Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. It centres on the author's native India and was acclaimed as a major milestone in postcolonial literature. Image File history File links Midnights_children. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Jonathan Cape has been since 1987 an imprint of Random House. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... Postcolonial literature is a branch of Postmodern literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of peoples formerly subjugated in colonial empires. ...

It won the 1981 Booker Prize and was later awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' Prize in 1993 as the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. Midnight's Children is also the only Indian novel on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels since its founding in 1923.^[1] The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...

Plot introduction

Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India, which took place at midnight on 15 August 1947. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent. Saleem Sinai's life then parallels the changing fortunes of the country after independence. Allegory of Music by Filippino Lippi. ... This article is under construction. ... is the 227th day of the year (228th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Telepathy, from the Greek τῆλε, tele, remote; and πάθεια, patheia, to be effected by, describes the hypothetical transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. ... For the article about nose in humans, see human nose. ...

Plot summary

Characters in "Midnight's Children"

The character detail research was sourced from Sparks Notes^[2]

• Saleem Sinai -

• Aadam Aziz - Aadam Aziz is a doctor and the father of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz. He has many children with Naseem Ghani, and struggles with questions of the existence of God throughout his life.

• Tai - A boatman, Tai is a friend of Aadam Aziz. At times he demonstrates his ability to predict the future and, while most people consider him insane, he in fact makes several insightful remarks, the most important of which is his advice to Aadam Aziz to "follow his nose."

• Naseem Ghani - Naseem Ghani is the daughter of a landlord and the mother of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz Aziz. She is a dramatic and strong-willed character who possesses a lot of power in her relationship with her husband Aadam Aziz.

• Ghani the landowner - Naseem's father.

• Padma Mangroli - Saleem's lover and, eventually, his fiancée, Padma plays the role of the listener in the storytelling structure of the novel.

• Oskar and Ilse Lubin - German anarchist friends of Doctor Aziz.

• Alia - The sister of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz, Alia suffers from a lifelong love for Ahmed Sinai, whom her sister Mumtaz marries. Her resentment toward her sister manifests itself in the meals she cooks, and therefore affects those who eat what she prepares.

• Mumtaz - Mumtaz, the sister of Alia, has her name changed to Amina when she gets married. Rushdie repeatedly describes Amina Sinai as "assiduous" in her wifely efforts. By sheer willpower, she forces herself to love her husband Ahmed Sinai. However, during her marriage to him she also has an affair with Nadir Khan, to whom she was married for two years in her youth, although they never consummated the marriage.

• Hanif - Saleem's uncle Hanif is a screenwriter who enjoys some fame in his youth, but who grows disillusioned later in life with Bollywood and the superficiality of the film industry, and commits suicide.

• Mustapha - Saleem's uncle, the brother of Mumtaz, marries Sofia.

• Emerald - Saleem's aunt, the sister of Mumtaz, marries General Zulfikar.

• Mian Abdullah - A pro-Indian Muslim political figure, who dies at the hands of assassins.

• Nadir Khan - Mumtaz's first husband, Nadir Khan is the Hummingbird's personal secretary. After the Hummingbird's assassination, Nadir hides in the Aziz household for a few years, where he has a relationship with Mumtaz.

• Rashid the rickshaw boy - A boy who informs Doctor Aziz that Nadir Khan needs a place to hide.

• General Zulfikar - The husband of Emerald, who is involved with Pakistani political events.

• Lifafa Das - A peep show street man who leads Amina to seer.

• Shri Ramram Seth - A seer Amina visits while pregnant.

• William Methwold - An Englishman from whom the Sinais buy their house in Bombay, the biological father of Saleem.

• Ahmed Sinai - Saleem's father and Amina's husband.

• Wee Willie Winkie - Shiva's father and Vanita' husband.

• Vanita - Saleem's biological mother, who dies during labor.

• Mary Pereira - A midwife and servant, who switches Shiva and Saleem at birth.

• Doctor Narlikar - A Gynecologist and businessman.

• Evie Lilith Burns - Saleem's American childhood sweetheart.

• Sonny Ibrahim - Saleem's neighbor and friend.

• Joseph D'Costa - Mary Pereira's lover, who is politically radical.

• Shiva - A boy who is born at the same moment as Saleem. They are switched at birth, and Shiva possesses an amazing ability to fight.

• Parvati-the-witch - One of midnight's children, and a friend to Saleem.

• Homi Catrack - A man who has an affair with Lila Sabarmati and is subsequently murdered by Commander Sabarmati.

• Lila Sabarmati - Commander Sabarmati's wife, who is murdered by him for having an affair with Homi Catrack.

• Commander Sabarmati - The husband of Lila Sabarmati who murders his unfaithful wife and her lover.

• Alice Pereira - Mary's sister, who works for Ahmed Sinai.

• Uncle Puffs - Jamila Singer's agent.

• Tai Bibi - A 512-year-old whore who Saleem visits.

• Farooq, Shaheed, and Ayooba - Saleem's fellow soldiers in the Pakistani army.

• Sofia - Mustapha's wife

• Durga - A wet nurse for Aadam Sinai and a succubus to Picture Singh.

• Aadam Sinai - Saleem's son.

• Picture Singh - A snake charmer and a friend to Saleem.

Major themes

The technique of magical realism finds liberal expression throughout the novel and is crucial to constructing the parallel to the country's history. It has thus been compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Magic Realism (or Magical Realism) is an illustrative or literary technique in which the laws of cause and effect seem not quite to apply in otherwise real world situations. ... One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

The narrative framework of Midnight's Children consists of a tale -- comprising his life story -- which Saleem Sinai recounts orally to his wife-to-be Padma. This self-referential narrative (within a single paragraph Saleem refers to himself in the first person: 'And I, wishing upon myself the curse of Nadir Khan. ...'; ' "I tell you," Saleem cried, "it is true. ..."') recalls indigenous Indian culture, particularly the similarly orally recounted Arabian Nights. The events in Rushdie's text also parallel the magical nature of the narratives recounted in the Arabian Nights (consider the attempt to electrocute Saleem at the latrine (p.353), or his journey in the 'basket of invisibility' (p.383)).^[3] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Saleem is a Palestinian - American playwright, actor and dancer based in Los Angeles, California, United States. ... Sinai Peninsula, Gulf of Suez (west), Gulf of Aqaba (east) from Space Shuttle STS-40 The Sinai Peninsula (in Arabic, Shibh Jazirat Sina) is a triangle-shaped peninsula lying between the Mediterranean Sea (to the north) and Red Sea (to the south). ... Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ... Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ...

The novel is also an expression of the author's own childhood, his affection for the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) in those times, and the tumultuous variety of the Indian subcontinent. Recognised for its remarkably flexible and innovative use of the English language, with a liberal mix of native Indian languages, this novel represents a departure from conventional Indian English writing. Compressing Indian cultural history, "Once upon a time," Saleem muses, "there were Radha and Krishna, and Rama and Sita, and Laila and Majnun; also (because we are not unaffected by the West) Romeo and Juliet, and Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn" (259), Midnight's Children chronological entwines characters from India's cultural history with characters from Western culture, and the devices that they signify -- Indian culture, religion and storytelling, Western drama and cinema -- are presented in Rushdie's text with postcolonial Indian history to examine both the effect of these indigenous and non-indigenous cultures on the Indian mind and in the light of Indian independence.^[3] This article or section should be merged with Mumbai Mumbai (previously known as Bombay) is the worlds most populous conurbation, and is the sixth most populous agglomeration in the world. ... , “Bombay” redirects here. ... Indian English Literature (IEL) refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. ... A Rajastani style painting of Sri Radha Radha (Devanagari: राधा) is a famous female personality from Hindu, (Vedic) tradition, also known as Radharani, prefixed with the respectful term Srimati by devout followers. ... This article is about the Hindu deity. ... Rama ( in IAST, in Devanāgarī) or Ramachandra is a legendary or historical king of ancient India. ... Lord Rama (center) with wife Sita, brother Lakshmana and devotee Hanuman. ... Image:Manny and Promil brown. ... Spencer Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American film and stage actor who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an iconic American star of film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. ... Leonardo da Vincis Vitruvian Man, for many a symbol of the changes of the Western culture during the Renaissance Western culture or Western civilization is a term used to generally refer to most of the cultures of European origin and most of their descendants. ...

The foundations of religious authority are a central concern in the novel. As with Judaism and Protestant Christianity, Islam's authority resides in scripture and rests on the belief that its words come directly from God (Allah). Saleem Sinai, the novel's narrator, seems to want to appropriate some of the Islamic tradition's authority while at the same time questioning its legitimacy. Comparing himself to Muhammad, the vessel through whom the Quran is believed to have been dictated by Allah, Saleem claims to have heard "a headful of gabbling tongues" (p. 185), and, though he was initially perplexed and "struggled, alone, to understand what had happened," he later "saw the shawl of genius fluttering down, like an embroidered butterfly, the mantle of greatness settling upon [his] shoulders" (p. 185). Saleem's use and abuse of scriptural authority, by turns playful, blasphemous, and reverential, points to his (and Rushdie's) desire to unsettle some of the easy dichotomies that individual people as well as entire cultures use to make sense of themselves.^[4] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Allah is the Arabic language word for God. ... The Quran (Arabic al-qurʾān أَلْقُرآن; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ... A dichotomy is a division into two non-overlapping or mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive parts. ...

Literary significance & criticism

From its publication in 1981, Midnight’s Children has become a standard work on university syllabuses and has enjoyed an international readership that catapulted its author almost overnight to the very forefront of world authors. It was awarded the 1981 Booker Prize, the English Speaking Union Literary Award, and in 1993 it was awarded both the James Tait Prize and the Booker of Bookers Prize. (This was an award given out by the Booker committee to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the award.) In 2003 the novel was adapted to the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company.^[5] The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a British theatre company. ...

It has been compared in its scope and execution to works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses, Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Like them, Rushdie’s novel presents an encyclopaedic exploration of an entire society through the story of a single person. It is able to do this, in part, by merging with the novel form a number of non-Western texts such as the Sanskrit epics, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata and, most consciously (and not unproblematically) The 1,001 Nights.^[5] James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. ... Günter Wilhelm Grass (born October 16, 1927) is a Nobel Prize-winning German author. ... The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ... The Ramayana (Sanskrit: march or journey (ayana) of Rama) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki. ... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ...

The novel ran into some controversy for its open criticism of Indira Gandhi, India's then prime minister, and the Emergency that she imposed on the country. Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: ) (November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984) was an Indian politician who served as Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 to 1984. ... The Prime Minister of India is, in practice, the most powerful person in the government of India. ... The Indian Emergency of (1975 - 77) is a 18-month period between 1975 and 1977, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing her the power to rule by decree, suspending...

See also

• Freedom at Midnight, a non-fiction examination of the same topic by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins.

Freedom at Midnight is a book by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. ... Dominique Lapierre (born 1931 in Châtelaillon, near La Rochelle, France) is a French author. ... Larry Collins is the writer of several historical books, mainly in collaboration with Dominique Lapierre. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Time 100 Books - The Complete List
2. ^
3. ^ ^{a b} Stewart, N. Magic realism as postcolonialist device in Midnight's Children
4. ^ Penguin Reading Guide for Midnight's Children
5. ^ ^{a b} The Literary Encyclopedia: Midnight's Children

References

Rushdie, Salman (April 1981). Midnight's Children, 1st ed., London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 022401823X.  Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ...

External links

• A summary of the novel and some interesting links.

To the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989). ... The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. ... See also: 1980 in literature, other events of 1981, 1982 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Schindlers List is a 1993 movie based on the book Schindlers Ark by Thomas Keneally (the book was later renamed Schindlers List as well). ...