MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN : A POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE

By Rahila KhanM.Phil. ScholarSBK women’s University

ABSTRACT This paper is a postcolonial critique of Salman Rushdie's most famous novel, Midnight's children. It is a postcolonial novel in which the novelist gives an account of the historical events that happened during British Raj and Independence in India. He adds beauty to these events through using the tool of magical realism, which makes it a beautiful piece of literature instead of a boring historical document. In this paper, I have attempted to highlight different postcolonial elements found in the novel along with its narrative style of magical realism.

"Midnight’s children" was

Salman Rushdie’s second novel

published in 1981.

For its unique matter and manner this novel won him the Bookers Prize

1981.

A fantastic movie directed by

Deepa Mehta was made on it

released in 2012.

“Midnight’s Children traces the grotesque destiny of a Muslim Indian family from 1915 to 1977, when Indira

Gandhi’s Emergency rule was about to end in a general election” (Towers, 1981).

INTRODUCTION The novel deals with India's transition from British colonialism

to independence and the partition of Subcontinent. It is considered an example of  postcolonial literature and

magical realism. Midnight's children are the children born at the stroke of the

midnight of 15th August 1947 that marked India’s independence. The story is narrated by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai.

METHODOLOGY The conceptual framework of Postcolonial theory is adopted to

critique this novel.Content is analyzed to extract Postcolonial elements of • Magical realism• Mimicry • Hybridity • Miscegenation • Postcolonial Feminism

RESULTS

Following postcolonial elements were found through content analysis • Magical realism• Mimicry • Hybridity • Miscegenation • Postcolonial Feminism

MAGICAL REALISMThe magical realism narrative adds beauty and vigor to the historical events represented in this novel which otherwise could have been boring to read.

The midnight children were not ordinary kids , they had supernatural powers.

Saleem’s incredible sense of smell, Parvati-the-witch’s invisibility basket,Tai the eternal boatman is ageless, Mian Abdullah’s humming and so on…

MAGICAL REALISM“It's only minutes since I reached the final, typically long and rich sentence of Midnight's Children and closed the covers. It

feels like shutting the lid on a magic box. A swirling, overloaded mass of words, colors, smells, allusions and illusions has suddenly been contained. A portal to a fantastical, vital

dimension has been sealed off ” (Jordison, 2008).

MIMICRY Saleem Sanai highlighting mimicry in his society says that, “In India, we've always been vulnerable to Europeans… Evie had only been with us a matter of weeks, and already I was being sucked into a grotesque mimicry of European literature.…Perhaps it would be fair to say that Europe repeats itself, in India, as farce…” (Rushdie, 2011).Saleem describing behavior of Sinai’s(Amina & Ahmed)at the cocktail hour says,“when William Methwold comes to call ,they slip effortlessly into their imitation of Oxford drawls; and they are learning, about ceiling fans and gas cookers, and Methwold, supervising their transformation, is mumbling under his breath” (Rushdie, 2011). Mr Methwold represents the colonizers part of mimicry, when he says,“Sabkuch ticktock hai. Everything's just fine” (Rushdie, 2011).

HYBRIDITY Saleem is a perfect representation of the hybrid man, born with multiple

allegiances and identities. He is a character of mixed backgrounds the son of a colonial named William Methwold and a poor Indian woman, yet raised as a son by the middle-class Sinais.

According to Gupta (2009) , Rushdie privileges a postmodern space or third principle that blends both sides of binaries: east/west, secular/religious, real/fantasy, and colonizer/colonized and foregrounds hybridity over clarity and open-endedness over closure.

MISCEGENATION Modern India is believed to be an outcome of miscegenation

(interbreeding of people). Saleem Sinai the hero is also a perfect example of it.

According to Schellinger (1998), “Saleem is the child of a poor Indian woman and a departing Englishman….even Saleem’s huge nose is an intertextual reference both to the elephant –headed Indian god Ganeesh and to such western models as Tristram shandy and Cyrano de Bergerac”.

POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM Naseem is kept behind “perforated sheet” even when she has to be

examined by a doctor. When doctor feels shocked and asks her father about how to examine

her without looking at her ,he is told by Naseem’s father Ghani that, “'You Europe-returned chappies forget certain things. Doctor Sahib, my daughter is a decent girl, it goes without saying. She does not flaunt her body under the noses of strange men. You will understand that you cannot be permitted to see her, no, not in any circumstances; accordingly, I have required her to be positioned behind that sheet. She stands there, like a good girl.'” (Rushdie, 2011)

POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM After getting married to Ahmed Sinao, Mumtaz is asked to change her name,“'Change your name,' Ahmed Sinai said. 'Time for a fresh start. Throw Mumtaz and her Nadir Khan out of the window, I'll choose you a new name. Amina. Amina Sinai: you'd like that?' 'Whatever you say, husband,” says Mumtaz” (Rushdie, 2011) .Jamila the third generation female is also put behind PURDAH“And when Jamila Singer's fame had reached the point at which she could no longer avoid giving a public concert… it was Major (Retired) Latif who devised her famous, all-concealing, white silk chadar, the curtain or veil, heavily embroidered in gold brocade-work and religious calligraphy, behind which she sat demurely whenever she performed in public” (Rushdie, 2011) .

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION • Several post colonial elements were found in this novel

including mimicry , miscegenation , hybridity, postcolonial Feminism.•Narrative style of magical realism adds beauty to the narration

of historical events• Several other postcolonial elements can be found in this novel,

and a more detail analysis of same postcolonial elements can be done.

REFERENCESBenny, C. P. (n.d.). Magic Realism as a postcolonial device in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children .Gupta, M. (2009). Salman Rushdie: A Re-telling History Through Fiction. prestige.Jordison, S. (2008). Midnight's Children is the right winner. The Guardian.Pryor, M. (n.d.). study.com. Rushdie, S. (2011). Midnight's children. Vintage Books.Schellinger, P. (1998). Encyclopedia of the Novel. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers,.Towers, R. (1981, September 24). On the Indian World Mountain. On the Indian World Mountain. The New York review of Books.Weickgenannt, N. (2008). The Nation’s Monstrous Women: Wives, Widows and Witches in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 43-65.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING