Marvel’s web series about a Pakistani teenage superhero is the talk of the town on social media for various reasons. Recently, it is the MS Marvel partition scene that captured the viewers’ attention. Social media users have been sharing how grateful they are to the studio for “accurately” depicting the horrors of the 1947 partition of the Indian Subcontinent. After World War II, religious tensions between All-India Muslim League and Indian Congress in the sub-continent grew even higher, leading to the call for a separate homeland for Muslims, i.e., Pakistan. Ms Marvel’s protagonist Kamala Khan travelled back to that exact moment in time when people were trying to migrate to Pakistan from India amidst violence. To see the horror first-hand evoked many emotions in viewers, just as it did with Kamala.
Ms Marvel Partition Scene Divides Opinion
The debate surrounding Ms Marvel partition scene primarily started due to some dialogues in the TV show referring to the partition. The characters showed that they went through a generational trauma because of the separation. In one scene, Kamala’s grandmother even said that people lost their sense of identity because of partition. While many Marvel fans, critics, and celebrities, including Mehwish Hayat, claimed that Ms Marvel did the history justice, some social media users found a significant problem with the scenes and dialogues. They felt the scene was accurate to an extent but left out key details, which led to the call for the formation of Pakistan in the first place.
Ignores Political Reality
Most of the viewers discussing the Ms Marvel partition scene on social media seem content with representation from one of the biggest movie studios in the world. However, there are those who believe that this representation either lacks research or deliberately wants to bury a particular view. Characters shown as Pakistani are more inclined toward the Indian perspective of partition. They saw their Pakistani identity as something to be ashamed of. For example, in one scene, Samina Ahmed’s character still can’t decide at this age whether she’s a Pakistani or Indian. This dialogue didn’t go well with those who thought that it was against why Pakistan came into being. Viewers have been wondering how the All-India Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah would have felt if he watched Muslims taking partition as something unnecessary.
Other Part of the Partition Story
The advocates of partition said the ms Marvel partition scene hid the fact that Muslims fought for separation to avoid the exact same thing happening in India today. While the opponents of partition argue that none of it would have happened if it wasn’t for separation. Indian Muslims have been going through some difficult challenges. For starters, they would have been considered a second-class citizen due to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act of the Indian Constitution, which allows citizenship to immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh based on their faith. Moreover, Indian educational institutions refused to allow Muslim girls to enter the premises wearing Hijab. Other than that, Hindu-Muslim violence is common, leaders of extremist political parties often call for genocide of minorities, especially Muslims, and police also exhibit violent behaviour against Muslim protestors. This is why most Pakistani Muslims consider themselves lucky to be in Pakistan instead of India.
