Context: 1960s/70s Britain & Immigration
Meera Syal — Context
Meera Syal (born 1961) is a British-Indian writer, actress, and comedian. She grew up in Essington, a small mining village in the West Midlands — one of very few Indian families in the area. Anita and Me (1996) is semi-autobiographical: the protagonist Meena Kumar shares many of Syal’s experiences of growing up as a second-generation Indian girl in a white working-class English village during the 1960s and early 1970s.
The novel explores identity, belonging, racism, and the clash between cultures through the eyes of a nine-year-old narrator. Syal uses humour and warmth alongside moments of genuine pain to capture the experience of being caught between two worlds: the Punjabi traditions of her family and the English culture of her neighbourhood.
Syal grew up in a mining village in the West Midlands as one of the only Indian families. Like Meena, she navigated between Punjabi family culture and white English working-class culture. The novel draws directly on these experiences to explore identity, belonging, and racism in 1960s Britain.
1960s & 1970s Britain: Immigration & Race
After World War II, Britain actively recruited workers from its former colonies (India, Pakistan, the Caribbean) to fill labour shortages. The Windrush generation and South Asian immigrants were invited to Britain, but many faced hostility and discrimination on arrival. By the 1960s, immigration had become a major political issue.
In 1968, Conservative politician Enoch Powell delivered his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, warning that continued immigration would lead to racial violence. The speech divided Britain: many condemned it as racist, but it was hugely popular among white working-class communities. Powell was MP for Wolverhampton South West, only a few miles from the village Syal grew up in, so this was the political mood the Kumars lived inside. Syal never names Powell in the novel. She shows the same anger through Sam Lowbridge, whose outburst at the village fete reveals the racism simmering beneath the surface of “polite” village life.
The fictional village of Tollington is based on Essington in Staffordshire. It is a small, tight-knit, white working-class mining community. The Kumars are one of very few non-white families. The village is insular and resistant to change — the construction of the new motorway at the end of the novel symbolises the modernisation that will eventually transform such communities.
Syal presents Tollington with affection and criticism. The neighbours are often kind but also casually racist, treating the Kumars as exotic curiosities rather than equals. The village represents a Britain that is simultaneously warm-hearted and deeply prejudiced — a community where racism exists not just in overt hostility but in casual, everyday assumptions about who belongs.
Second-Generation Identity
Meena is a second-generation immigrant — born in Britain to Indian parents. She does not fit neatly into either culture. At home, she is surrounded by Punjabi language, food, music, and values. At school and in the village, she absorbs English working-class culture, pop music, and the desire to fit in. The novel’s central tension is Meena’s struggle to reconcile these two identities.
Syal uses Meena’s position as an outsider-insider to give the reader a unique perspective on both cultures. Meena can see the flaws in English village life (racism, narrow-mindedness) and in her parents’ expectations (strict gender roles, pressure to conform to Punjabi traditions). Her coming-of-age is not just about growing up — it is about understanding where she belongs in a country that does not always accept her.
Meena’s second-generation identity is the novel’s emotional core. She is too English for her parents’ Punjabi world and too Indian for Tollington’s white community. Her journey is about learning to accept and integrate both parts of herself.
Anita and Me is examined in Paper 2, Section A: Modern Texts. The question is a closed-book essay worth 30 marks + 4 SPaG. There is no extract — you must write about the whole novel from memory. You will be given a statement or question about a theme, character, or idea and asked to respond to it with close reference to the text.
Assessment objectives: AO1 (response to the text: ideas, interpretations, quotations) is worth 12 marks. AO2 (Syal’s language, form and structure) is also worth 12 marks. AO3 (context: Syal’s background, 1960s Britain, immigration, racism) is worth 6 marks. AO4 (SPaG) adds 4 marks on top. AO2 carries as many marks as AO1, so you must analyse how Syal writes, not only what happens.