“Hybridity and cultural identity in The Buddha of Suburbia”

María García Guarda

In this essay I will discuss the issues having to do with cultural identity while examining

different parts of the novel The Buddha of Suburbia written by Hanif Kureishi in 1990.

Among all the possible aspects that could be commented about cultural identity, I will

focus mainly on hybridity issues regarding the main character, Karim, and also some

other characters but in a lesser extent.

As a historical background I think it is important to highlight the fact that this novel is

based on the author's own experience as part of the Indian diaspora, that refers to the

displacement of a great number of Asian people to the United Kingdom as indentured

workers or to seek better conditions as they felt they belonged to the 'mother country'.

Therefore, the main character of this novel is Karim Amir, a teenager from the London

suburbs and the son of Haroon Amir and Margaret, Indian father and English mother.

Thus, this novel deals with Karim’s situation and how it leads him through different

experiences that makes him question his identity as born English with Indian ancestry.

Karim would be part of the second generation of migrants, those who have already been

born British. In this case we can discuss hybridity not only regarding culture but also

biologically speaking since his mother is English. But before discussing the facts

surrounding cultural identity I think it is important to determine some aspects as I will

refer to them in this essay.

The first concepts I wanted to discuss is hybridity and 'the third space' or 'the in-

between'. Hybridity is a term related to the post-colonial discourse that discusses the

effects of mixture upon identity and culture. Its main theorists are Homi Bhabha, Stuart
Hall and Gayarti Spivak among others. And, according to Papastergiadis, “For Bhabha,

hybridity is the process by which the colonial governing authority undertakes to

translate the identity of the colonised (the Other) within a singular universal framework,

but then fails producing something familiar but new” referring to the fact that “the

other” or the subaltern (The person whose cultural identity is different from the

“governing authority”) is not a stranger anymore because they create new parameters by

combining both existing cultural identities.

So, considering these parameters, hybridity will mean the creation of a totally new

cultural identity which is “neither the One [...] nor the Other [...] but something else

besides which contests the terms and territories of both” (Bhabha, 13). Thus, involving

a “negotiation between them” (Bhabha, 13), destroying the binary terms that the

original cultures implied. This new concept of identity will englobe both of them, being

at the same time different and alike to the original cultures; creating a “third space” or a

culture “in-between” that “suspends the limits of the boundaries” (Chakraborty, 149).

This concept of “in-betweenness” could be regarded both as a positive or a negative

thing, and it is quite visible during the novel from the very beginning if we take into

consideration the very first lines of it:

My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost. 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 (though not proud of it), from the South London suburbs

and going somewhere. Perhaps it is the odd mixture of continents and

blood, of here and there, of belonging and not, that makes me restless and

easily bored. Or perhaps it was being brought up in the suburbs that did it.

(3)
At the beginning of the novel we can observe that Karim acknowledges his origins but

at first, he considers himself English, although he is aware that because of his physical

appearance, society does not regard him as such. Thus, this ambivalence of ‘belonging

and not’ again makes him feel in a “third space” in which “he does not feel he is an

outsider, not in the same way, at least, as the first generation does; there is not a sense of

displacement [...], but rather a sense of being perceived as an outsider” (Esteves Pereira,

9) and considering so, Karim’s feeling of not fitting completely exposes him to racial

discrimination as we can see reflected in this excerpt: “The thing was, we were

supposed to be English, but to the English we were always wogs and nigs and Pakis and

the rest of it” (53).

In my opinion, this latest excerpt shows that at some points of the novel, the protagonist

regards this hybridity as something that leads him to be “the other”, the outcast, and he

considers this hybridity it as something negative more than something positive resulting

from his origins. But even so, Karim does not ‘reject’ at any point his Indian part.

However, it is true that it seems he is not so deeply in touch with his Indian-self (apart

from the references to Indian food), in contrast with his father Haroon that at the

beginning of the novel repeats Asian stereotypes of meditation. By doing so, Haroon is

seen as being more “exotic” so he can attract people’s attention in order to earn money.

On the contrary, Karim, who is seeking for a role model, thinks that his father is too

distant from the English mainstream life that he wants to achieve in order to fit in a

white society. For this reason, Karim sees in Charlie, the son of his father’s lover, a role

to follow. Charlie is closest to the mainstream English, he is good-looking and popular,

what makes him fit in society, and that is probably the reason why Karim wants to

follow his steps and even makes him want to be him and take his place as he states: “I

admired him more than anyone but I didn’t wish him well. It was that I preferred him to
me and wanted to be him. I coveted his face, talent, style. I wanted to wake up with

them all transferred to me” (17)

Even in one occasion when his father is having this spiritual meeting, Karim wears a

colourful Indian waistcoat and Charlie says to him that he is overdresses, “probably

very ‘Oriental’ for a Westerner’s taste” (Onmus, 14) as a response to this, Karim throws

away immediately his clothes’ ideas, including the oriental style, by saying: “I, who

wanted only to be like Charlie-as clever, as cool in every part of my soul- tattooed his

words onto my brain. [...] I would never go out in anything else for the rest of my life”

(17), what reinforces the idea of wanting to belong and fit in a white society.

So to say, we could affirm that in the suburbs he tries to “hide” more than avoid, his

Indian-self. However, whatever their reasons are, Karim is not the only character that

tries to disguise his true hybrid identity, we can see, for example, that his younger

brother Amar “called himself Allie to avoid racial trouble” (19) so his name sounds

more English, and also that he took to bed “fashion magazines [...] and anything

European he could lay his hands on” like emphasizing that he wanted to soak up

whatever European magazines, so that he could avoid the Indian stereotype and instant

classification.

But these issues do not concern only the second generation of immigrants. This habit of

hiding someone’s Indiannes can be applied to the own settlers that try to avoid

mentioning Indian-related issues as for example in the case of Karim’s aunt, Jean, who

calls Karim’s father ‘Harry’ instead of Haroon “to avoid questions asked by people

outside the family and avoid discrimination” (Onmus, 24). And something similar

occurs with Jamila, Karim’s childhood friend. She used to have tea after school with

Miss Cultmore, the librarian, who encouraged her to read French writers and shared
with Jamila her experiences as a missionary. But when the librarian left South London

“Jamila got grudging and started to hate Miss Cultmore for forgetting she was Indian.

Jamila thought Miss Cultmore really wanted to eradicate everything that was foreign in

her” (53) and she even mentioned that Miss Cultmore had “colonized her” (53). Here

we see that Jamila too is aware of the “in-between” position they are in, as born English

with European ideas but with Indian origin, she does not refuse her backgrounds, but

just like Karim “she is still seen as a ‘Paki’, in the eyes of the white people” (Onmus,

42).

Tired of the suburban life and the discrimination he moved to London with Eva

(Haroon’s lover) and his father, because there he could chase the opportunity of

ascending in the social ladder. He decided he wanted to be an actor, which is rather

curious because he wants to perform and parallelly, in his life he performed social

habits attached to English culture when he lived in the suburbs. However, whenever he

acts in the novel, he is asked to perform a stereotypical Indian character, so he has again

to perform something he is but at the same time he is not.

Thanks to Eva, Karim gets some contacts in the theatre world and after an audition he is

given the role of Mowgli from Kipling’s The Jungle book. Whereas in the suburbs it

seemed that he had to hide his Indian-self, in London, especially in the rehearsals, he

must force his “Indiannes” as he is asked to force an Indian accent and cover his body in

muck in order to be “authentic”. Shadwell, the director says to him “Karim, you have

been cast for authenticity and not for experience.” (147). Then he realizes that he is

given the role not because of his talent but for his physical appearance, but he is not

“Indian enough” to fulfil society’s expectations.

This situation poses a question and at the same time, a paradox: what does it mean he

was cast for authenticity if what he has to perform is not his authentic self? The director

and the audience seek the exotic figure of the Indian to reinforce the stereotype, as

Karim points out: “Everyone looks at you, I’m sure, and thinks: an Indian boy, how

exotic, how interesting, what stories of aunties and elephants we’ll hear now from him.”

(141). It does not matter if he feels he is more in touch with the English culture because

society type-casts him according to his appearance. So, he has to mimic and represent

the oriental stereotype in order to seem more authentic and exotic even though he does

not feel identified with it.

The play is a success and it opens the doors of theatre for Karim. Pyke, a very well-

known director, was in the public in one of The Jungle Book performances and he

seems to be interested in Karim and he offered him a role on his next play. Karim thinks

that now that he has acquired experience, Pyke is interested in him because of his talent.

But far from giving him a little push on the theatre’s world it caused some problems

with the rest of the company in which he was working. They marginalized him because

he has been offered this job because of his ethnicity, and Boyd, one of his workmates,

even points out that “If I weren’t white and middle class I’d been in Pyke’s show now.

Obviously mere talent gets you nowhere these days. Only the disadvantaged are going

to succeed in seventies England” (165). At first, this statement seemed to me quite

paradoxical. It is true that Karim has been cast because of his physical appearance

without regarding his talent. However, it is kind of a contradictory statement because in

fact, the “disadvantaged” or the immigrants do not have an easy path to reach success

but it seems that in the “show-world” their exotic appearance leads them easily to fame

even though they may become the “oriental stereotype”.

Thus, as he obtains success due to his Indian origins “instead of rejecting his ethnicity

he embraces it since he is now a well-known name in the world of theatre.” (Ellingsen,

50). But in fact, his “new self” in merely constructed upon performances, because he

does not regard himself as a “typical” Indian person but he accepts it as the only way to

succeed.

Then, at first, he based his character in Anwar’s personality as he had to build up his

own character for the play, taking into account social class. However, even though he

based his character on a real person, Anwar’s position and Karim’s portrayal

represented all the stereotypes that a white society assumes immigrants have: He is an

authoritarian and patriarchal man displayed “as being irrational, ridiculous, [...]

hysterical and fanatical” (180) as Tracey, one of his workmates, points out. By doing so,

Karim is reinforcing the stereotypes, according to Tracey, his “picture is what white

people already think of us. That we’re funny, with strange habits and weird customs.”

(180). She even asks him why does he hate himself and black people so much. It is clear

that Karim, is a person with a hybrid cultural identity in a world with a restricted view

of what a cultural identity is. He is not aware of his own identity, due to the fact that he

considers himself English, and in his confusion, he is repeating stereotypes and forcing

his Indiannes, because it is what society expects from him and because he wants to

succeed in his career.

Eventually, Karim begins to feel isolated and out of place, not only because of ethnic

issues but because of social class as well. He starts dating Eleanor, a workmate, who is a

step beyond him in the social ladder, as well as her inner circle. For him, it is more

important to “adapt to the peculiarities of the surroundings and get rid of the differences

which prevent him from integrating into the new community, than to preserve his own

identity” (Ellingsen, 48). Thus, Karim is exposed to a constant pressure to be someone

he is not. However, he will eventually notice this identity problem and he will go

through a series of events that will lead him to come to terms with his identity as being

both Indian and English. One of the main turning points that contributes to Karim’s

evolution is Anwar’s funeral in which he is surrounded by Indian people, he states:

I did feel, looking at these strange creatures now -the Indians- that in some

way these were my people, and that I’d spent my life denying or avoiding

that fact. I felt ashamed and incomplete at the same time, as if half of me

were missing, and as if I’d been colluding with my enemies, those whites

who wanted Indians to be like them. (212)

At this point Karim realizes that there is a part of him that he does not really know and

that there is a part of his identity that it is present but he does not understand yet, and it

is an important consideration to go through his identity journey.

Another crucial moment that helps Karim understand his identity happens when he is in

New York with his troupe. There he meets Charlie, who has become a very successful

rock-star but also a drug addict, among other vices. Karim was not comfortable with his

recent circle anymore and Eleanor has broken up with him, so he called Charlie and

stayed in his house. And with him he experienced two things that made him want to go

back to London and to get out of Charlie’s life. The first one is when Charlie beat up a

journalist and the second one is when Karim is asked to watch while Charlie was having

sex with a prostitute that tortured him. Karim states: “I didn’t love Charlie any more. I

didn’t care either for or about him. He didn’t interest me at all. I’d move beyond him,

discovering myself through what I rejected.” (255) Thus, he rejects Charlie as his role

model and accepts to follow his own convictions to search for his identity by his own.
Karim resolves to go back to London in spite of Charlie’s job offers finds himself he is

“brave enough to take off his own mask to reveal his true self” (Onmus, 32). Once he is

in London he is offered another job in a soap opera which would tackle contemporary

issues as “abortions and racist attacks, the stuff that people lived through but that never

got on TV” (259) to portray a rebellious Indian immigrant. In contrast with the other

Indian roles he has portrayed “this new role will enable Karim to picture what really

exists, not what the white men want to see [...] with this role, he does not need to mimic

but simply portray an immigrant as it is, neither as a victim, nor as a fetish object.

(Onmus, 33). Thus, Karim is able to come into terms with his hybrid identity and

accepts every part of it.

In conclusion, this novel brings the issues of hybridity and the positive and negative

things of the “in-betweenness” that results from being born from a hybrid identity.

Throughout the novel we are able to follow the experiences of Karim and his struggle to

fit in a society in which he belongs because he was born in England and in which he

does not fit because of his Indian origin. Thus, he goes through a number of social and

cultural difficulties to adapt himself to a society that does not accept him as he as, but at

the same time to preserve his identity as it is.

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Papastergiadis, N.. “Tracing Hybridity in Theory”. Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multi-

Cultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism. Werbner, P. & Modood., T. London,

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van Gennep to Homi K. Bhabha” Anudhyan: An International Journal of Social

Sciences (AIJSS)

Kureishi, Hanif. The Buddha of Suburbia, Faber and Faber (1990)

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