Midnight's Children and His/story

Hi, it’s Jonathan.

Whilst reading Midnight’s Children I was particularly struck by Rushdie’s exploration of the creative process involved in the production of art, and its relation to the unreliable/ambiguous nature of history. Linked to this idea was one of the novel’s most prominent themes, that of experiencing the world through a multiplicity of differing perspectives. As the embodiment of a united India, Saleem represents the amalgamation of these perspectives, and serves as the antithesis to the numerous groups in the novel who remain consistently intolerable to any deviation from their own principles, demanding complete singularity in regards to perception (for example, the protestors urging the creation of language-based regions, the anti-Muslim Ravana gang, the gang who attack Lifafa Das, the monotheism of Pakistan etc.). Like Lifafa Das’ peep show, Saleem’s narrative serves to depict the world from numerous viewpoints, and with a kaleidoscope of differing principles and influences. Saleem’s story is not only that of his personal life, but also the collective life of the nation.

Something I found particularly interesting however, was Saleem’s unreliability as a narrator, and particularly this in relation to (Rushdie’s?) view of history. As the novel progresses, Saleem’s errors (most notably his mistake in misplacing Ghandi’s death) somewhat cloud the reader’s faith in his ability to narrate accurately. However, this seems to be of little importance to Saleem, who contends that history is the product of multitudinous experiences and perspectives, and that memory (and thus his own narrative) can create its own truths. If we consider the common saying “History is written by the victors”, we can see some parallels between this phrase and the portrayal of events in Midnight’s Children, in as much as history is dictated by perspective, whether it adheres to genuine historical truth or not. History is considered ‘true’ not only because there are facts to support it, but because it is depicted as an authoritative account of events. The codification of history, and the passage of time, leads people to accept history as the truth. Thus, whilst Saleem worries over his mistakes, he chooses to maintain his version of events, and continues to believe in his narrative’s importance, equating it with religious scriptures. A parallel is made, for example, with Ahmed Sinai’s ambition of rearranging the Quran. Whilst the meaning of this religious text is not debated, the order of it is far from conclusive and is thus overshadowed by a similar doubt to that of Saleem’s story:

“‘When Muhammed prophesied, people wrote down what he said on palm leaves, which were kept any old how in a box. After he died, Abubakr and the others tried to remember the correct sequence; but they didn’t have very good memories’” (Vintage, 107).