Gaps and Bridges in the Diaspora Cultural Life of the Asian-English Muslims in England in Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Abstract

This article carries out research in the domain of the issues faced by the first and second generation South-Asian Muslim immigrants in locating identity and their rightful place in postcolonial hybrid culture of England. Location of identity in multi-ethnic metropolitan cultureinvolves the issues of assimilation, segregation, naturalization, racial and cultural discrimination, in-betweeness, hybridity and ambivalence. The Muslim immigrants in an attempt to assimilate themselves into the new culture remain suspended between the two cultures and never completely succeed in embracing the one culture and discarding the other. This state of in-betweenness renders them hybrid characters in the postcolonial conditions. Quite contrary to their sweet dreams and expectations of living a superb life in metropolitan culture,non-white immigrants, Muslims, in the white English societyhave to make multi-dimensional struggle for the discovery and exploration of their unique identity in the face of highly intolerant, xenophobic white societies. The novel, Buddha of Suburbia, has been said to be autobiographical woven from the deeply personal experiences of the author as a member of an ethnic minority, the Muslims, in a multi-ethnic society. The story which initially appears to be fascinating tale of the city turns out to be the story of an Anglo-Asian hybrid. Kureishi has focused on the postcolonial concerns of unstable, fluid identity, gender issues, traumatized and indeterminate sexuality juxtaposed to hypocritical, racially prejudiced binaries-ridden English society.