Introduction:
Today Salman Rushdie is known as a very famous modern novelist in the whole world. His present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ and his other novels clearly show his attachment with India as well as with Pakistan. Its simple reason is that he was born in 1947 in Bombay. This is the reason that the chief narrator of this novel, Saleem Sinai, an image of Salman Rushdie was also born at the same moment of the midnight in 1947. About 100 other children were born at the same moment of midnight. Saleem who is the narrator of the story of the novel comes before the readers as the writer himself showing his political and progressive ideas. At times, he did not hesitate to make use of satire against Islam, so the Emperor of Iran had declared a ‘Fatwa’ to capture him and kill him. By God's grace he is still alive, hale and hearty.
The present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ and his other novels clearly support and show Salman Rushdie as a popular and controversial novelist of the modern world. Though he was born in Bombay, India, yet he is famous throughout the world by his popular novels and revolutionary ideas. He did not hesitate to make use of his satire against Islam, so he was deadly criticised in the whole Islamic world. The present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ clearly shows his political and progressive ideas about all the three countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He made it clear how the war of 1971 was fought between India and Pakistan and it resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. He added that there the soldiers had killed innocent people, raped a large number of women and looted the property of the people. The writer earned a great name and fame.
‘Midnight’s Children’ as a Postmodern Novel:
Salman Rushdie has written the present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ as a post-modern novel. He included literary fiction with realism in the form of post-modern literature. He also made the fusion of mythical and fantastical elements in the story of the novel. He made use of the art like that of ‘A passage to India’. He also presented the academic world which was much criticised. The present novel may be regarded as a self - respecting contemporary fiction. The readers welcomed and admired his novels as the fine creation of the post-modern period. He disregarded traditional rules. For example , he made use of bitter satire in ‘Midnight's Children’ against Islam, so the Shah of Iran issued a ‘Fatwa’ against Salman Rushdie that he should be captured and killed for his anti - Islamic tirade . In this way, the writer became famous for writing his post-modern novels.
Showing the elements of Fusion and Disintegration:
Salman Rushdie made use of the elements of fusion and disintegration in describing his ultramodern ideas. First of all, he made the fusion of science, facts and fiction in the story of the present novel. It is clear from the multifaceted personality of Saleem, the narrator who himself was the representative of Salman Rushdie himself. We find an idea of common origin because both Salman and Saleem were born at the same moment of midnight of August 15, 1947 along with the birth of about 1000 other children.
The end of the present novel also shows an element of disintegration. Its reason is that the writer had failed to achieve unity between his characters and events. In the end, Saleem, the chief narrator along with many other characters had died. Pakistan was badly defeated in the Indo - Pak was of 1971 and it resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. Saleem had disintegrated into numberless dust particles to show the dominance of death and disintegration.
‘Midnight's Children’ as Post - Colonial Fiction:
It is true that the present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ is a post-colonial fiction. The writer described the post-colonial India after the country had achieved freedom from the British Colonial rule for a long time. He broke down the national and the geographical barriers and its scope went out of the borders of India and Pakistan. For example, Adam Aziz, an Indian Muslim came under the western influence after his medical education to become a doctor after returning from Germany. He also gave up his faith in Islamic religion and he turned into an atheist.
Saleem Sinai, the narrator of the story was the biological son of an Englishman, William Methwold and his mother was a Hindu woman whose name was Vanita. Later he was adopted by Ahmed and his wife Amita. In this way, he was half Hindu and half Muslim because he was brought up by his Christian Ayah, Mary Pereira, so he took some of her faith also. In this way, the present novel has the common features of post-colonial fiction . It shows the clash of cultures.
Post-Modern Style and Language:
It is necessary to mention that Salman Rushdie made use of post-modern style and language in the story of the present novel ‘Midnight Children’. First of all we find the element of self-conscious narration by Saleem Sinai under the writer's style of literary post modernism. Secondly, the writer with a definite purpose, made use of his unique style and technical language to express his new and revolutionary ideas in an effective style. Thirdly, Salman Rushdie presented a long list of numberless objects and events in the story of the novel. Unfortunately he had failed to create unity between such objects and events, so his style remained defective and disintegrated from the beginning of the story upto its end. Fourthly and lastly the writer committed many grammatical mistakes in using his wrong words and defective sentences. The writer realised all such mistakes because he was much more concerned about the theme and matter of his novel. He made an open and bitter use of satire when he criticised the traditions of Islam. He suffered for it when the Shah of Iran had issued a ‘Fatwa’ to capture him and kill him for such remarks.
His Attachment with India:
The close study of the story of the present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ clearly shows that Salman Rushdie had close attachment with India. It is obvious reason is that he was born in Bombay and he lived a major part of his life in India. This is the reason that he could describe real and contemporary political conditions both of India and Pakistan in an effective style. It was in December 1995 when he had said in a programme on Australian television that he would like to live in India in spite of some of his fears. His father also used to live in Solan near Shimla. On the other hand, he was much condemned in Pakistan and other Islamic countries for his anti-Islamic views in his controversial novel under the title ‘Satanic Verses’. Once he had admitted that he used to write comic epics, not novels.
Conclusion:
Today Salman Rushdie's present novel ‘Midnight's Children’ is regarded as a perfect fusion of facts and fiction presented by him in an effective style. It is equally true that he made a true reflection of the life and character mainly of the people of India and Pakistan. He expressed his political and religious views in an open and revolutionary manner that he had hurt the feelings of the people of Pakistan, Iran and other countries. It compelled him to live under hiding in London for some years. He may not be called an orthodox writer because he was quite frank in giving expression to his real ideas. He also described the Indo - Pak War of 1971 when Pakistan was badly defeated by India and the country of Bangladesh had come into being.
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