Midnight's Children

“The Indians have fought for the British; so many of them have seen the world by now, and been tainted by Abroad.”

The effects of colonialism are portrayed as a stain in Indian culture. By leaving to fight for the British, Indian people pick up habits and ideas from their colonial rulers, which are then implemented in Indian culture. The use of the word “tainted” (37) indicates these ideas are a poisonous corruption of Indian culture. In the novel, violence and the lingering effects of colonialism are portrayed as a foreign import, thrust on to India by the British.

“But those were the years of the drought; many crops planted at that time ended up coming to nothing.”

Natural phenomena, such as floods and droughts, are just as linked to the personal lives of the characters as the more manmade aspects of history. Saleem describes how his life echoes the wars and political turmoil of India. However, the weather and the climate are just as tied to his personal story. As such, Saleem’s story is not just the story of humanity in India but of India in its natural totality. The people, the history, and the weather are all inseparable parts of the idea of India that Saleem wants to portray.

“Too much prophecy, man. Our Ramram made too much damn prophecy tonight.”

Lifafa Das’s cousin claims he is a fortune teller, yet he lives in a slum. His powers of prophecy have not elevated or enriched him. However, even the most dubiously powered prophet can be overcome by the weight of history. When Amina visits with Saleem in her womb, the false prophet is caught by a sudden revelation. Saleem’s imminent arrival in the soon-to-be-independent country are powerful enough to give unremarkable people remarkable powers. Even before the arrival of the Midnight’s Children, the country is beginning to exhibit signs of the magic that will soon arrive, even if it already seems like too much for people who have only known life in the colonialist British India.

“Hundreds of years of decent government, then suddenly, up and off.”

Methwold refuses to engage with any possibility that colonialism might be bad for the colonized countries. He does not comprehend that the “hundreds of years of decent government” (86) were imposed on India, just as the railroads and other infrastructure projects were imposed on India so as to better facilitate the extraction of wealth from the country for the benefit of the British Empire. Methwold’s point of view is demonstrative of the colonialist apologia that desperately attempts to justify the presence of the British Empire and the denial of self-determination for the people of India.

“To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world.”

Saleem’s comprehensive, sprawling narrative is built on the idea that his audience must understand the entire context of his story if they are to understand any of it. His “one life” (97) may be the story of the novel, but he requires his audience to “swallow the world” (97) to fully understand his life. Otherwise, like Aadam glimpses Naseem through a hole in the perforated sheet, the audience will only understand individual parts of the story without comprehending the whole.

“Indians save Europeans from an Indian mutiny as usual.”

The British colonialist project in India requires the obedience and the cooperation of at least some local people, those who have internalized or learned to profit from the colonial project. However, the constant threat of an “Indian mutiny” (111) highlights the untenable nature of the colonial project. Eventually, the Europeans will no longer have any Indians left to save them from the mutinies. The British are not handing over India due to their benevolence, the novel suggests, but because their presence is increasingly unsustainable.

“Muhammad (on whose name be peace, let me add; I don’t want to offend anyone) heard a voice saying ‘Recite!’ and thought he was going mad.”

Saleem is adamant that he does not want to offend anyone. He includes cautionary language to assuage any complaints about his phrasing regarding the Muslim prophet Muhammad. However, even in this polite and passing reference, Saleem cannot avoid blasphemy. Simply by mentioning Muhammad, he invites comparisons between himself and the prophet. Furthermore, Saleem’s comparison is justified. He has evidence of his own supernatural abilities while those of religious figures are only passed down from centuries ago. Saleem’s desperate attempts to avoid offense distract from the very real and very significant powers he has developed in his own right, powers that might themselves be considered heretical or blasphemous.

“The businessmen of India were turning white.”

Like Ahmed, many businessmen are physically becoming whiter in the wake of independence. Their increasing whiteness is a metaphor for the changing social dynamics in independent India. With the British gone, a new generation of local bureaucrats and capitalists have taken their place. They imitate the behavior of the British, inhabiting the old institutions of the colonialists and—in the case of Ahmed—even the houses that the British occupied. In a figurative and literal sense, these men are becoming white. They are imitating the behavior of the British, so their skin lightens as they come to resemble their previous colonial forebears.

“A nonsense thing; a nothing; nine words of emptiness.”

Saleem is the narrator. He insists on telling a story to the audience, and he is aware of the importance of his words. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as a mocking rhyme can become the soundtrack to violence, Saleem suggests, so the “nonsense thing” (165) he sings to get himself out of trouble becomes the slogan of a violent political movement. Saleem justifies his narrative style by showing how the rhyme (and by extension, Saleem) became a part of history. No word, phrase, or memory is too small to be insignificant.

“The greatest talent of all—the ability to look into the hearts and minds of men.”

Saleem describes the powers of the Midnight’s Children but insists his is the “greatest talent of all” (171). While Shiva is seemingly the most powerful of the group, and Parvati has incredible gifts, Saleem’s power is subtler. In a sense, his magical power is like his role as a narrator. Saleem is gifted with empathy in that he has the ability to empathize with people on a grand scale. The same talent that allows him to bring people together allows him to write a book filled with the people with whom he has empathized. As a writer and narrator, he is naturally disposed to believe this talent is the most important of all, hinting at the subtle narcissism that Saleem possesses.

“What thing in the whole sister-sleeping world got reason, yara? For what reason you’re rich and I’m poor?”

Saleem desperately wants his actions and his life to have a higher purpose, but, as a 10-year-old, he lacks the tools to rebuke Shiva’s diagnosis of the world. As a narrator, Saleem is attempting to answer Shiva’s question. Saleem has meticulously crafted a narrative that explains the context in which he and Shiva were switched at birth, thereby explaining why one is rich and one is poor. Saleem’s desire that his life should be filled with some grand purpose continues through to adulthood. Even as he narrates his novel, his mode of narration suggests he is still struggling to provide a satisfying answer to Shiva’s question.

“Commander Sabarmati, left alone on the policeman’s pedestal amid the sudden confusion of traffic, began to direct the cars, using the smoking gun as a baton.”

Faced with a crisis, Commander Sabarmati has no idea how to react. He sees a vacant but important institution, so he immediately and instinctually fills the role. Shortly after murdering his wife’s lover, he begins to direct traffic. The thought of causing a traffic problem is abhorrent to him, even though he has just killed Homi Catrack. Sabarmati’s actions illustrate why people turn to institutions in times of crisis. Just as the people of India will depend on their government in the rest of the novel, Sabarmati cannot abandon his instinctive trust of institutions. Even something as violent as a murder weapon can become a neutered tool of the extant institutions. The gun used to kill a man and wound a woman is then used to signal traffic, showing how any crisis becomes folded into the preservation of the institutions which govern life.

“What began, active-metaphorically, with pepperpots ended then; not only did I overthrow a government—I also consigned a president to exile.”

In Pakistan, Saleem begins to discover his small actions have real world ramifications. He is no longer playing with magic inside his head and his influence is no longer limited to the boundaries of the Methwold estate. He witnesses, in real time, how the metaphor of a pepper pot can become human. What seemed like an innocent movement across a table, part of a late-night game, results in the arrest and exile of an old man. Saleem’s actions have ramifications he is beginning to understand, and navigating the emotional consequences of his actions will occupy the rest of his life.

“My nose, her voice; they were exactly complementary gifts; but they were growing apart.”

Like Saleem, Jamila Singer almost possesses a unique gift. Salem likens her voice to his magical powers, but his descriptions imply the sense of duality, which is a key theme in the novel. Both powers are based on a human ability: Saleem’s power is thanks to his nose while hers is thanks to her voice. However, Saleem’s powers only truly function in India while Jamila’s powers only become clear once the family is in Pakistan. Like the countries, the siblings are forced to reckon with their powers separately. Their differences and their similarities are divided by a border, preventing them from working together for the common betterment of humanity.

“She was looking forward to the empty oblivion of nostalgia.”

As the narrative becomes more warlike and violent, Saleem develops a new perspective on nostalgia. He is no longer looking back only at the happy memories of his youth; now he is describing painful and embarrassing moments from his past. Nevertheless, nostalgia is an intoxicating drug. Nostalgia allows Emerald to escape the shame of her reality, just as it allows Saleem to escape the predicament of his future. The nostalgia may be empty, but it has the power to obliterate, providing comfort through destruction by overpowering the feelings of shame and embarrassment that haunt the characters.

“Don’t try and fill my head with that history. I am who I am, that’s all there is.”

Saleem loses his memories. When he is in the Pakistan Army, he actively rejects nostalgia or even the implication that he should have memories. This version of Saleem is markedly different to the narrator of the novel. Saleem the narrator is obsessed with memories, providing a detailed and nuanced description of every single part of his family’s history. If Saleem the narrator is defined by the memories he wants to share with the world, the Saleem in the Army wants to be someone else entirely. After the shame, the guilt, and the grief, his mind has switched off. He wants to be someone else for a while and, to achieve this, he rejects his own memories.

“You see, Padma: I have told this story before.”

Everything in Saleem’s life occurs in cycles of repetition. Even the telling of his life’s story is an act that he is repeating. Saleem tells Padma this as a way to satisfy his own beliefs: He is showing her that his decision to tell his story is not a new or novel idea. Instead, he is simply taking part in an ongoing cycle of repetition from which he cannot escape. Saleem is not only doomed to live his life but also to spend his life sharing his memories with others.

“Many Daccans got the idea that the Indians’ victory had been inevitable from the start because even their uniformed jawans were sorcerers of the highest order.”

The Indian Army conspicuously uses magicians as propaganda tools, marching the magicians ahead of their military parade to imply their victory was a matter of destiny. The use of propaganda hints at one of the novel’s central ideas: Fate does not exist. Rather, the gradual accumulation of forces and events dictates the outcome in a conscious fashion. Fate did not win the war against Pakistan. Instead, a series of seemingly unrelated history events accumulated to give the impression of inevitability. Fate does not exist; in Saleem’s view, fate is the consequence of an innumerable number of different factors, all colliding at once. The deception of the magicians masks this truth, and their falsity highlights the hollowness of fate.

“I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow the world.”

Saleem’s life is a cycle of repetition. In the same way, his narration is a cycle of repeated phrases and actions. Even the phrases he draws specific attention to are dragged back to the attention of the audience; as Saleem grows older, these lessons become more pronounced and the truth—he believes—becomes increasingly self-evident. Each time Saleem returns to a word, a phrase, or an action, he reinforces his point that history is repetitive and that humans are caught in these cycles of repetition until they achieve an understanding of their predicament, much like a cycle of reincarnation.

“Like Gautama, the first and true Buddha, I left my life of comfort and went like a beggar into the world.”

Saleem is a believer in the cyclic nature of history. As a result, he searches for precedents and cliches that match his own life. After spending some time being known simply as the Buddha, he compares his ejection from his uncle’s house to a moment in the life of the “first and true Buddha” (330). In Saleem’s view, this lends his action legitimacy. He believes he is continuing a cycle of history that has been repeating forever. In another sense, the claim is an egotistical attempt to excuse himself for being caught in bed with a woman in his uncle’s house. Saleem feels the need to assign a higher purpose to his life to justify even his most impulsive mistakes.

“‘Good Night, Ladies’ still echoed on occasion in his ears.”

Shiva is haunted by his past, though Saleem has avoided too much discussion of Shiva’s emotional state. The songs of Wee Willie Winkie linger in Shiva’s memories and remind him that, for all of his military success, he is still the son of a beggar, and he was once denied the rich, comfortable life stolen from him by Saleem. Of all the characters in the novel, Saleem avoids empathizing with Shiva. To empathize with Shiva is a reminder of how privileged by fate and circumstances he is. Shiva does not just scare Saleem; he reminds Saleem of the fragility of his fortune.

“At the precise moment of India’s arrival at Emergency, he emerged.”

The birth of the son of Parvati and Shiva is a fateful echo of Saleem’s own arrival in the world. Like Saleem, the boy will be raised by people who are not his biological parents. Like Saleem, he has a deformed part of his face that immediately attracts attention. Also like Saleem, he is born at precisely midnight during a moment when the nation of India is irrecoverably changed. Each similarly is infected with an ambiguity and a difference: Saleem’s nose is not the same as his son’s ears, for example, and while Saleem was born at the moment of India’s optimistic independence, his son is born during the pessimistic descent into chaos. The echoes and reverberations in Saleem’s story rarely match exactly.

“Although excuses are possible: I wasn’t to blame Shiva.”

Saleem’s approach to storytelling is an attempt to demonstrate that no single individual or event is responsible for any part of history. Instead, the unfolding of history is a chaotic, complicated mess of actions, personalities, and decisions. Saleem, by his very nature, cannot blame Shiva for his mistakes, just as he cannot blame any individual for anything. Like Saleem, Shiva is a product of the complicated history that produced him. At the end of the novel, Saleem’s refusal to condemn Shiva is an affirmation of his belief in the true nature of the world.