This presentation is about postcolonial reading of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children.

1. Postcolonial Study of
Midnight’s Children
Nation and Hybridity

2. •देश एक राग है - भगवत रावत (2009)
•What is a nation? - Ernest Renan (1882)
•Timothy Brennan – Rise of European
Nationalism
•Homi K Bhabha – ‘Hybridity’ - The Location
of Culture (1994)
•Homi K Bhabha – Nation and Narration
(1990)

3. •मैं देश क
े नाम सन्देश देना चाहता था
राष्ट्र क
े नाम नह ीं
देश क
े नाम
•मजेदार बात यहााँ है कक 'देशवाससयों'-जैसे
आत्मीय सींबोधनों से प्रारींभ होने वाले ये सन्देश
देश को भूलकर राष्ट्र-राष्ट्र कहते नह ीं थकते
राष्ट्र की मजबूती, राष्ट्र की गररमा
राष्ट्र की सींप्रभुता, राष्ट्रोत्थान जैसे ववशेषण वाची
अलींकरणों से से मींडित
ये आत्ममुग्धता और आत्मश्लाघा
क
े उदाहरण बनकर रहा जाते हैं

4. • मुझे क
ु छ समझ में नह ीं आता
मेर उलझन बढ़ती ह जाती है
कक देश क
े भीतर राष्ट्र है या राष्ट्र क
े भीतर देश
दोनों में कौन ककससे छोटा, बड़ा
सवोपरर या गौण है
इस वववाद में न पड़ें तो भी
दोनों एक ह हैं यह मानने का मन नह ीं करता
किर भी सुववधा क
े सलए मान ह लें तो
देश का पयााय राष्ट्र क
ै से हो गया
अथाात देश में सेंध लगाकर काबा राष्ट्र घुस आया
इसका पुख्ता कोई ना कोई कारण और इततहास
होगा ह , परा मेरा कवी मन आज ताका
उसको स्वीकार नह ीं कर पाया
और यदद इसका उलटा ह माना लें,
कक सबसे पुराना राष्ट्र ह है तो
हज़ारों सालों से कहााँ गायब हुआ पड़ा था

5. • राष्ट्रों की कहातनयाीं कौन सुनता-सुनाता है
अब आप ह बताइये
कक क्या कोई ठीक-ठीक बता सकता है कक कब
देश कक जगह राष्ट्र और राष्ट्र की जगह देश
कहा जा सकता है
हम देश का इततहास और भूगोल पढ़ते-पढ़ाते हैं
सना सैंताल स में हमारा देश आजाद हुआ था
मैं भारत देश का नागररक हूाँ
ऐसे सैकड़ों वाक्य पढ़ते पढ़ाते बीत गयी उम्र
जब-जब, जहाीं-जहाीं तक आाँखें ि
ै लाई
दूर दूर तक देश ह देश नजर आया
राष्ट्र कह ीं ददखा नह ीं
अपने-अपने घर-गााँव लौटते हैं लोग तो एक दूसरे से
यह कहते हैं कक वे अपने देश जा रहे हैं
• ....
• ऊपर कह गह बातों में से देशा की जगह राष्ट्र रखकर
कोई बोलकर तो देखे
राष्ट्र-राष्ट्र कहते-कहते जुबान न लिखिाने लगे
तो मेरा नाम बदल देना
वह ीं एक वाक्य में दस बार भी आये देश तो
मीठा ह लगेगा शहद की तरह

6. • 'राष्ट्र' ह सवोपरर है तो एक ह राष्ट्र क
े भीतर
कई राष्ट्रेयाताओीं की धारणा से आज भी
मुक्त नह ीं हुए आप
व्यथा गयी हजारों वषों की यात्रा आपकी
बबार तींत्र से प्रजातींत्र तक की
तो किर जाइए वापस अपने-अपने
राष्ट्रों में
लौट जाइए अींधेर खाइयों-गुिाओीं में
यह तो चाहते हैं आज भी
नए चेहरों वाले आपक
े पुराने ववस्तारवाद
माई-बाप
कभी जो नेशन का ससदधाींत लेकर आये थे और बढाते रहे
अपना साम्राज्य

7. • मैं किर कहता हूाँ की मैं ककसी शब्द और ककसी
नाम का अपमान नह ीं कर रहा हूाँ
क
े वल उस मानससकता की तरि सींक
े त कर रहा हूाँ
जो अपनी क
ु ल नता क
े दींभ में अपने ह देश में
अपने ह बचास्व का
अलग राष्ट्र हो जाना चाहती है
और धीरे धीरे सारे देश को
इकहरा राष्ट्र बनाना चाहती हैं
आज भी इक्कीसवीीं सद में
ज्ञान-ववज्ञान सब एक तरि रख कर ताक में
रक्त की शुदधता, पववत्रता की दुहाई देकर
भोले-भाले लोगों को जजन गुिाओीं में ले जाकर
जज़ींदा दिन कर देना चाहते हैं वे
इततहास गवाह है उन गुिाओीं से नकलने में
सददयााँ बीत जाती हैं

8. • यह मानससकता देश की बहुरींगी सींस्कृ तत को
पहले राष्ट्र की सींस्कृ तत कहकर इकहरा बनाती है
किर देश को एक तरि ि
ें क
साींस्कृ ततक-राष्ट्रवाद का नारा लगाती है
मैं ककसकी कसम खाऊ
ाँ
मुझे भाषा क
े ककसी शब्द से चचढ़ नह ीं है
चचढ़ है तो उस मानससकता से जो शब्दों को
मनुष्ट्य क
े ववरुदध खड़ा कर देती है
जो ससि
ा मनुष्ट्य को ददए गए नामों से पहचानती है
उनकी जाततयों से पहचानती है,
उनक
े रींगों से पहचानती है

9. • देश देशजों से बनता है
उनकी बहुरींगी छटा देशों का इन्रधनुष बनती है
जो सबको अपने-अपने आसमान में ददखाई देता है
कौन होगा जजसका मन इन्रधनुष देखकर
इन्रधनुष जैसा न हो जाए
• मान सलया
मान सलया कक अींग्रेजी क
े ‘नेशन’ शब्द क
े सलए दहींद में
किर से पैदा हुआ ‘राष्ट्र’
तो ‘नेशन’ शब्द में कौन से सुरखाब क
े पर लगे हैं
पजश्चमी दुतनया की लगभग सभी भाषाओीं में
ककतना प्यारा है ‘कन्टर ’ शब्द अथाात ‘देश’
कब और क
ै से दबोच सलया
‘कन्टर ’ जैसे आत्मीय शब्द को ‘नेशन’ ने
यह खोज का ववषय होना चादहए
जरूर उसक
े पीछे कोई बबारता तछपी होगी

10. What is a nation? - Ernest Renan
(1882)
• As thinkers as early as Renan were aware, nations are not ‘natural’
entities, and the instability of the nation is the inevitable
consequence of its nature as a social construction.
• This myth of nationhood, masked by ideology, perpetuates
nationalism, in which specific identifiers are employed to create
exclusive and homogeneous conceptions of national traditions.
• Such signifiers of homogeneity always fail to represent the
diversity of the actual ‘national’ community for which they
purport to speak, and, in practice, usually represent and
consolidate the interests of the dominant power groups within
any national formation.

11. • Constructions of the nation are thus potent sites of control and
domination within modern society.
• This is further emphasized by the fact that the myth of a ‘national
tradition’is employed not only to legitimize a general idea of a social
group (‘a people’) but also to construct a modern idea of a nation-
state, in which all the instrumentalities of state power (e.g. military
and police agencies, judiciaries, religious hierarchies, educational
systems and political assemblies or organizations) are subsumed
and legitimized as the ‘natural’ expressions of a unified national
history and culture.
Construction of Nation and Nation-state

12. Construction of Nation and Nation-state
•The confusion of the idea of the nation with the
practice and power of the nation-state makes
nationalism one of the most powerful forces in
contemporary society.
•It also makes it an extremely contentious site, on
which ideas of self-determination and freedom,
of identity and unity collide with ideas of
suppression and force, of domination and
exclusion.

13. Timothy Brennan: Rise of nationalism as
ideology from European Imperialism
• Even though [nationalism] as an ideology . . . came out of the
imperialist countries, these countries were not able to formulate
their own national aspirations until the age of exploration.
• The markets made possible by European imperial penetration
motivated the construction of the nation-state at home.
• European nationalism was motivated by what Europe was doing
in its far-flung dominions. The ‘national idea’, in other words,
flourished in the soil of foreign conquest. (Bhabha 1990: 59)

14. Sedition Law Supreme Court Hearing Update
(15 July 2021)
• The plea, filed by Major General S G Vombatkere (Retd) submitted that
Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with the offence of
sedition, is wholly unconstitutional and should be “unequivocally and
unambiguously struck down".
• "Dispute is it is a colonial law and was used by British and suppress freedoms
and used against Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Is this law still
needed after 75 years of independence?" Chief Justice of India N V
Ramana asked Attorney General KK Venugopal.

15. • The role of limited and biased versions of the past
masquerading as national tradition has been attacked by
many groups, including those who see these ‘national
traditions’ as limited in various ways by gender, religion or
ethnicity.
• In practice it is hard to see how the nation can cease to be
employed as a definitive political entity within which these
internal heterogeneities and differences can be resolved.
• Perhaps the issue is not whether we have nations but what
kinds of nations we have, whether, that is, they insist on an
exclusionary myth of national unity based in some
abstraction such as race, religion or ethnic exclusivity, or
they embrace plurality and multiculturalism (Hybridity).

16. Homi K. Bhabha: ‘Introduction:
Narrating the Nation’ (Nation
and Narration)
• Nation – the modern Janus: the uneven development of capitalism inscribes
both progression and regression, political rationality and irrationality in the
very genetic code of the nation – it is by nature, ambivalent.
• Nation is narrated in ‘terror of the space or race of the Other; the comfort
of social belonging, the hidden injuries of class, the customs of taste, the
powers of political affiliation; the sense of social order, the sensibility of
sexuality; the blindness of bureaucracy, the strait insight of institutions;
the quality of justice, the commonsense of injustice; the langue of the law
and the parole of the people’.

17. Homi K. Bhabha: ‘Introduction: Narrating the Nation’ (Nation
and Narration)
• It is to explore the Janus-faced ambivalence of language itself in the
construction of the Janus-faced discourse of the nation.
• Nation is an agency of ambivalent narration that holds ‘culture’ at its
most productive position, as a force for ‘subordination, fracturing,
diffusing, reproducing as much as producing, creating, forcing and
guiding’.

18. Homi K. Bhabha: ‘Introduction: Narrating the Nation’ (Nation and
Narration)
• The ambivalent, antagonistic perspective of nation as narration will
establish the cultural boundaries of the nation so that they may be
acknowledged as ‘containing’ thresholds of meaning that must be
crossed, erased and translated in the process of cultural production.
• What kind of cultural space is the nation with its transgressive
boundaries and its interruptive’ interiority?

19. Hybridity
• One of the most widely employed and most disputed terms in
postcolonial theory, hybridity commonly refers to the creation of new
transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization.
As used in horticulture, the term refers to the cross-breeding of two
species by grafting or cross-pollination to form a third,‘hybrid’species.
Hybridization takes many forms:linguistic,cultural,political,racial,etc.
Linguistic examples include pidgin and creole languages, and these
echo the foundational use of the term by the linguist and cultural
theorist Mikhail Bakhtin,who used it to suggest the disruptive and
transfiguring power of multivocal language situations and, by
extension, of multivocal narratives.

20. Homi K Bhabha
• The term ‘hybridity’ has been most recently associated with the work of
Homi K. Bhabha, whose analysis of colonizer/colonized relations stresses
their interdependence and the mutual construction of their subjectivities
(see mimicry and ambivalence).
• Bhabha contends that all cultural statements and systems are constructed
in a space that he calls the ‘Third Space of enunciation’(1994:37).
• Cultural identity always emerges in this contradictory and ambivalent
space, which for Bhabha makes the claim to a hierarchical ‘purity’ of
cultures untenable.
• For him, the recognition of this ambivalent space of cultural identity may
help us to overcome the exoticism of cultural diversity in favour of the
recognition of an empowering hybridity within which cultural difference
may operate.

21. •Hybridity has frequently been used in post-colonial
discourse to mean simply cross-cultural ‘exchange’.
•This use of the term has been widely criticized, since
it usually implies negating and neglecting the
imbalance and inequality of the power relations it
references.
•By stressing the transformative cultural, linguistic
and political impacts on both the colonized and the
colonizer,it has been regarded as replicating
assimilationist policies by masking or
‘whitewashing’cultural differences.

22. Hybridity and Postcoloniality: Formal, Social, and Historical Innovations in Salman
Rushdie’ s Midnight’s Children - Sarah Habib Bounse
• Midnight’s Children’s importance and significance as a postcolonial text arises
from the novel’s ability to intertwine three major themes:
• the creation and telling of history,
• the creation and telling of a nation’s and an individual’s identity, and
• the creation and telling of stories.
• Within these three connected themes, the novel explores the problems of
postcoloniality, depicted in the novel as the difficulties in assigning one’s point
of personal or national origin, the problems in determining one’s personal
and national history, and the impossibility of finding and achieving personal
and national “authentic” identity. The novel expresses these themes of the
creation and telling of history, identity, and stories, while simultaneously
introducing the problems of postcolonial identity, through connected and
dependent forms of hybridity.