Midnight's Children

Amina Sinai, also known as Mumtaz Aziz, is Saleem’s mother and one of the most important figures in the text. She is distinguished from her brothers and sisters by the dark complexion of her skin. Amina’s dark skin makes her stand out, and people treat her differently as a result. Zohar explains at length to her cousin Ahmed why people with darker skin cannot be trusted before making a polite aside to Amina to assure her no offense is meant. The color of Amina’s skin has a lasting impact on her life as she knows that people treat her differently. Even her mother struggles to love her as much as the other, lighter-skinned children. Amina’s struggles reveal the colorism and prejudice in Indian society at the time, suggesting the lingering racism of pre-independence British rule has left a legacy of institutional racism in the newly formed country.

Amina is married twice. First, she secretly marries Nadir Khan and lives with him in the basement of her parents’ house. When Nadir fails to consummate the marriage, he runs away and divorces Amina. Then, Amina marries her sister’s love interest, Ahmed. In the months and years after their marriage, Amina teaches herself to love Ahmed. She decides to focus on one piece of his body at a time, learning to love Ahmed one arm, finger, or foot at a time. This approach echoes her father’s courtship of her mother. Just as Aadam fell in love with the woman he saw through the perforated sheet, Amina imposes an imagined perforated sheet between herself and her husband. As she teaches himself to love Ahmed, however, he begins to change. He becomes more like Nadir Khan in appearance, and Amina even decorates their home like the basement she shared with Nadir. Though she is convincing herself she is learning to love a new man, Amina is actually turning her current husband into her previous husband.

Amina’s lasting love for Nadir shapes her life. Just as Saleem obsesses over the past, Amina tries to recreate her past in her present. She never quite manages to recapture the passion of her youth, either with Ahmed or when she is reunited with Nadir. Amina’s fate shows the precariousness of love. Amina longs for the past and for a life she never quite had. This overpowering nostalgia is put aside when Amina needs to deal with practical matters, but she never quite forgets about it. This nostalgia and this habit of looking to the past for an explanation of the future is passed down to her son. Saleem’s narration is modeled on his family’s past and his mother’s attempts to recreate a love she once lost, which informs the nostalgia that defines Saleem’s search for understanding.

Named after the god of destruction in the Hindu religion, Shiva is Saleem’s biggest rival. Both characters were born at midnight on August 15, 1947, but were then switched in their cribs. Whereas Saleem enjoyed the life of luxury (though not without his tragedies), Shiva was condemned to grow up in the care of the penniless beggar Wee Willie Winkie. The differing material conditions of their childhoods hint at the different ways in which wealth and inequality can shape a person’s life. As such, his powers—his natural proclivity for war and his powerful knees—become tools with which Shiva can seek revenge against a world that has never valued him. Shiva, much like his namesake, uses his powers for destruction while Saleem is more interested in creation and unification.

Shiva is a passionate individual whose resentment eventually alienates him from society. When the Midnight Children’s Conference is first assembled, Shiva distrusts the group. Saleem and other children want to help their country, but Shiva cannot bring himself to trust them. He adopts a cynical attitude, criticizing Saleem’s efforts because he cannot allow himself to trust or love anyone. Shiva has spent a lifetime marginalized due to his family’s lack of money. He was driven to a life of crime and violence because his father struggled to get by. Meanwhile, every meeting of the Midnight Children’s Conference is a reminder to Shiva of the privileges denied him but given to others, even though they were all born at the same time.

Shiva’s burning resentment toward everyone else manifests as cynicism and violence. He attacks people, kills people, and ruins the lives of women with whom he has affairs and nonmarital children. These behaviors, like his childhood cynicism, can be understood as a way to assert control over a world that has treated him poorly. Shiva had no control over his childhood, so he wrests control violently over his present. Shiva essentially destroys the Midnight Children’s Conference because he resents everything it stands for. He becomes the God of destruction, not only eliminating those who were most like him but also destroying their capacity to build a better future.

Aadam Aziz is Saleem’s grandfather and the starting point for Saleem’s story. Aadam represents an early 20th century blend between Eastern and Western cultures. He may have been born and raised in Kashmir, but he studied medicine in Europe. This biographical detail makes him an attractive marriage prospect for Naseem, but other characters harbor suspicions. Aadam is subject to rumors, mostly started by his old friend Tai, that he is bringing the worst excesses of Europe back to Kashmir, and he is accused of not respecting local customs. Aadam’s education means that he is often seen as too Western for India and—while in Europe—he is considered to be too Indian for the West. Aadam never quite settles in any one location, in part due to the constant tension in his character. He never truly belongs to any world and fails to discover his place in the awkward intersection between cultures caused by colonialism.

When visiting Naseem, Aadam glimpses her through a small hole in a perforated sheet. He falls in love with the woman behind the sheet only to discover that the real Naseem is very different to the Naseem he imagined when examining her over the years. Aadam’s experience with the perforated sheet is an allegory for a repeated idea in the story: that people cannot be understood from brief glimpses into their lives. Saleem is very conscious of his grandfather’s experience with the perforated sheet, so he uses the story to set the tone for everything that follows in the novel. Saleem’s narration is as detailed and as exhaustive as it is because he does not want to show the audience the world through a hole in a sheet. Aadam’s main function in the novel is to reveal the importance of completely understanding a person before coming to an opinion on their life or their character.

William Methwold is an Englishman who owns an estate in Bombay. With India’s independence looming, he decides to sell the estate. One of the houses on the estate is purchased by Ahmed, and it becomes Saleem’s childhood home. Methwold’s character is an allegory for British colonial presence in India. He owns property in a country that is not his own, and then, when he becomes bored, he divides up the land and sells it back to the local people. His actions mirror the British Empire, who colonized India for centuries and then left the country after implementing the partition and leaving behind a confusing, chaotic mess. Added to this, the legacy of Methwold’s presence lingers in the estate just as British presence lingers in India. Methwold insists that the buyers of the houses on the estate abide by his absurd rules and adhere to his schedule. His ritual of a cocktail every day at an appointed time is continued long after he leaves, for no reason other than tradition. In the same way, Indian institutions are rife with laws and precedents that can be traced back to the colonial British presence that continues to dictate the lives of the Indian people long after independence.

As well as an allegory for colonialism, Methwold plays an important role in Saleem’s life. He is Saleem’s biological father, having had an affair with Vanita, the wife of Wee Willie Winkie. Methwold’s biological legacy in India is again similar to the British attitude toward India following independence. Methwold plays no active role in his son’s life, leaving Saleem to fend for himself. Methwold abandons his responsibility and leaves behind a complicated tangle of adultery and mistaken identity. Methwold is able to do this because he does not value the lives of the Indian people. He forced them to play by his rules when they purchased his estate and was happy to father children with a poor beggar woman, but he felt no responsibility to deal with the consequences of his actions. As depicted in the novel, Methwold’s involvement after independence is the same as the British involvement in India. He simply disappears and ignores any responsibility for the mess he has created.

Naseem is Saleem’s grandmother and the wife of Aadam Aziz. She meets her husband through a perforated sheet; he is the doctor who spends many years examining her, one body part at a time. Aadam falls in love with the woman he glimpses through the sheet but quickly discovers that the real Naseem is very different to the woman he thought he knew. When seen through the perforated sheet, Aadam believes Naseem to be alluring and beautiful. She accommodates his instructions and, thanks to the dowry from her rich father, she seems like the ideal bride for an ambitious young doctor.

In reality, Naseem is determined, opinionated, and combative. Aadam discovers that she is far more formidable than he expected. Aadam had no idea he was marrying a fiercely independent, strong woman, but the reality of Naseem’s character teaches him an important lesson that is passed down from generation to generation, much like the sheet itself. The revelation of Naseem’s true personality hints at one of the principles of Saleem’s storytelling. Saleem tries to cover the totality of existence, providing insight and explanation for every small action and decision. The truth can only be understood by dealing with all the facts at once, just like the true Naseem cannot be known from the brief glimpses of her body seen through a perforated sheet.