“ I don’t think there is a need for an entity like God in my life.”

Subtitle

Salman Rushdie 1947-

Biography

▪ Born: June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India

▪ Grew up in a Muslim household

▪ well-educated parents. –His father was a Cambridge-educated lawyer turned

businessmen and his mother was a teacher.

▪ Educated at:– Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, –1961 King’s College, Cambridge.

▪ 1964 moved with his family from Bombay to Pakistan

Books Written:

▪ 1975: Grimus

▪ 1980: Midnight's Children

▪ 1987: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey

▪ 1983: Shame

▪ 1989: The Satanic Verses

▪ 1990: Haroun and the Sea of Stories

▪ 1991: Imaginary homelands

▪ 1994: East, West

▪ 1995: The Moor's Last Sigh

▪ 1999: The Ground Beneath her Feet

Salman’s Major themes for plots

▪ India’s National Identity vs. British colonization Indian diaspora

▪ His definition of migrant identity and the themes of Indian diaspora

▪ Colonialism and Gender/Power Struggle

Salman’s Writing Styles

▪ known for melding different cultures and traditions in his writing

▪ celebrates the postcolonial subject

▪ questions conventional views on religion, politics, and social forms.

▪ Magic Realism: – a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary

and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner.

▪ His work often deals with the confusion and misunderstandings between 2 cultures, especially the east vs. the west.

▪ Rushdie’s love of English is apparent in his wordplay and his fantastic use of language which shaped the course of Indian literature in English.

Has Expressed need to :

▪ “move beyond tradition”

▪ Muslim Reformation : “bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age”

▪ Combat jihadist ideologues/challenge traditionalists– [throw] open the windows to let in much needed fresh

air.

▪ Study religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. – “Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance”– “open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.” .

Mid Night Children Plot :

▪ Plot built around kashmir: Exactly at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, two boys are born in a Bombay hospital, where they are switched by a nurse. Around that time, a thousand children were born and they are the “midnight children.”

Aziz + Naseem

Saleem

Hindu woman+ British colonialist

Muslim couple(Mumtaz+ Ahmed) Shiva

The Sanatic Verses :

▪ The Satanic Verses was a novel published by Rushdie in 1988.

▪ The book is controversial for its depiction of Muhammad and some verses in the Koran.

▪ When Rushdie refused to apologize, Tension

Fuelled around the Globe.

Result:

▪ The novel was BANNED in India 9

days after it was published.

▪ The book was BURNED at organized

demonstrations in India, UK, and

Muslim countries.

▪ The book was so controversial and

offensive to Muslims that Iran’s

Spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

called for his execution in a Fatwa.

Haroun & the Sea of Stories

• Published in 1990, it was the first book published after the Fatwa.

• Rushdie dedicated the book to his son.

• The novel is about a famous storyteller who all of a sudden loses his ability to weave and tell tales.

• The son of the storyteller makes a fantastic, adventurous journey to save his father and to save stories.

• Haroun and the Sea of Stories deals with the danger of storytelling, though. And this is a concept that Rushdie knows better than most.

Unquestionably Talented Writer

▪ Won Booker prize in 1981f or Midnight’s Children

▪ 1981: Received Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction for Midnight’s Children

▪ 1981: Received literary award from English Speaking Union for Midnight’s Children

▪ 1982: Received James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Midnight’s Children

Personality Resembling Farasi poet Ghalib

( excerpts taken from late Jagdish Ghimire Master piece )