Post colonial review of Midnight's Children, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Black Prince
The narratives centered around the freedom struggle of a nation are often full of a kind of euphoria about the sacrifices made during that struggle. However, literary writers try to highlight those meta narratives which are often missed out in these larger narratives of freedom struggle. For a post colonial critic therefore such literary texts are a matter of interest. The text or movie I will be referring to for my purpose of explaining these points, is Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children.
Post colonialism also looks at how the generalizations and stereotypes regarding a particular identity and or a nation result in nothing but distrust and calamity for the human race. These generalizations are normalized in the minds of people in order to sustain a particular power structure and therefore are not born out of innocence. In this case imperialism and colonization are the two major power structures, wherein the colonizer, builds a picture or ideology about the colonized and circulates it among people to sustain its power upon the same. The idea of Orientalism is one such way sustaining power. To highlight this idea through the post colonial lens is central to two movies or texts, i.e The Black Prince and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Midnight's Children:
Published in 1981, Salman Rushdie's critically acclaimed novel was adapted into a movie by Deepa Mehta in collaboration with the author himself who wrote the screen play, and released in 2012. Being a post colonial critic himself, Rushdie uses the ideas such as hybridity of cultures and relationships in his novel and even in the movie. The screen play of the movie remains, to a great extent, faithful to the plot of the novel. The novel traces the family-history of its protagonist as well as narrator, Saleem Sinai. The Midnight's Children of the title is the name given to the 1001 children born at the stroke of midnight hour of 15th August 1947, i.e the day of India's independence.This was was also the day of partition of the country into India and Pakistan. For Rushdie, therefore, the partition of the nation seems of more interest than the day of independence. Thus, this text itself in a way becomes an example of post colonial focus on meta narratives. Another important factor about the novel is its use of Magic Realism. All the 1001 children are imbued with magical powers ranging from telepathy to exceptional physical strength.
Rushdie in his Imaginary Homelands, a non-fictional collection of essays central to post colonial criticism explains certain points through the example of Midnight's Children. He writes,"It may be that when the Indian writer who writes from outside India tries to reflect that world, he is obliged to deal in broken mirrors, some of whose fragments have been irretrievably lost". This he explains through the example of Saleem and how as the narrator of Rushdie's work, he suspects his narration, and how his nostalgia is so full of uncertainty confusion.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist:
Published in 2007, this novel by Mohsin Hamid is an interesting study of the Oriental arguments by Edward Said. Set in the post 9/11 era the novel traces how the protagonist is held up by the state apparatuses as a suspect for the attack, just because he is a Muslim and a Pakistani. The novel was adapted into a political thriller by Mira Nair. To read about the movie click here
The movie also explores the psychological aspects of post colonial identities by the portrayal of the relationship of Changez Khan and Erica, thereby delineating how those orientalist generalizations affect relationships between those identities to such an extent that it results in betrayal on the part of the fundamentalist.
Post colonialism also looks at how the generalizations and stereotypes regarding a particular identity and or a nation result in nothing but distrust and calamity for the human race. These generalizations are normalized in the minds of people in order to sustain a particular power structure and therefore are not born out of innocence. In this case imperialism and colonization are the two major power structures, wherein the colonizer, builds a picture or ideology about the colonized and circulates it among people to sustain its power upon the same. The idea of Orientalism is one such way sustaining power. To highlight this idea through the post colonial lens is central to two movies or texts, i.e The Black Prince and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Midnight's Children:
Published in 1981, Salman Rushdie's critically acclaimed novel was adapted into a movie by Deepa Mehta in collaboration with the author himself who wrote the screen play, and released in 2012. Being a post colonial critic himself, Rushdie uses the ideas such as hybridity of cultures and relationships in his novel and even in the movie. The screen play of the movie remains, to a great extent, faithful to the plot of the novel. The novel traces the family-history of its protagonist as well as narrator, Saleem Sinai. The Midnight's Children of the title is the name given to the 1001 children born at the stroke of midnight hour of 15th August 1947, i.e the day of India's independence.This was was also the day of partition of the country into India and Pakistan. For Rushdie, therefore, the partition of the nation seems of more interest than the day of independence. Thus, this text itself in a way becomes an example of post colonial focus on meta narratives. Another important factor about the novel is its use of Magic Realism. All the 1001 children are imbued with magical powers ranging from telepathy to exceptional physical strength.
Rushdie in his Imaginary Homelands, a non-fictional collection of essays central to post colonial criticism explains certain points through the example of Midnight's Children. He writes,"It may be that when the Indian writer who writes from outside India tries to reflect that world, he is obliged to deal in broken mirrors, some of whose fragments have been irretrievably lost". This he explains through the example of Saleem and how as the narrator of Rushdie's work, he suspects his narration, and how his nostalgia is so full of uncertainty confusion.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist:
Published in 2007, this novel by Mohsin Hamid is an interesting study of the Oriental arguments by Edward Said. Set in the post 9/11 era the novel traces how the protagonist is held up by the state apparatuses as a suspect for the attack, just because he is a Muslim and a Pakistani. The novel was adapted into a political thriller by Mira Nair. To read about the movie click here
The movie also explores the psychological aspects of post colonial identities by the portrayal of the relationship of Changez Khan and Erica, thereby delineating how those orientalist generalizations affect relationships between those identities to such an extent that it results in betrayal on the part of the fundamentalist.
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