Attempts to Understand Anglophilia

The novel 'The God of Small Things' taught me two things. The first is that anyone can write an award winning novel if they throw in enough fancy words to distract publishers, readers and judges from a vague, abstract plot. (The Booker judges, JUST by the way, always get it wrong. Where the hell is Rushdie's award for his last book?! Hmph.) The second seems less important but has nonetheless left as huge an impact. The discovery of and attempt to understand the term 'Anglophile'  


The Wikipedia definition seems simple enough. An Anglophile is a person who is fond of English culture and England in general. But no, the reason why the word struck me is because I can relate to the term on a deeper level. 


My family has chronic Anglophilia. We greet the day from between imported sheets, wash our faces with Imperial Leather and throw on shirts we brought from England last summer. We speak near-perfect English. Not Oxford variety English of course (See how Oxford got the italics? How elitist. I disgust myself at times) but grammatically correct and with enough four syllable words thrown in to confirm our foreign/imported education. We stick to Western principles we probably picked up when the British took about two centuries ago such as waking up early.  We need people to call in advance and expect them to know what RSVP means (which doesn't even stand for anything in English) We are formal with guests and curt with people we meet on the streets. No, you may not accuse me of racial profiling just right now, not at this second. I have a point here, I swear.


Understanding Anglophilia is difficult. Yes, Pakistan (then part of the Indian Subcontinent) was once ruled by the Brits and so some small traces of that rule are left (Christians that look like the rest of 'us', the side of the road we drive on, administration in certain schools) But really, that doesn't explain my family's Anglophilia. What is with this blind assumption that the Brits always get it right?  They too went through financial crisis last year and hell, a lot of them voted Conservative this year. Obviously, they're not perfect. 


I don't love the Brits. I like what they've done with the place but in all honesty; it rains too much,  strangers are rude and the food sucks (Still not stereotyping, generalizing or judging of course) But I too have become part of that community. My Urdu is terrible, I like imported soap and I go to England almost every year to shop. Oh and I'm probably in denial about my Anglophilia.  

But I still don't get it. I don't understand why my family (and many other upper middle class families in Pakistan) insist on aping and lauding the Brits. They feel that once the rest of Pakistan begins to wake up early, drive properly and speak in English, the country will fix itself. Maybe the true goal of British imperialism was to make us feel perpetually inferior. Maybe it's because we haven't seen as many Asian countries progress yet stay true to their respective national identities. Or maybe we all just need to take a trip to Turkey.