Netflix Squid Game character Ali, the Pakistani immigrant played by Indian actor Anupam Tripathi, is an incredible and exceptional character. In the show, Ali is a Pakistani immigrant in South Korea, in real life, Tripathi is an Indian immigrant in South Korea. This is really profound, and here’s why.
India had dozens of thriving regions prior to British colonization. After 100s of years of colonizing India, Britain divided the land into Pakistan and India in 1947. This is known as the Partition, and one of the most violent and painful times in Pakistan and Indian history. In 1945, U.S. colonizers divided Korea into North and South Korea.
And in fact, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and South Korea share their “liberation” day within one day of each other. August 14th and 15th. And of course, those are not truly liberation days, they’re just the times that colonizers U.S. and Britain separated, forcibly, those countries and left all of them with generational trauma.
Now back to Ali. He’s trying to make a better life for his family through this game, which I’ve mentioned in previous videos, is the director’s portrayal of competition and capitalism.
Ali is shown as the most generous and benevolent of all of the characters. In fact, in one of the first scenes we see him, he saves another player’s life. But we see even though he is playing by all of the rules of engagement, capitalism makes his fellow players work against him.
Capitalism doesn’t care if you’re good. It doesn’t work for those who are good. It only works for people who ruthlessly play to win and take down others in the process.
Capitalism mandates malevolence by its players. If you play by the rules, you will lose. If you play to win, you have lost your soul. Ali’s character in Squid Game not only shows how capitalism does not care about anyone, but his character also shows the devastating impacts of colonization and capitalism together.
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