This document summarizes a presentation on the topic of "Hybridity in Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. It provides background on Rushdie and an overview of the novel, discussing its themes of post-colonialism, history, identity, and storytelling. Hybridity in the novel is examined through the relationships between characters Saleem, Shiva, and Parvati, who represent mixtures of cultures and religions. Magical realism is also discussed as adding beauty and vigor to the historical events in the novel. Important quotes highlighting hybridity and mimicry of European culture are presented, along with a concluding statement that Rushdie found India's identity is hybrid and able to subvert colonial power.

1. • Presented by : Anjali Trivedi
• Roll no. : 02
• Enrollment no. : 3069206420200022
• Batch : 2020 – 2022
• Course : MA Sem 3
• Topic : “Hybridity in Midnight’s Children”
• Guid Teacher : Dr.Dilip Barad sir
• Email : anjali.trivedi305@gmail.com

2. ●Hybridity in
Midnight’s Children......

3. ◆About Salman Rushdie :
 He was born in Bombay on 19 June 1947.
 Salman Rushdie one of the most renowed
writer of Indian Diaspora, settled in England,
shot into fame through his magnum opus,
"Midnight's Children".
 Salman Rushdie is a magic Realist. Rushdie's
literary career started with his first novel,
"Grimus (1975).
 His second novel, Midnight's Children,
Rushdie's fame spread world wide and the
subsequent novels.

4. Continue.....
 He was educated at Rugby School and the University of Cambridge, where he
received an M.A. degree in history in 1968.
 Rushdie was the son of a prosperous muslim business man
In India.
 His First Novel Grimus, Second Novel Midnight’s Children and after third Novel
was Shame published in 1983 based on contemporary politics in Pakistan.
 Fourth novel The Satanic Verses encountered a different reception.
 Despite the standing death threat, Rushdie continued to write, producing
Imaginary Homelands (1991), a collection of essays and criticism; the children's
novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990); the short-story collection East, West
(1994); and the novel The Moor's Last Sigh (1995).

5. ◆About the novel “Midnight’s
Children”:
 Published in 1981.
 Midnight's Children is considered as a
Post-colonial novel containing all
aspect of post-colonial literature.
 It is story about the clash between
two religion.
 Saleem, Shiva and Parvati these are
main characters in the novel.

6. ◆Introduction :
 The novel deals with India's transition from British
colonialism to independence and the partition of
Subcontinent.
 It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and
magical realism.
 Midnight's children are the children born at the stroke of
the midnight of 15th August 1947 that marked India's
independence.
 The story is narrated by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai.

7. ●For its unique matter
and manner this novel
won him the Bookers
Prize 1981.

8. ●A fantastic movie
directed byDeepa
Mehtawas made on
it released in 2012.

9. ◆There are Three major themes as
Post colonial books :
 The creation and telling of history.
 The creation and telling of a nation's and
individual's identity.
 The creation and telling of stories.

10. ◆What is Hybridity? :
 Hybridity is the mixture of two cultures,
religion or races.
 It can be social, political, linguistic,
religious, etc.
 It not necessarily a peaceful mixture.
●"Hybridity has frequently been used in post-colonialdiscourse
to mean simply cross-cultural 'exchange’.
●"Hybridity commonly refers to the creation of new
transcultural forms.“
●Hybridization takes many forms: linguistic, cultural,political,
racial, etc.

11. ◆Hybridity in “Midnight’s Children”:
 The novel's social and cultural hybridization, illustrated
through the multitude of differing characters.
 These cultural and religious division clearly highlighted
through Saleem's relationship with Shiva and Parvati.
 Salee's relationship with Shiva remainscomplicated because
of the nature of their birthand religion.
 And from those characters we can say that religious and
cultural hybridity present in India.

12. Continue....
 Saleem and Shiva remain in contrast battle with each other,
and each struggles against the other to gain power.
 • These three names are also connected with Hindu
mythology.
Parvati
Shiva Saleem

13. Continue....
 Saleem is a perfect representation of the hybrid man, born with
multiple allegiances and identities. He is a character of mixed
backgrounds the son of a colonial named William Methwold and
a poor Indian woman, yet raised as a son by the middle-class
Sinais.
 According to Gupta (2009), Rushdie privileges a postmodern
space or third principle that blends both sides of binaries:
east/west, secular/religious, real/fantasy, and
colonizer/colonized and foregrounds hybridity over clarity and
open-endedness over closure.

14. ◆There are 3 movies which we have
seen hybridity :

15. ◆Magical Realism in “Midnight’s
Children”:
 The magical realism narrative adds
beauty and vigor to the historical
events represented in this novel
which otherwise could have been
boring to read.
 The midnight children were not
ordinary kids, they had
supernatural powers.
 Saleem's incredible sense of smell,
Parvati-the-witch's invisibility
basket, Tai the eternal boatman is
ageless.
●"It's only minutes since I reached the final,
typically long and rich sentence of Midnight's
Children and closed the covers. It feels like
shutting the lid on a magic box. A swirling,
overloaded mass of words, colors, smells,
allusions and illusions has suddenly been
contained. A portal to a fantastical, vital
dimension has been sealed off“.

16. ◆Important Quotes :
 Saleem Sinai highlighting about how society
says that....
"In India, we've always been vulnerable to
Europeans... Evie had only been with us a matter of
weeks, and already I was being sucked into a
grotesque mimicry of European literature....Perhaps
it would be fair to say that Europe repeats itself, in
India, as farce..."

17. Continue...
 Saleem Describing behavior Of
Sinai’s (Ahemd & Amina) at the
cocktail hour says,
 Mr.Mathworld represents the
colonizers part,when he says...
"when William Methwold comes
to call they slip effortlessly into
their imitation of Oxford drawls;
and they are learning, about
ceiling fans and gas cookers, and
Methwold, supervising their
transformation, is mumbling
under his breath"
"Sabkuch ticktock hai.
Everything's just fine"

18. ◆ Conclusion :
At the end we conclude with
Avoiding authenticity, Rushdie through his
characters found that India's identity is hybrid.
This hybrid identity is able to subvert colonial
power and gives new image that India does not
always live in the shadow of British power.

19. ◆ Reference:
 Works Cited
 Hybrid, Memory and Hybridization of Messianic Time in Salman Rushdie’s
Midnight’s Children. papers.iafor.org/submissionlibrasia2013_0388/.
 "Salman Rushdie." Encyclopedia Britannica,
www.britannica.com/biography/Salman-Rushdie.
 Works Cited
 "How is Magical Realism Used in Midnight's Children? -
ENotes.com." ENotes, www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-magical-
realism-used-midnights-children-1734905.