Demons of the Punjab - Dr Who episode

[proactive]

I watched this week's Dr Who episode entitled 'Demons of the Punjab' yesterday evening. What a huge disappointment it was. I know Dr Who is a sci-fi  entertainment show but at least the writer who is a Gujarati Hindu could have used the opportunity to show some of the realities of the partition. Here are just some of the shortcomings-;

1. For a show about the partition of the Punjab it mentions Sikhs just once when the Hindu character mentions the division of the people of the Punjab. As Sikhs were the worst sufferers of the partition having lost their best lands, their Gurdwaras and their people to the violence of partition an omission of any Sikh characters . The writer of the show is Vinay Patel who is a BAFTA nominated writer and on his Twitter he states that he read many books on the partition but having seen the episode it didn't show. The reason for why there are no Sikh characters is strange especially since the partition line from Firozpur to Gurdaspur had mainly a Sikh and Muslim rural population and the Hindus were mainly concentrated in the urban areas. 

2. The two Hindu brothers looked and dressed more like urban Lalas than rural farmers from 1947. Although the name Prem could be a Punjabi Hindu name of the time but the names Manish and especially Kunal is more Bollywood than Punjab. The younger brother Manish looked like an RSSS member and his claim to have farmed the land while his brothers were at war was totally unbelievable, the character looked like he would be more at home in a Hatti than a Khet. Also there weren't many Punjabi Hindu soldiers from the partition line areas in the British army. There were Hindu soldiers from rural areas of Haryana but they were hundreds of miles away from the partition line. Most of the former soldiers were Sikhs or Muslims. 

3. The setting was the Punjab in 1947 but the scenes were set in some hilly wooded area with mountains in the background,  hardly the Punjab plains of 1947. 

4. The Hindu-Muslim marriage with just some minor disagreement from the bride's mother was totally unbelievable, although it was used to good effect to show the couple going against the events around them but such a thing could never have happened in 1947. 

5. The episode also showed the Muslims as the victims which is in line with the usual liberal BBC biased presentation of the partition as basically a case of the Muslims as the victims and whitewashing history in order to show this. The Muslim bride claims that they would not give up their land which was quite ironic given that the Sikhs suffered the greatest loss of land than the Muslims or the Hindus. The Muslims actually gained more land than they had prior to partition. 

 

[Premi5]

4 hours ago, proactive said:

I watched this week's Dr Who episode entitled 'Demons of the Punjab' yesterday evening. What a huge disappointment it was. I know Dr Who is a sci-fi  entertainment show but at least the writer who is a Gujarati Hindu could have used the opportunity to show some of the realities of the partition. Here are just some of the shortcomings-;

1. For a show about the partition of the Punjab it mentions Sikhs just once when the Hindu character mentions the division of the people of the Punjab. As Sikhs were the worst sufferers of the partition having lost their best lands, their Gurdwaras and their people to the violence of partition an omission of any Sikh characters . The writer of the show is Vinay Patel who is a BAFTA nominated writer and on his Twitter he states that he read many books on the partition but having seen the episode it didn't show. The reason for why there are no Sikh characters is strange especially since the partition line from Firozpur to Gurdaspur had mainly a Sikh and Muslim rural population and the Hindus were mainly concentrated in the urban areas. 

2. The two Hindu brothers looked and dressed more like urban Lalas than rural farmers from 1947. Although the name Prem could be a Punjabi Hindu name of the time but the names Manish and especially Kunal is more Bollywood than Punjab. The younger brother Manish looked like an RSSS member and his claim to have farmed the land while his brothers were at war was totally unbelievable, the character looked like he would be more at home in a Hatti than a Khet. Also there weren't many Punjabi Hindu soldiers from the partition line areas in the British army. There were Hindu soldiers from rural areas of Haryana but they were hundreds of miles away from the partition line. Most of the former soldiers were Sikhs or Muslims. 

3. The setting was the Punjab in 1947 but the scenes were set in some hilly wooded area with mountains in the background,  hardly the Punjab plains of 1947. 

4. The Hindu-Muslim marriage with just some minor disagreement from the bride's mother was totally unbelievable, although it was used to good effect to show the couple going against the events around them but such a thing could never have happened in 1947. 

5. The episode also showed the Muslims as the victims which is in line with the usual liberal BBC biased presentation of the partition as basically a case of the Muslims as the victims and whitewashing history in order to show this. The Muslim bride claims that they would not give up their land which was quite ironic given that the Sikhs suffered the greatest loss of land than the Muslims or the Hindus. The Muslims actually gained more land than they had prior to partition. 

 

I wouldn’t worry too much. At least only a minority of UK population would have seen it. 

[mahandulai]

5 hours ago, proactive said:

I watched this week's Dr Who episode entitled 'Demons of the Punjab' yesterday evening. What a huge disappointment it was. I know Dr Who is a sci-fi  entertainment show but at least the writer who is a Gujarati Hindu could have used the opportunity to show some of the realities of the partition. Here are just some of the shortcomings-;

1. For a show about the partition of the Punjab it mentions Sikhs just once when the Hindu character mentions the division of the people of the Punjab. As Sikhs were the worst sufferers of the partition having lost their best lands, their Gurdwaras and their people to the violence of partition an omission of any Sikh characters . The writer of the show is Vinay Patel who is a BAFTA nominated writer and on his Twitter he states that he read many books on the partition but having seen the episode it didn't show. The reason for why there are no Sikh characters is strange especially since the partition line from Firozpur to Gurdaspur had mainly a Sikh and Muslim rural population and the Hindus were mainly concentrated in the urban areas. 

2. The two Hindu brothers looked and dressed more like urban Lalas than rural farmers from 1947. Although the name Prem could be a Punjabi Hindu name of the time but the names Manish and especially Kunal is more Bollywood than Punjab. The younger brother Manish looked like an RSSS member and his claim to have farmed the land while his brothers were at war was totally unbelievable, the character looked like he would be more at home in a Hatti than a Khet. Also there weren't many Punjabi Hindu soldiers from the partition line areas in the British army. There were Hindu soldiers from rural areas of Haryana but they were hundreds of miles away from the partition line. Most of the former soldiers were Sikhs or Muslims. 

3. The setting was the Punjab in 1947 but the scenes were set in some hilly wooded area with mountains in the background,  hardly the Punjab plains of 1947. 

4. The Hindu-Muslim marriage with just some minor disagreement from the bride's mother was totally unbelievable, although it was used to good effect to show the couple going against the events around them but such a thing could never have happened in 1947. 

5. The episode also showed the Muslims as the victims which is in line with the usual liberal BBC biased presentation of the partition as basically a case of the Muslims as the victims and whitewashing history in order to show this. The Muslim bride claims that they would not give up their land which was quite ironic given that the Sikhs suffered the greatest loss of land than the Muslims or the Hindus. The Muslims actually gained more land than they had prior to partition. 

 

relax, it didn't say it was going to represent the whole of Punjab at the time.

[puzzled]

I don't watch it but i think they used more hindu characters deliberately to play it safe,  because if they used Sikh characters there probably would of been more of a back lash from Sikhs, and arguing on social media between pakis and Sikhs, and all the rest of it ...   

Hindu is always the safe option for these kind of things LOL 

which is all good ...