Anita and Me: Context (AQA GCSE English Literature)

It is easy to spend a long time revising context. However, if you keep your revision focused on the themes of the novel, your exam responses will be equally focused and awarded high marks. Each of the below topics links directly to Syal’s ideas in Anita and Me:

• Cultural heritage and history 
• Religion and values
• Individual lives and identity 

• Syal’s novel, Anita and Me, explores the cultural heritage and history of both India and Britain
• The novel refers to events taking place at the time of Meera Syal’s life, as well as during her parents’ and grandparents’ lifetimes
• In Anita and Me, Syal refers to a significant historical event, the Partition of India:
  
  • India was under British rule between 1858 and 1947
  • In 1947, as part of the agreement for an independent India, a policy was enacted whereby India was divided into two countries, India and Pakistan
  • The process also separated country by religion, stating that Pakistan was to become Muslim and India was to be Hindu
  • This forced millions of people to migrate amid much violence:
    • This is mentioned by Meena’s father who describes a dangerous experience involving delivering a bomb to a Muslim man
• Simultaneously, in Britain, as a result of the destruction caused by World War II, the British government focused on rebuilding the country and replacing a labour shortage: 
  • In order to do this, the government encouraged immigration from Europe and Commonwealth countries such as India and Pakistan
  • The British Nationality Act of 1948 granted citizens of British colonies the right to live in Britain 
• During the 1950s and 1960s, a significant number of South Asians settled in industrial towns in the Midlands and the North of England:
  • The novel refers to this diaspora
  • Meena’s mother draws attention to the reason for their move to England:
    • She describes the better opportunities for education away from the corruption and devastation of India after Partition
• Syal sets her novel in the fictional English town of Tollington:
  • The town, like Syal’s own home town in Essington, is in the Black Country in the Midlands
• The novel relates the way some individuals in England were resistant to changes occurring in their country:
  • The region had significantly changed during the Industrial Revolution due to its iron, steel and copper industries, as well as coal mining
  • However, by the 1960s industry was in decline
  • Many coal mines were closed, creating high unemployment
  • There were national pit strikes in 1974
  • These hardships led many to become prejudiced against immigrants
  • Syal shows how some characters perceive immigrants to be responsible for the lack of employment at the time

• Syal’s novel explores ideas of religion and morality
• Meena’s experiences during Diwali, a Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of light over darkness and good over evil, helps her understand religious divisions:
• Meena’s mother tells Mrs Worrall that Diwali is “our Christmas”
• However, when Meena’s parents arrange a mehfil (a gathering of friends and family to celebrate an occasion), Meena is disappointed at the lack of presents
• Meena is also jealous that Anita is to get a pony for Christmas 
• However, Meena’s mother, Daljit Kumar, often refers to her Hindu tolerance for all faiths:
  • Meena understands that this is to help her fit in in England
• The Kumar family also celebrate the Christian celebration of Christmas:
• Daljit tells Meena that all religions lead to the same god
• She takes Meena to the gurudwara in Birmingham, a Sikh place of worship
• Meena also learns about the Hindu faith from her extended family:
• She is told about her aunt’s shrines to the gods and about reincarnation and karma
• This scares Meena as she feels guilty about lying and worries she will be punished in the next life
• Meena’s father, on the other hand, teaches Meena about morality outside of religion:
• He advises her to consult her conscience 
• He disagrees mostly with the damage that can be caused in the name of religion
• He encourages Meena to be honest and accountable for her actions

• Meera Syal calls Anita and Me semi-autobiographical
• Anita and Me is a typical Bildungsroman as it shows the protagonist’s personal and spiritual growth:
  • Meena Kumar learns to stand up for herself against bullies
  • She learns to understand her family’s motivations
  • She becomes humble and shows empathy to those who wrong her
• The story depicts typical events marking teenage development:
  • Meena gives up the “Twinkle” comic and reads “Jackie” magazine
  • This causes her to worry about boys, clothes and make-up
• Anita and Me has been compared with Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, which is also about a child’s growing awareness of discrimination in their community:
  • For example, the “Big House” in Syal’s novel, which the children fear for its frightening inhabitants, is similar to the old house in Harper Lee’s novel
  • Both protagonists find out that the residents of the respective houses are actually normal people who have isolated themselves from the community
  • Meena sends a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to Robert, her friend  
• A Bildungsroman often illustrates how a protagonist deals with bullies:
  • Through these antagonists, writers represent various aspects of injustice in a society
  • Syal’s protagonist deals with racist bullies:
    • Meena befriends both the town bullies: Sam Lowbridge and Anita Rutter
    • Syal says that the characters were not based on anyone specifically from her own childhood
    • She says that Anita is based on traits of “older girls in my village who I used to follow around”
    • Through these antagonists, writers represent various aspects of injustice in a society
• Syal grew up in a predominantly white working-class West Midlands town called Essington in the 1960s and 1970s:
  • The town in the novel, Tollington, is similar to Essington as it has a disused coal mine
• Her novel relates the problems faced by individuals struggling in the disadvantaged areas of the Black Country as a result of industrial decline in the 1970s:
  • For example, the story relates how the planned building of a motorway disrupts the town and businesses
  • Many of the characters deal with problematic home lives, such as Sam Lowbridge, who is the criminally-active son of a poverty-ridden single mother
• Syal’s novel describes the life of Meena’s parents, who are Indian immigrants:
  • Syal’s own parents were Punjabi immigrants from New Delhi who came to England two years before she was born in 1961
  • Syal’s own father was an accountant like Shyam Kumar
  • Her mother was Sikh and a school teacher like Daljit Kumar
• According to Syal’s mother, Meera was always attracted to performance:
  • In the novel, Meena refers to her father’s love of singing and acting
  • She also performs sketches and imagines being on television
  • Meera Syal herself became famous as an actress and comedian in TV programmes such as Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42