George's marriage to Ella is his second one; his first wife was from an arranged marriage in Pakistan that left him unhappy. Yet he was able to incorporate aspects of development theory within his own life to find a new wife who he is (mostly) pleased with in a Western environment, and even owns a successful fish and chips restaurant. In his romantic life and in his economic life, George is able to evince some of the best qualities of development theory and modernization by taking his best assets and (literally) marrying them with those from a Western society to update and contemporize his life and his source of income. However, what George does not take account of is the fact that he must allow the same degree of leniency from his religion and tradition that he permitted himself in marrying Ella to his children. In this sense, East is East explains development theory and modernization in a negative aspect due to the dearth of George to allow his children to fully actualize these principles into their own lives. One of George's sons whose marriage is arranged to a grotesquely unattractive Pakistani woman is actually in a loving relationship with a traditional Caucasia British girl by the name...

However, George's disregard for his son (Tariq) and his own autonomy in choosing a partner for life is in direct opposition to the principles of development theory which attempt to find a peaceful co-existence between the merging of societies and culture. For the most part, the distraught husband and disliked father merely indicates his own ability to permit his children to successfully modernize in a Western society by holding them to standards of Islam that seemingly only apply to them when he is around.
Ideally, development theory and modernization are best achieved by coupling the best assets of one culture or country with another and facilitating some sort of compromise in which shared values and goals are achieved. George is able to do this for his own life, but tries his hardest to prevent his children from doing so. The result is identity crises that stem from these problems of immigration and the cultural antecedents of George's native Pakistan. The principle facets of development theory and modernization that work for George are explained to the viewer as things which the father will not permit for his offspring -- who rebel against him because of that fact.