South Court Mansion, also known as the Jinnah House, is an unoccupied house in Malabar Hill, a premium neighbourhood of the city of Mumbai in India associated with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder and first governor-general of Pakistan, and his family. It was built by Jinnah and remained his main residence for 10 years until he left in 1946 for Karachi.

History

The bungalow was built by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1936 at a then exorbitant price of 2 Lakh (200,000) rupees. This was after Jinnah returned to Bombay from England to take charge of the Muslim League. The bungalow is located at 2, Bhausaheb Hirey Marg in Malabar Hill, South Mumbai. It is situated near the current residence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Jinnah lived in the house till Partition of India in 1947, after which he moved to Karachi in Pakistan. Jinnah also had a bungalow in Delhi on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road which he later sold to his friend and businessman Ramakrishna Dalmia of the Dalmia Group, just before the partition. The house in Delhi was later purchased by the Government of Netherlands and currently houses the Dutch Consulate.

Designed by architect Claude Batley in the European-style architecture, the sea-facing palatial bungalow was constructed using exquisite Italian marble and walnut woodwork. Specially imported Italian stonemasons were employed for its construction with Jinnah personally supervising the construction "brick by brick". The property encompasses an area of . The bungalow, with its pointed arches and impressive columns, is currently in a dilapidated state, and much of the walnut panelling has rotted.

During 1941, it was speculated that the house was to be sold to the Dalmia family for 20 Lakh rupees. Upon receiving a query by his daughter Dina Wadia on this, Jinnah himself dismissed this purported sale as "wild rumour".

The historic building was also the venue for the watershed talks on the partition of India in September 1944 between Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi. On 15 August 1946, exactly a year before India gained independence, another round of talks was held here between Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru.

See also

  • Jinnah family
  • Central Wakf Council
  • Custodian for Enemy Property for India
  • Evacuee Trust Property Board

Notes

References

  1. Jinnah’s bungalow, Himal Southasian magazine, September 2001
  2. Jinnah's daughter stakes new claim, Indrani Bagchi/TNN, The Times of India, Bombay; pg 1, 2005-05-24
  3. Wadia cites Rushdie case in house takeover plea, Indrani Bagchi/TNN, The Times of India, Bombay; pg 8, 2005-05-24
  4. The House Jinnah built, Rizvi Syed Haider Abbas, The Milli Gazette, 1–15 September 2004
  5. Jinnah's house handed over to ICCR, PTI, Rediff.com, 2003-08-07
  6. Muslim law does not apply to Jinnah, says daughter
  7. Into Jinnah House