Manish was the brother of a man named Prem, who in August 1947 was planning to marry his neighbour Umbreen. He was strongly opposed to this, as she was a Muslim and he was a devout Hindu. Tension between the two religions was high as India was about to be divided by Partition, which would create the separate Muslim state of Pakistan.
Umbreen was the grandmother of the Doctor's companion Yasmin Khan, and she wanted to know what had happened to Prem, as she only knew of the second husband who had brought her to England. The TARDIS arrived at the same time as a race of aliens called the Thijarians.
When Bhakti, the holy man who was to conduct the marriage, died in suspicious circumstances, the Doctor thought the aliens to blame. However, it was Manish who had killed him, in an attempt to stop the wedding. The Doctor took his place and conducted the ceremony.
Manish joined an armed Hindu group, and tried to get his brother to join them. Prem played for time, in order that Umbreen and her family could escape over the new border into Pakistan. Manish then murdered his brother for failing to side with him and his cause.
It transpired that the Thijarians visited conflict sites to honour the dead who had no-one to mourn them.
Played by: Hamza Jeetooa. Appearances: Demons of the Punjab (2018).
- With three religious groups - Sikh, Hindu and Muslim - the Punjab was a particularly contentious region at the time of Partition. The exact number of deaths is unrecorded, but across the whole border region estimates vary from 200,000 to 2,000,000 people - the upper figure being the most likely.
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