Jinnah House

Jinnah House was the residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan; in Mumbai, India. Now known informally as Jinnah House, it was named South Court and was built in 1936 at a then exorbitant price of 2 lakh (200,000) rupees when Jinnah returned to Mumbai from England to take charge of the Muslim League. Now worth around $60 million the house is the subject of a dispute between India, the government of Pakistan and Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia. The bungalow is located at 2, Mount Pleasant Road (now Bhausaheb Hirey Marg) in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai. Its opposite neighbour is the residence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

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 10,000 square metres (2.5 acres). The mansion, with its pointed arches and impressive columns, is currently in a dilapidated state, and much of the walnut panelling has rotted.

The historic building was also the venue for the watershed talks on the Partition of India in September 1944 between Jinnah and MK Gandhi. Ironically on 15 August 1944, exactly a year before India gained independence, another round of talks was held here between Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru which altered the course of Indian history.

Read more about Jinnah House:  Mansion Inhabitants, Ownership Dispute

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