A book review wot I did which appeared in today's Metro. It's well worth reading!
NON-FICTION OF THE WEEK
Balti Britain (four stars)
by Ziauddin Sardar (Granta, £20)
Writer and broadcaster Ziauddin Sardar’s Balti Britain is a rigorous exploration of the British Asian experience and is part-autobiography, part-history lesson and part-sociological study. Sardar deconstructs the term ‘British Asian’ and highlights homeland influences including tribal, family, religious and linguistic, and how life in Britain (covering geography, class and employment) has had an impact on an intricate, sophisticated, compound identity.
In Bradford, he finds tribal clanship alive and kicking among its Kashmiri community, yet discovers arranged marriage has evolved into parent-approved dating. Meanwhile, Sardar’s amusing analysis of the Balti curry – which confuses south Asians because ‘balti’ means bucket and is never used in cooking – reflects immigrants’ adaptability: modifying food and language to the British palate and ears.
He contrasts 1990s ‘Asian cool’ with the alienation and frustration of under-classes, examines his religion in 7/7’s wake and asks whether Britain wants to continue to celebrate cultural difference in these paranoid and vexed times. The answer impacts on all our futures.
