Decoding the Magic in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children: Re-reading the novel as an account of the political reality of the Partition of India.

This paper seeks to view the device of magic realism used in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children as a lens through which the political consciousness of the two nations (India and Pakistan) is presented. By using elements of fantasy, the very event of partition is given a new dimension. This dimension is one which projects itself as a binding factor for all those who have collectively been a part of that single moment- the stroke of midnight. The partition of India is reflected as that event which brings together the fate of all those who passed through it. This, certainly, has a much deeper implication in a political sense than what is reflected as the curious bestowing of supernatural powers upon the children born at the hour of the partition. The title itself becomes a product of both the magical realism presented by Rushdie as well as the political reality of the two countries in question. The “children” metaphor for these two countries is used literally by Salman Rushdie as he creates an alternate dimension of reality where magical children reside. Further, the protagonist Saleem Sinai’s journey through the effects of partition as he struggles to make sense of his fragmented identity is deeply symbolic of the national consciousness within which Saleem and his family reside. Through this paper, it is aimed to decode the various symbols of the effects of partition, the national identity of people, and the postcolonial impact on them that are presented within the world of Rushdie’s novel as magic and fantasy.