The Buddha of Suburbia

by

Hanif Kureishi

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Anwar came to London in the 1950s from India with his best friend Haroon to attend college. After marrying Jeeta he opened a toy store, which she soon convinced him to turn into a grocery store. The grocery became extremely successful. Anwar is a shrewd man who loves sitting on a stool and watching for shoplifters. He loves his daughter, Jamila, though he mostly ignores her interest in black theory, feminist theory, and the like. Though Karim notes that Anwar never expressed any interest in returning to India or even conducting his life in an overtly Muslim way, he makes a sudden shift towards conservatism when he decides it's time for Jamila to enter into an arranged marriage. He goes on a hunger strike, which lasts for weeks, until she agrees. After Jamila's marriage, Anwar is extremely disappointed in her husband, Changez, who came highly recommended from a cousin in Bombay: Changez is fat, has only one working arm, and has no interest in running his father-in-law's store. Anwar is also incensed when it becomes apparent that Changez and Jamila won't provide him with a grandson. After his hunger strike, Anwar never fully recovers. He uses a cane and remains very thin and weak. He also becomes extremely conservative and begins talking about returning to India, though he never goes. Anwar dies in the hospital of a heart attack, though he ends up in the hospital after Changez hits him over the head with a dildo defending himself from one of Anwar's attacks.

Anwar Quotes in The Buddha of Suburbia

The The Buddha of Suburbia quotes below are all either spoken by Anwar or refer to Anwar. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

"The whites will never promote us," Dad said. "Not an Indian while there is a white man left on the earth. You don't have to deal with them—they still think they have an Empire when they don't have two pennies to rub together."

Related Characters: Haroon (Dad) (speaker), Karim, Anwar
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

"Families aren't sacred, especially to Indian men, who talk about nothing else and act otherwise."

Related Characters: Jamila (speaker), Karim, Haroon (Dad), Anwar
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:

The lives of Anwar and Jeeta and Jamila were pervaded by fear of violence...Jeeta kept buckets of water around her bed in case the shop was firebombed in the night. Many of Jamila's attitudes were inspired by the possibility that a white group might kill one of us one day.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Jamila, Anwar, Princess Jeeta
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

"That bastard, what does he think I am, his servant? I'm not a shopkeeper. Business isn't my best side, yaar, not my best. I'm the intellectual type, not one of those uneducated immigrant types who come here to slave all day and night and look dirty."

Related Characters: Changez (speaker), Karim, Anwar
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 11 Quotes

But as the days passed I watched Jeeta's progress. She certainly didn't want to go home. It was as if Jamila had educated her in possibility, the child being an example to the parent.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Jamila, Anwar, Princess Jeeta
Page Number: 172
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 14 Quotes

But I did feel, looking at these strange creatures now—the Indians—that in some way these were my people, and that I'd spent my life denying or avoiding that fact. I felt ashamed and incomplete at the same time, as if half of me were missing, and as if I'd been colluding with my enemies, those whites who wanted Indians to be like them.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Haroon (Dad), Anwar
Page Number: 212
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anwar Quotes in The Buddha of Suburbia

The The Buddha of Suburbia quotes below are all either spoken by Anwar or refer to Anwar. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

"The whites will never promote us," Dad said. "Not an Indian while there is a white man left on the earth. You don't have to deal with them—they still think they have an Empire when they don't have two pennies to rub together."

Related Characters: Haroon (Dad) (speaker), Karim, Anwar
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

"Families aren't sacred, especially to Indian men, who talk about nothing else and act otherwise."

Related Characters: Jamila (speaker), Karim, Haroon (Dad), Anwar
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:

The lives of Anwar and Jeeta and Jamila were pervaded by fear of violence...Jeeta kept buckets of water around her bed in case the shop was firebombed in the night. Many of Jamila's attitudes were inspired by the possibility that a white group might kill one of us one day.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Jamila, Anwar, Princess Jeeta
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

"That bastard, what does he think I am, his servant? I'm not a shopkeeper. Business isn't my best side, yaar, not my best. I'm the intellectual type, not one of those uneducated immigrant types who come here to slave all day and night and look dirty."

Related Characters: Changez (speaker), Karim, Anwar
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 11 Quotes

But as the days passed I watched Jeeta's progress. She certainly didn't want to go home. It was as if Jamila had educated her in possibility, the child being an example to the parent.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Jamila, Anwar, Princess Jeeta
Page Number: 172
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 14 Quotes

But I did feel, looking at these strange creatures now—the Indians—that in some way these were my people, and that I'd spent my life denying or avoiding that fact. I felt ashamed and incomplete at the same time, as if half of me were missing, and as if I'd been colluding with my enemies, those whites who wanted Indians to be like them.

Related Characters: Karim (speaker), Haroon (Dad), Anwar
Page Number: 212
Explanation and Analysis: