1.Discuss how Salman Rushdie presents the political history of Pakistan.

India gained its independence from the clutches of the British colonial rule in 1947.The novel
“Midnight’s Children”written by Salman Rushdie is narrated around the political history of India by
combining the narrative of the birth of the 10000 children born exactly at the time of India’s
independence.It is important to understand the idea as the writer profoundly uses the historical
evidence associated with it to show how this political history of India becomes influential over the lives
of these babies born at the stroke of midnight at 12 ‘o clock.

The author reveals how the outbreak of several wars have impacted the country’s fate with Indira
Gandhi separating both India and Pakistan as two separate countries where it housed the Hindus and
Muslims respectively.Therefor Rushdie’s novel is an allegory of modern India’s history.The writer
employs supernatural elements as gifted with the newly born children at the stroke of midnight on the
day India gained independence.Thus this birth of the new generation on the day of independence
symbolically represents the birth of a new nation.Apart from that, Indira who is depicted as “widow “in
the novel reveals a lot about the absolute power she wielded over India,gaining political dictatorship
which marks a state of emergency in the country which paved the path towards civil unrest and
violence.

Further more Indira censoring the press as well as imprisoned those who oppressed her and also
violated the human rights by forcing the sterilization process.These remarkable political events are
juxtaposed with the fictional narrative by the writer in order to bring out a very realistic portrayal as to
how the countrymen marched towards further degradation with Indira Gandhi’s tyrannical ruling
system.The events that culminated soon after the indepewndence depicted in the novel have been
owing to a myriadof factors owing to cultural,linguistic,religious and political differences.

The out-break of the Indo-Pakistani wars in 1956 and 1971 can be attributed to Indira’s act of the
partitioning two states which were at war with the idea of gaining a unique identity.However,this
narrow intention was not very favorable as India as a country as it became root cause for several
religious and political uprisings that eventually brought about boundaries as Kashmir and Bangladesh.

“Under the rule of the widow,India is being made impotent ,literally,through vasectomy and
,metaphorically too…….”

Indira Gandhi is presented in the novel as a widow and in the Indian culture a widow is considered an
illomen that brings so many unlucky things but the novelists brings out the identity of her who is a major
political figure ,only at the latter part of the novel to the reader.On the other hand the cultural legacy
left by the British is also portrayed in the novel .It is exemplified with the author mentioning of how the
people livingatvMethwold Estate who practise British cultural trasits such as British
traditions,customs,cocktail hour,enjoying the British architecture.These can be regarded as the
remnants of political legacy left by the colonial masters.

Moreover,the postcolonial; India faced so much blood-shed and economic downfall with the division of
India as India and Pakistan.