Part 3: Growing Apart
Racism in Tollington — From Casual to Overt
In the early chapters, racism in Tollington operates beneath the surface. Neighbours are friendly to the Kumars but treat them as curiosities — commenting on their food, asking intrusive questions, and making assumptions about their culture. This casual racism is rarely challenged because it does not look like hatred. Syal shows that racism does not require malice — it can exist within apparently friendly relationships.
As the novel progresses, the racism becomes more explicit. Sam Lowbridge makes openly racist statements. When he attacks immigrants in his speech at the village fete, part of the crowd murmurs approval — proof that many villagers share that feeling. Meena begins to understand — painfully — that her family will never be fully accepted, no matter how long they have lived in Tollington. The village’s friendliness has limits, and those limits are defined by race.
Syal presents racism on a spectrum: from casual microaggressions (intrusive questions, exoticisation) to overt hostility (Sam Lowbridge’s violence, the crowd’s approval at the fete). Both forms damage the Kumars, and Meena gradually learns that surface friendliness does not equal genuine acceptance.
Meena’s Growing Awareness
As a child narrator, Meena does not initially understand racism for what it is. She experiences confusing moments — comments that feel wrong but she cannot articulate why. Syal uses this dramatic irony powerfully: the reader recognises racism that Meena is too young to name. This technique makes the racism more painful because we see its impact on a child who cannot defend herself.
Meena’s awareness grows through the novel. She begins to notice that certain doors are closed to her, that Anita’s casual racist remarks are not jokes, and that her parents’ dignified silence in the face of prejudice is not weakness but a survival strategy. This growing understanding is a central part of her coming of age.
Sam Lowbridge is the novel’s most overtly racist character, but Syal refuses to let him be a simple villain. Sam is also a victim of poverty, neglect, and a community that offers him no opportunities or hope. His racism is partly a product of frustration — he needs someone to blame for his circumstances, and immigrants become the target.
Syal links racism to social deprivation. Sam’s prejudice is not born in a vacuum but in a community where working-class white men feel abandoned and powerless. This does not excuse racism, but it explains its roots — and connects to the wider political context of Enoch Powell exploiting working-class anger for political gain.
The Cracks in Community
Tollington is presented as a tight-knit community, but the middle section of the novel reveals its fractures. The village is united by geography and class but divided by race. The Kumars are tolerated rather than accepted. When racial tensions rise nationally (the Powell speech), the village’s veneer of friendliness cracks, and the Kumars discover how conditional their belonging really is.
Mrs Worrall is an important exception. She is a white neighbour who genuinely cares for the Kumars and treats them as equals. Syal uses Mrs Worrall to show that individual kindness is possible even within a racist society — but one kind neighbour cannot undo structural prejudice.
Tollington is united by class but divided by race. The Kumars are tolerated, not truly accepted. Mrs Worrall’s genuine kindness shows that individual relationships can transcend racism, but one kind person cannot change a community’s embedded prejudice.
As racism becomes more visible, Meena feels increasingly isolated. She cannot fully belong to the English village world (she is marked as different by her skin colour) and she has been distancing herself from her Indian heritage (by pursuing Anita’s friendship). She is caught in a no-man’s-land between cultures — belonging fully to neither.
This isolation is the necessary crisis point for Meena’s coming of age. She must hit bottom — rejected by both worlds — before she can begin to build an identity that integrates both parts of herself. Syal structures the novel so that Meena’s lowest point coincides with Nanima’s arrival, which offers her a path back to her heritage.