The document discusses the theme of hybridity in Salman Rushdie's novel 'Midnight's Children', highlighting its exploration of India's cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity during post-colonial times. It emphasizes the protagonist Saleem Sinai as a representation of hybrid identity, embodying multiple allegiances and backgrounds. Overall, the novel reflects the complexities of identity in a nation redefining itself after colonial rule.

1. Hybridity in
“Midnight
Children”
Present by Mansi Gujadiya

2. Personal information
Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya
Roll No.:- 12
Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013
Sem :- 3 (M.A)
Paper No.:-202
Paper Code:-22407
Paper Name:Indian English Literature-Post-Independence
Topic:-Hybridity in “Midnight Children”
Submitted to:- Department of English MKBU
Email:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

3. Introduction
● Midnight's Children is a 1984 novel by Indian-British writer Salman
Rushdie published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten
about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and
partition.
● It is a post colonial, postmodernism and magical realist story told by
its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical
events.
● The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive
● In 1993 Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children Was judged the best
novel among all the winners of the prestigious Booker Prize in the
twenty-five years of the prize history.
● It figures prominently in lists of the best one hundred novels of the
century, even the best hundred books of all time, and has recently
been reprinted in the Everyman’s Library and the Penguin Great
Books of the Century series….

4. Hybridity
● “a thing made by
combining two different
elements; a mixture.”
Hybrid can also be used
as an adjective to
describe something of
“mixed character.”
● Hybridity is a mixture of
two culture, religion and
race.

5. Salman Rushdie and Hybridity
● Salman Rushdie advocates for a hybrid world where cultural
diversity and heterogeneity are not only accepted but celebrated.
● Rushdie promotes hybridity in four key areas of cultural identity:
postcolonial history, national narratives, individual migrant identity,
and the English language, using his novels as examples.
● Midnight’s Children
● Shame
● The Satanic Verse

6. Hybridity and Homi Bhabha
● Hybridity can have at least three meanings in terms of
biology , ethnicity and culture.
● Definition of hybridity might be understood to mean an
individual “having access to two or more ethnic identities”.
In fact Bhabha develops his notion of hybridity from
Mikhail Bakhtin who used it to discriminate text “single
voice from those with “double voice “.
● Homi Bhabha’s hybridity occurs as the ambiguity of
identity that brings a person in a position of “in-between

7. Cultural hybridity
● This novel tells that India is hybrid. Hybridity is a mixing and a blending of two
or more cultures as the effects of colonization on cultures in societies.,
● Rushdie intentionally tends to show this Saleem’s condition as an effort to
estrange and disavow colonial authority. It is known as hybridity.
● Midnight’s children shows the blend of perspectives from many postcolonial
people.
● The characters in the novel live between two or more cultural identities without
embracing a clearly particular identity. They are hybrid characters. These
hybrid characters show India’s hybridity.

8. ● The blending of names representing various
religions is another hybridized factor.
● The author has chosen religious specific names
that represent various deities and religious
figures of Muslims and Hindus.
● Saleem the protagonist, Shiva and Parvati as
among other children born on that midnight,
their names have been symbolizing of the
mixture and hybridity among religions in a
particular country
Religion hybridity

9. Saleem
● Saleem is a perfect representation of the hybrid
man ,born with multiple allegiance 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.

10. Conclusion
● In "Midnight's Children," hybridity is
a central idea that reflects the
multifaceted and complex nature of
post-colonial Indian society.
● It underscores the challenges and
opportunities of living in a country
that is in the process of redefining
its identity and culture.

11. ● Antony Easthope (1998) Bhabha, hybridity and identity,
Textual Practice, 12:2, 341-348, DOI:
10.1080/09502369808582312
● Brown, Jessica, "East / West: Salman Rushdie and
Hybridity" (2011). Honors Program Projects. 3.
https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/honr_proj/3
● KORTENAAR, NEIL TEN. “Introduction.” Self, Nation, Text
in Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 2004, pp. 3–14. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt80rjz.4. Accessed 10 Oct.
2023.
● Pradeep Kumar Giri. “Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s
Children: Cultural Cosmopolitan Reflection.” THE BATUK :
A Peer Reviewed Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 7,
no. 1, 2021, p. 6. https://doi.org/ DOI
10.3126/batuk.v7i1.35349.
Reference