

    Hector Bolitho, Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan (London: John Murray, 1954, p.74)

    Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh in his article “The Women in Jinnah’s Life” puts the blame on Ruttie,

    “While Jinnah was purpose-oriented and wanted to accord adequate attention and time to his causes in life, Rattanbai wanted to continue living a fairytale romance.”

    Shaikh is entitled to his opinion. However, Ruttie was young and may have gotten over the romantic phase, like most do, and channeled her vigor on issues that were important to her. As we have seen, Ruttie was active at women’s issues, animal welfare, etc. Her intellectual curiosity, her interest in varied subjects, and her prolific reading wouldn’t have permitted her to be in the romantic state for too long. Who knows, she could have been a great writer, poet, or activist.

    The time and company she was not getting from Jinnah, she was looking or begging from Mrs. Naidu and Kanji. At the end of April 1927 Ruttie and Mrs. Naidu met in Lahore. Ruttie begged her to spend a few days with her. Ruttie’s troubled state prompted Mrs. Naidu to accompany her till Rawalpindi but she couldn’t part due to Ruttie’s insistence and went to Kashmir. Upon Mrs. Naidu’s departure, Ruttie wept. Mrs. Naidu to Padmaja:

    “Poor child!” “How she cried when I left. How she pleaded for me to stay and for me to bring you in June. …”

    Reddy, p. 326.

    It was indeed a tragic end.

    Cruel contrast

    Jinnah founded a nation; Ruttie didn’t even manage to find herself.

    Post Ruttie

    Jinnah was heart broken.

    All Ruttie’s books, jewelry, clothes, and other items were packed and put aside.

    Religion had been used in India before but Gandhi exploited it on a national scale. Post three Round Table Conferences between the British government and Indian politicians (November 1930 to December 1932), achieved nothing of significance, Jinnah, attended the first one.

    Jinnah decided to settle in Hampstead, an area in London, where he bought a house in September 1931. He was joined by his daughter Dina and his sister Fatima, who had quit her dental practice in Bombay. She devoted the rest of her life to Jinnah. Dina joined a school and Jinnah started his practice at Privy Council.

    The Manchester Guardian had in 1931 described various groups’ perception of Jinnah at the Round Table Conference:

    “Mr. Jinnah’s position at the Round Table Conference was unique. The Hindus thought he was a Muslim communalist, the Muslims took him to be pro-Hindu, the princes deemed him to be too democratic. The Britishers considered him a rabid extremist-with the result that he was everywhere but nowhere. None wanted him.”

    In 1934, when prominent Indian Muslim League leaders begged him to come back and take over the party leadership, Jinnah returned to India. Dewan Chamanlal also wanted him back in politics. Jinnah took over the leadership of Muslim League, which didn’t do very well in the 1937 provincial elections. In Bombay and UP (the United Provinces), the Congress refused Muslim League a place in the cabinet unless they switched over to Congress. Jinnah’s plea for a “united front” of Muslim League and Congress was rejected by arrogant Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party, including Gandhi. (A. G. Noorani, “Why Jinnah became defiant,” Frontline, August 21, 2013.

    Aijaz Ahmad points out Congress leaders’ folly in refusing Jinnah’s offer.

    “Few realized that such acts of generosity were necessary if the Congress was to win the confidence of those who felt threatened by the size of its victory; if Jinnah was capable of seeking a ‘united front’ he was also capable of whipping up hysteria on the charge that the ‘Hindu party’ which had taken over was refusing to share with the Muslims any part of its power.”

    Ahmad, p. 14.

    The Congress Party perceived itself as a vast umbrella which wanted all the groups belonging to different castes, ethnicity, and religions to be a part of it.

    So Jinnah used his religious card, vehemently.

    “… The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and litterateurs. They neither intermarry nor interdine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. … To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built for the government of such a state.”

    Banglapedia, “Two Nation Theory.”

    (Jinnah was not the first to propound the two-nation theory; several Hindu leaders, including Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, had offered such plans, as far as 1860s. See Shamsul Islam, “Guilty men of the two-nation theory: A Hindutva project borrowed by Jinnah,” Sabrang, 16 May, 2018.)

    In 1936, Jinnah’s daughter Dina fell in love with Neville Ness Wadia, a Christian. (Wadia’s father was born in a Parsee family but had converted to Christianity.) Later on, Neville Ness Wadia converted to Zoroastrianism. Dina had her maternal grandmother’s approval but not of Jinnah.

    Dina countered Jinnah:

    “Why don’t you grant me the freedom which you had in choosing your lifepartner.”

    Saadat Hasan Manto, “Mera Sahab” at Rekhta in both Devanagari & Urdu scripts.

    Jinnah’s reason for insisting Dina marry a Muslim man was a political one because by this time he was deep into the religious swamp. Dina went ahead with the marriage and their relationship got strained.

    Jinnah was a tough person but once in a while he was overcome with memories of Ruttie and Dina so he would order a trunk with Ruttie’s and Dina’s clothes and would reminisce over them; his eyes would get wet.

    (Great Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto got the above and many other tidbits from Jinnah’s driver Mohammad Hanif Azad. See Manto’s Mera Sahab at Rekhta which has it in both Devanagari & Urdu scripts. Azad4 has narrated the incidents in an interesting manner.)

    Memory Lane has nothing but agonies

    in the middle of the night
    when darkness and loneliness commingled
    the heart wept in whispers
    the mind strolled down memory lane
    there is no joy or bliss
    only pain, sorrow, and agony
    solace is urgently needed–
    it’s the necessity of the moment
    the ship-shaped trunk was ordered to be opened
    Ruttie and Dina’s clothes were spread out
    Jinnah stared at those clothes
    recreating the happy family moments
    remembering the two beautiful women
    one a wife, other a daughter
    one no more, other estranged
    like a dead man standing,
    heart’s pain expressed through tears
    monocle removed, tears wiped off

    After sometime the daughter-father reconciled. Dina and Jinnah corresponded regularly. In 1943, Dina and Neville divorced.

    [Jinnah’s (1939) Will also had Dina and her children as beneficiaries. Jinnah didn’t make any changes to the Will. The Will in its entirety is in Khwaja Razi Haider, “Ruttie Jinnah: The Story Told and Untold” (Karachi: University of Karachi, Appendix IV, p. 155-7.)]

    In August 1947, before departing for Karachi, Jinnah visited Dina and her two children. He gave the Karakul cap he was wearing to his grandson Nusli Wadia. Jinnah also stopped by Ruttie’s grave to say goodbye.

    IMAGE/Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh/National Archives Islamabad/Dawn/Duck Duck Go

    The love between Ruttie and Jinnah was never lost and they always had it in their hearts till the end.

    Jinnah never got married or had an affair with any one. Ruttie was close to Kanji and she could have found loving comfort in his company if she wanted too, but she never did. She loved Jinnah only.

    Perhaps, some romances are destined that way.

    Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity who took a 180 degree detour from secularism to don an Islamic cap was back to his secularist self when he got Pakistan. On August 11, Jinnah addressed the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan:

    “… You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State….

    “… in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

    On August 14, Pakistan came into existence and the next day India got its independence. It was one of history’s greatest tragedies with communal killing on a vast scale, accompanied by vast scale destruction and innumerable refugees.

    Gandhi. In less than six months after British left, on January 30, 1948, Gandhi became the victim of a Hindu fanatic — Nathuram Godse who pumped three bullets in his chest. One has to really appreciate Gandhi’s efforts during post Partition butchery to save Muslim lives in Delhi and other areas. The shots fired at Gandhi were forewarning of the Hindu fascist raj India will one day become.5

    Jinnah. More than seven months after Gandhi’s assassination, Jinnah passed away on September 11, 1948 after suffering from tuberculosis which he was infected with many years ago but was known only to his Parsi doctor J. A. L. Patel, his sister Fatima, and very few other people. Jinnah was a chain smoker who had smoked for three decades 50 or more Craven “A” cigarettes a day. In May 1946, Dr. Patel had warned him to take things very easy because he only had a year or two left to live. Jinnah had survived the past ten years, in the words of Dr. Patel, on “will power, whiskey and cigarettes..” [Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975, p. 124-6.)]

    From Quetta, where Jinnah was recuperating, he was flown back to Karachi. The ambulance carrying Jinnah, then Governor General of Pakistan, from Karachi airport to the government house broke down. It took a long time for another vehicle to arrive. Military Secretary Colonel Birnie was the only person sent to receive Jinnah. There was no other person or vehicle. It definitely was strange and suspicious. Was Liaquat Ali Khan’s (Jinnah’s right hand) government waiting for Jinnah to die as soon as possible? Jinnah said so, according to his sister.6

    Sister Phyllis Dunham, the nurse who was attending Jinnah in the ambulance, said they were near the refugee camp. There was mud and hundreds of flies. She fanned Jinnah’s face with a piece of cardboard to keep the flies away.

    “I was alone with him for a few minutes and he made a gesture I shall never forget. He moved his arm free of the sheet, and placed his hand on my arm. He did not speak, but there was such a look of gratitude in his eyes. It was all the reward I needed, for anything I had done. His soul was in his eyes at that moment.”

    The same evening, that is, September 11, 1949, Jinnah passed away.

    Dina flew into Karachi from Bombay to attend her father’s funeral. She then returned back to Bombay. After Partition, Dina had decided to stay in India but later on moved to New York, USA.

    Dina Wadia (extreme left), Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s only child, flew in to attend her father’s funeral. Second from right is Jinnah’s sister Fatima. PHOTO/The Press Information Department, Ministry of Information, Broadcasting & National Heritage, Islamabad/Dawn

    Sarojini Naidu (known as “Nightingale of India” or “Bharat Kokila,” a name given by Gandhi), became the governor of Indian state of UP or United Provinces after independence. She had a fatal cardiac arrest on March 2, 1949.

    Fatima Jinnah. (In Pakistan, she is known as Mader-e Millat or Mother of the Nation.) On the first couple of death anniversaries of Jinnah, his sister Fatima was not allowed to make radio speeches. In 1951, she was allowed but was censored. Some pages had disappeared from her book My Brother before it reached the publisher, because they were deemed to be “against the ideology of Pakistan.” (See the pages here for the ideology crap.)

    In 1965, the opposition parties contesting the elections against the US supported military dictator Field Marshall General Ayub Khan persuaded Ms. Jinnah to contest the presidential election against Ayub Khan. Fatima gave a good fight but lost the election because it was rigged. However, she won in both Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and also in Dacca, East Pakistan’s capital. Fatima Jinnah passed away on July 9, 1967.7

    Kanji Dwarkadas was the senior-most personnel officer and labor consultant in India. In 1946 and 1951, he was invited by the United States government to study housing and labour problems. He passed away in the early 1970s.

    Padmaja was the fourth governor of the Indian state of West Bengal from November 1956 to June 1967. Padmaja waited for Nehru to propose but he never did because he wanted to avoid offending his daughter Indira’s feelings. But they lived together. Nehru had affairs with many other women8 too. Padmaja was aware of it. She once said: “Nehru is not a one woman man!”

    Independent India’s first prime minister Nehru’s seventeen year rule deserves high praise; it was good for minorities. Nehru was worried about the majority communalism when he said: “Communalism of the majority is far more dangerous than the communalism of the minority.” He passed away on 27 May 1964. Since Hindu nationalist Modi came to power in 2014, his government never misses a chance to vilify Nehru.

    Padmaja Naidu passed away on May 2, 1975.

    Dina avoided state invitations from Pakistan but did visit again in March 2004 at the invitation of former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board Sheharyar Khan to watch India/Pakistan cricket match in Lahore. It was termed “cricket diplomacy” as she and her family, like so many Indians and Pakistanis, wanted to see good relations between both countries. She and her son Nusli Wadia and her grand sons Jehangir and Ness, visited her father’s mausoleum in Karachi. In the visitors’ book, she wrote:

    “This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his dream for Pakistan come true.”

    Dina passed away on November 2, 2017.9

    ENDNOTES:

    The post The Tragic Tale of a Flower that Wilted too Soon (Part 2 of 2) first appeared on Dissident Voice.
    1    Gandhi’s political power provided him an opportunity to have many girl friends. Whereas his genius let him juggle and manage these relations while having a wife. Madeleine Slade (Mirabehn), Sushila Nayar, Bibi Amtus Salam are some of the females Gandhi was close to. Some of the extracts from Gandhi’s letters:

    “You will continue to haunt me in my sleep. No wonder that [your husband] Panditji (Rambhuj Dutt) calls you the greatest shakti. You may cast that spell over him. You are performing the same trick over me.”

    In another letter dated January 23, 1920, Gandhi wrote, “Saraladevi has been showering her love on me in every possible way.”

    The nature of their relationship is further uncovered in a letter dated August 23, 1920: “You are mine in the purest sense. You ask for a reward of your great tender, well, it is its own reward.”

    Acutely aware of how jealous Kasturba was of several of his adoring disciples, Gandhi tried at first to disarm his wife of such feelings by asking Esther “to help Ba in the Kitchen”. But he warned his “Dear Child” that

    “Ba has not an even temper. She is not always sweet. And she can be petty… You will therefore have to summon to your aid all your Christian charity to be able to return largeness against pettiness… To pity the person who slights you… And so, my dear Esther, if you find Mrs. Gandhi trying your nerves, you must avoid the close association I am suggesting to you.”

    It did not work, of course. Kasturba treated his “Dear child” so harshly in her kitchen that Esther soon broke down. “You were with me the whole of yesterday and during the night. I shall pray that you may be healthier in mind, body and spirit,” Bapu wrote to console Dear Child Esther, “with deep love.”… Gandhi was “glad you opened out heart” about his “difficult” wife. He immediately insisted that Esther must have a “separate Kitchen” for herself. “My heart is with you in your sorrow.”
    2    See “Gandhi Kept On …” (Counterpunch, August 14, 2015).
    3    Kanji: “… It has taken me more than thirty years to fulfil this promise. I dedicated to Ruttie my 85 page “Gandhiji through my Diary Leaves” (1915-1948), published in May 1950.” Dwarkadas, p. 58.
    4    Prior to joining Jinnah, Azad used to work as an extra in Bombay film industry. Post Partition, he worked as a character actor in Pakistan film industry.)
    5    Since 2014, Hindu Modi has created internal partition in India by turning Muslims, over 14% of India’s population, into second class citizens. Other minorities are not doing any better either. Modi’s rise to power, i.e., from Gujarat state’s chief minister to India’s premier, was on the Muslim corpses piled under his watch. He was termed the “butcher of Gujarat.”

    Aijaz Ahmad: “… communal violence always leads to very rich electoral dividends for the BJP [Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party] and its associates …”

    Modi government has banned the recent two part BBC documentary on Gujarat genocide. Many websites, including Elon Musk’s Twitter, have been ordered to take down the documentary; they have complied. Musk, “a free-speech absolutist,” had no qualms in carrying out Modi’s order because India is a huge market. In 2019, the US government overthrew Bolivia’s government. Musk boasted: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” One is prompted to ask Musk: How about a coup in India.? No way, Musk is waiting for a tax break for Tesla in India. One of opposition politician in India, Mahua Moitra, had posted the video on her twitter account but has been taken off; same with the US actor John Cusack‘s twitter account.
    6    Why was Jinnah transported in a broken ambulance and why was there not a spare vehicle? The question has been raised many times but the people in power are neither in a hurry nor are willing to answer. Just after three years, Liaquat Ali Khan, born in 1895, was shot twice during a public rally on October 16, 1951. He was rushed to a hospital but didn’t survive. Within a few seconds after shooting, the police killed the assassin. Pakistan was just a four year old baby then, but its police was far too mature in this matter. It finished the assassin and thus saved lot of the poor country’s money and time from being wasted on finding the real culprits. (In November 1963, US President John F. Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot dead in the Dallas Police Headquarters, just two days after Kennedy’s murder, by a nightclub owner Jack Ruby.)

    First week of March in 1949 witnessed Allah, Muhammad, and Koran making inroads in Pakistan via Objectives Resolution. Four years later, the Islamists went after one of the Muslim minorities, the Ahmadis, to declare them non-Muslims. They succeeded in 1974. Jogendra Nath Mandal, a Hindu, whom Jinnah had chosen as one of his ministers, had felt insignificant after Jinnah’s death and handed his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan and migrated to India.

    (Those interested in understanding the tragic condition of minorities in Pakistan should read Mandal’s entire letter.

    Unlike the Hindu parties in India, the Islamic parties in Pakistan have never reached the corridors of power, but then have never been far from the people in power. They have forced politicians to do things in the name of Islam which have done great harm to the country. On the other hand, the army and politicians also use them when needed. On January 17, 2023, the Pakistan’s National Assembly voted to broaden the blasphemy laws by including Prophet Muhammad’s companions which may be a huge number. It seems, pretty soon, the National Assembly will add another clause to the blasphemy laws declaring anyone criticizing the members of the ruling class for their corrupt, criminal, conscienceless actions as blasphemous because they are relatives of Muhammad or of Muhammad’ companions. Nothing is impossible for people in power. (Look at Planet’s Earth’s current Landlord who wants Gaza as “Riviera of the Middle East” which is now in the ruin due to former Landlord‘s genocidal war on Palestinians who are all alone.)

    Pakistan imported 2200 luxury cars in the second half of 2022. A country with more than 232 million people has mere $16 billion in reserves as of February 2025! Every now and then, Pakistani beggars have to rush to China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, or IMF (International Monetary Fund) for either a few billion dollars loan or to extend the payment time. IMF loans are accompanied with harsh conditions — and as usual, the common people bear the brunt.

    S. Akbar Zaidi puts it bluntly:

    “The irony of ironies. An institution which across the globe has been acknowledged as anti-people, elitist and responsible for increasing poverty, misery and destitution across dozens of countries, is now being seen as Pakistan’s only saviour, as it seems the rulers in this country have come round to restarting an agreement which has been in abeyance for almost a year.”

    Another thing the government does, with the blessing of the army, is to apply censorship. In February 2023, access to Wikipedia, a free source of information for students and other people in a country where the government doesn’t provide much, blocked. The reason: Pakistan wants Wikipedia to remove “blasphemous content.” How could you fight this idiocy. After a few days, the ban was lifted. In January 2025, some important amendments were passed to the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) which has become a tool to harass media people and journalists — more than 200 such incidents have happened. The army is also good at silencing or disappering its critics or people asking for their rights, such as people of Balochistan.

    The main opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan (a Pakistani version of Jair Bolsonaro, Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Tayyip Erdogan, and Victor Orban) is not any better.
    7    If common sense had prevailed over the US supported generals and the elite that this was a golden opportunity to repair relations with the eastern wing, which had been turned into West Pakistan’s colony, it would have saved the break up of Pakistan. It didn’t. After a bloody war, fought in East Pakistan with killings, rapes, and devastation, in December 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
    8    Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit: “Didn’t you know, Pupul?” They lived together for years–for years.” “He felt that Indu [Indira Gandhi] had been hurt enough. He did not want to hurt her further.”

    Pupul Jayakar, Indira Gandhi: A Biography, p. 92.

    Nehru had affairs with some other women too, including Lady Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, who presided over India’s partition. Mountbatten’s was an open marriage
    9    In 2007, Dina wrote a letter to India’s then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh requesting to hand over Jinnah’s Bombay/Mumbai house (South Court, also called Jinnah House) to her with an assurance the house will be used for personal use without any commercial motive.

    “It is now almost 60 years since my father’s death and I have been deprived of my house where I grew up and lived until I married.” “I request you return it to me.”

    Dr. Singh never replied back; had no intention to return back the property.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Vietnamese monk weighs danger of crossing Myanmar on India journey

    NONG BUA, Thailand – Resting after a long day of walking barefoot across the Thai countryside, Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue sat on a mat under a tree and talked quietly about the purpose — and logistics — of his 2,700-kilometer (1,600 mile) pilgrimage to India.

    “I want to be grateful to Buddha, who has shown me and others the path of learning,” Minh Tue told a Radio Free Asia reporter who caught up with him and his entourage last week at Wat Udom Pattana temple in Nakhon Sawan province.

    “I want to walk there to repay his gratitude and hope that all people in the world will be happy and peaceful and learn according to Buddha’s teachings,” he said.

    VIDEO: Conflict-ridden Myanmar is potentially the most dangerous part of Thich Minh Tue journey.

    Thich Minh Tue is a Buddhist monk who captured hearts in Vietnam last year when he undertook a barefoot hike across the country that met the disapproval of controlling communist authorities.

    He has since gone international. In December, he crossed from Vietnam into Laos before entering Thailand.

    His goal is to reach India, the birthplace of Buddhism.

    Sporting a patched, multicolored robe, rather than a typical saffron one, the 43-year-old cuts an unassuming figure as he walks across Thailand, accompanied by about 16 monks. He carries a rice cooker pot as an alms bowl.

    But after two months of walking about 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day on scorching asphalt, the hurdles are piling up. The hot season is starting, and smog from burning of crops pollutes the grey skies.

    Plus, his Thai visa runs out in a week and a knee injury sustained by a monk in his entourage is slowing his group’s march.

    Myanmar strife

    A bigger dilemma faces the monk, who typically stops overnight at Buddhist temples that dot the Thai countryside, or if not, stretches out on a mat amid the mosquitoes and under the stars in a roadside field.

    How can he get across Myanmar — gripped by a civil war — to India?

    Some of the monks’s supporters, as well as Myanmar dissidents who are well-informed about their country’s troubles, say he wouldn’t make it across that country.

    As of Wednesday, he and his entourage were some 330 kilometers (200 miles) from Mae Sot, the western Thai border crossing to Myanmar, and 600 kilometers (375 miles) to the northern border crossing at Mae Sai.

    A Vietnamese monk's pilgrimage
    A Vietnamese monk’s pilgrimage
    (RFA)

    Minh Tue — “Thich” indicates he’s a monk — said he intended to avoid the closer Mae Sot crossing, citing fighting in the area between rebels and the Myanmar military, which seized power in a 2021 coup and has been embroiled in a multi-front civil war ever since.

    Instead, he said he was leaning towards crossing at Mae Sai, in Thailand’s far north, into Myanmar’s Shan state.

    But much of Myanmar is in the throes of conflict and it’s not clear whether Tue and his entourage would be safe even if they take the alternative route, which involves a major detour.

    VIDEO: RFA Vietnamese’s Truong Son explains monk Thich Minh Tue arrival in Thailand from Laos.

    The naysayers contend he’d either be refused entry to Myanmar, or, if allowed in, it would be only a matter of time before he’d run into some sort of obstacle.

    Moe Kyaw, a labor rights activist and veteran Myanmar dissident living in Thailand, said he’d rate the monk’s chance of crossing Myanmar at 1%.

    “There’d be too many challenges. I simply don’t think it’s possible,” he told RFA.

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    Another expert on Myanmar, human rights campaigner David Mathieson, said he doubted Myanmar’s military would allow Minh Tue in, both because of the “completely chaotic security landscape” and because he could attract crowds, which the unpopular junta would be wary of.

    “I don’t think that the sakasa really wants to take the risk of people coming out to see him,” Mathieson said, referring to the junta. “They probably also don’t want to take the risk of having him or his followers injured by an airstrike or by a drone or landmine.”

    But if Minh Tue were to bypass Myanmar, how would he complete his pilgrimage?

    Alms from villagers

    Last year, Minh Tue’s ascetic demeanor struck a chord in Vietnam where social media posts of his barefoot walks went viral and well-wishers came out in droves.

    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 13, 2025.
    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 13, 2025.
    (Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)

    Vietnam’s state-sanctioned Buddhist sangha has not officially recognized him as a monk, but he has nonetheless garnered widespread admiration and support.

    At one point, Vietnamese authorities, leery of his popularity, announced he had “voluntarily retired.” But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

    Though he much less well-known in Thailand, villagers come out to greet the him and offer alms of vegetarian food in the mornings. Along the way, people give the group water and policemen pay their respects.

    Vietnamese reporting the trip on their social media channels and overseas Vietnamese supporters gather around their “teacher” when they get the chance.

    Minh Tue told RFA that Buddhist teachings inspired him to practice “dhutanga,” or austerity, on his journey to India.

    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 13, 2025.
    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks during alms rounds in Nong Bua, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand, Feb. 13, 2025.
    (Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)

    While he espouses Buddhist philosophy, authorities in Vietnam are suspicious of any political motive.

    His name has come up in connection with a U.S.-based opposition party-in-exile called Viet Tan that aims to transition the country from communism to a liberal democracy, said a Thai security officer monitoring the monk’s journey.

    Attempts by RFA to reach Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify whether Tue’s visa could be extended have gone unanswered.

    Doan Van Bau, a former Vietnamese security officer who has said he was assigned by his government to protect Minh Tue and be “head of delegation,” was walking with him for a few weeks, but is no longer with the group apparently after a dispute with the monks.

    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue is followed by his bodyguard Doan Van Bau, right, as he walks through Thailand on his way to India, in January 2025.
    Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue is followed by his bodyguard Doan Van Bau, right, as he walks through Thailand on his way to India, in January 2025.
    (RFA)

    Bau has helped Minh Tue and two other monks get visas for Bangladesh and India and he has urged them to avoid Myanmar altogether and fly over it, members of the entourage said.

    Minh Tue has said he does not know how many of the monks in his entourage would follow him into Myanmar, if he were to choose that option.

    He has also raised the possibility of bypassing Myanmar entirely by flying to Sri Lanka, and then going on to India, tracing the route in reverse along which Buddhism first arrived in Thailand.

    “If the route crossing into Myanmar is convenient, then I will walk from Thailand into Myanmar,” he said. “If Sri Lanka is better, then I will take this route.”

    The uncertainty over the route has sparked some friction among members of the entourage, adding to a sense of anxiety.

    But that doesn’t seem to affect Minh Tue.

    “What will be, will be,” he told RFA. “Whichever side is favorable, I’ll walk there.”

    Translated by RFA Vietnamese and RFA Burmese. Edited by Joshua Lipes, Mat Pennington and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Tragic Tale of a Flower that Wilted too Soon


    IMAGE/Dawn/DUck Duck Go

    She eloped

    Over a hundred years ago, on February 20, 1918, she escaped from her parents house to unite with her love. Two months later, on April 19, at her sweetheart’s huge house atop Malabar Hill in Bombay, she got married and went to Nainital for honeymoon.

    All over India, the news of their wedding caused a huge uproar and spread fast – it became the main talk of the town for many reasons:

    • The girl was Parsi;
    • the man was Muslim;
    • she was 18;
    • he was 41;
    • she was the daughter of one of the richest men in India then;
    • he was a self-made wealthy person – a very successful lawyer;
    • the girl’s family broke all relations with her;
    • the man was estranged from his;
    • she was expelled from the Parsi community;
    • he had already left his religious sect Nizari Ismaili;
    • the girl was at ease in western or local stylish clothing;
    • the man was well known for his well-tailored English suits.

    The girl was Ruttie Petit; her husband was M.A. Jinnah.

    They both were nationalists and wanted an end to the British colonial rule in India. Both were handsome with great sense of dressing, albeit, pricey.

    Ruttie’s beauty and dressing had impressed many personalities:

    Lady Reading:

    “Her attire was a Liberty scarf, a jewelled bandeau, and an emerald necklace. She is extremely pretty, fascinating, terribly made up. All the men raved about her, the women sniffed.”

    and

    “Very pretty, complete minx. A tight dress of brocade cut to the waist back and front, no sleeves, and over it and her head flowered Chiffon as a Sari.”

    — Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Some Aspects of Quaid-I-Azam’s Life” (Islamabad: National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, 1978), p. 50.

    Lady Wavell was taken by Jinnah’s striking form:

    “[Mr. Jinnah was] one of the handsomest men I have ever seen; he combined the clear-cut, almost Grecian features of the West with Oriental grace of movement.”

    — “Wanted: Jinnah’s Pakistan,” Dawn, July 31, 2009.

    Mrs. Freeth, (wife of British Major-General G. H. B. Freeth, Deputy Adjutant-General) wrote to her mother how much she was impressed by Jinnah, whom she met at the viceregal dinner in Simla in May 1929.

    “After dinner, I had Mr. Jinnah to talk to. He is a great personality. He talks the most beautiful English. He models his manners and clothes on Du Maurier, the actor, and his English on Burke’s speeches. He is a future Viceroy, if the present system of gradually Indianizing all the services continues. I have always wanted to meet him, and now I have had my wish.”

    — Akbar S. Ahmed, “Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin,” New York Times.

    Ruttie

    Ruttie was born as Rattanbai1 in an orthodox Parsi (Zoroastrian)2 family on February 20, 1900, one of four children, the only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit (1873-1933)3 and was affectionately called “Ruttie.” Today is her 125th birth anniversary.

    Ruttie was a bold, brilliant woman who was well versed in many subjects, including literature and politics. She didn’t get the recognition she deserved either in India or in Pakistan. mostly due to her marriage to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.

    The Pakistani governments have ignored Ruttie because she was not a Muslim and the Indian governments, particularly the current Modi regime, have avoided mention of anyone/anything associated with Jinnah.

    Even decades after the creation of Pakistan, authorities wouldn’t consider a suggestion for naming an area — Ruttie Jinnah Grove in Karachi!

    The young, bubbly, and vivacious Ruttie was interested in politics and the British colonial rule in India. Accompanied by her maiden aunt, Hamabai Petit, a multimillionaire philanthropist, she used to attend public meetings in Bombay.

    M.A. Jinnah, a close family friend, often spoke4at these gatherings.

    Jinnah

    Jinnah’s parents Mithibai and Jinnahbhai Poonja hailed from Paneli, Gondal, in Kathiawar part of Bombay Presidency then, but now a part of Gujarat state. In 1875, they moved to Karachi where a year later Mohammed Ali Jinnahbhai was born on 25 December 1876. Karachi, a small Indian town then, is now Pakistan’s largest city.

    In his teens, in 1892, his father’s English business associate Frederick Leigh Croft offered Jinnah a London apprenticeship with his firm, Graham’s Shipping and Trading Company, which Jinnah accepted. To prevent him from not getting tempted to marry an English girl, Jinnah’s mother got him married to 14-year-old Emibai, the daughter of a wool businessman, and a distant relative.

    After a few months at Graham’s, Jinnah got bored with routine work; quit his job, and got himself admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, in order to study law. He then informed his father about the admission with a promise he wouldn’t ask for any more money.

    Some friends of Jinnah took him to a theatrical company where the manager asked him to read some extracts from Shakespeare’s collection. The manager and his wife were extremely delighted. Jinnah was invited to work and he signed the contract but then due to his father’s letter and a stern warning, especially the sentence, “Do not be a traitor to the family”, he left acting. (Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 56.)

    Less than a year after Jinnah left, Emibai died of cholera, and a few months later, his mother died during childbirth. His mother’s demise was a great loss for Jinnah but he determinedly held on and passed the bar exam, becoming the youngest Indian to achieve such feat.

    M.A. Jinnah (he shortened his name in London), upon return to Karachi in 1896, discovered his father was bankrupt. A year later, Jinnah left for Bombay where he had once lived as a teen with his paternal aunt Manbai. The first three years were an immense struggle. The beginning of the new century was a good omen for him. John Molesworth MacPherson, the acting Advocate-General of Bombay offered Jinnah work in his chambers. Jinnah was the first Indian ever, according to Sarojini Naidu, to be granted such a favor. (Hector Bolitho, Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan, p. 15.)

    In early 1900, he got a recommendation letter from MacPherson and became a temporary Presidency Magistrate. In 1901, Sir Charles Olivant offered Jinnah a salary of Rs 1,500 (Bolitho, p. 17) a month. He refused the offer saying he was confident that very soon he could make that much in a day, which proved to be true.

    A liberal non-practicing Khoja Muslim, Jinnah left Shia Nizari Ismaili5 branch when Imam, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah (Aga Khan III) (1877 – 1957), refused to bless his sister’s wedding6 because she had married an outsider.

    Soon, Jinnah became very successful, had a huge house, and looked after his siblings and relatives, but preferred to live alone. He brought his little sister Fatima and another sister Shirin, who was fourteen years old, to live with him. Shirin stayed with Jinnah till her marriage a few years later.

    Jinnah, who had been associated with the Indian National Congress (INC) since 1904 became an official member in 1906. In 1913, he joined All-India Muslim League (AIML). Many Muslim leaders, including Aga Khan III, had wanted this brilliant and successful lawyer to join the League7 for a long time.

    The Affair

    Jinnah used to hang out with crème de la crème of the Bombay society. Many of his clients were wealthy Hindus, Parsis, and Muslims. Parsis also let Jinnah into their exclusive club. Many club members were his clients, including Sir Dinshaw Petit, who was also a personal friend.

    In summer 1916, the Petit Family invited Jinnah for a vacation at their residence in Darjeeling. Ruttie and Jinnah spent a lot of time together during these two months at the Petit chateau, which was 7000 feet high, with view of Mount Everest. Jinnah and Ruttie indulged in horse-riding and other activities.

    Poetic portraiture:

    Romance in the lap of the Himalayas

    the beautiful Darjeeling
     the aesthetic hill station
    the intellectual exchange
    the mutual attraction
    Jinnah’s long road of loneliness
    and Ruttie’s erupting adulthood
    brought them closer, and closer
    the air emitted fragrance of love
    her talk enraptured Jinnah
    his personality awed Ruttie

    in the lap of the Himalayas
    the romance blossomed

    she was almost sixteen
    he was thirty-nine
    love found them
    vows bonded them
    she was Ruttie for him
    and he was “J” for her

    no hindrance was the different age
    no worries about that social-cage
    custodians were left to worry that
    lovers were unfurling a joint page

    Jinnah approached Ruttie’s father with a question about his views on interfaith marriage. Sir Petit thought it would do good:

    “[Interfaith wed-locks would] considerably help national integration and might ultimately prove to be the final solution to inter-communal antagonism.”

    Jinnah asked for Ruttie’s hand. Not expecting such a question, Sir Petit got caught off-guard, but then gathered composure and refused Jinnah’s proposal. Ruttie was 16 so she and Jinnah decided to wait till she turned 18. Sir Petit was against this union, and went to the length of getting a court injunction in June 1917 against Jinnah, restricting him from meeting Ruttie.

    They, however, stayed in contact through correspondence conducted via intermediaries, and met when they could.

    Meanwhile, Ruttie kept abreast of Jinnah’s efforts with Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856 – 1920), the efforts culminated in the Lucknow Pact confirmed December 29-31, 1916 and helped form cordial relations between Indian National Congress and Indian Muslim League to fight the British jointly.

    However, Jinnah’s mentor G. K. Gokhale (1866 – 1915) wasn’t around to witness Jinnah’s success. Gopal Krishna Gokhale had passed away in February 1915. Gokhale’s quote on Jinnah:

    “He has true stuff in him, and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.”

    — Bolitho, p. 55.

    Jinnah’s desire:

    “It is my ambition to become the Muslim Gokhale.”

    In A.G. Noorani, “Jinnah in India’s History” (Frontline, August 12, 2005). https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30205784.ece#! )

    To attend this important Lucknow session, Ruttie had traveled by train to Lucknow with her aunt Hamabai and Barrister D. N. Bahadurji (Jinnah’s Parsi friend, whose wife was a Hindu Brahmin.) In Lucknow, Ruttie met Jinnah.

    (Interestingly, they heard vendors at the train station shouting: “Hindu chai” (tea), “Mussulman chai,” “Hindu pani” (water), Mussulman pani.” )

    Hamabai

    Hamabai was a very wealthy philanthropist. Her relations with Ruttie were very good. With her brother Sir Dinshaw (Ruttie’s father) she was very close but when it came to the Ruttie/Jinnah affair, she avoided siding with either her brother or Jinnah. During this time, she offered her free services to Jinnah, who was president of the Home Rule League then, later she became the honorary vice president of the League.

    She did her baccalaureate from a French boarding school in Nice. She was her own person and married in her thirties to a nephew of late Sir Pheroeshah Mehta (Jinnah’s friend), who was one of the founding members of Indian National Congress. Sir Dinshaw didn’t like that Hamabai’s husband was not wealthy.

    Ruttie’s romantic turmoil

    Back in Bombay, Ruttie had changed, as witnessed by her letters to friend Padmaja, daughter of poet/politician Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949). One letter written on 27 January 1917, expresses her state of mind:

    “Life has been such a medley of wild excitement and cold depression!” “And yet it has been so full–so full because of its hollowness! So empty because of its fullness!

    “I am joyous and I am sad. But they are the emotions of the soul–and not of the heart! By soul I mean temperament–I long for peace and yet I dread the very idea of it. I revel in the storming passions which burn and tear at the fibres of my being till my very spirit writhes in an agony of excitement. And yet were I asked the cause of all this I could only answer by that one word–temperament! Ay, you may almost call it a form of hysteria.”

    Quoted in Sheela Reddy, Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage That Shook India (Gurgaon, Haryana: Penguin Randon House India, 2017, p. 53.)

    Much has been gleaned from journalist/author Sheela Reddy’s book Mr and Mr Jinnah: The Marriage That Shook India  as the content of letters exchanged between Ruttie, Sarojini Naidu, Padmaja and Leilamani (Naidu’s two daughters) exhibit Ruttie’s innermost thoughts. The book throws new light on many aspects, hitherto unknown, on Ruttie and Jinnah’s relationship, and exposes the anguish she was experiencing. The book has shortcomings8 including chapters without headings and it has no index.

    Ruttie shared her poems with Padmaja and younger sister Leilamani:

    Why should I weep / Or groan in despair / While the stars still peep / At a world so fair?

    A flower came to me one day in its natural lovliness and it told me the secret of its colours and then faded.

    …

    Sorrow came to me with its black robed beauteous form, but it has not forsaken me. I have drunk deep of its cup of gall and I taste it when I wake and when I sleep; when I smile and when I weep.

    Sorrow knows no satiety!

    Ibid. 33, 34.

    Marriage

    Ruttie and Jinnah waited two years to unite through marriage. On February 20, 1918, Ruttie’s 18th birthday, in Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel with Frederic Chopin‘s “So Deep is the night” being played in the ballroom, Ruttie proposed marriage, Jinnah accepted, and they decided to get married.


    Ruttie Jinnah (left) and M.A. Jinna     PHOTO/BBC/Duck Duck Go

    Sir Dinshaw filed another lawsuit against Jinnah accusing him of abducting his daughter. But Ruttie told the court,

    “Mr. Jinnah had not abducted me; in fact I have abducted him; so there is no case and he should be immediately exonerated of all charges.”

    In Ajeet Jawed, Secular and Nationalist Jinnah (New Delhi: Kitan Publishing House, 1998, p. 14.)

    Ruttie and Jinnah wanted a civil marriage but for that Jinnah would have had to resign from the Central Legislative Assembly where he was a member.

    … the Civil Marriage Act at that time was rigid and stipulated that those marrying under the Civil Marriage Act had to affirm solemnly that they belonged to no religion. This would have made it impossible for Jinnah to remain Member of the Central Legislative Assembly representing a Muslim Constituency.

    Kanji Dwarkadas, Ruttie Jinnah: The Story of a Great Friendship (Bombay: Kanji Dwarkadas, year not given, p. 12).

    Ruttie converted to Islam in presence of Maulana Nazir Ahmad Khujandi, a day before the wedding, in Jamia Masjid. The Muslim name given to Ruttie was Maryam. (Pirzada, Some Aspects of Quaid-i-Azam’s Life.)

    Saad S. Khan in his book, Ruttie Jinnah: The Woman Who Stood Defiant, (written with his wife Sara Khan), falsely claims:

    “Jinnah, however, had a religious bent of mind and wanted his would-be wife to be Muslim.”

    This is not true as post marriage, neither Ruttie nor Jinnah started praying or going to the mosque. She remained Ruttie to all. Nothing about her changed: she wore what she wanted to, smoked cigars and drank alcohol like Jinnah, who also heartily ate pork, prohibited in Islam.

    After the wedding, Ruttie’s clothes, books, and jewelry were transferred to South Court, Jinnah’s huge house at Malabar Hill, Bombay.

    The Statesman announced:

    “Miss Ruttenbai, only daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit, yesterday underwent conversion to Islam, and is to-day to be married to the Hon. Mr. M. A. Jinnah.”

    On April 19, 1918, in Jinnah’s South Court home, the wedding ceremony was conducted according to Shi’a rites. Ruttie’s name on Nikahnama document (in Persian) read “Ruttenbai.” Shariat Madar Aqai Haji Mohammad Abdul Hashim Najafi signed the marriage contract for Jinnah. For Ruttie, Maulana Mohammad Hasan Najafi signed it. Things were moving fast and Jinnah forgot to get a ring for Ruttie so Raja gave his ring to Jinnah which he then presented it to Ruttie. The witnesses and attorneys present were Raja Mohammad Ali Mohammad Khan of Mehmudabad, Sharif Devji Kanji, Ghulam Ali, and Umer Sobhani. Jinnah accepted just 1,001* rupees as a dowry, a symbolic gesture. His gift to Ruttie was 125,000 rupees.

    (*Some outlets falsely reported Jinnah received dowry of Rs 30 lakh or 3 million. Pirzada, p. 47.)

    In a letter to Dr. Syed Mahmud (a fellow Congressite), the noted poet/politician and Jinnah’s friend Sarojini Naidu observed:

    “So Jinnah has at last plucked the Blue Flower of his desire. It was all very sudden and caused terrible agitation and anger among the Parsis; but I think the child has made far bigger sacrifices than she yet realises. Jinnah is worth it all – he loves her; the one really human and genuine emotion of his reserved and self-centred nature. And he will make her happy.”

    In Darwaish, “The softer side of Mr. Jinnah”

    According to Motilal Nehru’s (1861 – 1931) daughter Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900 – 1990):

    “Mr. Jinnah’s marriage to Ruttie Petit, daughter of a wealthy Parsi banker, Sir Dinshaw Petit, caused a nine-day stir in India.”

    Ruttie, according to people familiar with her have said, was fond of reminding people: “Wake it up.”

    Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz described Ruttie in these words:

    “[Ruttie was] … a very vivacious person and full of life. She often used to be in the mood of shocking people, which some persons did not approve of, but those who knew her well laughed over it. She was fascinating young lady, had beautiful hands and made lovely gesture, and was always dressed in elegant saris of the latest fashion.”

    Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit writes:

    “Ruttie was a friend of mine. We were the same age but brought up very differently. She was spoiled, very beautiful, and used to having her own way. She was much younger than Jinnah and it was certainly not a “love match.” But Jinnah was a Muslim, and the Parsis were, in those days, a very conservative group. This in itself seemed reason enough to Ruttie to shock the community — ‘Wake it up’, as she was fond of saying. ”

    In Vijaya Laxmi Pandit, The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir (New York: Crow Publishers Inc. 1979, p. 201.)

    (It was a cheap shot at a friend, a very mean one.)9)

    But this time Ruttie, along with Jinnah, had woken up very many people.

    Several Muslims were angry, and for many Parsis it was “Black Friday” leading to a Parsi version of a fatwa against the couple.

    She was cut off from her family for a long time.

    Even decades later, in 1946, some Muslims hadn’t forgiven Jinnah; Majlis-e-Ahrar’s Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar accused Jinnah of being an infidel:

    “ik KAfirA ke wAste Islam ko chhorA
    yeh Quaid-e-Azam hai keh hai KAfir-i-Azam”

    For an infidel (wife) he left Islam
    Is he the Great Leader or the great infidel

    Ruttie and Jinnah were very happy. Ruttie bought decorative things for their house. She also changed the look of Jinnah’s moldy Law Court rooms by getting them brightly painted and fitting them with classy furniture and flowers. Jinnah resigned from the Orient Club, where he used to play billiard and chess to spend time with Ruttie. This was the happiest time for both of them. Ruttie’s extravagant financial expenses were met by Jinnah. She bought her clothes from the exclusive Emile Windgrove tailor’s shop.

    Finally, he had:

    • a wonderful companion to discuss politics and the British Raj,
    • to accompany him to theaters,
    • to join him at horse-riding on Chaupaty Beach, and
    • to be his partner at parties and dinners.

    But when Jinnah’s old pals would drop by to discuss politics it didn’t please Ruttie at all. She wanted to be alone with Jinnah.

    Willingdon affair

    Jinnah was a renowned politician, a respectable lawyer, an important member of both the Congress Party and Muslim League, and a member of the Imperial Legislative Council. He and Ruttie were invited for dinner by Lady and Lord Willingdon (1866 – 1941), the Crown Governor of Bombay. Ruttie was wearing a low-cut dress. Lady Willingdon didn’t like this; she asked her servant to bring a wrap because Mrs. Jinnah “must be feeling cold.” Jinnah didn’t like it at all and retorted:

    “When Mrs Jinnah feels cold, she will say so, and ask for a wrap herself.”

    In Wolpert, p. 56.

    He stood up and left with Ruttie.

    Jinnah did the same when Begum of Bhopal reminded Ruttie that she should dress as a Muslim. Jinnah was extremely displeased; he walked out with Ruttie.

    One more incident about Ruttie’s dressing. In 1924 when Jinnah was the Muslim League President and Mahomedali Currim Chagla (1900 – 1981) was the secretary, a meeting was convened in Bombay’s Globe Cinema. Chagla was arranging things when Ruttie, dressed in her usual style, walked in and took her seat by the platform. The bearded ones were mad. Chagla described in his book how he handled the situation.

    “The hall was full of bearded Moulvies and Maulanas and they came to me in great indignation, and asked me who that woman was. They demanded that she should be asked to leave, as the clothes she flaunted constituted an offence to Islamic eyes. I told them that they should shut their eyes as the lady in question was the President’s wife, and I could not possibly ask her to leave the hall.”

    In M.C. Chagla, Roses in December: An Autobiography (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1975, p.121), via Internet Archive.

    Coming back to Willingdon, sometime before the dinner incident, five days after their marriage, a manifesto in Bombay Chronicle had Jinnah’s and others’ names in it. The manifesto demanded a “responsible government” for India before it commits itself to World War I efforts. Jinnah’s words:

    “Let England pledge herself definitely to redeem the promise by accepting here, as in Ireland, that which our leaders have asked for in the Congress and League Pact, and we will work heart and soul to save Britain, India and the Empire….
    …
    “But let us fight under the banner of liberty, for nothing less than that will nerve our men to fight and our women to sacrifice.”

    In Bolitho, p. 76.

    This was not a challenge of some revolutionary who was questioning British presence in India, but was a request from a moderate constitutionalist. Willingdon couldn’t digest even such meek demand by Jinnah and others. The rift between the two widened.

    (Willingdon, like his successor, George Lloyd, next Governor of Bombay, wanted Jinnah, Gandhi, and others to be deported to Burma, now Myanmar.)

    Clash with Willingdon

    When the Willingdons were leaving India, a farewell party was set up for December 10, 1918. Ruttie, Jinnah, and his supporters weren’t in favor of such a party. So they decided to protest. On the night of 9th, three hundred followers of Jinnah camped out near Bombay’s Town Hall. In the morning when Ruttie and Jinnah came, there were seats kept for them. Ruttie encouraged many to follow Jinnah in the Town Hall, while she succeeded in climbing up on a side-box of the balcony to address the audience. She shouted:

    “We are not slaves.”

    In Reddy, p. 165.

    People listened to her speech. The police commissioner Mr. Vincent asked Ruttie “to stop addressing the crowd for they were making a lot of noise.”

    Ruttie countered:

    “Mr. Vincent, first of all you have no right to stop me from lecturing because I have a right to speak as a citizen of Bombay. Secondly, whatever you may do I am not going to move from here.”

    Ibid. p. 166.

    Ruttie, Jinnah, and the people gathered were targeted with water hoses. Undeterred, she kept on addressing. The party was called off. Jinnah and many others were roughed up by police. This was the first and only time Jinnah encountered such a situation. Ruttie must have experienced pride her love made Jinnah fight on the streets, outside legislative councils. Ruttie was on his side when Jinnah addressed the crowd:

    “Gentlemen, you are the citizens of Bombay. You have today scored a great victory for democracy. Your triumph has made it clear that even the combined forces of bureaucracy and autocracy could not overawe you. December the 11th is a Red-letter Day in the history of Bombay. Gentlemen, go and rejoice over the day that has secured us the triumph of democracy.”

    (Tens of thousands of rupees were provided by his supporters to build The People’s Jinnah Hall to mark that action. See Heritage Times.)

    Ruttie’s bold nationalism

    Ruttie didn’t mask her feelings and views; she expressed them frankly. In 1918, Lord Chelmsford (1868 – 1933), Viceroy of India, threw a dinner party at Viceregal Lodge in Simla. Ruttie and Jinnah were invited. When Ruttie was introduced to Lord Chelmsford, she shook hands, then, instead of curtsy, folded her hands as if saying “namaste.”

    The Viceroy’s ego was hurt. He started a conversation with Ruttie when he found an opportunity to be alone with her.

    “Your husband, Mrs. Jinnah, has a great future awaiting him, and you should not mar his chances. You did not greet us in the manner customary at the Viceregal Lodge. In Rome you must do as the Romans do.”

    In G. Allana, Quaid-E-Azam Jinnah: The Story of a Nation (Karachi: Ferozsons Ltd., 1967, p. 170.)

    Ruttie bluntly replied:

    “Your Excellency, that is exactly what I did. You are in India and I greeted you the way Indian women do.”

    Ibid.

    Ruttie and Chelmsford never came face to face again.

    With another Viceroy Lord Reading (1860 – 1935) she didn’t mince words, either. Lord Reading was Viceroy and Governor-General of India. At a luncheon in New Delhi in 1921, Ruttie was sitting next to him. Reading expressed sadness as he felt nostalgic about Germany where he had spent sometime. He expressed his helplessness to her:

    “Mrs. Jinnah, how I wish I could go to Germany. I very much want to go there. But I can’t go there.”

    In Dwarkadas, p. 17.

    Ruttie asked:

    “Your Excellency, why can’t you go there?”

    Ibid.

    Reading replied:

    “The Germans do not like us, the British, so I can’t go.”

    Ibid.

    Ruttie availed every chance she came across to remind the British they were unwanted in India. In one sentence, she summed up the feelings of most Indians. Ruttie questioned him gustily:

    “How then did you come to India?”

    Ibid.

    The Viceroy wisely changed the subject.

    Ruttie and Jinnah attended a party at the Viceregal Lodge in 1925. Reading told Jinnah that the British Government wanted to honor his “excellent services” with knighthood but he declined the offer because he preferred to be “plain Mr. Jinnah.” So Reading tried to gauge Ruttie’s temptation for high honors: “Mrs. Jinnah, would you like to be addressed as Lady Jinnah?” Ruttie’s fearless nature shot back:

    “If my husband accepts knighthood, I will take a separation from him.”

    (Years later in 1942 Jinnah refused an honorary doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). AMU was also a beneficiary of Jinnah’s 1939 Will, which remained unaltered till Jinnah’s death. For Jinnah’s Will in its entirety, see Khwaja Razi Haider, Ruttie Jinnah: The Story Told and Untold (Karachi: University of Karachi, Appendix IV, p. 155-7.))

    On her visit to Kashmir in 1926, when the authorities asked the reason for her visit, Ruttie, without a second thought, replied: “The purpose of visit is to spread sedition.”

    Ironically, Kashmir is now under torturous boots of Hindu communalist Narendra Modi’s military.

    Nagpur Session

    There were times when Ruttie had to restrain her boldness. One such incident happened when she and Jinnah were traveling in a train after attending the Nagpur session of Congress in December 1920.

    The Nagpur session witnessed Jinnah being humiliated and hooted for not adding prefixes “Mahatma” (Great Soul) and “Maulana” (Muslim scholar) to the names of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 – 1948) and Mohammad Ali Jauhar (1878 – 1931), respectively; instead he addressed them as “Mr. Gandhi” and “Mr. Mohammad Ali.” Jinnah was “howled down with cries of ‘shame, shame’ and political imposter.’” (Wolpert, p. 71.)

    Gandhi’s hold over Congress was absolute; he could have prevented the rowdy elements from disrespecting Jinnah and could have asked them to listen what Jinnah had to say; but he didn’t. Jinnah left the Congress Party.

    (Gandhi, a strong believer of Hinduism, had joined hands with strong believers of Islam, the Ali brothers, to save Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888 – 1958) and the Ali Brothers, Maulana Shoukat Ali Jauhar (1873 – 1938) and Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar who wanted to save the institution of Muslim caliph from being ended by the British had, as Aijaz Ahmad points out, misread the internal dynamics of Turkey and the evolution of its political system during the nineteenth century. Turkey had gradually reduced the dependence on the Muslim sharia law and had come to depend more and more on the civil and criminal courts. When the Turks themselves ended the caliphate, the major leaders of the Khilafat Movement such as Ali Brothers and Azad were “utterly dumbfounded” and the movement “petered out in confusion. [Aijaz Ahmad, Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Comtemporary South Asia (London & New York: Verso, 2000, p. 85-9.)]

    Ruttie wrote a letter to The Times of India, under the letter “R” to prevent Jinnah from knowing the real author:

    “At Akola [train station], Mr. [Maulana] Shoukat Ali delivered a short lecture to those who had assembled on the platform; and at the end of the lecture, he incited them to hoot Mr. Jinnah, who was seated in the first class compartment, with cries of ‘Shame’. Sir, this sort of thing is the negation of non-cooperation of which non-violence is the essence.”

    In Pirzada, p. 49-50.

    At the Calcutta Congress in September, Shoukat Ali was restrained by his friends from attacking Jinnah.

    K.M. Munshi reminds us in his book “Pilgrimage to Freedom” that

    “Jinnah, however, warned Gandhiji not to encourage fanaticism of Muslim religious leaders and their followers.”

    In H.M. Seervai, Partition of India: Legend and Reality (Bombay: Emmenem Publications, 1989, 13)

    Gandhi later admitted this to Richard Casey, the Governor of Bengal:

    “Jinnah had told him that he (Gandhiji) had ruined politics in India by dragging up a lot of unwholesome elements in Indian life and giving them political prominence, that it was a crime to mix up politics and religion the way he had done.”

    Ibid.

    Dina

    Some Indian leaders, including Jinnah, were required to appear before the Joint Select Committee of House of Commons and House of Lords (British Parliament) to give evidence on Montagu Bill, named after Edwin Samuel Montagu (1879-1924), the then Secretary of State for India. Jinnah and Ruttie, who was pregnant with Dina at the time, reached London in May 1919 to attend this and rented a flat near Regent’s Park.

    While Ruttie and Jinnah were in a theater, she went into labor and was taken to a clinic, where after midnight of August 15, she gave birth to their only child, Dina.

    Kanji noted:

    “This is a strange coincidence, as 14th and 15th August are respectively Pakistan’s and India’s Independence Days.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 18.

    Jinnah’s biographer Stanley Wolpert put it thus:

    “Their only child, a daughter named Dina, was born in London shortly past midnight on August 14-15, 1919, oddly enough precisely twenty-eight years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah’s other offspring, Pakistan.”

    Wolpert, p. 63.

    As was the custom among the rich, Dina was given a governess and other helpers to take care of her. Ruttie was raised in a similar manner, too.

    Ruttie couldn’t handle her own life so it was out of question that she would take care of Dina. (Years later, Dina spent time with the Petit family.)

    For whatever reason, Dina was ignored. Was Dina an unplanned baby? We don’t know. One thing is sure: Ruttie was not ready for motherhood yet. In July 1921, Mrs. Naidu visited South Court to see Dina who had come back with servants from a vacation in Ooty. Ruttie and Jinnah were not there as they had left for Europe.

    “I went to see the Jinnah baby this morning.” “It returned from Ooty in its pathetic servant fostered loneliness. It looked so sweet, fresh from its bath. I stayed and played a little with it, poor little pet.”

    Reddy, p. 248.

    In Oxford Jinnah gave a talk and then he and Ruttie left for London. Ruttie invited Leilamani who was studying at Oxford to join them. They stayed at Ritz for two months. Jinnah was busy with his political work while the girls were enjoying their life. Leilamani also accompanied them to Paris. The Jinnahs went back to India after five months. The day they came back, Ruttie rushed to Taj Mahal to see Mrs. Naidu.

    Fatima Jinnah

    Fatima Jinnah (1893 – 1967) was Jinnah’s youngest sister. After his father’s death in 1902, Jinnah brought her to live with him, and had her admitted to St. Joseph Convent school at Bandra. It was inconceivable then for a Muslim girl to join a convent school; their relatives and many other Muslims tried to deter Fatima who became the target of their gossip and criticism. Jinnah’s support made her stick to the decision.

    On Sundays, Fatima would join her brother at his place. Ruttie didn’t like this because that was the day Jinnah would be off from work, and Ruttie wanted to spend time with Jinnah alone. Besides, Fatima was a serious person, or as Ruttie would say, “deadly serious” and no fun to be around. Fatima had turned religious and carried a copy of the Qur’an with her.

    One could imagine a typical Sunday in the Jinnah household: Jinnah would be into his newspapers and books while Fatima, with a copy of Qur’an in hand sitting quietly watching her brother. For Ruttie it must have felt like a prison, where she was sentenced to a day of silence, no doubt a very tough situation for a bubbly person like her.

    On one such day, Ruttie teased or rather tormented Fatima in front of her brother about her spinster status at the age of twenty six. Ruttie later communicated the tense atmosphere in her letter to Padmaja:

    “By the bye, I told Fatima that I went to Hyderabad to look up some eligible man for her and I showed her Taufiq’s photo as being one of them..”

    Reddy, p. 207.

    Despite very little talk between the sister and brother, they were close to each other. Of all his siblings, Fatima was the closest to Jinnah. They didn’t like the teasing at all; Jinnah’s displeasure discouraged Ruttie from continuing further.

    Even in general conversation, Ruttie felt Jinnah inclined towards Fatima which hurt her. In yet another letter to Padmaja, on 3 March 1920:

    “Fatima’s deadly reason quite upset the last Sunday. She was reading the Quran, so I told her that it was ‘meant to be talked about and not to be read.’ So in all seriousness she asked me ‘how one could talk about a book one hadn’t read.’”

    Reddy, p. 214.

    It seems Ruttie was employing the Socratic method to get Fatima into debate to show her that religious rituals and scriptures are simply a waste of time.

    Fatima didn’t like Ruttie, and vice versa. Jinnah had to find some solution. He urged Fatima to join Dr. Ahmad Dental College at the University of Calcutta. She complied. In 1923, after finishing her studies, Fatima Jinnah became the first woman dentist in British India; she then started her own dental clinic in Bombay, another unusual step for a Muslim woman. In the evening, she used to volunteer at Dhobi Talau Municipal Clinic in Bombay.

    Trade unions

    In May 1919, under president Lala Lajpatrai, the First All-India Trade Union Congress was held at the Empire Theatre, Present on stage were B. P. Wadia, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 – 1964), S. A. Brelvi, N. M. Joshi, Kanji Dwarkadas, and Dewan Chaman Lal (1892 – 1973). Ruttie, who was sitting in the side box, came on stage, moved a resolution protesting deportation of Benjamin Guy Horniman10 (1873–1948), the editor of Bombay Chronicle, and spoke for five minutes.

    Ruttie was interested in trade unions and Dewan Chaman Lal had offered her a position of a vice president but she didn’t accept it.

    Women sex workers

    In later years, she started taking a more active role on social problems. Ruttie and Jinnah were aware of Kanji’s work on these issues. In August 1927, Ruttie who was interested in the welfare and well being of women working in brothels visited many of them with Kanji and Miss Davis and saw first hand the condition of women. Kanji did great work getting a law passed which prohibited children under 16 working in such places.

    Animal welfare

    With Kanji, Ruttie was also involved in the welfare of animals and would visit pinjrapoles or animal shelters in Bhuleshwar (South Bombay), Chembur (a Bombay suburb), and Kalyan and made many recommendations to better condition of animals and of shelters. They wrote a letter to Indian newspapers in September 1927 complaining that the drinking water had the same foulness observed on previous visits; only 5 dogs out of 26 were infection-free; etc. Another letter, that included Mrs. Naidu’s letter with her report on the condition of animals, was published in The Indian Daily Mail. The authorities subsequently looked into the matter and improved the conditions in those animal shelters. Ruttie herself had many pets.

    Fissures in marriage

    Time seems to be an eternal enemy of purpose-oriented people. Most juggle with time to fulfill and achieve their aim while maintaining balanced and harmonious relations with people who need them most. Jinnah was too constrained for time; he couldn’t keep himself in the newly married mode for too long.

    It was as if Jinnah was following the philosophy of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s yet unwritten couplet11:

    aur bhi dukh hai zamAne meiN, muhabbat ke sivA / rAhateiN aur bhi hai, vasl ki rAhat ke sivA

    there are other sorrows, besides those of love / there are other comforts, beyond the comfort of union

    Whereas, it seems, Ruttie was moaning the words Sahir Ludhianvi wrote decades later12:

    tum mujhe bhool bhi jAo to ye haq hai tum ko / meri bAt aur hai meiN ne to muhabbat ki hai

    even if you don’t remember me, which you have a right to / in my case, it’s different, because I have loved you

    Also, there were some serious differences between them.

    • Jinnah strictly followed punctuality and worked and lived in a very well organized manner. Ruttie, on the other hand, was a carefree person.
    • Ruttie liked spicy food whereas Jinnah’s preference was bland food.
    • Ruttie preferred people but Jinnah was used to being alone — except where politics was concerned then he wouldn’t mind a gathering. Even at home, Jinnah would be into newspapers from all over India and Ruttie would be left to herself.
    • Kanji was their mutual friend who would join them. Ruttie met Kanji quite regularly in the evenings. Sometime Kanji’s elder brother Jamnadas (Jinnah’s lieutenant) would join them too. Another mutual friend Sarojini would visit them or only Ruttie, and Sarojini’s children Leilamani, Ranadheere, and Padmaja (1900 – 1975) would sometime visit her too. Motilal Nehru, when in Bombay, would join them or just Ruttie for food and drink. Another frequent visitor was Raja of Mehmoodabad (1878 – 1931).
    • People would gather at Jinnahs’ place when some political issue needed to be discussed or handled.
    • Ruttie liked dancing and parties whereas Jinnah preferred billiard.

    In 1920, Ruttie and Jinnah were invited to a “grand dinner” at Mirza Abol Hassan Ispahani’s uncle’s place in Putney Hill. Ispahani (1902 – 1981) was heir to the financial and commercial empire in Calcutta. Ruttie’s brother Jamshed Petit who was Ispahani’s Cambridge classmate and friend was also there. Jinnah and Ispahani went to a billiard room to play whereas the rest went for a dance. Ruttie and her brother did the Charleston, a jazz dance, originally a black folk dance from the US South. (Wolpert p.145.) Instead of playing billiard, Jinnah could have stayed with Ruttie and others and if not joining them (it’s a fast dance, here and here and requires great stamina), then at least make a few dance moves then just sit and watch Ruttie, Jamshed, and others dance; it would have made Ruttie happy.

    Jinnah’s first biographer Hector Bolitho is not off the mark when he writes:

    “For Jinnah, married life was a solemn duty: for his young wife, it was also an opportunity for pleasure.”

    In Bolitho, p. 86.

    Times were changing fast with new technological and scientific discoveries and inventions. People born or grown up amidst these times of feature films (1906), Ford Model T cars (first affordable car, 1908) and so on, had different expectations and attitudes towards life. Ruttie was born in these times whereas Jinnah’s time was older and a different outlook. Ruttie was born in money whereas Jinnah was looking for a job in his twenties. Jinnah became a very successful lawyer so Ruttie’s financial needs were never unmet. Once when they visited Kashmir, Ruttie spent Rs. 50,000 to decorate a boat they were going to stay on – a very huge amount then. The problem was Jinnah’s inflexibility in other matters. (In our times, look at Gen Z, the Zoomers, who grew up in the internet era are different from millennials.)

    In the evenings, Ruttie used to stay home looking forward to be with Jinnah, but then in 1924 this changed. She started going out alone to hotels for dance which Jinnah didn’t approve.

    Another difference: Ruttie didn’t care about her status. One example:

    In August 1927, Ruttie and Jinnah came to Simla for Jinnah’s Legislative Council Session. Every evening, Ruttie would go out with her dog in a rickshaw to the Mall and from Hussain Baksh General Merchants she would buy chocolate for her dog. Then from the Lower Bazaar – a totally different world from the Mall – she would eat chAt, a spicy South Asian snack. It was served on a large leaf. Once, one of Ruttie’s friends objected to her eating from a street vendor in the Lower Bazaar. Ruttie said, “I do it to tease people like you.” Jinnah would never eat chAt on a leaf from a street vendor!

    But it must be said of Jinnah, when craving for chAt Ruttie would sometimes make him get out of the car to get a plate of chAt for her, he would oblige.

    The deteriorating relations between Ruttie and Jinnah reached an impasse where no room for reconciliation was left due to a wall of silence between them. The love was there but they sorely lacked communication. Ruttie wanted time, attention, and affection which Jinnah could not provide. There were incidents over a period of time which were performed with good intentions but they backfired. A couple of such incidents.

    Ruttie, wanting to spend time with Jinnah, would bring lunch for him. One day she came to the Town Hall with a tiffin and asked Jinnah to guess the contents; he expressed ignorance so Ruttie told him: “I have brought you some lovely ham sandwiches.”

    Jinnah was mad:

    “My God! What have you done? Do you want me lose my election? Do you realise I am standing from a Muslim separate electorate seat, and if my voters were to learn that I am going to eat ham sandwiches for lunch, do you think I have a ghost of a chance of being elected?”

    Ruttie felt disheartened and left. What was more sad was that Jinnah, with M. C. Chagla, went to a restaurant and ate ham.13

    Since December 1920 when Jinnah was shouted down by supporters of Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Gandhi, bitterness between Jinnah and the younger Ali brother had spilled over in public on the pages of Bombay Chronicle. Jinnah’s refusal to counter Ali’s personal attacks led Ruttie to request Ali through the editor of the newspaper to stop writing “as this would create bitterness.” When Jinnah learned through editor as to what had happened, he was incensed, “Ruttie had no business to intervene.” (Reddy, p. 281.) Ruttie was not wrong in intervening because the war of words, oral and on pages of the Chronicle, was not solving anything. On the other hand, Jinnah, a self-made man, was a very independent person who wanted to fight out his battle himself.

    When things were sorted out and Fatima moved out, the Jinnahs went to Ooty, a hill station in Tamil Nadu, for a month and a half vacation. However, Jinnah could neither savor Ooty’s beauty nor could concentrate on cementing his relations with Ruttie because Gandhi was always looming in the background. He had sidelined Jinnah from the national platform and had now joined hands with the Ali brothers whose Khilafat Movement was successful in rousing a significant number of Muslims and Hindus. Jinnah was worried about his Muslim base.

    The love between Ruttie and Jinnah, however, was not lost; they always had those feelings in their hearts till the end. But somehow things were not working out.

    Jinnah’s endurance 

    Jinnah was a serious uncomplaining person who rarely exhibited anger, in itself not a bad trait – but it could become heavy liability because the other party, noticing no reaction, could fail to curb her/his actions beyond a certain limit; this could exert a great toll on the relationship. Jinnah paid all Ruttie’s bills, rarely voicing opposition – the rare occasions when he complained about the money were Ruttie’s trip to Hyderabad visit and her nine month sojourn in Paris. Ruttie had problems handling and converting currencies. British India had several currencies, including, Hyderabadi rupee. (Hyderabad State was under the rule of Nizam but indirectly under British rule.)

    In 1923, there was a conference in Jinnah’s chamber attended by M. C. Chagla, among others. In the middle of a conference, Ruttie entered the room and sat herself comfortably on the table-top near her husband. She seemed anxious for the conference to end and kept swinging her feet. Jinnah exhibited no anger, and continued his meeting as if Ruttie wasn’t there. Once the conference was over, they walked out together.

    Chagla sympathized with Jinnah:

    “But I must say in fairness to Jinnah that no husband could have treated his wife more generously than he did, although she supplied him the greatest provocation throughout their married life.”

    In Chagla, p. 120.

    In Simla, Jinnah and Ruttie were invited for a dinner with the governor. On their way, Bolitho writes,

    “She stopped the carriage and bought a roasted corn-cob from a man beside the road. She began to eat it as they came near Government House.”

    Quoted in Reddy, p. 281. The above passage was deleted from Bolitho’s biography of Jinnah because it was an official biography.

    Bolitho wrote that Jinnah “accepted the foolish hurt in silence.” Jinnah suffered quietly without a word. Jinnah’s political life saw times when he was at the peak, as during the Lucknow Pact, and at other times without many supporters, but he survived through determination and a certain image he had created of himself. That image wasn’t enhanced by Ruttie’s corn-cob eating. This was an open warfare on Ruttie’s part.

    Kanji Dwarkadas

    There were two people who later became close to Ruttie. Both of them were close to Jinnah, too. They were Kanji Dwarkadas (1892 -1968) and Sarojini Naidu. Kanji first saw Ruttie in 1914, when she was fourteen, at the Oval:

    “I could not take my eyes off this girl and watched the carriage and its occupant till it disappeared from sight. I could not forget her face. Three months later, I found from a photograph in a newspaper that this girl was Ruttie, daughter of the … Sir Dinshaw Petit, Bart.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 9.

    Kanji was associated with Jinnah in his political work which brought him to Jinnah’s house where he came to know Ruttie well. They became very good friends. Ruttie cared for Kanji and vice versa.

    Ruttie was an ocean of energy whose waves knew no halting; always on the move to explore, learn, experience, at the same time, trying to understand and control her inner turmoil. She was also inclined towards literature and art and was a great romantic. She needed a partner in a way that Jinnah was not free to provide. Although initially, he devoted a lot of time to his marriage, later on he was unavailable due to his heavy law and political work. Ruttie was disillusioned. The distance between Jinnah and her increased. Ruttie’s immense energy and inquisitiveness had either to be suppressed or used. She had to find some solace. She sought it in mysticism, spirituality, telepathy, and such. Ruttie’s friend Kanji accompanied her in these activities as he was into it too so it became easier for Ruttie to pursue these. Kanji was a very good friend, and Ruttie felt safe with him. Kanji:

    “Ruttie was intensely interested in contacting the non-physical world and she made difficult and dangerous experiments to verify her beliefs and convictions. She wanted first-hand knowledge. She thought she could get it through Seances with the help of mediums or table-tapping.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 27.

    This 21 November 1924 letter to Kanji shows Ruttie’s quest:

    “… Lately I have been very much drawn towards the subject of Spirit Communication and I am most anxious to know more and to get at the Truth. It is such an elusive Subject and the more I hear of it the more puzzled do I become, though still more passionately interested. I have some sort of an idea that you must be cognisant of spiritual circles in our City, whose Seance one may join. I don’t profess any creed nor do I subscribe to a belief, but of late willy-nilly I have been propelled towards the study of so called spiritual phenomenon and I am too deeply immersed in the matter now to give it up without some personal satisfaction for I cannot content myself with other peoples’ experiences, though I fully realise that in a matter of this nature one doesn’t always get the evidence one seeks.

    “Anyway I wonder whether you can assist me in this matter by recommending me as a ‘medium’ or ‘Clairvoyant’ professional or otherwise. I would prefer my identity, however, to remain unknown while you make enquiries. And I sincerely hope that you will be able to assist me. With my kind regards to your wife and yourself.”

    “P.S. Mrs [Annie] Besant might know of some reliable ‘Medium’.”

    Ibid, p. 28.

    Besant had told Kanji seances were not safe. He didn’t want to let Ruttie down but wanted to help her and so requested Mrs. Margaret Cousins to see Ruttie in December 1924, during the Theosophical Convention in Bombay. Mrs. Besant, J. Krishnamurti, and Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa were also in attendance. She saw Mrs. Margaret Cousins and was “most inspired” with the address by Jinarajadasa.

    Letter to Kanji April 1925:

    My Dear Kanji,

    Yes, I know of the dream travels of which you speak. But I do all my dreaming in my waking hours. I am not being waggish. There is nothing I would welcome with greater rejoicing than an experience of the sort to which you refer in your letter, but in my heavy druglike sleep there is no redeeming feature …

    My soul is too clogged! … I am feeling peculiarly restless and wish one with psychic powers could come to my assistance.

    My proud soul humbles before the magnitude of this subject and in my estimation those of us with Second Sight and other such psychic powers should rank with the world’s poets and songsters for their gift if more intelligible is also more divine. The seers and the saints should stand among the world’s prophets. After all we are at present too blind and unseeing to comprehend what the psychics would reveal to our half demented senses. But what the mind often revolts at, and refuses to accept, the intrinsic self within us admits with certain ease which makes the more thoughtful ponder; as though it had some ancient and original knowledge of its own.

    …

    Yours Sincerely, Ruttie.

    Dwarkadas, p. 31-32.

    In July 1925, Ruttie was to accompany Kanji, his wife and their four year old son on a visit to Adyar (Madras) but couldn’t so she joined them later. Ruttie wanted to join the Theosophical Society but the morning meeting with Universal Prayers and recitation from scriptures of different religions put her off. She told Mrs. Besant that she was perturbed by this religious slant. Mrs. Besant understood Ruttie’s point and told her that a sincere person like her doesn’t need to formally join the Society.

    After meeting Ruttie, Mrs. Besant told Kanji: “Look after your great friend, she is unhappy.” he was taken aback, so she further clarified: “Don’t you see unhappiness in her eyes? Look at her.” (Dwarkadas, p. 41.)

    In 1926, Ruttie was accompanying Jinnah on a four-month study-tour of Europe, the United States, and Canada, and to attend meetings of the Sandhurst (Army) Committee in England.

    Ruttie asked Kanji:

    “Kanji, I am going away to Europe and U.S.A. for a few months. You will not be with me to protect me and help me. Do please, therefore, magnetise something for me to keep me in touch with you.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 43.

    Kanji hesitatingly magnetized a precious jade with “thoughts of love and protection with particular reference to protecting her from any adverse effects of seances” for her.

    When Ruttie and Jinnah were back, she met Kanji and asked him: “Good God! What kind of thoughts you put in that jade?” as she had made three appointments with seances but none happened because at first she missed the train, second time the medium didn’t show up, last time she didn’t remember that she had to see the medium.

    Jinnah didn’t believe in these spiritual and medium nonsense; he would just laugh it off. He was thankful to Kanji for helping Ruttie to get out of the harmful futile chase.

    Kanji seemed truly gentle natured and Ruttie appreciated him:

    “You are a dear!–and the more I think on it, I feel you had no business to be born into the world with ‘Dhoti [men’s sarong like lower garment].’ The correct setting for a nature of such fine sensibilities is a Sari–or a Skirt as the case may geographically require.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 46.

    Kanji on Ruttie:

    “She was a source of inspiration in my work and next to Mrs. Besant she was a most helpful and healthy influence on me and my work.”

    Ibid, p. 53.

    When Ruttie was away, she would ask Kanji to see if Jinnah was doing alright. A 25th September 1922 letter:

    “… And just one thing more–go and see Jinnah and tell me how he is–he has a habit of habitually over-working himself, and now that I am not there to bother and tease him he will be worse than ever.”

    Kanji, p. 26.

    Sarojni Naidu

    Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949) was the other person with whom Ruttie had very warm relations. Mrs. Naidu was a progressive poet/politician who hailed from Hyderabad but her political work necessitated her prolonged stays in Bombay. This provided Ruttie with a person in whom she could confide some of her inner thoughts. Two of her five children, daughters Padmaja (born the same year as Ruttie) and Leilamani, younger than Padmaja, were close to Ruttie too.

    Ruttie would vent her anger, frustration, helplessness, and sarcasm in person or letters to Mrs. Naidu, Padmaja, and Leilamani. Mrs. Naidu sometimes lent support to Ruttie, at other times she complained to her daughters about Ruttie taking up her time. Mrs. Naidu pitied Ruttie and extended her sympathy. Ruttie never asked for Mrs. Naidu ’s help to reconcile her and Jinnah’s differences.

    Once when Ruttie was in Hyderabad, she bought a horse but Jinnah disapproved it because it was not vetted in the manner it should have been. The letter of 25 February 1920 to Padmaja, Ruttie’s wit and anger against Jinnah was obvious:

    “It is rather a shame about the horse.” “I wish the owner had succeeded in his ruse of bribing the vets. At any rate I do hope J won’t be idiotically sensible about it. After all, I never had him vetted before I married him! But horses I suppose are far more valuable!”

    Reddy, p. 209.

    It seems Ruttie had flown into the marriage cage too early; this can be detected from Mrs. Naidu ’s letter of 20 January 1928 to Padmaja:

    “Don’t force me back into slavery. Let me be free. Let me be free … Poor child … restless and longing to be free of all her shackles. She says her youth is going and she must live …”

    Reddy, p. 405.

    Ruttie’s health

    Ruttie liked spicy food very much. She just couldn’t resist it although it didn’t suit her stomach, and would make her sick for days. She herself cooked food when a friend would visit her. She couldn’t offer that food to Jinnah, as he preferred non-spicy food. During childhood, once in a while, Ruttie would get nauseated and had stomach cramps, but the nannies and nurses were always there at Petit Hall to take care of her. Also, her mother kept an eye on her to see that she didn’t overindulged in fried and spicy food, and sweets.

    But at South Court, there was no one to stop her from fulfilling her craving for foods she wanted to eat. That had been going on for almost the last four years.

    At the end of December 1921, Jinnah had arranged a conference of nationalists from all over India at his house. Prior to the conference, Kanji came for two nights and all three of them had dinner and talked late into the night. On the third day, Ruttie was bedridden because of the stomach ailment. All during the set up of and the conference itself, the overwhelmingly tired and sick Ruttie stayed in bed. Doctors were unable to figure out what was wrong with her and advised her to get out of India’s “unhealthy tropical clime.” The next time the three of them got together and Ruttie fell ill again, she took much longer to recover. Her illness was recurring.

    5 June 1925 letter to Kanji:

    “I have been ill again, so almost any evening will find me at home.”

    Dwarkadas, p. 38.

    Insomnia was another issue that bothered Ruttie a lot. She used to take Veronol, a barbiturate, which gradually turned into an addiction. Without any restrain, the doctors were prescribing Veronol for any kind of sleeplessness. (Reddy, p. 289-290.)

    Sandhurst

    On 10 April, 1926, Ruttie and Jinnah, a member of the Sandhurst Committee, sailed to England for a study tour in order to set up a military training school in India.

    The April 8 and 10 (1926) letters from Mrs. Naidu to Padmaja and Leilamani described Ruttie “is the wreck of herself in body and mind!” “She is looking just the very shadow of herself–a wreck of what was once a beautiful and brilliant vision.” Mrs. Naidu believed:

    “I don’t think she will be more than a very few days in England but spend her time in Paris and go to Canada and America with Jinnah, when the Skeen Committee goes there.”

    Mrs. Naidu was right. Once Jinnah’s work of interviewing military experts for the Skeen Committee was over, the Jinnahs were to go to Paris. But Ruttie dashed off to Paris ahead of Jinnah. What was her urgency to rush to Paris?

    ENDNOTES:

    The post The Tragic Tale of a Flower that Wilted too Soon first appeared on Dissident Voice.
    1    The Gujaratis attach suffixes such as “bhai” (brother) and “bai” (lady) or “ben” (sister) to their names. Among Pakistani Gujaratis, this practice has disappeared. In India, it’s declining gradually.
    2    Parsees had escaped Muslim conquest of Iran and had settled in the Indian subcontinent between 800 and 1000 CE. There are only 25,000 Zoroastrians left in Iran and live under a great many restrictions. See Zoroastrians: Iran’s Forgotten Minority and Persecution of Zoroastrians.
    3    Her great grandfather Manockjee Petit is credited with founding India’s first successful cotton mill. Her grandfather, her father’s namesake, persuaded the British to legally recognize the Parsi Succession and Marriage Acts. After his death, Ruttie’s father took over the religious and business duties.
    4    innah’s views on issues:

    on women, at the Islamia College for women:

    “ I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.“

    to reporters in Srinagar on admitting Ahmadiyya Muslims into Muslim League:

    “Any Muslim could do so, irrespective of his creed or sect.”

    on racist comment made by Lord Salisbury (who served thrice as Britain’s prime minister) against the Grand Old Man of India, Dadabhai Naoroji when he announced his plan to run as a liberal candidate from Central Finsbury, Salisbury said:

    “I doubt if we have yet got to the point of view where a British constituency would elect a black man.”

    a href=”https://archive.org/details/jinnah-creator-of-pakistan-by-hector-bolitho_202307/page/11/mode/2up” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-saferedirecturl=”https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/jinnah-creator-of-pakistan-by-hector-bolitho_202307/page/11/mode/2up&source=gmail&ust=1739976302112000&usg=AOvVaw2R91pcHndk7DTc6NKLiJU9″>Bolitho, p. 10.

    Jinnah, who at that time was in England as a student, experienced the election fervor. Later he told Fatima:

    “…If Dadabhai was black, I was darker.” “And if this was the mentality of the British politicians, then we would never get a fair deal from them. From that day I have been an uncompromising enemy of all forms of colour bar and racial prejudice.”

    Wolpert, p. 11.

    in support of Bhupendranath Basu’s Special Marriage Bill in the Imperial Legislative Council:

    “No doubt, Sir, as far as I see, the Hindu law or the Mohammedan law, whichever you take… , does create a difficulty in the way of a Hindu marrying a non-Hindu or a Mohammedan marrying anyone who is not ‘Kitabia’; … Therefore, if there is a fairly large class of enlightened, educated, advance, Indians, be they Hindus, Mohammedans or Parsis, and if they wish to adopt a system of marriage which is more in accord with modern civilization and ideas of modern times, more in accord with the modern sentiment, why should that class be denied justice unless it is going to do a serious harm to the Hindus or Mussalmans in one way or the other.”

    when revolutionary Bhagat Singh and other prisoners had gone on hunger strike demanding that Indian prisoners should be accorded the same treatment which European prisoners are provided with, Jinnah defended Singh and others in the Central Assembly:

    “Mind you, sir, I do not approve the action of Bhagat Singh, and I say this on the floor of this House. I regret that, rightly or wrongly, youth today in India is stirred up, and you cannot, when you have three hundred and odd millions of people, prevent such crimes being committed, however much you deplore them and however much you may say that they are misguided. It is the system, this damnable system of government, which is resented by the people.”

    5    Nizari Isma’ilis are currently headed by Prince Rahim Aga Khan V who succeeded his father Prince Karim Aga Khan IV on February 4, 2025. (There are several branches of Isma’ilism, including Musta’ali Isma’ilis).
    6    Jinnah’s sisters, Rahmatbai and Maryambai, were married to Sunni Khojas because after a certain age it was difficult to find a groom.
    7    Aga Khan later wrote about Jinnah’s opposition:

    “… there is a much more freakishly ironic flavor about the name and personality of the chief Muslim opponent of the stand which we took.”

    “Who then was our doughtiest opponent in 1906? A distinguished Muslim barrister in Bombay, with a large and prosperous practice, Mr. Mohammed All [sic] Jinnah.… he came out in bitter hostility toward all that I and my friends had done and were trying to do. He was the only well-known Muslim to take this attitude, but his opposition had nothing mealy-mouthed about it; he said that our principle of separate electorates was dividing the nation against itself, and for nearly a quarter of a century he remained our most inflexible critic and opponent….”

    — Aga Khan, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time

    The founders of the Muslim League were Muslim nobles and wealthy landowners whose aim was to prepare Muslims to be loyal subjects of the British.
    8    See A. G. Noorani’s review, “Non-Fiction: Of Human Tragedy and Consequences” in Dawn (August 13, 2017) where he critiques certain points in the book. “To fill the gaps in the narrative, she [Sheela Reddy] speculates and makes trite and absurd comments. On the political aspect, she has not been wise in her choice of sources.”
    9    In her book, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit wrote about Ruttie as “spoiled” and “used to having her way” and that the Parsis were “a very conservative group” which allowed Ruttie to “shock the community.”

    Whether Ruttie’s marriage to Jinnah worked out or not is a different matter but, at least, Ruttie had the guts to marry the person she liked and loved. Syud Hossain, a Muslim journalist, was associated with Pherozeshah Mehta’s newspaper Bombay Chronicle who in 1919 joined Motilal’s newspaper The Independent and fell in love with his daughter Swarup (also known as Nan), later Vijaya. When her family arranged her marriage somewhere else, she rushed to Hossain and they got married in the presence of a Muslim cleric. Nehru family sought Gandhi’s help to separate them and both Vijaya and Hossain were sent to Gandhi’s Sabarmati Asharam in Ahmerdabad. Hossain was pressured to annul the marriage by giving in writing to Gandhi. Then he was sent to England and subsequently to US to present India’s case–a long forced exile. Gandhi’s lecture to Vijaya is quiet enlightening about the “Mahatma” or “Great Soul.”

    “How could you regard Syud in any other light but that of a brother – what right had you to allow yourself, even for a minute, to look with love at a Mussalman. Out of nearly twenty crores of Hindus couldn’t you find a single one who came up to your ideals – but you must pass then all over and throw yourself into the arms of a Mohammedan!!!”

    “Sarup (Nan’s given name before her marriage), had I been in your place I would never have allowed myself to have any feelings but those of friendliness towards Syud Hossain. Then supposing Syud had ever attempted to show admiration for me or had professed love for me, I would have told him gently but very firmly – Syud, what you are saying is not right. You are a Mussalman and I am a Hindu. It is not right that there should be anything between us. You shall be my brother but as a husband I cannot ever look at you.”

    In Minhaz Merchant, “Mrs Jinnah’s love jihad in Mahatma Gandhi’s time”

    Years later, both Vijaya and Hossain would meet whenever they were in the same cities abroad.

    Vijaya didn’t say, as Ruttie used to say: “Wake it up” either to Gandhi or to her father or brother Jawaharlal (first Prime Minister of independent India) — both considered progressives.
    10    Benjamin Guy Horniman was a courageous British journalist who supported India’s nationalism. He brought the Jallianwala Bagh massacre tragedy (Amritsar, Punjab on 13 April 1919) to the people of Britain and the world by smuggling photos of the tragedy out of India. There was a feeling of repulsion among the British. Just thirty seconds after entering Jallianwala Bagh, Brigadier-General R. E. H. Dyer ordered firing on an unarmed peaceful gathering without warning. The official figure listed 379 dead and more than 1,000 injured.

    Dyer was in a killing mood as the following sentence makes it crystal clear:

    “I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed.”

    Sadly, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s last foreign secretary Y. D. Gundevia has in his book In the Districts of the Raj defended Dyer, the “Butcher of Amritsar,” as “inherently decent Englishman” who had “panicked momentarily” because he was “called upon to act in an emergency.”

    Horniman was arrested and deported to London. He was able to come back to India in January 1926.

    Dyer died in 1927. The Tories, who were in power then, accorded him a hero’s funeral.
    11    Faiz’s famous poem mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na mANg (My beloved, don’t ask me for the love I once had for you) was part of the book of poems published in 1943. The other sorrows he’s talking about is misery, violence, oppression etc., whereas Jinnah’s woes were of a political nature.

    Listen to expressive reading by actress Zohra Sehgal. Jyoti Mamgain recites few lines of Faiz and then questions him with her poem as to what happened that made him turn away from love. It is powerfully written and passionately rendered.
    12    The song is a duet sung by Sudha Malhotra and Mukesh. The male lead replies thus in Mukesh’s voice:

    zindagi sirf muhabbat nahi kuchh aur bhi hai / zulf o rukhsAr ki jannat nahi kuchh aur bhi hai / bhookh aur pyAs ki mAri hui is duniyA mein / ishq hi ek haqeeqat nahi kuchh aur bhi hai / tum agar Ankh churAo to ye haq hai tumko / maine tumse hi nahi sabse muhabbat ki hai

    life is not just love, its more than that / it’s not a paradise of tresses and cheeks, its more than that / in this world full of hunger and thirst / affection is not the only truth, its more than that / you have a right to ignore me, if you want to / not only you but I also love all others

    (Listen the entire song here.)
    13    Jinnah’s daughter Dina was threatened by General Zia-ul-Haq’s government.:

    Jinnah’s daughter Dina, living in New York, was secretly asked to deny that Jinnah ever drank alcohol or ate ham, but she refused to oblige, after which she was threatened with “disclosures” about her private life if she ever made it public that she had been approached. She was never officially invited to visit Pakistan.…

    In Khaled Ahmed, “The Genius of Stanley Wolpert”

    Zia came to power after overthrowing, and later hanging, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Among the four military dictators of Pakistan, Zia was the only one who was possessed with Islam. The US governments supported him with money and weapons to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. In the process, Pakistan got over three million refugees, plenty of weapons and drugs. Prior to Zia, Pakistan was almost free of drugs.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Vietnam monk Thích Minh Tuệ debates trek through Myanmar on pilgrimage to India | Radio Free Asia


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kerala’s Healthcare Revolution: A Triumph Over Corporate Greed

    The New Indian Express reported on February 10, 2025, that Kerala has seen the closure of 99 private hospitals since 2011, citing the data from the Kerala Private Hospital Association (KPHA). The association believes this number is a conservative estimate, with the actual figure likely much higher.

    Hussain Koya Thangal, President of the Kerala Private Hospital Association (KPHA), emphasized that while the cost of treatment has remained relatively stable, the financial burden of maintaining infrastructure and running hospitals has increased significantly.

    The post Kerala’s Healthcare Revolution: A Triumph Over Corporate Greed appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • India boosts security protection for Dalai Lama

    Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan.

    India has boosted security for the Dalai Lama, adding about 30 police commandos to protect the Tibetan spiritual leader amid reports of potential security threats, according to a person familiar with the matter and Indian media reports.

    The move raises the security coverage for the 89-year-old Dalai Lama to the third-highest level, called Z-category, under the Central Reserve Police Force, or CRPF, the source told Radio Free Asia on the condition of anonymity because he wan’t authorized to speak to the media.

    Video footage of the Dalai Lama in southern India showed armed CRPF commandos around a vehicle carrying the Tibetan spiritual leader.

    Citing official sources, the Press Trust of India said the central government enhanced the Dalai Lama’s security because of “potential security threats.”

    The Indo-Asian News Service said the move was prompted by a recent Intelligence Bureau threat analysis report.

    The Indian government has upgraded the Dalai Lama’s security to Z-category, one of the highest levels of protection.

    RFA could not independently confirm these reports, and the security department of the Central Tibetan Administration — the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India — did not respond to requests for comment.

    The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, the CRPF and the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also didn’t offer any comments.

    The Dalai Lama normally lives in Dharamsala, but has been visiting a Tibetan community in southern India since Jan. 5.

    Chinese opposition

    The move comes amid growing concerns over the Dalai Lama’s safety due to China’s long-term opposition to his activities.

    Beijing is seeking to appoint the successor to the Dalai Lama, who is expected to either name his successor or provide some indication regarding his succession when he turns 90 in July.

    The vehicle transporting the Dalai Lama is guarded by members of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hunsur, Karmataka state, India, Feb. 18, 2025.
    The vehicle transporting the Dalai Lama is guarded by members of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hunsur, Karmataka state, India, Feb. 18, 2025.
    (Pema Ngodup/RFA)

    “This has led to growing desperation from the Chinese side,” senior Indian journalist and national security affairs specialist, Aditya Raj Kaul, told RFA.

    The highest level of security in India, given to the Indian prime minister and his immediate family, is called the Special Protection Group.

    Below that are the Z+ category, provided to top ministers in the central and state governments, and Z category, provided to prominent leaders and individuals based on their threat perception.

    Since the Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet into exile in India in 1959, the Indian government has assumed responsibility for his security protection, maintaining a 24-hour security patrol around his residence in Dharamsala to ensure his safety.

    Whenever the Dalai Lama travels to different parts of India, his security arrangements are overseen by the central government, with state governments coordinating protection during his visits.

    The Dalai Lama (center) is guarded by the members of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hunsur, Karmataka state, India, Feb. 18, 2025.
    The Dalai Lama (center) is guarded by the members of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hunsur, Karmataka state, India, Feb. 18, 2025.
    (Pema Ngodup/RFA)

    The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs directed the CRPF’s VIP security wing to take charge of the security for the Dalai Lama and ensure Z-category protection with around 30 CRPF commandos across the country, the Press Trust of India and other Indian media reported.

    The CRPF’s VIP security wing is provides security to individuals as assigned by the ministry, including politicians, state government ministers, governors, spiritual leaders, business tycoons and other prominent individuals.

    “Now there will be a massive security cover with commandos traveling with him in a multiple convoy and the possibility of additional state security cover,” senior Indian journalist and national security affairs specialist, Kaul, citing sources, told RFA.

    In December 2022, security at Bodh Gaya in northeast India’s Bihar state had been beefed up after an alleged threat to the Dalai Lama from a Chinese woman.

    However, the state police later clarified the incident was no threat to the Dalai Lama and that the Chinese woman had been detained and deported because she overstayed her visa.

    Translated by Tenzin Dickyi and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Kalden Lodoe, Tenzin Pema, Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • India boosts Dalai Lama’s security amid threats | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Facing online blackmail and sexual harassment, Indian women’s rights activists refuse to cower

    Santoshi is the youngest of seven siblings in a family where none of her older sisters ever went to school and all were forced into marriage. As her sisters’ lives unfolded, Santoshi understood she couldn’t follow in their footsteps. She convinced her parents to allow her to go to school, but that was the extent …

    Source

    This post was originally published on American Jewish World Service – AJWS.

  • GE Aerospace Signs Contract with Indian Air Force for T700 Engine Sustainment Solution

    GE Aerospace signed a five-year Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contract with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to provide a comprehensive sustainment solution for the T700-GE-701D engines powering the IAF’s fleet of AH-64E-I Apache helicopters. Under this contract, GE Aerospace will be responsible for the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of the T700 engines as well […]

    The post GE Aerospace Signs Contract with Indian Air Force for T700 Engine Sustainment Solution appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • MKU Reinforces its Strength in Platform Protection at Aero India

    With over 40 years of trusted experience, MKU Limited, a global leader in advanced optronics and ballistic protection solutions for soldiers and platforms, continues to set new benchmarks in delivering comprehensive lightweight armouring systems for land, air, and naval platforms. Having armoured over 1800 armoured vehicles, over 400 aircraft and over 700 naval vessels, MKU […]

    The post MKU Reinforces its Strength in Platform Protection at Aero India appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Thales-Bharat team to deliver first batch of Starstreak missiles

    India’s Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and France’s Thales have signed a contract to deliver an initial batch of Starstreak very short-range air-defence systems (VSHORADS) to the Indian Armed Forces within 2025, Thales announced on 10 February. However, the company did not disclose the number of the Starstreak missiles and associated launchers provisioned under the deal. […]

    The post Thales-Bharat team to deliver first batch of Starstreak missiles appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Farmers Launch An Indefinite Strike In India’s Karnataka State

    Thousands of farmers and agricultural workers began an indefinite protest sit-in on Monday, February 10, at Freedom Park in Bangalore, in India’s southern state of Karnataka, to oppose the ongoing corporate looting of their resources and demand economic protections.

    The farmers and agricultural workers gathered in the capital from different parts of the state under the leadership of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha affiliated with the left wing All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and other groups affiliated to All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU).

    The post Farmers Launch An Indefinite Strike In India’s Karnataka State appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Farmers Launch An Indefinite Strike In India’s Karnataka State

    Thousands of farmers and agricultural workers began an indefinite protest sit-in on Monday, February 10, at Freedom Park in Bangalore, in India’s southern state of Karnataka, to oppose the ongoing corporate looting of their resources and demand economic protections.

    The farmers and agricultural workers gathered in the capital from different parts of the state under the leadership of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha affiliated with the left wing All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and other groups affiliated to All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU).

    The post Farmers Launch An Indefinite Strike In India’s Karnataka State appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • “Quantitative Easing with Chinese Characteristics”

    China went from one of the poorest countries in the world to global economic powerhouse in a mere four decades. Currently featured in the news is DeepSeek, the free, open source A.I. built by innovative Chinese entrepreneurs which just pricked the massive U.S. A.I. bubble.

    Even more impressive, however, is the infrastructure China has built, including 26,000 miles of high speed rail, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, 100,000 miles of expressway, the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation train, the world’s largest urban metro network, seven of the world’s 10 busiest ports, and solar and wind power generation accounting for over 35% of global renewable energy capacity. Topping the list is the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure development program involving 140 countries, through which China has invested in ports, railways, highways and energy projects worldwide.

    All that takes money. Where did it come from? Numerous funding sources are named in mainstream references, but the one explored here is a rarely mentioned form of quantitative easing — the central bank just “prints the money.” (That’s the term often used, though printing presses aren’t necessarily involved.)

    From 1996 to 2024, the Chinese national money supply increased by a factor of more than 53 or 5300% — from 5.84 billion to 314 billion Chinese yuan (CNY) [see charts below]. How did that happen? Exporters brought the foreign currencies (largely U.S. dollars) they received for their goods to their local banks and traded them for the CNY needed to pay their workers and suppliers. The central bank —the Public Bank of China or PBOC — printed CNY and traded them for the foreign currencies, then kept the foreign currencies as reserves, effectively doubling the national export revenue.

    Investopedia confirms that policy, stating:

    One major task of the Chinese central bank, the PBOC, is to absorb the large inflows of foreign capital from China’s trade surplus. The PBOC purchases foreign currency from exporters and issues that currency in local yuan. The PBOC is free to publish any amount of local currency and have it exchanged for forex. … The PBOC can print yuan as needed …. [Emphasis added.]

    Interestingly, that huge 5300% explosion in local CNY did not trigger runaway inflation. In fact China’s consumer inflation rate, which was as high as 24% in 1994, leveled out after that and averaged 2.5% per year from 1996 to 2023.


    https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CHN/china/inflation-rate-cpi?form=MG0AV3

    How was that achieved? As in the U.S., the central bank engages in “open market operations” (selling federal securities into the open market, withdrawing excess cash). It also imposes price controls on certain essential commodities. According to a report by Nasdaq, China has implemented price controls on iron ore, copper, corn, grain, meat, eggs and vegetables as part of its 14th five-year plan (2021-2025), to ensure food security for the population. Particularly important in maintaining price stability, however, is that the money has gone into manufacturing, production and infrastructure. GDP (supply) has gone up with demand (money), keeping prices stable. [See charts below.]


    https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/money-supply-m2Gross Domestic Product for China (MKTGDPCNA646NWDB) | FRED | St. Louis Fed


    Gross Domestic Product for China (MKTGDPCNA646NWDB) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

    The U.S., too, has serious funding problems today, and we have engaged in quantitative easing (QE) before. Could our central bank also issue the dollars we need without triggering the dreaded scourge of hyperinflation? This article will argue that we can. But first some Chinese economic history.

    From Rags to Riches in Four Decades

    China’s rise from poverty began in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping introduced market-oriented reforms. Farmers were allowed to sell their surplus produce in the market, doors were opened to foreign investors and private businesses and foreign companies were encouraged to grow. By the 1990s, China had become a major exporter of low-cost manufactured goods. Key factors included cheap labor, infrastructure development and World Trade Organization membership in 2001.

    Chinese labor is cheaper than in the U.S. largely because the government funds or subsidizes social needs, reducing the operational costs of Chinese companies and improving workforce productivity. The government invests heavily in public transportation infrastructure, including metros, buses and high-speed rail, making them affordable for workers and reducing the costs of getting manufacturers’ products to market.

    The government funds education and vocational training programs, ensuring a steady supply of skilled workers, with government-funded technical schools and universities producing millions of graduates annually. Affordable housing programs are provided for workers, particularly in urban areas.

    China’s public health care system, while not free, is heavily subsidized by the government. And a public pension system reduces the need for companies to offer private retirement plans. The Chinese government also provides direct subsidies and incentives to key industries, such as technology, renewable energy and manufacturing.

    After it joined the WTO, China’s exports grew rapidly, generating large trade surpluses and an influx of foreign currency, allowing the country to accumulate massive foreign exchange reserves. In 2010, China surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest exporter. In the following decade, it shifted its focus to high-tech industries, and in 2013 the Belt and Road Initiative was launched. The government directed funds through state-owned banks and enterprises, with an emphasis on infrastructure and industrial development.

    Funding Exponential Growth

    In the early stages of reform, foreign investment was a key source of capital. Export earnings then generated significant foreign exchange reserves. China’s high savings rate provided a pool of liquidity for investment, and domestic consumption grew. Decentralizing the banking system was also key. According to a lecture by U.K. Prof. Richard Werner:

    Deng Xiaoping started with one mono bank. He realized quickly, scrap that; we’re going to have a lot of banks. He created small banks, community banks, savings banks, credit unions, regional banks, provincial banks. Now China has 4,500 banks. That’s the secret to success. That’s what we have to aim for. Then we can have prosperity for the whole world. Developing countries don’t need foreign money. They just need community banks supporting [local business] to have the money to get the latest technology.

    China managed to avoid the worst impacts of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. It did not devalue its currency; it maintained strict control over capital flows and the PBOC acted as a lender of last resort, providing liquidity to state-controlled banks when needed.

    In the 1990s, however, its four major state banks did suffer massive losses, with non-performing loans totaling more than 20% of their assets. Technically, the banks were bankrupt, but the government did not let them go bust. The non-performing loans were moved on to the balance sheets of four major asset management companies (“bad banks”), and the PBOC injected new capital into the “good banks.”

    In a January 2024 article titled “The Chinese Economy Is Due a Round of Quantitative Easing,” Prof. Li Wei, Director of the China Economy and Sustainable Development Center, wrote of this policy, “The central bank directly intervened in the economy by creating money. Seen this way, unconventional financing is nothing less than Chinese-style quantitative easing.”

    In an August 2024 article titled “China’s 100-billion-yuan Question: Does Rare Government Bond Purchase Alter Policy Course?,” Sylvia Ma wrote of China’s forays into QE:

    Purchasing government bonds in the secondary market is allowed under Chinese law, but the central bank is forbidden to subscribe to bonds directly issued by the finance ministry. [Note that this is also true of the U.S. Fed.] Such purchases from traders were tried on a small scale 20 years ago.

    However, the monetary authority resorted more to printing money equivalent to soaring foreign exchange reserves from 2001, as the country saw a robust increase in trade surplus following its accession to the World Trade Organization. [Emphasis added.]

    This is the covert policy of printing CNY and trading this national currency for the foreign currencies (mostly U.S. dollars) received from exporters.

    What does the PBOC do with the dollars? It holds a significant portion as foreign exchange reserves, to stabilize the CNY and manage currency fluctuations; it invests in U.S. Treasury bonds and other dollar-denominated assets to earn a return; and it uses U.S. dollars to facilitate international trade deals, many of which are conducted in dollars.

    The PBOC also periodically injects capital into the three “policy banks” through which the federal government implements its five-year plans. These are China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, and the Agricultural Development Bank of China, which provide loans and financing for domestic infrastructure and services as well as for the Belt and Road Initiative. A January 2024 Bloomberg article titled “China Injects $50 Billion Into Policy Banks in Financing Push” notes that the policy banks “are driven by government priorities more than profits,” and that some economists have called the PBOC funding injections “helicopter money” or “Chinese-style quantitative easing.”

    Prof. Li argues that with the current insolvency of major real estate developers and the rise in local government debt, China should engage in this overt form of QE today. Other commentators agree, and the government appears to be moving in that direction. Prof. Li writes:

    As long as it does not trigger inflation, quantitative easing can quickly and without limit generate sufficient liquidity to resolve debt issues and pump confidence into the market.…

    Quantitative easing should be the core of China’s macroeconomic policy, with more than 80% of funds coming from QE…

    As the central bank is the only institution in China with the power to create money, it has the ability to create a stable environment for economic growth. [Emphasis added.]

    Eighty-percent funding just from money-printing sounds pretty radical, but China’s macroeconomic policy is determined by five-year plans designed to serve the public and the economy, and the policy banks funding the plans are publicly-owned. That means profits are returned to the public purse, avoiding the sort of private financialization and speculative exploitation resulting when the U.S. Fed engaged in QE to bail out the banks after the 2007-08 banking crisis.

    The U.S. Too Could Use Another Round of QE — and Some Public Policy Banks

    There is no law against governments or their central banks just printing the national currency without borrowing it first. The U.S. Federal Reserve has done it, Abraham Lincoln’s Treasury did it, and it is probably the only way out of our current federal debt crisis. As Prof. Li observes, we can do it “without limit” so long as it does not trigger inflation.

    Financial commentator Alex Krainer observes that the total U.S. debt, public and private, comes to more than $101 trillion (citing the St. Louis Fed’s graph titled “All Sectors; Debt Securities and Loans”). But the monetary base — the reserves available to pay that debt — is only $5.6 trillion. That means the debt is 18 times the monetary base. The U.S. economy holds far fewer dollars than we need for economic stability.

    The dollar shortfall can be filled debt- and interest-free by the U.S. Treasury, just by printing dollars as Lincoln’s Treasury did (or by issuing them digitally). It can also be done by the Fed, which “monetizes” federal securities by buying them with reserves it issues on its books, then returns the interest to the Treasury and after deducting its costs. If the newly-issued dollars are used for productive purposes, supply will go up with demand, and prices should remain stable.

    Note that even social services, which don’t directly produce revenue, can be considered “productive” in that they support the “human capital” necessary for production. Workers need to be healthy and well educated in order to build competitively and well, and the government needs to supplement the social costs borne by companies if they are to compete with China’s subsidized businesses.

    Parameters would obviously need to be imposed to circumscribe Congress’s ability to spend “without limit,” backed by a compliant Treasury or Fed. An immediate need is for full transparency in budgeted expenditures. The Pentagon, for example, spends nearly $1 trillion of our taxpayer money annually and has never passed a clean audit, as required by law.

    We Sorely Need an Infrastructure Bank

    The U.S. is one of the few developed countries without an infrastructure bank. Ironically, it was Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury secretary, who developed the model. Winning freedom from Great Britain left the young country with what appeared to be an unpayable debt. Hamilton traded the debt and a percentage of gold for non-voting shares in the First U.S. Bank, paying a 6% dividend. This capital was then leveraged many times over into credit to be used specifically for infrastructure and development. Based on the same model, the Second U.S. Bank funded the vibrant economic activity of the first decades of the United States.

    In the 1930s, Roosevelt’s government pulled the country out of the Great Depression by repurposing a federal agency called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) into a lending machine for development on the Hamiltonian model. Formed under the Hoover administration, the RFC was not actually an infrastructure bank but it acted like one. Like China Development Bank, it obtained its liquidity by issuing bonds.

    The primary purchaser of RFC bonds was the federal government, driving up the federal debt; but the debt to GDP ratio evened out over the next four decades, due to the dramatic increase in productivity generated by the RFC’s funding of the New Deal and World War II. That was also true of the federal debt after the American Revolution and the Civil War.


    One chart that tells the story of US debt from 1790 to 2011

    A pending bill for an infrastructure bank on the Hamiltonian model is HR 4052, The National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2023, which ended 2024 with 48 sponsors and was endorsed by dozens of legislatures, local councils, and organizations. Like the First and Second U.S. Banks, it is intended to be a depository bank capitalized with existing federal securities held by the private sector, for which the bank will pay an additional 2% over the interest paid by the government. The bank will then leverage this capital into roughly 10 times its value in loans, as all depository banks are entitled to do. The bill proposes to fund $5 trillion in infrastructure capitalized over a 10-year period with $500 billion in federal securities exchanged for preferred (non-voting) stock in the bank. Like the RFC, the bank will be a source of off-budget financing, adding no new costs to the federal budget. (For more information, see https://www.nibcoalition.com/.)

    Growing Our Way Out of Debt

    Rather than trying to kneecap our competitors with sanctions and tariffs, we can grow our way to prosperity by turning on the engines of production. Far more can be achieved through cooperation than through economic warfare. DeepSeek set the tone with its free, open source model. Rather than a heavily guarded secret, its source code is freely available to be shared and built upon by entrepreneurs around the world.

    We can pull off our own economic miracle, funded with newly issued dollars backed by the full faith and credit of the government and the people. Contrary to popular belief, “full faith and credit” is valuable collateral, something even Bitcoin and gold do not have. It means the currency will be accepted everywhere – not just at the bank or the coin dealer’s but at the grocer’s and the gas station. If the government directs newly created dollars into new goods and services, supply will grow along with demand and the currency should retain its value. The government can print, pay for workers and materials, and produce its way into an economic renaissance.

    The post “Quantitative Easing with Chinese Characteristics” first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Activism Through the Artist’s Lens: The Other Side of Paradise

    This post was originally published on American Jewish World Service – AJWS.

  • “The private is political”: horizontality of fundamental rights as an antidote for trans discrimination

    Rising reports of discrimination against transgender persons reveal entrenched transphobia in our society. While some fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution extend to private entities, this duality in enforcement raises a critical question: can horizontal application of fundamental rights address such discrimination? Drawing on trans-feminist critique, Aparna Bhatnagar argues that transphobia, as a manifestation of “Brahminism”, confines transgender individuals to stigmatised occupations, perpetuating unchecked discrimination.

    Current jurisprudential stance on horizontal application of fundamental rights in India

    The concept of the horizontal application of fundamental rights is not alien to the Indian constitutional framework. In several cases, the Indian Supreme Court has held private parties accountable for violating fundamental rights, especially in relation to social and economic issues. For example, in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, the Court held tanneries responsible for polluting the Ganga River, illustrating that private entities can be held liable for actions that infringe upon fundamental rights. Similarly, in Society for Unaided Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India, the Court held that non-State actors are obligated to provide free and compulsory education to children. This extended the scope of obligations beyond the State, reflecting the broader reach of fundamental rights to include private individuals and organizations.

    In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the Court explained that while common law rights can be enforced against private individuals, constitutional rights are usually enforced against the State. However, some rights can exist both as common law rights and as fundamental rights. The majority in this case agreed that the right to life and privacy under Article 21 is one such right, meaning it can be invoked not only against the State but also against private individuals. More recently, in Kaushal Kishor v. State of UP, the Court confirmed that Articles 19 and 21 can apply to private entities, suggesting that other fundamental rights could also extend beyond the State. The Court’s reasoning was that if a fundamental right isn’t solely tied to the State, it can be naturally extended to private actors. In other words, the lack of explicit mention of horizontality in the Constitution shouldn’t be viewed as a restriction, but as room for its possible application. The Court in Kaushal Kishor, quoting Justice Anand in Nilabati Behera v State of Orissa stated that “the purpose of public law is not only to civilise public power but also to assure the citizen that they live under a system which aims to protect their interests and preserve their rights”. This provides a strong justification for the horizontal application of constitutional rights.

    Brahminism, transphobia and everything in between

    In the context of transgender persons in India, this institutional approach is particularly relevant due to the significant power imbalances they encounter. Dalit trans feminist writer Living Smile Vidya has poignantly described transphobia as a form of “brahminism” that relegates transgender individuals to marginalised and stigmatised occupations, such as sex work and begging. Upper caste trans women visit houses for “badhai” (blessing ceremonies), while middle castes are involved in asking for alms, and lower castes typically take up sex work. This is a direct result of the caste system’s intersection with gender identity. The ideology of Brahminism enforces a rigid structure that excludes individuals who don’t fit the dominant caste categories, and trans individuals, especially those from Dalit and Adivasi communities, find themselves doubly oppressed. Adding to this historical burden, Jeffrey Gettleman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, notes that Victorian England’s strict moral codes, which criminalised “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, amplified India’s discomfort with homosexuality and transgender identities during British colonial rule.

    This institutionalised discrimination results in systemic denial of employment opportunities, constituting a violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. Importantly, in September 2022, a Supreme Court bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli directed the Centre to formulate a policy ensuring equal employment opportunities for transgender persons. This order followed a plea by Shanavi Ponnuswamy, who challenged Air India’s decision to deny her a cabin crew position because of her gender identity. In its ruling, the Supreme Court also emphasised that transphobia, leading to denial of employment opportunities for transgender individuals, violates their right to life under Article 21.

    Towards an “institutional approach” of horizontality of fundamental rights in India

    It is universally accepted that some form of horizontality is desired in contemporary constitutional setups. Legal scholar Gautam Bhatia has criticised the “default verticality” prevalent in the Indian judiciary’s approach. Bhatia advocates for an “institutional approach” where constitutional rights should be applied between private parties in specific contexts. This approach is justified when: (a) an institution (social, economic, or cultural) is pervasive and difficult to exit, such as the labour market or the family; (b) the institution creates and maintains a power imbalance between the parties involved; and (c) this power imbalance allows one party to infringe upon the rights of the other.

    The critical question that arises is whether this horizontal application of fundamental rights can be extended to address discrimination faced by transgender individuals by private parties. The oft-quoted slogan “the personal is political“, attributed to feminist scholar Carol Hanisch, emphasises that the lived experiences of marginalised communities in the private sphere reflect systemic injustices they face. The adoption of an institutional approach offers a promising solution to the pervasive discrimination faced by transgender individuals, ensuring that protections are not limited to interactions with the state but also encompass interactions with private entities. As we move forward, it is crucial to dismantle the façade that cloaks the “politics of the personal“, which frequently serves to protect increasingly powerful private entities from scrutiny. The institutional horizontality approach allows for a more equitable and just society, where systemic discrimination is actively challenged and marginalised communities are afforded the protection and respect they deserve.

    All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Department of Sociology, LSE Human Rights, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    Image credit: Alexander Grey

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • India revokes nonprofit and tax status of news outlets

    New Delhi, Feb 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Indian government to end its weaponization of regulatory measures targeting independent journalism following a decision to revoke The Reporters’ Collective’s nonprofit status and the tax exempt status of The File.

    “Journalism is a public service. The Indian government should not abuse regulatory processes to target investigative journalism,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The government must immediately reverse these orders against The Reporters’ Collective and The File, which could set a dangerous precedent for other non-profit media in India and severely undermine public interest journalism.”

    The Reporters’ Collective (TRC) said in a January 28 statement that the loss of its nonprofit status “severely impairs” its ability to do work and “worsens the conditions” for independent journalism in the country.

    The revocation of a nonprofit status means entities will be taxed as a commercial entity, subjecting donations to taxation, which could discourage potential funding. The tax could potentially be applied retrospectively. TRC is known for its investigative reporting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling government, ranging from corruption, government accountability, to allegations of corporate cronyism, and unethical business practices against the Adani Group, one of India’s wealthiest conglomerates.

    The directive against TRC follows a disturbing pattern of financial and legal pressures on independent media. In December 2024, the Bengaluru-based Kannada website The File, which has conducted investigations into all political parties in the southwestern state of Karnataka, also faced a similar tax order, which was reviewed by CPJ. The order revoked its tax exemptions, deeming its activities commercially oriented despite its public interest reporting.`

    In February 2023, income tax authorities in India searched BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai as part of an income-tax investigation, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary critical of Modi.

    CPJ contacted the commissioner of Central Board of Direct Taxes and the exemption commissioner in Delhi and tax authorities in Bangalore about TRC and The File’s cases but did not receive responses.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Livin’ La Vida Loca

    Waking up, day after day, and seeing continuous disasters visited upon the Palestinian people forecasts a day of facing the light at an increasingly dark level. It is impossible to be unaware of the genocide; yet an entire nation reinforces it. The American people are disposed to the sufferings its government inflicts upon others.

    Election of an authoritarian to the highest office, who appoints cabinet positions with qualifications that require little experience in government affairs and extensive experience in extramarital affairs, completes the mystification. Elise Stefanik, selected as America’s representative to the United Nations, agrees to the proposition that “Israel has a biblical right to the West Bank.” Shuddering! Doesn’t qualification for a cabinet position require knowledge that the bible does not determine right and that the Earth is round and not flat? Hopefully, UN security guards will bar entry of her and other vocal terrorists into the UN building.

    Maintaining the Declaration of Independence and Constitution will be a battle. Refusing to have the Old Testament on a night table and the Ten Commandments on the living room wall will be challenging . Knowing that America is in a dystopia, “livin’ a vida loca,” will be difficult to absorb. These are not the principal problems that prevent America from being great again. The principal problem in the United States is a government that has been unable to resolve its problems. For decades, a multitude of problems have surfaced, talked about, and been ignored. Suggestions for solutions are cast aside as empty words ─ U.S. governments are only interested in donor offerings and contributing lobbyists; attention to the people’s problems is time consuming and not remunerative.

    Look at the extensive record of problems, which has been growing for decades and have some obvious solutions. After these crisp answers, I might elaborate on them in forthcoming articles.

    (1) Social Security
    The ready to collapse Social Security system has present earners paying for retired workers and closely resembles a national pension plan. Instead of having workers and corporations pay FICA taxes, why not collect revenue from income and corporation taxes and finance a real national pension plan?

    (2) Gun Violence
    Decades of gun violence and shootings in schools have been succeeded by decades of gun violence and shootings in schools. An idea ─ get rid of the guns; nobody will miss them.

    (3) Climate Change
    In the 1964 presidential contest between Senator Goldwater and President Johnson, Goldwater posed as the “war hawk,” ready to pounce on the North Vietnamese. Johnson’s famous phrase was, “I’ll not have American boys do what Vietnamese boys should do.” After Johnson won the presidency and had “American boys do what Vietnamese boys should do,” Goldwater voters reminded everyone, “They told me if I voted for Goldwater our military intervention in Vietnam would greatly increase. I voted for Goldwater and they were correct.”

    In all elections, voters are reminded that voting Republican enhances global warming. In all elections that the Democrats won, those who voted Republican noted that global warming continued to increase.

    (4) Government debt
    Mention government debt and blood boils ─ another of those internalized issues, courtesy of the mind manipulators. Government debt is the result of problems and not the problem. The problems are (1) Income taxes are too low to finance meaningful government projects; (2) The military spending is too high and; (3) The economy runs on debt and government debt rescues a faltering economy. Give attention to the real problems and government debt will be greatly reduced.

    (5) War
    Since its official inception in 1789, the United States has attached itself to war in almost every day of its existence. Not widely mentioned and not widely apparent, U.S. forces are still shooting it up in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and parts of Africa. U.S. arms explode throughout the world. U.S. involvement in the genocide of the Palestinian people is inescapable. Americans do not know they prosper on the degradation of others and they survive well because others do not survive at all. While intending to end all wars, President Trump may learn that the U.S. cannot progress without war; war is a preventive for economic and social collapse in all 50 states.

    (6) Immigration
    Immigration to the United States has become a political football. Political correctness, catering to voters, and ultra-Right nationalism vs. ultra-Left internationalism have strangled an intelligent and objective analysis of a major issue, which is not immigration. The major issue is that the U.S. has supported oligarchies in Latin American nations. These oligarchies have created significant social and economic problems, which the disenfranchised relieve by fleeing to America’s shores. Uncontrolled emigration to the United States skews nations from their natural growth and conveniently deters them from seeking approaches to resolve their problems. The U.S. contributes to the emigration problem and should resolve the problem and not perpetuate it. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for all countries, including the United States, if the Latinos did not have the urge to emigrate?

    (7) International terrorism
    The September 11, 2001 attack – the first aerial bombings on American soil – compelled the United States government to wage a War on Terrorism. After more than twenty years of this battle, the U.S. has neither won the war nor totally contained terrorism; just the opposite ─ terrorism has grown in size, geographical extent, and power. Observe Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and all of North Africa. One reason for this contradiction is obvious; the initial source of international terrorism is Israel’s terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. blends its battle against terrorism with preservation of American global interests. Each blended component contradicts the other and creates confusing missions in the U.S. War on Terrorism.

    (8) Economy
    A roller coaster American economy of accelerated growth and gasping recessions flattened itself with slow but steady growth in the Democratic administrations that succeeded the George W. Bush recession. Now we have Donald J. Trump, who claims he had the greatest economy ever, when all presidents had, in their times, the greatest economy ever, and previous administrations had more rapid growth and captured much more of world production. By proposing lower taxes, lower interest rates, and blistering tariffs, Trump is heading the U.S. into massive speculation, heightened debt, increased inflation, a falling dollar, and a return to a 19th century economy of robber barons, boom-and-bust, financial bankruptcies, and a drastic “beggar thy neighbor” policy. His sink China policy will sink the United States. America will no longer have friendly neighbors and might become the beggar.

    (9) Racism
    The United States consists of a mixture of several cultures and has no unique culture. People feel comfortable in their own culture and attach themselves to others and to institutions that reflect that culture. In a competitive society, this extends to gaining economic advantage and security by dominating other cultures. Social, political, and economic agendas use racism to promote this strategy and maintain domination.

    Competition between cultures, manifested as racism, is built into the American socio-economic system. Political, legal, and educational methods have ameliorated racism and have not abolished its corrosive effects. Slow progress to an integrated and unified culture, decades away, might finally resolve the problem of racism.

    (10) Health Care
    Health care is posed as a financial problem, insufficient funds to treat all equally. Health care is a socio-economic problem, where statistics show that nations having the most unequal distribution of income have the most maladjusted health care. More equal distribution of income is a key to adequate health care for all.

    (11) Political Divide
    Connie Morella, previous representative from Maryland’s 8th congressional district, enjoyed saying, “I sit and serve in the people’s house,” a phrase echoed by many congressionals. No people or sitters exist in the “people’s house.” Representatives stand for the special interest groups, Lobbies, and Political Action Committees (PAC) that donate to their campaigns and assure their return to office. The two political Parties stand united against the wants of the other and the political divide leads to political stagnation. Whatever Gilda wants, Gilda does not get. America coasts on a frictionless surface of contracting previous legislation and inaction, which is its preferred method of government.

    (12) Foreign Policy
    All administrations, the present included, have had foreign policies driven by two words, “empire expansion.” Until now, the U.S. has sought markets and resources and financed the expansion from its own banks. Donald trump seeks expansion by real estate maneuvers and seeks to have foreign sources finance the expansion. This emperor has no clothes and will bankrupt the U.S. in the same manner as he bankrupted his real estate enterprises.

    (13) Drug Addiction
    The epidemic drug addiction problem summarizes the attention given to most other national problems — despite a century of organized efforts to subdue the problem, “New numbers show drug abuse is getting worse across the country and in every community. Overdose deaths have never been higher and opioids and synthetic drugs are major contributors to the rising numbers.” President Nixon popularized the term “war on drugs,” but his administration’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 had an antecedent in the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914.

    Blaming China for supplying fentanyl ingredients to Mexican manufacturers, only one part of the total drug economy, does not change the source of the drug addiction and provides no resolution to the problem. Looking elsewhere, at nations where drug addiction is minor or has been alleviated is a start. Japan has a “strong social stigma against drug use, and some of the strictest drug laws globally; Iceland responded to high rates of teen substance abuse with “a comprehensive program that included increased funding for organized sports, music, and art programs, as well as a strictly enforced curfew for teens;” Singapore’s “notoriously strict drug laws have resulted in some of the lowest addiction rates in the world, including a zero-tolerance approach to drug use and trafficking, with mandatory death penalties for certain drug offenses;” Sweden “combines strict laws with a comprehensive rehabilitation approach in a ‘caring society’ model that emphasizes treatment and social support over punishment. Time Magazine recommends another approach.

    …history exposes the truth: the drug war isn’t winnable, as the Global Commission on Drug Policy stated in 2011. And simply legalizing marijuana is not enough. Instead only a wholesale rethinking of drug policy—one that abandons criminalization and focuses on true harm reduction, not coercive rehabilitation—can begin to undo the damage of decades of a misguided “war.”

    Skewing the GDP
    Replacing a building destroyed in a catastrophe augments the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in four ways — housing and helping those affected by the catastrophe, responding to mitigating the catastrophe, tearing down the destroyed home, and building a new home. The GDP benefits from the continual and unresolved problems.

    • Opioid cases generated a cost estimated at $1.5 trillion in the United States for the year 2010.
    • Gun violence generates over $1 billion in direct health care costs for victims and their families each year.
    • Climate change during 2011-2020 decade cost $1.5T in losses (Ed: might be debatable).
    • Health care costs are almost 20 percent of GDP.
    • The Defense budget for 2025 is $850 billion.

    In the disturbing world that is characterizing the United States, a combination of political stagnation, misdirection action, and low level of intellect and knowledge prevents solutions to recurring problems. American nationalists boast about having the highest GDP, not realizing that the boast uses tragedy to disguise more significant tragedies — moral, political, and economic decay of the once mighty USA.

    Upside, inside, out
    She’s livin’ la vida loca

    She’ll push and pull you down
    Livin’ la vida loca

    Her lips are devil red
    And her skin’s the color of mocha
    She will wear you out
    Livin’ la vida loca

    Livin’ la vida loca
    She’s livin’ la vida loca.

    The post Livin’ La Vida Loca first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Despite NBDSA order, News18 India does not take down offending bits from debate on Arvind Kejriwal

    In an order dated January 24, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) directed News18 India, a channel affiliated with Mukesh Ambani-led Network18, to remove offensive sections from a controversial debate aired on its channel last year.

    The debate featured in an episode of the popular segment ‘Goonj with Rubika Liyaquat’ and aired on News18 India on March 28, 2024. The topic of discussion was alleged corruption by the Aam Aadmi Party following the arrest of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the on March 21, 2024 over charges of corruption and money laundering in the now-scrapped liquor policy.

    The NBDSA is an independent self-regulatory body which monitors news content in the broadcast and digital mediums. It was of the opinion that the programme and the way its anchor Rubika Liyaquat conducted the debate violated its guidelines on neutrality and “attributed guilt in a matter that is sub judice”.

    The NBDSA gave the channel seven days (up to January 31) to comply and make edits to this episode. However, as of February 3, Alt News found that News18 India had not removed these “offending portions” and the episode in its entirety was available online for all to see.

    Why did the NBDSA issue this order?

    Action by the NBDSA came after Pune-based activist Indrajeet Ghorpade’s complaint against the show and its anchor, Liyaquat. Ghorpade, in a formal complaint dated April 1, 2024, said that the channel justified the “falsehood promoted by the BJP spokesperson, who said the courts have found the Delhi CM guilty”.

    During the debate, around the 7:58-minute mark, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala wrongly claimed that the court said Kejriwal cannot be granted any relief because he committed a “scam”. Note that Kejriwal was indicted or accused of executing the excise policy and allegedly laundering money from it, the court had not convicted him in the case. He was arrested for skipping Enforcement Directorate summons nine times. Liyaquat, however, does not correct Poonawala.

     

    Additionally, throughout the programme, Liyaquat uses phrases that imply Kejriwal was guilty and convicted. Around the 14:30-minute time stamp, responding to the AAP spokesperson, Liyaquat says questioning the ED was bizarre and that the party should “admit” that the truth had been exposed.

    In another instance, she says “Agar bhrashtachar nahi hiya hota aur itne bade aarop nahi lagte, toh main keh deti ki aap jo keh rahen hai usme dum hai.” (“Had your party not committed corruption, such grave charges were not levelled against you, I would have said what you are saying has substance.”)

     

    Not just that, Ghorpade’s complaint says that Liyaquat’s defence of the prime minister almost indicates a partisan attitude. This can be seen around the 37:25-minute mark of the debate, where Liyaquat subjects viewers to a bitter diatribe against Samajwadi Party spokesperson, Ameeque Jamei for calling Modi a corrupt Prime Minister. When Jamei accuses Modi of running a national-level extortion racket through the Electoral Bonds scheme (which has since been decreed unconstitutional) as well as the ED, Liyaquat angrily demands that he maintain etiquette and decorum while talking about the country’s Prime Minister. Modi, she insinuates, must be respected for the sole reason that he is the country’s Prime Minister. She then challenges the speaker to prove that Modi is corrupt. “I will defend the Prime Minister of my country—why wouldn’t I?” she says.

     

    She then implicates the speaker as being a stooge of the opposition party, levelling the defamatory accusation that he receives monetary benefit from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to turn a blind eye towards corruption by her.  “Are you on Mamata didi’s payroll? He (Narendra Modi) is the Prime Minister of my country. Like I respect your Akhilesh Yadav, won’t you respect the Prime Minister of the country? You hate that man so much that you don’t even respect his chair. This (hate) is what is drowning you. The hate inside you is eating you up, and you don’t even know it. Are you on Didi’s payroll? Is she giving you money? You say what you want about the Bharatiya Janata Party, but don’t say anything against my country’s Prime Minister. You speak against any politician you want, but don’t say anything against my Prime Minister. You say what you want to the politicians. You are filled with hate, and this hate will consume you.”

    “I will certainly defend the Prime Minister of the country, taal thok ke, I will defend him. No mai ka laal can stop me. Is that clear?” Rubika exclaims. What makes this even more convoluted is the fact that this debate programme had been aired less than a month before the commencement of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

     

    News18 India submitted its reponses against Ghorpade’s complaints to the NBDSA on April 11, 2024. It outright denied that the episode in any way implied or attributed guilt to Kejriwal and said that Liyaquat was merely raising questions as part of her “journalistic duty” without violating “principles of impartiality”.

    However, the NBDSA found that Liyaquat’s phrasing and conduct during the debate did violate Specific Guidelines for Reporting Court Proceedings (as laid down by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority) and the principle of neutrality under the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards. The regulatory body, in its order, said that “the anchor had attributed guilt in a matter that is sub judice”.

    The NBDSA also observed that this section was violative of the judgment of the Bombay High Court in Nilesh Navlakha & Anr. vs UOl & Ors (2021) SCC Online BOM 56, which held that the right to freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by media broadcasters cannot trump the right to fair information enjoyed by the citizenry. As such, media houses must have an adequate protocol for publishing information, especially on sensitive court proceedings to ensure that their reporting does not hamper the ongoing investigation in any way.

    News18 India also said that Liyaquat’s defence of the Prime Minister did not violate any guidelines and that it was the natural reaction of an “ordinary citizen” against someone using “objectionable language” for someone occupying one of the highest constitutional posts in the country.

    Ghorpade’s complaint said that Liyaquat’s conduct and defence of Modi fed into the larger narrative that anyone criticising the government was a traitor and anti-national.

    The NBDSA found that Liyaquat’s behaviour did violate the Code of Conduct. It said that while the anchor was well within her rights in defending the Prime Minister, she should have exercised restraint and maintained a professional tone to ensure that the discussion did not retract from a meaningful debate.

    Not the first time

    It is interesting to note that this is not the first time the NBDSA has flagged News18 India’s content. Alt News previously reported on several violations, including one such instance from November 2024, where the NBDSA had issued a warning to the broadcaster for airing an interview with Hindu seer Dhirendra Shastri, also known as Baba Bageshwar, on July 10, 2024. Shastri had made communally divisive statements and encouraged the conspiracy on ‘love jihad’, violating specific guidelines on reportage related to Racial and Religious Harmony, as well as the guidelines on Supernatural, Occultism, and Paranormal content, as laid down by the NBDSA.

    In February 2024, the NBDSA had fined the broadcaster Rs 50,000 for stereotyping the Muslim community as barbaric and perpetuating the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy in the case of Shraddha Walker, who was killed by her partner in Delhi and later hacked to pieces.

    In 2023, News18 India was fined Rs 25,000 by the NBDSA for having vilified the Muslim community and celebrating extrajudicial violence against Muslim men.

    In October 2022, News18 India was slapped with a Rs 50,000 fine for associating Muslim female protestors with terrorism. Along  an order for the news cwith the fine, the NBDSA ordered the channel to train its anchor Aman Chopra on how to host debates on sensitive issues.

    In June 2022, News18 India was asked to take down a fake video that perpetuated the conspiracy of ‘thook jihad’, which had been broadcast in 2021.

    Repeated violations of the NBDSA guidelines is testimony to the fact that News18 India has compromised its journalistic spirit in favour of an almost partisan take. It does this by lecturing and castigating speakers from the opposition parties, as well as clamping down on any oppositional views and critiques of the Prime Minister. Moreover, the channel has frequently amplified misinformation as well as run smear campaigns on Opposition parties.

    The post Despite NBDSA order, News18 India does not take down offending bits from debate on Arvind Kejriwal appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • India’s BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile A Key to Pacific Anti-Access

    In April, the Philippines Navy received its first BrahMos ground launched cruise anti-ship missile, ordered in a US$275 million January 2022 contract and to be employed by its Marines as the Land Based Weapon System (LBWS) in April 2025. Recently the Philippines Army has indicted its own interest to acquire as many as additional nine […]

    The post India’s BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile A Key to Pacific Anti-Access appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Farmers Organize Tractor Rallies Across India

    Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and other farmers’ groups carried out tractor parades in areas across India on the country’s Republic Day on Sunday, January 26. Their national mobilization was in an effort to continue putting pressure on the central government to respond to their demands.

    The demands of farmers include a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all farm produce, the withdrawal of the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM), the withdrawal of all pending cases against farmer leaders, and loan waivers for farmers and farm workers, among others.

    The post Farmers Organize Tractor Rallies Across India appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Till consent do us part: the Marital Rape Exception and India’s constitutional deficit

    As the Indian Supreme Court prepares to hear the landmark case challenging India’s Marital Rape Exception, Kanaksha Kataria discusses how this colonial-era law violates a multitude of constitutional rights. Drawing on leading constitutional frameworks, she argues the legal immunity granted to husbands creates a sanctioned hierarchy of oppression that fundamentally undermines married women’s constitutional rights to equality, dignity, and bodily autonomy. 

    The Marital Rape Exception (MRE) in Indian criminal law stands as one of the most patriarchal yet contentious vestiges of colonial jurisprudence. MRE exemplifies the deep contradiction between conventional patriarchal norms and basic constitutional guarantees of equality, dignity and autonomy. As the Supreme Court prepares to address this issue in Hrikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka, the fundamental question emerges yet again: can the legal immunity granted to husbands for non-consensual sexual acts within marriage withstand constitutional scrutiny?

    This analysis evaluates the constitutional invalidity of MRE via several lenses. First, drawing on Tarunabh Khaitan’s framework of discrimination law, it is argued that MRE fails the stringent standards of Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. Second, it is argued that MRE transgresses beyond equality provisions and ruthlessly undermines married women’s rights to dignity, personal liberty, and freedom from exploitation under Articles 19, 21, and 23.

    Neoteric jurisprudential developments make the MRE’s constitutional position progressively untenable. The Supreme Court’s interpretations in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (decriminalising consensual same-sex relations) and Joseph Shine v. Union of India (decriminalising adultery) have signalled progressive shifts, bolstering the constitutional foundation for personal autonomy and sexual agency. Yet, the existence of MRE creates a paradoxical constitutional framework where married women possess fewer rights over their bodily autonomy than their unmarried counterparts. This legal matrix creates a sanctioned hierarchy of oppression by actively perpetuating a hierarchal regime of rights protections, effectively institutionalising gender-based discrimination.

    The persistence of this legally sanctioned hierarchy is understood through Rochana Bajpai’s concept of the “normative deficit” in the Indian constitutional framework. While Bajpai originally developed this argument to analyse group-differentiated rights, its application to MRE reveals why orthodox and constitutionally infirm value systems continue to undermine fundamental protections.

    Violations of Article 14: the Right to Equality and Non-discrimination

    MRE violates this principle by creating an arbitrary distinction between married and unmarried women when it comes to sexual autonomy and protection from sexual violence. To analyse the unconstitutionality of the MRE under Article 14, one must apply the two well-established tests: (1) the reasonable classification test, and (2) the arbitrariness test.

    1. The test of reasonable classification
    Under this test, a law must satisfy two conditions:

    • The classification must be based on an intelligible differential.
    • There must be a rational nexus between the differentia and the object sought to be achieved by the law.

    A. Intelligible differentia
    Intelligible differentia denotes a criterion to test reasonable classification. It is a lucid and discernible ground that distinguishes one group of people or situations from another for legislative purposes. It is the parameter which justifies treating groups distinctly. MRE classifies women based on their marital status. It distinguishes between married and unmarried women. This classification is prima facie based on intelligible differentia. It recognises the status of marriage as a legal relationship distinct from other relationships. So, it makes a clear distinction between married women and unmarried women regarding sexual intercourse and consent.

    B. Rational nexus
    However, the differentia must not only be intelligible, but it must also bear a rational connection to the object of the law. The object of rape laws, as defined under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, is to protect a woman’s bodily integrity and sexual autonomy by criminalising non-consensual sexual intercourse. MRE undermines this objective by exempting husbands from prosecution for non-consensual sexual acts within marriage. This exemption does not serve the goal of protecting women from sexual violence. Instead, it creates a legal loophole where a woman’s consent is devalued simply because of her marital status i.e. her relationship with the very perpetrator of the crime.

    The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that laws failing to achieve their stated objectives are unconstitutional. In State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar and EP Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, the Court emphasised that the classification must have a rational nexus to the purpose of the law. In this case, the object of protecting women from sexual violence is undermined by the distinction based on marital status, as MRE excludes married women from the same legal protections available to unmarried women. Thus, it violates the core tenets of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.

    C. Strict scrutiny
    MRE should be subject to the strict scrutiny standard because it involves a fundamental right – the right to bodily autonomy and sexual integrity under Article 21. When a law infringes upon fundamental rights, the courts are required to apply strict scrutiny, which requires that the law:

    • Must have a compelling state interest, and
    • Must be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest in the least restrictive way.

    In this case, the purported compelling state interest is the preservation of the sanctity of marriage. However, this interest cannot justify the violation of a woman’s fundamental right to bodily autonomy. The preservation of marriage cannot be elevated above an individual’s fundamental right to consent or refuse sexual intercourse. In other words, the object of “preserving marriages” based on patriarchal notions cannot override constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. As the Supreme Court held in Shayara Bano v. Union of India, laws that operate on patriarchal assumptions about women’s roles in marriage are inherently discriminatory and violate constitutional principles of equality.

    Further, the law is not narrowly tailored to achieve its objective. Even if protecting the institution of marriage is considered a legitimate interest, MRE is an overly broad measure. Instead of addressing the complexities of marital relationships through other legal mechanisms, MRE gives blanket immunity to husbands. Here stripping married women of their fundamental right to bodily integrity is overlooked and in turn, criminal impunity is extended. Under strict scrutiny, this law would clearly fail because it is neither justified by a compelling interest nor narrowly tailored to achieve that interest without infringing on fundamental rights.

    2. The test of arbitrariness
    As established in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and EP Royappa, arbitrariness is antithetical to equality under Article 14. A law is arbitrary when it acts irrationally, disproportionately, or without a proper guiding principle. MRE creates an arbitrary distinction between married and unmarried women by assuming that married women, by their marital status, have consented to all future sexual acts with their husbands.

    This assumption of irrevocable consent is rooted in patriarchal norms that view marriage as a license for the husband’s unchecked control over the wife’s body. Such an outdated notion is arbitrary because it disregards the evolving understanding of marriage as a partnership between equals, where both parties retain their autonomy. By treating sexual consent within marriage differently than outside marriage, MRE operates irrationally, disproportionately impacting married women and denying them the equal protection of the law. This implies that legally such women are not victims of sexual abuse simply because the perpetrator is their husband.

    As Justice Nariman explained in Shayara Bano, manifest arbitrariness includes laws that operate disproportionately and without adequate guiding principles. MRE allows married women to be subjected to sexual violence without legal recourse, which clearly meets the definition of manifest arbitrariness. It is excessive, irrational, and fails to recognise married women as autonomous individuals deserving of equal protection under the law.

    Violations of Article 15: Prohibition of Discrimination
    MRE also violates Article 15(1) of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex. Khaitan’s work provides a framework for understanding how the MRE discriminates against women by reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes and creating an unequal legal regime for married women.

    1. Anti stereotyping principle
    The anti-stereotyping principle, as highlighted in Anuj Garg and Navtej Singh Johar, prohibits laws that are based on gendered stereotypes. The MRE rests on the archaic notion that women, once married, implicitly consent to sexual relations with their husbands in semper. This perpetuates the stereotype of women as submissive sexual partners who are bound by the norms of marriage. It reinforces the damaging stereotype that marriage strips women of their individuality, compelling them to sacrifice even their most fundamental rights in the name of preserving peace.

    By allowing husbands to act on these stereotypes with impunity, MRE effectively reduces the married woman’s sexual autonomy to that of her husband’s property, violating the anti-stereotyping principle under Article 15. The concept of marital consent as irrevocable and automatic has no place in a modern constitutional framework based on equality and autonomy.

    2. Intersectionality and gender discrimination
    Khaitan also emphasises the importance of considering intersectionality when analysing gender-based discrimination. In this context, MRE discriminates against women based not just on their gender but also on their marital status. Married women are subjected to a higher threshold of rights violations due to their gender and their relationship status resulting in multi-dimensional discrimination. The Court’s evolving jurisprudence on equality, especially in Joseph Shine, highlights how patriarchy and marriage norms have historically suppressed women’s autonomy, and how such suppression cannot be constitutionally justified under Article 15.

    The broader constitutional implications: Articles 19, 21, and 23
    The constitutional violations stemming from MRE extend beyond Articles 14 and 15. Article 19(1)(a) protects personal expression, which includes sexual autonomy. By legally depriving married women of their right to say “no,” MRE silences a critical aspect of self-expression. Additionally, Article 21’s guarantee of life and personal liberty has been liberally construed to include dignity and bodily integrity (per Maneka Gandhi, Puttaswamy etc). MRE, by stripping married women of autonomy over their bodies, violates this essential right to live with dignity. Further, Article 23’s prohibition against forced labour jurisprudentially extends to situations where coercion is social, economic, or legal. When women are legally compelled to engage in non-consensual sexual acts, the law becomes complicit in enabling a form of forced labour within the home, undermining constitutional protections against servitude.

    The proportionality test: why MRE fails judicial scrutiny
    India’s judicial system frequently applies the proportionality test to assess restrictions on fundamental rights, requiring that such measures serve a legitimate aim and are necessary and proportionate to achieving that aim. MRE, purportedly intended to preserve the sanctity of marriage, cannot be justified by this rationale. As seen in Shayara Bano, preserving patriarchal norms cannot override the fundamental rights to equality and autonomy. Moreover, less restrictive measures – such as promoting mutual respect within marriage – could achieve the same objectives without infringing on a woman’s autonomy.

    MRE and the “normative deficit” in Indian law
    Rochana Bajpai’s argument on group-differentiated rights is a viable theoretical lens to examine MRE. Bajpai’s theory sheds light on why certain profound constitutional guarantees remain unrealised despite their formal recognition. MRE epitomises what Bajpai calls a “normative deficit”- a lack of established and reasoned justifications to substantiate rights – in three crucial ways. First, akin to under-theorised protections of cultural and religious minority rights that Bajpai analysed, women’s sexual autonomy within marriage is bereft of a well-founded normative justification in Indian jurisprudence. Second, this lacuna of a robust normative justification has allowed patriarchal and misogynist assumptions to fill the void thereby perpetuating the fiction of what can be termed “perpetual consent”. Third and most critically, the failure to develop any normative justification has transversed constitutional silence to active institutional oppression.

    This vacuum of normativity has several profound implications. Rather than just failing to protect married women’s rights, the legal system and the State actively participate in their subordination. MRE exemplifies not merely an oversight but also a systemic devaluation of constitutional principles- where the institution of matrimony, paradoxically, strips women of fundamental protections that they would otherwise possess. This state-endorsed hierarchy of rights shows how normative deficits can calcify into a stark constitutional deficit by allowing socially entrenched patriarchal norms to masquerade as statutory and legal principles.

    The continued existence of MRE reveals how the lack of strong normative frameworks does not merely leave a void but creates room for unconstitutional practices to acquire legitimacy. Just like in the case of cultural and religious minorities, it so happens that these unconstitutional practices are often at the cost of minority protections.

    The path forward
    MRE stands as the epitome of constitutional abdication and normative failure in Indian law. Through its unconstitutional and inhumane preservation of patriarchal power within marriage, it not only contravenes fundamental rights but also legitimises gender inequality and violence in one of the most intimate spheres of human life. The constitutional challenge in Hrikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka gives the Supreme Court a historic opportunity to remedy this long-standing injustice. Such a step would go a long way in fulfilling the Constitutional promise of equal dignity and autonomy for all.

    All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Department of Sociology, LSE Human Rights, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    Image credit: Prakhar Sharma

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • In India, 4 suspects arrested over killing of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar

    New Delhi, January 9, 2025—Indian authorities must ensure justice for murdered Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, whose body was found in a septic tank on January 3, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

    Mukesh Chandrakar, a freelance reporter, was last seen in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on January 1. His brother reported him missing the following day. On January 3, the journalist’s mutilated body was discovered on a property owned by his cousin, contractor Suresh Chandrakar.

    The contractor and three other suspects were arrested on January 4 and 5 and remanded in custody for 14 days on January 6.

    In late December, the news channel NDTV had aired Mukesh Chandrakar’s investigation into alleged corruption in a 1.2 billion rupee (US$12 million) road project, which implicated Suresh Chandrakar and prompted a state government inquiry.

    “The murder of Mukesh Chandrakar, whose reporting exposed alleged corruption in public infrastructure projects, is a tragic reminder of the dangers faced by Indian journalists in small towns and rural areas,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Protecting vulnerable journalists is vital for preserving press freedom and democracy.”  

    Mukesh Chandrakar reported on local issues such as the local Naxalite-Maoist insurgency on his YouTube channel Bastar Junction, in addition to freelancing for other outlets.

    Mayank Gurjar, head of a police Special Investigation Team set up by the state government to investigate the murder, told CPJ that the four suspects were charged with murder, conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and other offenses under India’s criminal code.

    “At this stage we cannot pinpoint a single motive. While the victim’s journalistic work is a possible consideration, we cannot confirm this as the definitive reason until our investigation is complete,” said Gurjar.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China creates 2 new counties in disputed mountainous area claimed by India

    Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.

    China has created two new counties in southwestern Xinjiang in disputed territory also claimed by India, a move analysts say is aimed at strengthening Beijing’s control over the area — and will likely exacerbate tension with India.

    The two new counties — Hekang and He’an — are in Aksai Chin, a rugged, high-altitude desert area that China took from India in 1962 during the Sino-Indian War. It is the easternmost part of the larger Kashmir region claimed by India as part of its Nubra district in Ladakh.

    “The two new counties show that China is consolidating its control over Aksai Chin,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics.

    “The move will further inflame tensions with India, which might seek to retake the Aksai Chin if there is a war with China over Taiwan, for example,” he said.

    India objected by lodging an official protest with Beijing, according to Indian media reports.

    The decision to create the two new counties was approved by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, according to a Dec. 27 announcement on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government’s website.

    The He’an county government will be located in Yulghun township, or Hongliu in Chinese, of Hotan county, while the Hekang county government will be located in Shaydulla township of Guma county, the announcement said.

    Renaming locations

    In other spots along its border with India, China has renamed locations to reflect its desire for territorial expansion and to normalize its occupation of disputed areas.

    Last year, Beijing issued Chinese names for 30 locations in India’s Arunachal Pradesh to bolster its claims to that territory.

    Speaking to reporters on Jan. 3, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said India never accepted China’s “illegal occupation of Indian territory in this area,” The Hindu reported.

    “The creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same,” he was quoted as saying.

    Jaiswal also said India conveyed its concerns to Beijing about the planned construction of a mega hydropower project — which would be the world’s largest such dam — on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, the Tibetan name of Brahmaputra River, which flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

    ‘Break apart India’

    China had expressed its willingness to cooperate with India on border issues, and on Dec. 18, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd round of boundary negotiations.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 23, 2024.
    Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 23, 2024.
    (Reuters)

    But just 10 days later, China announced the creation of the two counties — which U.S. political analyst Gordon G. Chang said could be a negotiating ploy.

    “After all, the Chinese are talking to the Indians about territorial matters,” he said. “But we have to step back and understand that China is seeking to break apart India. It has for decades. This establishment of counties is just another tactic in a very long series of tactics of China to break apart India.”

    Erkin Ekrem, a professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, said the move is part of Beijing’s pressure tactics against India.

    “The aim is to pressure India with a viewpoint or policy that claims this region has historically been Chinese territory in order to resolve the border dispute, and they have been trying to gain control of whatever border they desire,” he said.

    Ekrem predicted that China would try to relocate Uyghurs living in the Aksai Chin area and bring in Han Chinese settlers.

    He said this is what occurred nine years ago when Chinese authorities established the city of Qurumqash, or Kunyu in Chinese, in Xinjiang, when they brought in many Han Chinese with the Bingtuan, a state-run economic and paramilitary organization that develops land and secures borders.

    Leveraging infrastructure

    Major infrastructure projects in Xinjiang and neighboring Tibet are positioning China to have the upper hand in territorial disputes and other disagreements that could escalate, Ekrem said.

    The creation of a massive reservoir in Tibet, for instance, not only secures China’s water resources but also gives the Chinese leverage over India and other bordering countries, he said.

    Recent upgrades to Hotan’s dual-use airport mean that the air field can be used by the military in the event of a conflict with India, and extensive railway networks built by the Chinese in Tibet can facilitate rapid troop deployment, he said.

    “Through these infrastructure developments in both East Turkestan and Tibet, China has created a strategic advantage from military and defense perspectives,” Ekrem said, using Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang.

    “These regions can serve as a rear base in any potential conflict with India, allowing China to potentially gain control of the region,” he said. “This strategic positioning explains the significance of these new construction projects and establishment of the counties.”

    Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Uyghar for RFA Uyghur.

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