Allegory In Midnight's Children

The Different Parents of a Complex Society

In Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children, the reader is presented with the complexity of the newly independent, Indian society. This complexity includes India’s cultural and religious diversity. The character of Saleem Sinai is switched at birth, by Mary Pereira. This leaves him with a mixed parentage. Which on the one hand, consists of the relation to his biological parents: William Methwold and Vanita. And on the other, of his relation to his nonbiological parents: Ahmed Sinai and Amina Sinai. This tragic circumstance does not merely serve as a method to make the story more interesting. In his writing of Saleem’s parental background, Rushdie uses a number of allegories. These make for the

David W. Price argues that: ’’Methwold seeks to preserve the traditions of the British Raj through the very materiality of his estate. His hope is that the objects will affect the new occupants in such a way that the traditions of the past will be preserved’’ (Price 95). There is indeed, a process of reformation that takes place in Midnight’s Children. The inhabitants of Methwold’s Estate participate daily, in a typically British, cocktail hour. Furthermore, Ahmed Sinai admires Methwold’s customs. He even starts imitating his ways.’Tell me, Mr Methwold,’ Ahmed Sinai’s voice has changed, in the presence of an Englishman it has become a hideous mockery of an Oxford drawl, ‘why insist on the delay?’’( Rushdie 127 ). One then, has to assume Methwold to be a representation of the British Ruler. There are in fact similarities. For example, Methwold is a British land and property owner. Much like Great Britain, which at the time controls India. Methwold receives income from the Indian inhabitants of the Estate. As does Great Britain, by exploiting India’s industries, and receiving revenues from Indian farmers. Methwold impregnates Vanita. He then disappears, moments before Saleem is born. This happens on the 15th of August in 1947. The same date as the partition of India. Both Methwold, and the British Rule over India, disappear at this moment. The Dominion of Pakistan and

However, they do coexist in a harmonious way: a reflection of the Indian religious syncretism. This can be seen in the relationship between Mary and the Sinai’s. Mary can be included in Saleem’s parentage. In her role as ayah, she is like a mother to him.‘’Mary my ayah who was both more and less than a mother’’ (Rushdie 103). The Sinai’s are Muslim. They provide for a Muslim Influence on Saleem. Mary however, provides for a Christian influence on Saleem. That Mary is in fact a Christian, becomes clear from her visit to St. Thomas’s