Englishness: Orwell vs. Kureishi on British Identity
Englishness in Orwell’s England Your England and Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia
Englishness can be defined as “what is it to be British?” This term references several features that allow us to determine what it takes to be British.
Both Orwell and Kureishi deal with the concept of Englishness. Orwell discusses what it means to be British before World War II, while Kureishi explores British identity after the war.
Orwell writes about two main issues that Hanif Kureishi later challenges:
Uniformity
Orwell claims that there’s something persistent in England, even though it has clearly changed throughout time. In England Your England, he compares England in 1840 to that of 1940. He likens it to a five-year-old child growing into an adult, stating, “The essence is still the same despite the changes both things have undergone.”
He also suggests that England is uniform when referring to the names given to the different islands that form England. While it is true that these islands (Great Britain, United Kingdom) are different among English people, when English people meet a foreigner, they refer to these isles with a single name: England.
Gentleness
The second issue portrayed by Orwell is the idea of gentleness. Orwell argues that the gentleness of English civilization is perhaps its most marked characteristic. In England Your England, Orwell suggests that gentleness is noticeable as soon as you enter England, noting that conductors are good-tempered and the police do not carry revolvers.
Hanif Kureishi challenges Orwell’s views on Englishness. Kureishi addresses Englishness in two well-known essays: The Rainbow Sign (1986) and Bradford (1986). He argues that being British involves new elements and claims that English people are not as gentle as Orwell suggests. This new vision of Englishness is portrayed in The Buddha of Suburbia.
Furthermore, Kureishi’s challenge to uniformity is based on the fact that England is divided into two ethnic groups: pure English people and mixed English people.
Pure English People
Pure English people are those whose parents and ancestors are also from England. Some of these people in The Buddha of Suburbia include Eva, Hairy Back, Charlie, and Karim’s mother, among others.
Mixed English People
Mixed English people are those born in England but whose parents are not. These individuals are known as “the second generation of immigrants.” They feel they belong to England but often feel frustrated because “the pure English people” treat them as if they were not English. This is evident in the very beginning of the book, when Karim says, “I am often considered to be a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories. But I don’t care—Englishman I am.” The protagonist of the book belongs to the second generation, since his father is from Pakistan and his mother is from England.
Hanif Kureishi also challenges Orwell’s idea of gentleness. Kureishi argues that English people are not as gentle as Orwell suggests, claiming that they treat immigrants as if they were inferior beings. He references Enoch Powell’s discourse, in which Powell warned that the growing immigrant population would become dangerous. As a consequence, there were attacks on immigrants, as seen in The Buddha of Suburbia, when Changez is attacked by the National Front and when Hairy Back kicks Karim out and says, “We are with Enoch.”
Moreover, English people are also racist, since they rely on stereotypes. Just because someone has dark skin, they are automatically considered an immigrant. This is reflected in The Buddha of Suburbia when Shadwell asks Karim to put on an Indian accent while interpreting Mowgli. Karim says he can’t because he doesn’t speak Indian, but Shadwell still believes he can because he looks Indian.
Conclusion
In conclusion, taking all the examples given so far, we can say that prejudice is a natural response for “retrograde” races and it is something that must be eliminated due to the fact that skin color does not determine nationality; nationality is determined by the sense of belonging of each one.