Midnight's Children - By Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children - By Salman Rushdie

- This blog is part of task given by Dr. Dilip Barad as a study of novel Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

Video:

Narrative Techniques in Midnight’s Children:

1. Temporal Fluidity and Flashbacks

The novel frequently shifts between past, present, and future through flashbacks and tense changes. This unsettles the narrative flow and creates tension between the "narrator Saleem" and "character Saleem." Examples include references like "thirty-two years before" and seamless transitions between Saleem’s present recollections and his ancestor Adam Aziz’s past .

2. Use of Language and Indian Vernacular

Rushdie incorporates Indian English, pidgin, creole, and playful coinages like God knows what, Whatis name, and others alluding to a richly colloquial, culturally hybrid linguistic texture .

3. Narrative Perspective: First Person or Omniscient?

Though narrated in the first person, Saleem's voice often adopts an omniscient stance, confidently moving across time and landscapes. This blurs the line between his individual story and the broader national saga .

4. Magical Realism: Blending the Everyday with the Fantastical

Rushdie employs magical realism to merge the ordinary with the surreal dreams, fairy-tale imagery, and mythology coexist with the mundane to deepen the postcolonial allegory .

5. Self-Referential and Oral Storytelling Style

Saleem's narrative is consciously oral he addresses his wife-to-be Padma directly and shifts between “I” and “it” evoking the tradition of storytelling exemplified in Arabian Nights and forming a self-reflexive layer in the narration .

6. Apocalyptic and Nationalist Imagery

There’s a strong apocalyptic dimension in the narrative words like “Abracadabra” evoke mythic and catastrophic significance. Saleem often reflects that he is "handcuffed to history," symbolizing his fate being inseparable from that of the nation .

7. Postcolonial and Political Undertones

Rushdie weaves his narrative to challenge official histories. Writing is positioned as a political act, opposing state-manipulated narratives with an alternative reality grounded in memory, folklore, and personal truth .

How These Techniques Work Together:

These techniques aren’t just stylistic flourishes they serve deeper purposes:

Temporal layering mirrors how individuals perceive history not as linear, but fragmented and revisited.

Language hybridity reflects the postcolonial condition: fractured, evolving, mixing colonizer and indigenous tongues.

First-person omniscience conveys the dual voice of the individual as both narrator and historian, blending personal and collective memory.

Magical realism highlights the emotional truth of historical events, which straight realism can't fully express.

Oral narrative style evokes Indian storytelling traditions, rooting the novel culturally even as it engages global forms.

Apocalyptic imagery dramatizes independence as both miraculous and traumatically violent, layering personal destiny with collective upheaval.

Political reclamation of narrative gives voice to marginalized histories, resisting the overpowering narratives of hegemony.

My Learning Outcomes from the Video:

I understood how Salman Rushdie uses multiple narrative layers to link personal, family, and national histories in Midnight’s Children. I learned to identify postmodern features in the novel, such as non-linear time shifts, unreliable narration, and self-awareness in storytelling. I recognized the significance of language hybridity, where Indian vernacular, English, and invented words create a culturally rich narrative.

I understood how magical realism blends the fantastical with everyday events to convey deeper truths about history and identity. I learned how the oral storytelling style, with direct addresses and interruptions, reflects South Asian narrative traditions. I connected the narrative style to the historical and political context of India’s post-independence period. I realized how narrative techniques can act as a form of resistance, offering alternative versions of history and challenging dominant narratives.

Video:

1. Bulldozer as Symbol of Authoritarian Power

The video explains how the bulldozer transcends its literal function, representing the oppressive machinery of the state specifically during the Emergency under Indira Gandhi. It symbolizes authoritarian control, where oppressive power demolishes communities under the guise of "progress" or "beautification" rather than public welfare.

2. Erasure of Identity and Humanity

As the bulldozer levels physical structures, the novel illustrates how it also obliterates cultural memory and identity. Characters are rendered ghostlike dehumanized, forgotten, and stripped of individuality, “like neglected furniture” abandoned in a dust storm.

3. Dehumanization Through Violence

One vivid quote analyzed in the video describes the distressing scene:

“The Narlikar women had moved away while bulldozers did their work; we were alone inside the dust-storm, which gave us all the appearance of neglected furniture... we looked like the ghosts of ourselves.” This highlights how the destruction isn't just material it’s psychological and existential.

4. Political Betrayal and Repression

The bulldozer metaphor reflects how the state—a supposed protector turns repressive, destroying not only homes and neighborhoods but also trust and dissent. The specter of “treason and bulldozers” captures the sense of betrayal ordinary citizens feel when opposing regimes exert brutal force.

5. Allegory of the Emergency

The video connects metaphorical imagery to the historical context of the Emergency (1975–77). Rushdie uses the bulldozer to critique how the state suppresses civil liberties through censorship, forced sterilizations, political imprisonments and reshapes society in a one-dimensional, coercive way.

6. Loss of Memory and Personal History

Another powerful articulation is the bulldozer consuming the silver spittoon Saleem’s tangible connection to his past. The bulldozer erases not just his physical surroundings but also the symbolic link to his family and reality.

My Learning Outcomes from the Video

I understood how the bulldozer in Midnight’s Children works as a metaphor for authoritarian power, especially during the Emergency period in India. I learned that the bulldozer’s destruction represents erasure of identity, culture, and memory, not just the demolition of buildings.

I realized how Rushdie uses vivid imagery like people appearing as “ghosts of themselves” to show the dehumanizing impact of political violence. I connected the bulldozer metaphor to political betrayal, where the state uses its power against its own citizens.

I recognized how this symbol reflects the historical realities of the Emergency, including repression, censorship, and forced social change. I understood that the loss of Saleem’s silver spittoon shows how political power can destroy personal history and family connections.

Narrative Technique Midnight’s Children:

Nonlinear time: Flashbacks/fast-forwards “chutnify” history into a layered present.

First-person metafiction: Saleem addresses readers/Padma; makes the act of telling visible.

Unreliable narration: Memory gaps and revisions question official and personal histories.

Magical realism: Supernatural gifts normalize the fantastic to expose political truths.

Polyphony: Many voices (the Midnight’s Children Conference) enact India’s plurality.

Language hybridity: Indian English, vernacular coinages, and puns perform cultural mix.

Historiographic metafiction: Private life sutured to national events; archives reimagined.

Motif-driven structure: Recurring objects/images (sheet, spittoon, pickles) organize meaning.

Deconstructive Reading of Symbols:

Perforated sheet: Every view is partial; knowledge comes through cuts and frames.

Silver spittoon: Lineage, memory, and the fragility of heritage under political pressure.

Nose/smell: Intuition/telepathy; knowledge as embodied and unruly.

Pickle/chutney jars: Preservation through remix; history as spiced, sliced, and bottled.

Midnight’s children: Diversity and dissent; a nation’s promise and its fragmentation.

Bulldozer: Instrumental modernity masking violence; erasure dressed as “development.”

Shiva’s knees: Power without ethics; state violence focused in a single body.

Sundarbans/jungle episodes: Disorientation; identities unmake and remake themselves.

References:

Mehta, Deepa, director. Midnight's Children. 2012. Accessed 12 August 2025.

“Narrative Technique | Midnight’s Children .” DoE-MKBU, youtu.be/opu-zd4JNbo?si=Si9WA-hutCp0Zko-. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

Thank You