Surrealism, magical narrative, imperialism, postcolonial idea

1. ANALYSING THE POST COLONIAL ASPECTS OF
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN BY SALMAN RUSHDIE
Sanjana Parisaboina
Division: “D”
PRN Number:20010324112
ABSTRACT
Salman Rushdie, a prominent Indian writer through his magnum opus
Midnight's Children, recounts the modern colonial history that culminates at the
protagonist Saleem's birth, when India has gained independence from its British
masters. Midnight's Children is a perfect example of a postcolonial novel that
integrates magical realism elements into it to dig out the truth that has been
swept under the carpet due to selfish motives. The paper attempts to examine
the deployment of the book's postcolonial aspects as one cannot help but notice
the dominant theme of intermingling of the public and personal histories
between India and the three generations of Saleem Sinai's family. This paper
attempts to analyse the characteristics of a postcolonial novel and also find out
why the authors of the postcolonial era deployed such metanarratives.
KEYWORDS: Postcolonialism, Symbolism, History, Magic Realism,
Metanarrative.
INTRODUCTION

2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Salman Rushdie is an Indian born British novelist, who uses supernatural
characters, brooding farce, and an articulate and melodramatic prose style in his
symbolic novels, to examine historical and philosophical issues. The handling
of delicate spiritual and political matters by Rushdie made him a provocative
figure. His first book Grimus was published in 1975. Rushdie's second novel,
Midnight's Children, a parable about modern India that was published in 1981,
was an unprecedented critical and cultural success that helped him worldwide
recognition. In 1981, Rushdie accepted the Booker Prize for Midnight's
Children. Subsequently, in 1993, the novel also acquired the Booker of Booker
award and the best of the Booker (2008). Rushdie, in 2007 was consequently
knighted.
ABOUT POSTCOLONIALISM
Postcolonialism refers to the time or events in history that represent the outcome
of colonialism in the West. The word can also be used to describe the
collaborative effort to enhance and reconsider the past of people subordinated
and various types of colonialism. However, it is also crucial to recognise that 'at
one stage, there is no common institution called 'postcolonial theory':
Postcolonialism, as a concept, defines activities and ideas as diverse as those
inside Feminism or Socialism. It consists, instead, of a related collection of
viewpoints, often conflicting, placed with each other. Postcolonialism, above
all, attempts to interfere, to push its alternate knowledge into the power systems

3. of both the West and the East. (Young, Postcolonialism: A Very Short
Introduction, 2003) Postcolonialism is not an advocacy of the modern world
system, Robert Young claims, but instead comprises a vital response to its
circumstances. "Postcolonialism does not celebrate colonialism, but rather
triumphs over it. The 'Post' marks many impressive accomplishments that
should not be permitted to disappear into the amnesia of history. In its name, the
postcolonial period pays tribute to the exceptional historical successes of
resistance against colonial rule. At the same time, paradoxically, it also explains
the conditions of life that have followed, under which many fundamental power
structures have yet to shift in any significant way. (Young, Postcolonialism: A
Historical Introduction, 2016) Apart from Salman Rushdie, many other authors
like Amitav Gosh, Arundhati Roy, Hanif Kureishi et al. have written
postcolonial works and reveal areas of colonial oppression that were not
highlighted earlier. Now the question arises as to why authors deploy
postcolonial narratives. Through recognising colonial sympathies in the corpus,
writers pursue postcolonial literary criticism as it impairs the universalist
statements of literature. Then, by manipulating history and claiming cultural
identities by techniques such as mimicry, hybridity and nativism, it replaces
colonial narratives with counter-narratives of resistance. It criticises cultural
bureaucracies and the euro-centrism of modernity, backed by an anti-essentialist
notion of identity and community. Postcolonial historical composition has
created [the] two studies of colonialism and imperialism by dismantling
colonialist conversations, and recreating the vast size of misfortune experienced
by colonised and indigenous people groups. That is, Postcolonialism deals with

4. colonialist histories to fix the flaws and to create anecdotes more based on
human importance.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology adopted here is secondary source of research as the
current topic demands an analysis of various reference materials from the
internet and books, newspaper journals, articles etc. Qualitative method of
research is used in the preparation of the research paper as this method deals
with “how” and “why” aspect of the topic and provides further comprehension
of the topic at hand.
LITERATURE REVIEW
To have a clear-cut understanding of the topic the researcher referred to multiple
sources of information and these sources have been listed down below.
“ROBERT YOUNG, POSTCOLONIALISM; A VERY SHORT
INTRODUCTION” (Young, 2003) This book investigates the social, political
and cultural impacts of decolonization. Key ideas and issues are examined,
regarding specific social as well as historical instances while also listing various
compelling anecdotes and experiences, making this intriguing subject pertinent
and open to a more extensive crowd.
“EDWARD W SAID, ORIENTALISM” (Said, 1978) is a ground breaking
scrutinize of the West's historical, social, and political impression of the East.

5. Said also traces the origins of "orientalism" back to when Europe had control of
the Middle and Near East.
“ROBERT YOUNG, POSTCOLONIALISM: AN HISTORICAL
INTRODUCTION” (Young, POSTCOLONIALISM: AN HISTORICAL
INTRODUCTION, 2001) Young through this book inspects the ideas and issues
included in postcolonialism, while also clarifying the significance of key terms, and
deciphers a portion of the significant scholars' work on the same topic to give a perfect
preliminary guide into the topic of postcolonialism.
“MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN AND THE WORLD OF IMAGINATION BY
ABRAHAM PANEVILIL” (Panavelil, 2010) investigates how Rushdie in his
milestone work, by combining fiction, governmental issues, necromancy and
memory, has taken the peruser to a universe of creative mind where reality seems, by
all accounts, to be fiction and the other way around.
“SALMAN RUSHDIE’S ‘UNION-BY-HYBRIDIZATION’ AND THE ISSUE
OF MULTICULTURALITY BY MUSTAFA KIRCA” (Kirca, 2018) states that
Rushdie opposes 'multiculturalism' as yet another method for comprehending
the colonial master's opinion. Rather than 'multiculturalism,' Salman provides
hybridization to commemorate 'hybridity' and take down classism.
“AMALGAMATION OF FOLKLORE AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN
GIRISH KARNAD’S HAYAVADANA AND SALMAN RUSHDIE’S
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN BY MR SINGH” (Singh, 2019) endeavours to

6. uncover components that helps to dissect cultural problems such as "identity
crisis, existential dilemma, longing for fulfilment, sense of estrangement etc."
This paper deals with two books one being ‘Hayavadana’ and the other
‘Midnight’s Children’. A detailed reading has been done only to the parts
pertaining to the research topic.
“AIN’T IT A RIPPING NIGHT: ALCOHOLISM AND THE LEGACIES OF
EMPIRE IN SALMAN RUSHDIE’S MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN BY SAM
GOODMAN”
(Goodman, 2018) demonstrates how drinking is essential to Rushdie's way of
dealing with 'secular and religious identities' in autonomous India and a method
of ridiculing and subverting the alleged gain that Empire introduced to India and
Indians. Through this paper, the author uses alcoholism to strip away the
magnificence glazed over our colonial past.
“PESSOPTIMISM: SATIRE AND THE MENIPPEAN GROTESQUE IN
RUSHDIE’S MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN” (Ball, 1988) highlights how
Midnight’s Children has two types of satire: one that is affirming and inclusive
and the other which is negative and exclusive. The paper also talks about
Rushdie’s incongruous behaviour towards post independant India.

7. POSTCOLONIALISM
Postcolonial composing customarily tends to the issues and results of a country's
decolonisation, especially questioning aspects relating to the political and social
emancipation of once persecuted people, and subjects, for instance, racialism
and colonialism. An extent of creative theory has been produced around the
subject. It watches out for the spreading and examining what postcolonial savant
Edward Said implies to as social imperialism. Postcolonialism has additionally
been a term used to re-evaluate western authoritative writing from different new
and assorted points of view.
"Post-colonial" or "postcolonial"?
The agreement in the field is that "post-colonial" (with a hyphen) means a period
that comes sequentially "after" expansionism. "Postcolonial," then again,
signals the enduring effect of colonization across time spans and topographical
regions. While the hyphen infers that set of experiences which unfurls in
conveniently recognizable stages from pre-to post-provincial, precluding the
hyphen makes a relative system which to comprehends the assortments of
neighbourhood protection from frontier sway. The unhyphenated adaptation is
routinely used to recognize it from the previous emphasis that alluded distinctly
to the particular time span and to demonstrate a propensity toward scholarly
analysis and the investigation of different talks at the crossing point of race, sex

8. and diaspora, among others (Quayson, 2020). Contentions for the hyphen
propose that the expression "postcolonial" weakens contrasts between
provincial narratives in various pieces of the world and that it homogenizes
pioneer societies. The assemblage of critical writing that takes an interest in
these discussions is called Postcolonial hypothesis.
FEATURES OF POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE FOUND IN
MIDNIGHTS CHILDREN
ALLEGORY
Allegory has for some time been a noticeable element of scholarly and mythic
composition all through the world. In any case, it turns out to be especially
critical for postcolonial authors to disturb standard history ideas, traditional
authenticity, and majestic portrayal by and large.
The reading of Midnight's Children as a national allegory develops the
conviction of Fredrick James – on that "All Third World writings are
essentially… symbolic and in a certain way they are to be read as … national
allegories."15 (Dwivedi, 2009)
Saleem gets related with two of the midnight's children specifically, Shiva and
Parvati, while Parvati in the end turns into Saleem's significant other, Shiva is
hostile towards Saleem. Parvati and Shiva are Hindus while Saleem is not and
their connections exhibit the blending of religious and social folklores that exist
in India. Along these lines, the narrator’s position in the becomes a purposeful
allegory for India, through Saleem's making of his personality and life account,
his endeavours to clarify his story, his capacity to speak with other Indian

9. postcolonial residents, and his relationship with other religious legends and
traditions (Bounse, 2009).
COUNTER COLONIAL DISCOURSE
The novel's cultural and social hybridization, delineated through the large
number of various characters, additionally permits historical hybridization to
happen, along which the characters might clarify more exact forms of their own
colonial and postcolonial history, instead of the inflexible uneven form history
from their British colonialists. The story's production of modern as well as
apparently more precise forms of Indian provincial and postcolonial history
originates from the content's unequivocal testimonials to such occasions. Such
verifiable portrayals rely on the social and social hybridity of the novel's
character variety. "Entstellung," a term coined by Homi Bhabha is a "cycle of
dislodging, twisting, disengagement, [and] redundancy," happens now from the
Indian characters who endeavour to uproot and contort Britain’s colonial forms
of history, and at last permits the postcolonial resident to compose their own set
of experiences, as the novel expressly does (Bounse, 2009).
METANARRATIVE
Metanarrative is a term created by Jean-François Lyotard to mean a hypothesis
that attempts to give an aggregating, complete record to different historical
occasions, encounters, and social, cultural marvels dependent on the appeal to
generally accepted fact or widespread qualities.
One colossal issue of postcoloniality is the potential of making while also
uncovering individual or native history. Be that as it may, this arrangement of
encounters remains consistently stained with the postcolonial occupant's

10. exercises or nation's previous colonizers. To tackle postcoloniality issues, the
troubles of making and deciding one's history, personality, and one’s
origination, the story utilizes magical realism as a strategy.
Albeit a metanarrative is utilized as a euphemism by a postcolonial concern it
isn't because of its acknowledgement or faith in the metanarrative. Such a
methodology is accompanied by the postcolonial subject's evaluation of its
validity and global uphold.
Midnight's Children shows how postcolonial residents may make their own
historical story by destabilizing historical accounts through a more noteworthy
focal point on personal chronicles and light-hearted retellings of these
narratives.
The actualities of collective history if not personal encounters are never
discernible to the surrounding structures that the autocratic craftsman might
need to force upon them. One of the dominant theme of Midnight’s Children is
the picture of the of the narrator who is not only the victim but also the mast of
the so called ‘public and private history’.
The narrator here, turns into a sufferer here rather than a victim when he
endeavours an autonomous proficiency over his material. The inescapable
defeat in an attempt to endeavour and accomplish flawlessness is encapsulated
in several characters who become a symbol for Saleem in the moulding of his
private and public life.

11. MAGIC REALISM
Drawing on the enhancements of magic realism, postcolonial essayists in
English can communicate their perspective on a world fissured, twisted, and
made inconceivable by social uprooting… [T]hey join the supernatural with
local legend and symbolism taken from colonialist societies to speak to social
orders which have been over and again disrupted by the attack, occupation, and
political defilement. Magic effects, consequently, are utilized to prosecute the
imprudences of both realm and its fallout (Boehmer, 2005)
Midnight's Children's strategy of magic realism, at that point, turns out to be not
just a simple conventional advancement, rather, an articulation of the historical
backdrop of Indian colonialism as well as the contemporary prominence of
Indian postcoloniality. The story links historical occasions, allegorical
narratives, and anecdotal accounts and joins them to shape a genuine image of
Indian postcoloniality.
The proper method of enchanted authenticity turns into the structure of the story,
through which the characters become ready to impart the personal points of view
and, give precise forms of history. However, ‘magic realism’ isn't just an
expressive decision made by Rushdie, yet all things considered, it remains a
fundamental formal development expected to communicate India's new
postcoloniality in an eloquent manner.
Hence, magical realism turns out to be a type hybridization, by blending myth
and realism.
HYBRIDITY

12. Hybridity has often been utilized in postcolonial talk to mean multifaceted
cultural exchange. The possibility of hybridity also underlies different
endeavours to pressure societies' commonality in the colonial and postcolonial
process in articulations of synchronicity, and transculturation. Hybridity turns
out to be the only path the individuals under colonial rule take in order to pick
up force and authority over their colonial rulers. Bhabha clarifies that “hybridity
is a problematic of colonial representation…that reverses the effects of the
colonist disavowal, so that other ‘denied’ knowledges enter upon the dominant
discourse and estrange the basis of its authority.” (Bhabha, 1994)
The narrator's stance in the story turns out to be fundamental to the inquiries of
hybridity. The cultured, communal as well the historical hybridity present inside
Midnight’s Children, allow the content to illustrate the novel's significant
themes and postcoloniality, which are: creation as well as recounting history,
personality, and stories. The epic adequately and clearly portrays the issues of
postcoloniality. Using hybridity, the novel looks to see whether issues might be
addressed, while potentially, it also tries to tackle them.
CONCLUSION
Though Midnight's Children attempts to break free and take care of
postcoloniality issues, the novel at the same time shows the outrageous trouble
and even inconceivability of totally evading the colonizers' impact upon the
colonized individuals.
The novel precisely portrays the colonial venture's issues through the shifting
character stories and their multitude of connections. Even though the colonial
rulers classified India and Indians as 'undifferentiated place and individuals', the

13. novel outlines our country’s heterogenity to topple the colonial picture of
‘India’.
Midnight's Children till today stands as a foundation of postcolonial writing.
The story unmistakably outlines the significant postcoloniality thoughts, the
formation as well as portrayal of history, character, and narrating. Albeit the
story talks about those significant yet critical topics, it gets important to examine
the issues related with figuring and making a postcolonial personality and
history. The tale thus represents the issues of postcoloniality, the challenges in
deciding one's own set of experiences, and finding an authentic identity.
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