→paper no : 202 indian english literature post- independence
➳Name : kumarkhaniya diya g.
➳M. A English Sem : 3
➳Paper :(202)Paper 202: indian english literature post- independence.
➳Topic : about the novelist and about the novel midnight 's childern (1981) by salman rushdie.
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➳ About the author :-
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist.His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. His novels are typically set on the Indian subcontinent, feature an Indian protagonist, and/or portray Indian familial relationships. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions that marked the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.
→ Born:
Ahmed Salman Rushdie
19 June 1947 (age 79)
Bombay, British India
→ Citizenship:
India (until 1964)
UK (from 1964)[1]
US (from 2016)
→ Education:
King's College, Cambridge (BA)
→ Occupations:
Writerprofessor
→ Spouses:
Clarissa Luard
(m. 1976; div. 1987)
Marianne Wiggins
(m. 1988; div. 1993)
Elizabeth West
(m. 1997; div. 2004)
Padma Lakshmi
(m. 2004; div. 2007)
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
(m. 2021)
→ Children : 2
→ Relatives:
Mishka Rushdie Momen (niece) Natalie Rushdie (daughter-in-law)
→ Genres:
Magical realismsatirepostcolonialism
→ Subjects:
Historical criticismtravel writing
→ Website:
salmanrushdie.com
➳ After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats because of what was seen by some to be an irreverent depiction of Muhammad. The controversy involving the Satanic Verses included a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. The book was banned in 20 countries. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cited the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution that led to loss of his right eye and inflicted damage to his liver and hands. Two of the men who went to his aid were awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism in 2025.
Rushdie was educated at King's College at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1968. In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, he has lived in the United States. Rushdie was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, Rushdie published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie has been married five times. From 2004 to 2007, he was married to Indian-American television presenter and model Padma Lakshmi.
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➳ About the novel :-
Midnight's Children is the second novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published in 1981 by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive. In the way it interweaves a personal with a national biography it has similarities to Günter Grass's The Tin Drum.
→ Author:
Salman Rushdie
→ Cover artist:
Bill Botten
→ Language:
English
→ Genre:
Magic realism, historiographic metafiction
→ Set in:
British India from 1915 to 1947, India from 1947 to the late 1950s, Pakistan in the 1960s, Bangladesh in 1971, India in the 1970s
→ Publisher:
Jonathan Cape
→ Publication date:
March 12, 1981
→ Publication place:
United Kingdom
→ Media type:
Print (hardback and paperback)
→ Pages : 446
→ ISBN : 0-224-01823-X
→ OCLC : 8234329
➳ Midnight's Children sold over one million copies in the UK alone and won the Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981.It was also awarded the special Booker of Bookers prize in 1993, and the Best of the Booker in 2008, to celebrate the Booker Prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries.In 2003 the novel appeared at number 100 on the BBC's The Big Read poll which determined the UK's "best-loved novels" of all time.
➳ Introduction :-
Midnight's Children, one of the most victorious novels written by a renowned author Salman Rushdie, was published in 1981. To say that this piece of art won many awards and received an immense critical acclaim would be an understatement. It won the Best of the Booker prize, earning the reputation of being the best novel that has been given the prestigious Booker award.
➳ Plot Summary :-
Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children begins as narrator Saleem Sinai urgently tells the story of his life. Born at the exact moment of India's independence from British rule, Saleem is inescapably "handcuffed to history," and his own fate is intertwined with that of his nation.
Saleem's entire body is cracking, crumbling under the stress of "too much history," and he is slowly dying, disintegrating into "(approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, necessarily oblivious, dust." Saleem must work fast if he is to tell his story before he dies, and he begins with his Kashmiri grandfather, Aadam Aziz.
Aadam has just returned to Kashmir from medical school in Germany, and he is disillusioned with his traditional Indian life. One moming, while kneeling to pray, Aadam strikes his nose on the ground, and three small drops of blood escape from his nose. From that moment, he vows "never again to bow to any man or god." Soon, Tai, the old boatman, alerts Aadam to the illness of Naseem Ghani, the daughter of a local landowner. Arriving at the Ghani's, Aadam finds Naseem hidden behind a large sheet with a small hole cut in the center, and he is made to examine her through the opening. Over several years and many illnesses, Aadam and Naseem fall in love and are finally married, and the two prepare to move to Agra for Aadam's new university job.
In Agra, Aadam and Naseem are witnesses to Mahatma Gandhi's hartal and the violence of the British military, and in the aftermath of a massacre, Aadam befriends the Hummingbird, a Pro-Indian Muslim politician who inspires optimism throughout Agra. Aadam also meets Nadir Khan, the Hummingbird's private secretary, and after the Hummingbird is murdered by assassins, Nadir takes refuge under Aadam's floorboards, much to the dismay of his wife Naseem, known in her marriage as Reverend Mother. While living under the floor, Nadir falls in love with Aadam's daughter, Mumtaz, and the two are married, spending three blissful years together underground. Ultimately, it is discovered that Nadir is impotent, and he is forced to divorce Mumtaz, who is left heartbroken. Mumtaz soon remarries Ahmed Sinai, who changes her name to Amina, and the two move to Bombay after she becomes pregnant.
Ahmed and Amina buy a mansion from William Methwold, a British colonist who is preparing to return to London after India's independence, and they quickly move in, living amongst the Englishman's belongings and customs. Growing increasingly pregnant, Amina goes into labor on the eve of India's independence, along with another pregnant woman from Methwold's Estate named Vanita, the wife of a poor accordionist who entertains the residents on the estate. Both women give birth at the stroke of midnight; however, Vanita dies shortly after, leaving her infant son, Shiva. Alone with the two children of midnight, a midwife named Mary Pereira switches the nametags of the children, effectively replacing rich with poor, in her own "private act of revolution." In the days following, Mary's guilt is so severe that she offers her services to Amina Sinai as an ayah to care for her infant Saleem, and she readily accepts. Mary returns to Methwold's Estate with the Sinais, where she continues to keep her secret for several years before finally blurting it out, a victim of her own guilt.
As Saleem grows, it is clear that he is not a normal child. He grows too quickly, he rarely blinks, and after an accident in his mother's washing chest, he begins to hear voices, made possible by his large, congested nose. The voices in Saleem's head are the voices of the other children born during the midnight hour of independence, the "metaphorical mirror of a nation," who each also happen to be endowed with different magical powers. Saleem attempts to organize the children, creating a forum for them in his mind, but their prejudices get the better of them, and they are unable to band together. Ultimately, it is Shiva who succeeds in dividing the children, and Saleem is left helpless.
Saleem continues to grow and moves with his family to Pakistan. As civil unrest brews leading up to the Indo-Pakistani War, he is again left helpless as bombs from an air-strike kill his family. In the chaos of the bombing, Saleem is hit in the head by an airborne spittoon, causing him to forget his name and identity. Saleem is soon drafted into the Pakistani army and he witnesses unspeakable events, finally running away into the jungle to avoid further violence. When he emerges from the jungle, the war is ending, India is victorious, and Saleem is still not sure who he is. During a celebratory parade, he runs into Parvati-the-witch, a fellow child of midnight who immediately recognizes Saleem. The two fall in love, and when Saleem is unable to father her children, Parvati puts a spell on Shiva, and he soon impregnates her. He quickly loses interest (as he always does where pregnancy is concerned), and Parvati is free to marry Saleem, who has agreed to father her unborn child.
As Parvati goes into labor, civil unrest in India continues and Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minster, declares a state of emergency. Parvati finally gives birth to a son but, sadly, she is killed. At the same time, Saleem is kidnapped by Shiva and dragged in a van, where he is taken, along with the other children of midnight, and forcibly sterilized during Mrs. Gandhi's sterilization program. Finally, Indira Gandhi's Emergency ends, and Saleem and the other children of midnight are released from their imprisonment. Saleem soon finds his son and he moves back to Bombay, where he discovers that Mary Pereira is the owner of a local pickle factory. As Saleem finishes the telling of his story, he decides to begin telling his future, and he starts with his wedding to Padma, his companion and audience for the telling of his story. Padma and Saleem are to be married in Kashmir; however, before they are, Saleem finally succumbs to the cracks in his skin, and he crumbles into six hundred million pieces of dust.
➳ Character List :-
→ Saleem Sinai
The narrator and protagonist of the novel. Born at the moment of India's independence and blessed with the powers of telepathy and an uncanny sense of smell, Saleem tells his extraordinary life story as his body begins to crumble, an account that significantly parallels the history of postcolonial India. As a narrator, Saleem can be both unreliable and self-centered at times.
→ The Brass Monkey (Jamila Singer)
Saleem's younger sister, who eventually grows up to become the most famous singer in Pakistan, adored throughout the country.
→ Aadam Aziz
Saleem's grandfather. Aadam is the patriarch of the family, a doctor and skeptic whose loss of faith leaves what he refers to as a "hole" inside of him. Aadam falls in love with his wife, Naseem, after only being allowed to see her through a hole in a perforated sheet.
→ Ahmed Sinai
Saleem's father. A shrewd businessman who is nonetheless destined for failure, Ahmed spends much of his marriage fighting his wife and his alcohol addiction.
→ Mumtaz (Amina Sinai)
Saleem's mother, and the daughter of Aadam Aziz. Born Mumtaz, she changes her name to Amina after her marriage to Ahmed. A loving, devoted mother, she inherits her father's skepticism and her mother's determination. Despite being married to Ahmed, she is never able to forget her first husband, Nadir Khan.
→ Mary Pereira
Saleem's ayah and surrogate mother. Mary is responsible for switching Saleem and Shiva at birth out of a misguided sense of social justice. In order to compensate for her crime, she dedicates her life to raising Saleem.
→ Shiva
Saleem's archrival. Shiva is born at exactly the same moment as Saleem. While Saleem is raised in a loving, wealthy household, Shiva is raised in abject poverty by a single father. He is blessed with a pair of preternaturally strong knees and an amazing prowess in war. Shiva is named after the Hindu god of destruction, who is also the god associated with procreation.
→ The Widow (Indira Gandhi)
The corrupt prime minister of India responsible for the destruction of the midnight's children.
→ Parvati-the-witch
A real witch, and, like Saleem, one of the children born at the moment of India's independence. Parvati is Saleem's closest ally as a child and later becomes his wife. Despite her fantastic powers, she is unable to make Saleem fall in love with her and, as a result, embarks on an affair with Shiva that results in a child. In the Hindu religion, Parvati is the consort of Shiva.
→ Padma
Saleem's devoted caretaker and future wife. Padma is as strong and down-to-earth as Saleem is weak and dreamy. She provides Saleem with a skeptical yet patient audience.
→ Naseem Ghani
Saleem's grandmother, and Aadam Aziz's wife. After marriage, Naseem becomes known as Reverend Mother, in part because of her religious devotion. As her husband withers away with age, Reverend Mother grows increasingly large and powerful.
→ William Methwold
Saleem's biological father. An Englishman, William Methwold seduces women with his perfectly parted hair, which is actually a wig. He owns Methwold's Estate, a portion of which he sells to Ahmed Sinai. He sees his departure from India as marking the tragic end of an era.
→ Alia
Saleem's aunt, and a sister of Amina. After Ahmed Sinai rejects her for her sister, Alia harbors a lifelong bitterness and determination to destroy her sister and her sister's family.
→ Hanif
Saleem's uncle, and a brother of Amina. Hanif was once one of the most promising film directors in India. However, his dream to create art free from melodrama and superstition fails, and, as his career falls apart, he commits suicide.
→ Nadir Khan
Amina's first husband. As a young man, Nadir Khan is the personal assistant to Mian Abdullah, as well as a bad poet. He falls in love with Amina but is forced to divorce her on account of his impotence. He later changes his name to Qasim Khan and becomes a communist.
→ Mustapha
Saleem's uncle, and a brother of Amina. Mustapha is the ideal, obedient civil servant. He is so passive, he's nearly inconsequential-a fate he takes out on his children by constantly beating them until they have no personality left.
→ Emerald
Saleem's aunt, and a sister of Amina. Emerald marries Major Zulfikar and enjoys an opulently comfortable lifestyle. Selfish and self-absorbed, she only reluctantly comes to her sister's aid.
→ General Zulfikar
Emerald's husband, and an important figure in the Pakistani army. General Zulfikar helps orchestrate a coup against the Pakistani government and makes money by smuggling items into the country. His constant abuse of his son, Zafar, eventually provokes Zafar into killing him.
→ Zafar
The son of General Zulfikar and Emerald. Zafar wets himself throughout his life and is ridiculed and abused by his father as a result.
→ Aadam Sinai
The biological son of Shiva and Parvati-the-witch. Saleem raises Aadam as if he were his own child. Aadam is just three years old at the novel's conclusion.
→ Picture Singh
A snake charmer, and the leader of the magician's ghetto. Charming and diplomatic, Picture Singh is Saleem's closest friend. He is undone by his desire to prove himself the world's greatest snake harmer.
→ Wee Willie Winkie
Shiva's father. Wee Willie Winkie is a poor man who earns a living by singing for the wealthy families of Methwold's Estate.
→ Vanita
Saleem's biological mother. Vanita dies during labor.
→ Evie Lilith Burns
A violent, tough American girl. Evie is briefly the leader of the children living on Methwold's Estate, and she is Saleem's first love.
→ Sonny Ibrahim
One of the children living on Methwold's Estate. Sonny is Saleem's best friend. He is also in love with Saleem's sister, the Brass Monkey.
→ Joseph D'Costa
A social radical who later becomes a ghost. Joseph D'Costa's political beliefs inspire Mary's decision to switch Shiva and Saleem, and his ghost later compels her to confess her crime.
→ Commander Sabarmati
A high-ranking official in the Indian navy. After learning that his wife, Lila, has had an affair, Commander Sabarmati shoots her, kills her lover, and then surrenders. He temporarily becomes a national hero.
→ Homi Catrack
A film magnate, and resident of Methwold's Estate. Homi Catrack has an affair with Lila, the wife of Commander Sabarmati, and is subsequently murdered by the commander.
→ Lila Sabarmati
The wife of Commander Sabarmati. Lila's husband shoots her in the stomach for having an affair.
→ Doctor Narlikar
A doctor, and Ahmed's business partner. Dr. Narlikar devises a scheme for reclaiming land from the ocean but dies before he can implement it.
→ Alice Pereira
Mary's sister. Alice eventually works for Ahmed Sinai and is responsible for Mary's chutney factory.
→ Farooq, Shaheed, and Ayooba
Three soldiers assigned to work with Saleem in the Pakistani army. Each one is eventually killed during the war.
→ Narlikar Women
An unnamed, unnumbered group of "grossly competent" women who take over Dr. Narlikar's affairs after his death.
→ Mian Abdullah
A political figure before independence. Mian Abdullah is the founder of the Free Islam Convocation, an organization dedicated to resisting the partition of India along religious lines.
→ Ghani
Naseem's father. Ghani is a blind, wealthy landowner.
→ Tai
An old boatman from Kashmir. Tai is a mysterious, ancient, and wise figure who remains resentful of the world's encroachment into his territory until his death.
→ Ramram Seth
A prophet who predicts Saleem's future while Amina is pregnant.
➳ Theme :-
→ National Identity and Postcolonialism :
The novel parallels the birth and struggles of protagonist Saleem Sinai with those of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh post-independence. It critiques colonialism, the partition of India, and the challenges of building a unified national identity in a postcolonial world.
→ Magic Realism and History :
The intertwining of magical realism with historical events highlights the tension between personal experiences and historical narratives. Saleem's powers and the Midnight's Children Conference symbolize the diversity and chaotic unity of India.
→ Fate and Free Will :
Saleem believes his life is predestined, tied to India's history, questioning the role of individual agency.
→ Fragmentation and Hybridity :
Reflecting Rushdie's own experience, the novel explores cultural, religious, and linguistic hybridity. The fragmented narrative mirrors the fragmented nature of postcolonial identities and nations.
→ Memory and Storytelling :
Saleem's narration emphasizes the subjectivity of memory and its role in shaping identity and history. The act of storytelling becomes a way of reclaiming and reinterpreting the past.
→ Family and Personal Legacy :
Saleem's complex relationships with his family highlight themes of inheritance, loyalty, and betrayal. The Sinai family's dynamics symbolize broader societal issues like class, religion, and generational conflict.
➳ Symbols :-
→ Midnight's Children:
Representing the generation born at the exact moment of India's independence, they symbolize the potential and challenges of a new nation. Their magical abilities reflect the diversity and contradictions within India.
→ The Perforated Sheet:
First seen in Aadam Aziz's love story, it symbolizes fragmented vision, limited perspectives, and the partial understanding of truth.
→ Nose and Smell:
Saleem's oversized nose and heightened sense of smell symbolize his connection to India's history and collective consciousness.
→ The Sundarbans:
The mangrove forest represents a liminal space of transformation, where characters confront their identities and reemerge changed.
→ Kashmir:
A paradise-turned-conflict zone, Kashmir symbolizes the loss of innocence and the impact of political strife on personal lives.
→ The Spittoon:
A recurring object that symbolizes heritage, nostalgia, and the cyclical nature of history and family ties.
→ The Silver Spittoon:
The silver spittoon given to Amina as part of her dowry by the Rani of Cooch Naheen is responsible for Saleem’s loss of memory. Even when he has amnesia, however, Saleem continues to cherish the spittoon as if he still understands its historical value. Following the destruction of his family, the silver spittoon is the only tangible remnant of Saleem’s former life, and yet it too is eventually destroyed when Saleem’s house in the ghetto is torn down. Spittoons, once used as part of a cherished game for both old and young, gradually fell out of use: the old men no longer spit their betel juice into the street as they tell stories, nor do the children dart in between the streams as they listen. The spittoon is the symbol of a vanishing era, which, in retrospect, seemed simpler and easier. And so, although Saleem may not be able to recall the specific association between the spittoon and his family, the spittoon maintains its symbolic quality as both a container of memory and source of amnesia.
→ The Perforated Sheet:
The perforated sheet through which Aadam Aziz falls in love with his future wife performs several different symbolic functions throughout the novel. Unable to see his future wife as a whole, Aadam falls in love with her in pieces. As a result, their love never has a cohesive unity that holds them together. Their love is fragmented, just as their daughter Amina’s attempts to fall in love with her husband are also fragmented. Haunted by the memory of her previous husband, Amina embarks on a campaign to fall in love with her new husband in sections, just as her father once fell in love with her mother. Despite her best attempts, Amina and Ahmed’s love also lacks the completion and unity necessary for genuine love to thrive. The hole of the perforated sheet represents a portal for vision but also a void that goes unfilled. The perforated sheet makes one final appearance with Jamila Singer: in an attempt to preserve her purity, she shrouds herself completely, except for a single hole for her lips. The perforated sheet, in addition to preserving her purity, also reduces to her to nothing more than a voice. The sheet becomes a veil that separates her from the rest of the world and reflects her inability to accept affection.
→ Knees and Nose:
The seer, Ramram, predicts the birth of “knees and nose,” which represent Shiva and Saleem, respectively. In addition to symbolizing each boy’s special power, knees and nose also play another role. When Aadam Aziz first kneels down to pray, his knees touch the floor and his nose hits the ground. Knees and nose, in this instance, represent an act of prayer, as well as the submission and humility necessary faith. After hitting his nose on the ground, however, Aadam rejects that submission, and a hole opens up inside of him. Knees and nose also become significant with Farooq’s death via a sniper bullet. Shot, Farooq first drops to his knees, then hits his nose on the ground. Just as Aadam bowed before god, Farooq bows before death. Shiva is suspected of killing a string of prostitutes with his powerful knees, while Saleem uses his nose to discover the most decrepit prostitute in the city. Knees and nose—just like Shiva and Saleem, destruction and creation, faith and humility—are inextricably related.
➳ Key Elements of the Conclusion :-
1→The Fall of the Midnight's Children:
During the political turmoil of Indira Gandhi's Emergency, the magical children are hunted, sterilized, and broken by Shiva and the state, symbolizing how authoritarian regimes crush individual potential and diversity in favor of uniform control.
2→Saleem’s Physical Decay:
Saleem's body begins to crack and disintegrate, mirroring the decay and fractures of the nation he mirrors.
3→The Final Trampling:
Saleem is eventually crushed by a crowd whose numberQq symbolically matches the millions of citizens of India, representing how the individual gets swallowed and erased by collective history.
4→Cyclical Continuity:
Although Saleem dies, he notes that his son and future generations will continue. The story suggests that while individual lives are fragile, the chaotic, vital story of the nation moves endlessly forward.
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