Rushdie's Midnight Children

Fantasy in Midnight children

G Murugan

Mphil Research Student

Vels university

Guide name R Abeetha

Assistant Professor

Vels university

Abstract

This paper deals with the Fantasy with reference to Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. India has so many stories to tell about the past, the present and the future. It is true that a nation is not there if it is not part of one’s own consciousness. A nation does not exist as a physical entity, but lives by and speaks to us through the culturesoul. Midnight’s Children is Rushdie’s interpretation of a period of about 70 yrs of India’s modern history dealing with the events leading to the partition and beyond. The identification between the public and private strands is complete in this novel and that gives

He is currently thirty years old and begins his narrative by stating that time is running out, and he will most likely die before his next birthday. Therefore, Saleem decides to tell his story for his son who also has to bear the blessing and curse of a midnight birth. He states, “I must commence the business of remaking my life from the point at which it really began, some thirty-two years before anything as obvious, as present, as my clock ridden, crime stained birth” (Rushdie 4). Throughout the entire narration, Saleem tells his tale to Padma, his caretaker, avid listener, and biggest critic. In doing this, Saleem is able to record his life, while flashing back to crucial moments in India’s past that shape his family’s history. M. Madhusudhana Rao writes, “Midnight’s Children begins on the midnight of August 15, 1947, problematizing history, both retrospectively and prospectively…to provide ‘alternate history’ through Rushdie’s own narrative voice, along with Saleem’s subjective self” (11). By flashing in and out of the past, Saleem is able to offer his own opinion on the various events that parallel his life and India’s

At this point in India, the British Raj is still very much in rule, but Kashmir remains untouched because the partition has not yet wreaked havoc on the city. Saleem’s grandparents see each other for the first time on the day World War I ends. Saleem continues to chronicle his grandparents’ marriage, their move to Agra, and finally, the moment when Saleem’s parents meet. By the time his parents, Ahmed and Amina Sinai, move to Bombay to settle down, India is on the verge of collapse because of religious differences. On June 8, 1947, Amina finds out that she is pregnant, and the partition of India is announced. Moreover, a fortuneteller prophesizes Saleem’s timely birth, claiming to Amina, “A son, Sahiba, who will never be older than his motherland–neither older nor younger” (96). So, Saleem Sinai is brought into the world on August 15, 1947, and celebrations take place to mark the independence of India and the fall of the British Raj. Adult Saleem mentions that Prime Minister Nehru wrote him a letter,