Part 1 - Whole Truth with Iqbal Chagla

by Anonymous | October 07, 2010

This video is a part of Aju John's interview with Senior Advocate Iqbal Chagla, and is best viewed in full-screen. If your office or college has blocked access to YouTube, please scroll below to listen to the audio version of the interview, or read edited extracts from the transcript of the interview.

Click the play icon on the media bar below to listen to the audio version of the interview:

Edited extracts from the transcript of the interview:

Senior Advocate Iqbal Chagla said that despite all the positions that his father held, he was a man of immense simplicity. His father M.C. Chagla was the first Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court after India became an independent country. Later, he served as the Union Minister for External Affairs, and then as the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations.

"He was a meticulous man, and almost always delivered the judgment after the arguments were over. He would return home, change, and head to the Willingdon Club to play bridge. He would then return home to have his drink - always whiskey and soda - and retire after dinner. He never carried work home and always had time for the family."

Iqbal Chagla's early memories of his father's contemporaries relate to the holidays in Mahabaleshwar with Justices Tendulkar, J.C. Shah and Gajendragadkar.

Speaking about the strong belief that his father, who was a Muslim, had in inter-religious unity, Iqbal Chagla said that the family exemplified this. His elder sister married a Parsi, his brother married a Hindu, and Iqbal Chagla himself married a Parsi. The only thing that M.C. Chagla told his son was to ensure that he did not ask his wife to convert.