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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1171
Technique of Midnight’s children
Randeep Singh
Assistant professor of English
G.C. Dubaldhan (Jhajjar)
Email: - Profrandeep@gmail.com
Abstract: - Midnight’s Children takes different traits from almost all genre. It is a realistic novel but it is
presented by non-realistic types. The author got success in achieveing his goal by using surrealistic and
non-naturalistic modes. Rushdie uses epic form because it is the most flexible form that allows
digressions. Rushdie invented a new genre by mixing fairy tales with politics. The intermingling of the
history and the hero is very complex. Saleem is the hero of the novel but on the other hand he is a
victim also. Every action of the hero moves along the historical lines. The fantasy is mixed with the
reality. Salman Rushdie has used irony and humor in a very skilfull way. Rushdie links autobiography
with the history of India.
Keywords: - Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie, technique, Independence, India, history, politics,
narrative, Padma, novel, fantasy, reality, Saleem.
Midnight’s Children is a socio-political novel. It contains incidents of pre and post independent societies
of India in political terms. Novelists of today writing political theme take recourse to fable and fantasy in
order to create their own world. Fable and Fantasy are the alternative modes of realism. Midnight’s
Children is a novel which includes one or the other traits of almost all genre. It is realistic novel
portrayed with non-realistic modes. Rushdie uses surrealistic and non-naturalistic modes to achieve his
goal. The novel is full of politico-historical events. The movement of people determined by various
political forces which are organized by an outstanding technique within the structure of the novel .The
contradictions in which we find the characters hanging are caused by the system in which the individual
finds himself badly trapped by the politics. A writer needed a unique method to delineate such a
complex modern society so he indulges in free use of fantasy, fable, exaggeration, distortions,
caricature, mimicry, jokes and other non-fictional details. The fictional self-reflexiveness, irony
commentary fragmentation of individual character, magic and myth, political passion, humor and terror
which are the characteristics of Marquez in his ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ are parts of Rushdie’s
style also. Rushdie has used post-modernist technique to intensify the actuality so that we may
experience it more intensely in the world outside. History and the political fate of mankind has been
portrayed through the use of magic realism. This novel is a combination of “Magic and fantasy, realism,
extravagant force multi-mirrored analogy, and a potent symbolic structure.” When all these particles
Page 2 of 4
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1172
mixed with each other the resultant novel is unprecedented in scope, manner and achievement in the
hundred and fifty year old tradition of the Indian novel in English.
Rushdie prefers epic form. The beginning of fiction is fable i.e. telling lies. The elements which
are clearly untrue are central to the notion of fiction. That does not mean that there is no truth in the
story. The epic tradition is the most flexible form which allows the digressions and interpolations.
Rushdie has conjured of a striking new genre by mixing free flight fairy tale with savage political
indictment.
Narratives are acts of concealment. The very premise of the novel alleviates the art of suspense
to a life preserving skill. Different stories narrated by Saleem are digression in the history of novel
writing. But the depths are more fascinating than the deceptive surface. So we have to go deep down
the surface to find the hidden treasures of significance in the novel. To realize that the narration is not
directed at Padma but to an implied listener that is the nation which controls the fate of the narrator.
Saleem has very strong links with history both actively and passively. On the one hand he is a witness of
the events happening on the other he plays a more active role in the form of influencing crowd and
individuals. He is the leader of Pakistani army tracking team. He has uneasy friendship with the help of
his telepathic linking between him has a human radio-receiver and the other children born along with
him at the Midnight hour.
The relationship between the hero and the history is shown to be very complex. Saleem is both
a protagonist and a victim. He painfully realizes that it is both a privilege and a curse of Midnight’s
Children to be masters and victims of their times. Saleem sees himself acting upon history while being its
main victim which can be treated as a kind of self-delusion appropriate to magic realism. Every action of
Saleem Sinai is conceived along historical lines. The pickle fumes stimulate his memory time and again
and the taste of the unforgettable chutney helps him to recollect his life through the process of pickling
its events. The truth remains that reality is something of which the novelist can manage his audience to
believe. The author creates magical effects through reverberations of past and provides the world with a
chutnification of history by pickling of time.
The setting of the novel is naturalistic and identifiable but surrealistic images have been
attached to it. The fantasy which is famed to cheat works because the background in which events are
rooted is real. Most of the dates are accurate and cities are real cities. This is done so that fantasy could
be rooted into that kind of reality. This is magic realism which terms the harsh realities of life into
laughing strokes of small events with the touch of a magical cane. This realism has a direct connection
with thematic aspect of the novel which makes the theme and the technique inseparable. The novel is
deeply rooted in politics and the many children of midnight represent wealth and poverty, reason and
unreason, peace and war etc. They are the children of history and their times. Saleem symbolizes India
and represents the M.C.C. but he is just one speck, one part of the whole. However realization comes
towards the end of the novel. The novel suggests that it is not only the individual that effects history but
Page 3 of 4
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1173
vice-versa also. The thirty chapters representing thirty odd years of Saleem’s life are closed tightly. But
there is one more representing the hope and the possibilities of future. The hope is represented by
Saleem’s unreal son and Aadam’s real grandson, Aadam Sinai who though born on the day the notorious
emergency was imposed does not utter a single word until the emergency comes to an end after six
hundred thirty five days long midnight. So there is hope; there is life; there is future. The future is
awaiting us with its horrors and promises.
Saleem unities all children of midnight by bringing them under the umbrella of Midnight’s
children conference, he says that they should have some purpose in their lives. Shiva another child of
midnight believes that one should get what one want by hook or crook. When Shiva’s finger is cut off
during a fight. The secrecy of his birth comes into the open and Saleem realizes that he has usurped
what has really belonged to Shiva. The guilt consciousness that sets in him forces him not to convene
the meetings of M.C.C. in order to avoid meeting Shiva.
Rushdie uses Padma as character who functions at the symbolic and narrative levels. Rushdie
has used irony and humor very skilfully in the novel. Rushdie uses birth images to link autobiography
with India’s history. Saleem’s birth with India’s independence is a coincidence but not without different
implications. Saleem is born to promises of fulfillment but chutnified by history and the widow Saleem’s
mother started her labour pains 24 hours before his birth which is the time of when Pakistan came into
existence. Saleem’s son is born on the day when Mrs. Gandhi imposed emergency. Saleem’s wife goes
through a 13 days labour which represents 13 days of political turmoil in India. Immediately preceding
the imposition of emergency. Saleem’s face is compared with the map of India and a part of his head is
tonsured which represents Kashmir. Rushdie captures the headlines of current newspapers and presents
the history of India like a family album. A novelist describes Saleem as a victim of circumstances as J.L.
Nehru writes a letter to him.
Saleem is an autobiographer who starts his journey from himself and ends it on himself. Padma
is a character – interpolator sometimes her importance increases; sometimes it decreases. The author
makes sure that the narrative does not tell all things at once – it should conceal something to be told at
a latter stage. This is how the 1st part of novel is written. Saleem laments Padma’s impatience and her
desire for linear narrative because he wants to introduce minor chords which give birth to later
movements. Saleem believes in the interconnectedness of people and events.
Midnight’s Children is a novel which includes one or the other traits of almost all genre. It is
realistic novel portrayed with non-realistic modes. The author uses surrealistic and non-naturalistic
modes to achieve his goal. Rushdie prefers epic form. The epic tradition is the most flexible form which
allows the digressions and interpolations. Rushdie has conjured of a striking new genre by mixing free
flight fairy tale with savage political indictment. The relationship between the hero and the history is
shown to be very complex. Saleem is both a protagonist and a victim. Every action of Saleem Sinai is
conceived along historical lines. The fantasy which is famed to cheat works because the background in
