Historical Critique and Colonial Memory of Zadie Smith's White Teeth
Zadie Smith's illustration of London in "White Teeth" reveals her inventiveness, which is evident in her rationalized critique of Britain's colonial policies, historiography, and memorialization. Smith describes the nineteenth-century tragedy of the Indian "Mutiny" of 1857, so her objective seems similar to that of the earlier generation of writers educated in the colonies who launched fervent attacks against British imperialism.
The Indian Mutiny of 1857 and Samad's Storytelling
The central character of "White Teeth" Samad, repeatedly tells the story of his great-grandfather, Mangal Pande, who allegedly fired the first shot, setting off a chain reaction that led to the Meerut uprising. Through Samad's historical research and storytelling, Smith suggests that some aspects of colonial history cannot be ignored. The uprising was the bloodiest insurrection in the history of the British Empire. Many people, both British and Indian, were killed during the "mutiny" and the massacres that followed it, which ultimately led to Indian self-rule a hundred years later. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels called this thirteen-month battle the "First Indian War of Independence." In "White Teeth", Smith uses her characters to decide the heroes of that bloody revolt, and she situates them within a new urban site.
When excerpts of the novel appeared in 1999 in "The New Yorker", Smith rushed to finish the book. Following its publication in 2000, she was renowned as the voice of a "New England." The New York Times Book Review featured Smith and her novel prominently that same year. In an interview with Sarah Lyall, Smith said that "White Teeth" offers "a utopian view" of British race relations: "It's what it might be, and what it should be, and maybe what it will be."
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O'Connell's: A Space for Unofficial Histories
Smith depicts Archie and Samad, an Englishman and a Bengali Muslim, who became friends while serving in the same British tank in World War II. They discuss their conflicting versions of history during good-natured conversations in an unlikely locale, an immigrant-owned diner in late-twentieth-century London. The narrator states: "The whole of the steamy Indian summer of 1857, the whole of that year of mutiny and massacre would be hauled into O'Connell's and brought to semi-consciousness by these two makeshift historians" (218).
By presenting two sides of a century in the distinctive voices of her characters, Smith describes London's historical events. Samad memorializes Pande, who was executed, in the same way Henry Havelock is memorialized next to Nelson in Trafalgar Square. By displaying Pande's only remaining photograph in the London diner, Samad creates his own small commemorative, one that acknowledges his great-grandfather's contribution to history while also marking O'Connell's as an urban space where conservative British historiography can be questioned and countered.
Trafalgar Square and the Failures of Public Memory
In an interview for Tate: The Art Magazine, Smith explains the historical basis for her fictional character's critical reading of the London monument commemorating the "mutiny." After describing Havelock's extreme cruelty as an official in British India, Smith argues that his memorialization in London indicates the failures and distortions of British history and public memory: "Trafalgar Square is this wonderful tiny version of what we were... If you are facing Nelson, there is a Henry Havelock statue on the left. This man was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indian people... On the back of the statue it says something about Englishmen never forgetting, but Trafalgar Square is a monument to our ability to forget everything about our history" (41).
Through her analysis of Trafalgar Square, Smith questions how national and personal tragedies are described and remembered. In "White Teeth", Samad insists that his ancestors' stake in the Indian "Mutiny" be recognized if his great-grandfather's story is told. She undercuts official London memorialization by demonstrating that the desire of "Englishmen" to "never forget" has unexpected consequences in the case of one naturalized Englishman and war veteran.
Samad as Keeper of Memory
O'Connell's restaurant becomes a daily meeting place where Samad and Archie share unofficial stories and retellings despite its foul-mouthed proprietor and greasy food. After a decade and a tearful request, Samad convinces O'Connell's owner, Abdul Mickey, to display the portrait of Mangal Pande, though it might "put people off their food" (213).
The discussions in O'Connell's are humorous and historically significant, revealing Smith's unique generational perspective. Samad is a storyteller who always narrates the story of his great-grandfather. During a storm, he tells his and Archie's family members: "Fact is: it is simply a matter of market economy, publicity, movie rights... Pande's not pretty enough, is he? Too Indian-looking, big nose, big eyebrows. That's why I'm always having to tell you ingrates a thing or two about Mangal Pandey. Bottom line: if I don't, nobody will" (195).
Samad keeps the story alive through his own impassioned retellings. He believes that "we are creatures of consequence" and that "children will be born of our actions" which "will become their destinies" (102). He believes the past determines the present.
Millat and the Second-Generation Response
His son Millat, after years of scoffing at his father's stories, visits the Trafalgar Square monument to Pande's executioner. After "looking Havelock in his stony eye," Millat decides: "That's the long history of us and them... Because Millat was here to finish it. To revenge it. To turn that history around" (433).
Millat challenges his father's reliance on "library books and debates and reconstructions" (433). He sees his father's "makeshift historian" role as useless and turns to militancy as his "second generation" solution.
The Perret Institute and the Politics of Space
Smith contrasts the public square where Millat hopes to avenge his ancestor with O'Connell's and with a third London location: the Perret Institute. The narrator describes the exhibition site as a "Corporate place, a clean slate, white/chrome/pure/Plain... used for the meetings of people who want to meet somewhere neutral at the end of the twentieth century; a virtual place where their business can be done in an emptiness, an uncontaminated cavity" (442).
This 'neutral' space makes O'Connell's a relic, precious in its impurity. The presence of an unnamed "Nigerian cleaning lady" and "Mr. De Winter, a Polish night watchman" complicates that corporate emptiness. Smith acknowledges and then undercuts the nativist belief that immigrants are contaminants of national or corporate purity.
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Postcolonial Memory and Identity
"White Teeth" inscribes a new, multiracial London that counters white Britons' versions of that city. The representation of the Indian Mutiny is a clear example of postcolonial memory. Samad never accepted the description of Mangal Pande as a failed mutineer. Instead, he provides the full story, claiming that full stories are "as rare as honesty." Samad attempts to mythicize his forefather to turn him into a hero. According to Samad, Pande "sacrificed his life in the name of justice for India."
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The fundamental importance in "White Teeth" is "the art of remembering to forget." One must be conscious of the past but also able to forget when needed. This does not mean the past should be forgotten completely. To shape one's identity through history, one must be aware of it and conscious of identity's fluidity and change.
For further reading, explore colonial memory and identity in White Teeth and multicultural families and hysterical realism in White Teeth.
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Recommended Reading: White Teeth by Zadie Smith — Study Guide — get the book on Amazon for deeper insights.