We are back in the pods once again, as a second series of Love Is Blind UK has dropped on Netflix. After being glued to the American version of the show, we now get a chance to see British singles try to find love without ever setting eyes on their romantic partner. Instead, engagements happen based on emotional and intellectual attraction alone.
It’s a concept I used to believe in wholeheartedly. When asked in a secondary school RE lesson to rank how important things like race and religion were to a marriage, I said “not important at all.” I still do believe that, to some extent. Love is uncontrollable, chemical and sometimes unexpected – but love alone isn’t always enough to sustain a marriage.
In Love Is Blind UK season 2’s first batch of episodes, two singles, Kal and Sarover, found a connection through a wall. They discussed their career aspirations, their hopes for a family and their family traumas, getting more vulnerable than you’re likely to do on any other first date. But after a revelation about Kal’s family, the couple realised there was something big that could stunt their relationship.
Kal is mixed-English and Pakistani, from a Muslim background, while Sarover is British Indian. As two brown singles, on the surface there might not seem to be an issue. But after finding out about each other’s heritages, the pair immediately joked about the historic divide between India and Pakistan, wondering if they could “bridge the gap” and “solve history.”
It’s a concern many South Asians are aware of, and a situation that’s arguably harder to navigate than straight-up racism. After the British ripped apart India in 1947, known as Partition, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were forced to ‘choose’ a side. Communities and families that had once peacefully lived alongside each other were pushed to either stay in the newly defined India or move to Pakistan, displacing between 12 to 20 million people. The uprooting caused riots, massacres and sexual assaults based on religion, with anywhere between several hundred thousand and two million people affected. No side was innocent.
Happening less than eighty years ago, the scars of Partition continue to be felt deeply around the diaspora. My own grandfather was caught up in the violence, spending six months in a refugee camp after his entire family was nearly murdered on a train crossing the border. Religious tensions are also still rife in India, whipped up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
These political and historic frictions have led to a situation where many South Asians are discouraged or forbidden from dating outside of their religion or caste. As Sarover shares to Kal, she’s only ever dated Indian boys, feeling a lot of pressure to make her family “proud.” Kal also admits that he might not have spoken to Sarover or an Indian woman outside of the pods, knowing the extra strain this could add to a relationship.