LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:6 June 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Trauma of Dislocation and Relocation in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

K. Harish, II M.A. English (CBCS)


Abstract

The very term ‘Dislocation’ means the movement of a person or a group of people from one place to another, whether forced or volunteered. Here our protagonist undergoes a coerced displacement. Not only him but also his grandfather and father has been displaced involuntarily. It is apparent that displacement (dislocation) is the inheritance of his family.

How dislocation and relocation have affected the psyche of the protagonist has been dealt here. It all starts precisely at the stroke of mid-night when the clock joined hands to welcome the squirming baby Salim on August 15, 1947. Everyone cherished him, the newspaper praised him and the prime minister himself wrote him welcoming his birth, with the new nation born Salim and got embroiled in fetters with the nation and was imbued with telepathic powers and a highly sensitive nose that senses danger. Salim narrates and scribbles his story under the watch of Padma his loyal fiancé and his patient listener. Salman Rushdie deftly provided us with plenty of cultural references and historical contexts making this one of the predominant works of post-colonial literature.

Keywords: Salman Rushdie,, Midnight’s Children, Alienation, Exile, Dislocation, Relocation, Post Colonialism.

Expatriation, Exile and Alienation are such difficult phases faced by someone who got displaced and our protagonist is no exception, Aadam Aziz, a doctor graduated from Germany, happened to treat the ailments of the daughter of a landlord named Ghani. Aadam Aziz’s curiosity increased as everything he could see was a perforated sheet of seven inches. The backdrop is set in Kashmir and the lush environment is explained with such spectacular choice of words. He saw the face of Nazeem exactly at the date when the First world War was announced. As days gone by, they both fell in love with each other and got married eventually with the consent of her father and they had left Kashmir to Agra, having frustrated with the irksome behavior of an old boat man named Tai. This is where the story starts moving as Aadam Aziz got displaced coercedly and the displacement passes on to generations.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

K. Harish, II M.A. English (CBCS)
Department of English
Annamalai University
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