The Club had been established in 1934, by the elite Hindu Amil community, mostly from Shikarpur, the Bohri Muslim community and old titled Sindhi families. Ken Mac, the well known musician and conductor who performed at the Cricket Club of India, in Bombay, had been flown by Jinnah's brother-in-law, Jamshed Tata, in his Tata airline's plane to perform at this special event. Jinnah arrived with his sister, Fatima for the banquet and was received by the Club's President, Justice Tyabji and its honorary secretary, Jethanand Tandon. They were led to the other guests, which included cabinet members, the diplomatic corps, the Commander in Chief Sir Frank Meservy Gracey, British civilian and army officers, like Iskander Mirza, all resplendent in cummerbunds or dress suits with the ladies in colorful sarees and evening dresses. At the sit down dinner for eight hundred invitees, they were serenaded by Ken Mac and his band. HAJI BHAI ESMAIL DOSSA (author's father), a Bombay based businessman, a member of the Muslim League, recalls, the highlights of the evening. "Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah requested Ken Mac to play "So deep is the night" because on that Chopin's tune, Ruttie had taken Jinnah's consent for marriage, in the Taj Mahal Hotel Ballroom, at her eighteenth birthday party, on February 20th 1918.
Later, the Quaid requested the orchestra for Paul Robson's "The End" which as a courtesy to the Quaid was sung in the tenor voice, by the great, Ken Mac himself, for it was known that the Founder used to hum the words of "The End" on Thursday afternoon in Bombay that he devoted to visit the grave of his wife Ruttie in the Khoja Shiite Isna'asheri cemetery of Bombay. The finale of the evening was given to the music "Happy Birthday Dina" because the Quaid had chosen the Independence Day of Pakistan, on the birthday of his only daughter Dina, whom he had left behind in Bombay, with her two children Nusli and Diana. And when the program ended, the Quaid stood up, the guests followed and everyone lifted their glasses, to toast "God save the King." Earlier Jinnah's speech on August 11, 1947, delivered at the State Bank of Pakistan to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, was the firmest indication, yet of Pakistan's commitment, to honour the rights and freedom of all, its citizens regardless of their religious beliefs.
Jinnah said: "you are free: you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed-that has nothing to do with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state." But within six months of Jinnah's death on September 11, 1948, his concept for the citizens of Pakistan of a separate state for the Muslims of India was given a death blow with the Objectives Resolution of March 7, 1948, moved by Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani in the Constituent Assembly and adopted, by members bereft of dissent and the Muslim League Government of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.
Responsive to the Objectives Resolution of March 7, 1949 were the religious parties of pre-independence. Jamaat-i-Islam directly opposed Jinnah, Muslim League and the creation of Pakistan. Theocratic aspects of the Objectives Resolution of March 7, 1949 have often led to prosecution of minorities, namely Christians, Parsis, Hindus, Ahmedies, Shiites, etc. Sixty four years, thereafter, sidelining the minority, has been embedded and taken roots and are now quite visible in the utter state of lawlessness and communal disharmony and disturbances, prevalent in Pakistan, especially in Karachi in what was once, the city of lights. The Objectives Resolution initiated the Jihadist movement, six decades ago and does not distinguish politics from religion. In between the lines, interpretation of the articles of Objectives Resolution of March 7, 1949, negates the enlightened Muslim thought which emphasise tolerance of every ones beliefs and practices.
Bombay
A cosmopolitan and secular Bombay, religion was then personal and no one had the right to impose their belief on someone else. Repercussions to the Objectives Resolution in Pakistan had been forthwith, condemned and felt in neighbouring India. Prompted Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's Government to retaliate vis-à-vis, by the adoption of Evacuee Law against leading businessmen of Bombay and members of the Muslim League, akin to my late father, Haji bhai Esmail Dossa and his friend Hussain Baig Mohammed, who were declared intending Evacuees. January 1950, perforce my Papa, on the advice of his Solicitor, Hussain Ali bhai Vishram, had to abandon and leave the city of his birth, Bombay, on the spur and migrate to Karachi.
In his adolescent days, my father could not complete his Matriculation, from the High School Anjuman Islam that was run by the Baig Mohammed Trust during the 1920s. At the age of fourteen, my grandfather Seth Esmail, pressured my Papa to withdraw from Anjuman Islam High School, from the sixth standard. Culmination of the First World War and the treaty of Versailles 1918/1919, my grandfather, had fast expanded, export of wool business to England, Europe and the US that had been curtailed due to the ongoing conflict, on the battlefields of Europe. Grandfather Seth Esmail Dossa imperatively required family hands in his firm of Esmail Dossa & Company. Grandfather prevailed upon my Papa to join his three elder brothers in the wool trade. Jinnah was also an erstwhile student of Anjuman Islam, Bombay, before he sailed to England in 1892 to do his Law at the Lincoln's Inn. Papa was a prolific writer of letters in English and his mother tongue Gujarati. From Karachi, Papa wrote to his Parsi newspaper friend from Cricket Club of India, namely, D. F. Karaka, Chief Editor of Current, who is best recalled for the celebrated article "At the mausoleum of Hazrat Ali (peace, be upon him)."I am reproducing the excerpts of the text from the Current of July 4th, 1951, printed under the headline "Hardships of Muslims."
The letter
Evacuee Haji E. Dossa, is a regular reader of our paper. He thinks that we are the only people who have the "guts to publish" his letter. "Prior to my leaving Pakistan for good, I was carrying on business in Bombay, under the style of Amer India, Corporation, at Sir Vitaldas Chambers, Apollo Street, Bombay. I was the sole proprietor of this concern. Finding it very difficult to stay in Bombay and carry on business with everyone suspecting my movements (Papa was a member of Muslim League) and called off and on, by Firoz Meher, Custodian of Evacuee Properties and other Government officials.
I reluctantly decided to close down my thirteen years old establishment in Bombay and migrate to Pakistan. If such injustice is being done, to Muslims living in India, I am sure there should be no cause to complain, if Pakistan retaliates in equal measure. The Muslims given the nomenclature of intending evacuees in Bombay are ruled by the whims and fancies of a few senior officers. Latter are filled to the brim with bitterness and vengeance against Pakistan and its Muslim population. For the sake of a few top notches, why should the innocent masses, suffer. Will there never be, a remedy to this gross injustice?" inquired my Papa while concluding his letter from Karachi addressed to his friend D. F. Karaka, Chief Editor of Current. In the early fifties, thousands like my Papa, on both sides of the border, were posing the same question to the high handedness of Government Officials in India and Pakistan.
Karachi goans
In January 1950, I sailed with my elder brother Nisar from Bombay's Victoria Docks on the British India vessel,
S.S. Dwarka, to Karachi, on our Diaspora from India to Pakistan.
Subsequently, my father, mother and two siblings Munira and Farouk also migrated to Karachi. Elder brother Mamibhai was already in Karachi, attending to the fledging Wool and Cotton Ginning business of our Papa's firm, Haji E. Dossa & Sons in Lotia Chambers. Mamibhai had married his gorgeous tennis playing partner Qudsia Bhabi from the Cosmopolitan Club on August 20, 1949. Valima was set at the Karachi Club, Annex where my chacha Kassim Ali was on the Managing Committee. Elder sister Mumtaz had wedded Yusuf Ahmed Habib of the Habib Bank family in Bombay on June 2, 1948. As early as August 1946, at the instance of Right Honourable Mahomed Ali Jinnah, Seth Mahomed Ali Habib had shifted the head office of Habib Bank Limited from Bombay to Karachi.
Habib Bank Limited charge of the head office in Karachi was given to versatile Agha Hassan Abedi. The purpose was to receive funds, remitted from India, from migrant Muslims reaching Pakistan, in huge numbers, at the instance of Jinnah. Mumtaz, Yusuf bhai and their infant son Tufail Hussain were already in Karachi when I arrived in Pakistan. I was admitted to the sixth standard, Cambridge Level of St. Patrick's High School, my benchmate was Hussain Dawood Habib, scion of the Habib family. After residing a month in a rented apartment in Victoria Courts, Victoria Road (Abdullah Haroon Road) the family moved to our present, permanent abode, Falak Numa, on the auspicious Nauroz of March 21, 1950. Four generations of my father and mother have lived in Mansion Falak Numa. Edifice still stands prominently on the venue, 304, Pedro D'souza Road. Falak Numa defines like the heaven, the name adopted by my Papa from the Falak Numa palace of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where Papa and Mama had stayed in June 1945, at the invitation of the Ottoman Princess Nilofer, or Niloo to her intimate friends. Papa had got to know Princess Niloo as he addressed the Turkish Princess from the Mahalakshmi Race Course of Bombay. My Papa enjoyed entertaining, been seen and photographed with the glitterati and the people of the day. Palace of the Nizam of Hyderabad Falak Numa is shown in block buster film "Hum apke hai kon" featuring the glamorous Mahduri Dikshit and the debonair Salman Khan. In a scene filmed in the palace, Salman fascinated by Mahduri says in chaste Urdu: "Kaun ley aya inhe Falak se utar ke" translated "who has brought this thing from the heavens."
Pedro D'souza
I have been a resident of Pedro D'souza Road for now over six decades, March 21, 1950 onwards.
From my student days at the St. Patrick's High School, between the years 1950-1953, I have always wanted to know of the celebrated Pedro D'souza and his colleague George Britto, the town planners of Cincinnatus Town and the Soldier Bazaar area, as well as adjacent Catholic Colony, Parsi Colony and the Khoja Shiite Isna'ashri township that is focused around the citadel of Seth Mahomed Ali Habib's Mehfil-e-Shah-e-Khurasan, with the front portion on George Britto Road and the back of the Imambargah and Mosque on Seth Mahomed Ali Habib Road. With the Partition of August 14, 1947, Karachi became the capital of the newly emerged state of Pakistan. Several new townships have been constructed in Karachi.
However, I still hold that Cincinnatus Town designed by the brilliant Pedro D'souza in the first decade of the twentieth century, continues to remain the best planned district of Karachi. Tombstone in Gora Kabristan on Drigh Road (Shahre Shah Faisal) bears the inscription the brilliant Engineer who studied in St Xavier's College of Bombay, passed away on December 31, 1912, New Year's Eve of 1913, at the relatively young age of forty seven. He was buried in the Christian Cemetery of what was then known as Drigh Road, leaving behind ten children. The legacy of hard work and meticulous planning of Pedro D'souza and George Britto of Cincinnatus town has in the wake of the Partition of August 14, 1947, been passed over from the Goans, to Khoja Isna'ashri and Ismaili community and also inherited by the Memons, who also came from Bombay and Pourbunder (Khatiawar State). Except for a solitary grand-daughter, Sister Ann Barbara D'souza who teaches in St. Joseph School, there are no descendants of Pedro D'souza in Karachi. Christians of Cincinnatus Town have all moved to Canada, for better opportunities in their professional careers and a way of life, in consort with their liberated attitudes.
At times I wonder at the outstanding brilliance, far sightedness of Pedro D'souza to have thought of laying such broad streets in his precinct, one hundred years, or a century ago. How could Pedro D'souza at that time visualise that the Cincinnatus Town he was designing would have high rise buildings in place of Goan style bungalows. How did Pedro D'souza conceive that camels and horse driven carriages would be substituted by buses and motor cars that would fully avail the avenues and broad, streets of his lay out of the master plans of the town he had named Cincinnatus, after the famed city, Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio, of the United States of America that presently has a large Portuguese population migrated from India and Pakistan, Mozambique and Angola. For sure, when Pedro D'souza burnt the midnight oil in the Karachi Municipal Corporation, he contemplated Sir Charles Napier's visionary farewell message to the city. "You will yet be the glory of the East, would that I come again to see you Kurrachee in your grandeur." God bless Pedro D'souza, though a Roman Catholic Christian Goan, has left for posterity, the best planned area of Karachi in Cincinnatus Town where his brethren Muslims are presently dwelling. My late Mama used to say "Goawala Khandan lok" translated literally means Goans have a royal bloodline.
In Bombay, my mother had kept an orphan Goan girl called Amaldine to play with my youngest sister Munira. She has migrated to be with her children, grandchildren in the States. Munira is presently living in Newton, Massachusetts. Poor Amaldine in Bombay suffered the worst of my childhood rancor. In vain, have I tried to contact Amaldine, to atone, make restitution for the humiliation she endured, from an affluent, careless, thoroughly spoilt ten year boy. However, Bombay and Goa are distanced, far, away from Karachi.
I attempted, through my cousins in Bombay, to reach an orphan, small, lost child, who stoically, endured, the sadistic temperament from a spoilt boy, born with a silver spoon. But to no avail. In Bombay, pre-partition India, we had a Goan Aya, called Mary who for ten years, cared for me and my siblings, as if we were her own children. Much as my mother, desired, Mary could not join us in Karachi. Mary's children in Bombay and Goa were her priority. During October 1957, while in Bombay, I sorted my father's and elder brothers' pending Income Tax Assessments for 1948/1949, 1949/1950 and 1950/51. Many thanks to the patronage from the obliging Madrasi Commissioner of Income Tax, V. Krishnamachari and his staff of pretty Hindu girls. It is known that Hindu girls are overwhelmed by Muslim boys. Krishnamachari's woman staff seemed to have an infatuation with the handsome, tall, slim athletic lad, from Pakistan, coming suited and booted to vet his father's petition with the Income Tax Authorities.
Income Tax cleared, March 1961, my father and mother, along with my elder brother Nisar, travelled from Karachi to Bombay. My mother, in particular desired to meet her favorite Shireen, she had left behind. Our Aya Mary, more of a friend than a servant of my Mama, came especially from Goa, to call on my Mama, at the Cricket Club of India, where my parents and brother Nisar were residing. Papa was a life member of the C. C. I. Papa's prized membership was cancelled, terminated, with that of Sir Hussain Ali Currimbhoy, Hussain Baig Mohammed, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, etc by the General Body Meeting of Cricket Club, of India, at the outbreak of September 1965 War between India and Pakistan.