Multiculturalism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Multiculturalism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

by; Dr. Rajesh Trivedi

Associate Professor

Gyan Ganga College of Technology 

Jabalpur.

Ms Namrata Soni

Assistant Professor

Gyan Ganga College of Technology

Jabalpur.

Multiculturalism is a widely used term in the literary criticism of post colonial literature. The true implication of the terms have always been subjected to debate which makes it difficult for any critic to arrive at an undisputed meaning and implication of the term so widely used in the modern literary criticism. The first part of the article aims at locating the meaning and experience inherent in the very terms called multiculturalism. The term consists of two words; ‘multi’ and ‘culture’ and to arrive at the true implication of the terms we need a detailed discussion on what is meant by culture and consequently by multiculturalism.   

The word, culture owes its birth to the Latin word, cultura which comes from colere, which means ‘to cultivate’. There are a number of definitions of culture with multiple implications and ideas. Different literary, sociological and anthropological studies define culture in different ways. The study of culture includes behaviors, attitudes, the ways of life, traditions, arts ideals and a number of factors that determine man’s attitude towards life and society. On one had it includes the day to day behavior of an individual and on the other hand it also involves the religious faiths and beliefs, the rituals and traditions, the use of language, codes of conduct etc. it also involves art, architecture, education, social and personal etiquettes and manners. Overall it can be said that the term culture makes the landmark for various points of enlightenment of the vast process called civilization that begins at some unknown point in the past and will go up to some unknown point of the future. It is the essence of human existence realized in form of the collective behavior of man in different units of habitation such as society, nation, continent etc. It is a process which is marked by various defining aspects of human existence such as philosophy of life, mores, ideals practiced collectively in a society or nation. Time plays an important role in determining the cultural identity of a society or nation. The growth of various integrates aspects of human life grow simultaneously and shape and reshape its cultural identity. It can thus be easily said that culture is the most respectable aspect of the identity of any nation of society. The views of V.K. Gogak invite our attention. He elaborating the idea of the culture say;s

Culture, therefore, consists in man’s harmonious and balanced cultivation of all the faculties in man; intellect and emotion, intuition and sense, perception, flesh as well as spirit.  (Gokak03)

Gokak’s views aptly justify the complexity of the very idea behind the concept of culture and, at the same there is obvious denial to the fact that no single association suffices in rendering a complete and holistic idea of culture. He further elaborates the concept and says;

This brings us to the consideration of an adequate formula for defining the cultured man. Culture implies an integrated personality and neither time nor eternity can be left out. The cultured man reconciles the universal with the particular; and the claims of time with the claims of eternity. (Gokak05)

Eliot also elaborates the nature of manifestation of culture in terms of paradox. He includes a number of patterns of seemingly paradoxical behavior in expounding upon the very idea of culture. He lays stress on the role of unconscious in shaping and reshaping cultural attributes and say; 

‘Culture can never be wholly conscious-there is always more to than we are conscious of it; and it cannot be planned because it is also the unconscious background of all out planning including the unconscious assumptions upon which we conduct the whole of our lives. (Eliot94)

The views of Gokak and Eliot ratify the fact that culture is a complex idea inclusive of a number of paradoxes that constitute the whole spectrum of human existence at a given point of time locatable at a definite point of space. 

At present, the term culture is used widely in many ways like corporate culture, popular culture etc. These subdivisions of the term, convey the nature and behavior of man in a limited frame. It may be of some work place, or a group of specific behavior.  Popular culture generally refers of the behavior and attitude of the common persons especially the young lot. Corporate Culture refers to the nature of interaction and work culture in a corporate set up. There are divisions and subdivisions even on the religious or ethnic grounds. The prominence of Hindu culture, Islamic culture and Christian culture is common in the cultural study of India. These various subdivisions of culture give birth to the concept of multiculturalism. The origin of the concept can be traced back to the possibility peaceful and equitable coexistence of many diverse groups having unique cultural and ethnic identity. The idea of multiculturalism has acquired tremendous significance in the Post colonial India. which is unequivocally the result of the rapid unification of various aspects of human society. The commingling of ethnic groups took place in the country as a result of economic development in the country. The migration taking place due to the expansion of public sectors and the proliferation of private sectors is another important factor responsible for the growth of multiculturalism in Indian society. The political processes took new shapes and form that further encourages the process of coming together of various sections of the society. The rise of secularism is the most important of all factors that led to the minimization of cultural distinctions amongst various sections of the society. Many political parties adopted secularism as the main agenda in the electoral manifestoes. Media also contributed significantly to the rise of secularism. Gokak’s views capture the attention again. He commenting on the birth of the new culture rightly says; 

The factors which foment social differences in India are now being opposed. Each religious has been assured proper protection while no religion can afford to be aggressive. Each language can grow to its full stature on the lines determined by its own genius. But no single language can strangle of overwhelm another. The liquidation of the zamindari and of the feudal order of princes and the shift of emphasis with regard to government servant, on their word as servants of the public as distinguished from their position as bureaucrats are sure to take us a long way on the road to equality and liberty. The real challenge to our democracy today is casteism and communalism. But with the rapid spread of education, this too may be discarded shibboleth.(Gokak13)

Gokak justly summarizes the cultural developments that took place in India especially during the second half of the century. The comingling of religious faiths and beliefs, the death of the monster of caste based and language based distinctions and the crumbling of feudal order are some of the factors that gave birth to a new culture out of the old existing cultural order.  Multiculturalism, in Indian context, may be interpreted chiefly in term of amalgamation of many cultures where none dominates the other. It can also be summed up as recognition to the diversity by means of codification that contributes to the equality of all cultures within one culture, one point of space. The post Independence India witnessed tremendous changes in the country along socio- political and economical dimensions. The participation of the minorities in the political processes suddenly acquired great impetus. The expansion of education and the rise of corporate set ups further minimized the cultural distinction between the majority and the minorities. The sharing of rituals and participation in the festivals of the people belonging to alien cultures became a common finding in the country. The interpenetration of the cultures led to the homogenization of various cultures and consequently the birth of a new culture that was the result of this commingling of faiths and beliefs and the sharing of the festivities. 

A study of Rushdie’s mind and art makes us realize that he is essentially a pluralist and think in terms of the identity with plural implications of being an Indian. His views on politics ratify his pluralism which gave birth to the multiculturalism in his novels specially Midnight’s Children. His admiration of Nehru is a known phenomenon. A close scrutiny of the causes responsible for the his fondness for Nehru confirms his adherence to pluralist philosophy of society and politics. Analyzing Nehru/ Gandhi dynasty, he says that Nehruvian era to be the ‘noblest part of it. Indira Gandhi to him is a ‘figure of decline’, while Sanjay Gandhi is ‘further debasement of currency.’ (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 383) Nehru thus is an embodiment of Rushdie’s political ideals. The views of  Orest Martyshin capture out attention. He elaborating on Nehru’s success as a chief architect of Indian political structure, points out that Nehru ‘didn’t succumb to the sentiment of the mob of that of some of his colleagues in the government, who demanded revenge and massacre of the Muslims.’ Martyshin further observes that Nehru, on the other hand ‘ tried to convince the Muslims that they were not foreigners in India,’ and he was never tired of repeating that while he was the Prime Minister, India would never become a Hindu state.’ Nehru, according to Martyshin, always came out with the idea of ‘egalitarian society.’ (Martyshin176) It is noticeable that this idea of egalitarian society draws a close parallel with Salman Rudhdie’s political ideal which he located in Nehru and his political philosophy. The comparison becomes more clear after a close examination with Rushdie’s views on Nehru. He says;

It was therefore of great value and importance that the Congress party under Nehru based its electoral appeal firmly on safeguarding the rights of minorities. It forged a unique electoral coalition between India’s Muslims, Harijans and Brahmin Hindus- the only large nation wide groupings- and for a long time seemed invincible as a result. (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 385)

Religion to Rushdie has always been parasitical to politics. He talks about the towering images of the spiritual personalities of Jesus Christ and Ayatollah Khomeini and proves the point. In his famous essay- “In God We Trust,’ he discusses, at length his peculiar relationship between politics and religion. He alludes to the findings of the great historian Hyam Maccoby and says that crucifixion was at the time of Christ, a penalty reserved exclusively for the persons found guilty of political-not theological subversion.’ He further says that Christ died as a political revolutionary and but was largely depoliticized and wrapped in mysteries by Paul.’  (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 381) He also takes the example of and claims that the power of the towering figure of Khomeini was not purely the product of his ‘holiness’ or ‘feat.’ He takes Khomeini to be an embodiment of the idea of Iranian nation and says that ‘Shah of Iran Raza Palahavi ‘never dared to move as ruthlessly against the mosque, against the clergy as he did against his secular enemies. He further says that the polarization of hostilities and atrocities, in turn, resulted into the ‘gravitation’ of the ‘opposition’ to the theologians resulting into a ‘power vacuum’. He concludes that ‘Khomeini stepped into it with massive authority.’ (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 383)

The above quoted discussion on the religious and political views of Rushdie makes it clear that he takes religion to be of secondary importance in comparison to the politics. And his views on various stalwarts of Indian political process makes it clear that he is essentially a pluralist without any bias towards religion. Rushdie’s lifestyle has also been supportive of the same idea of pluralism. The religious fanaticism played no part in his life. He recollects; 

Although I come from a Muslim family background, I was never brought up as a believer, and was raised in  the atmosphere of what is broadly known as secular humanism. (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 430)

He also recollects that ‘both’ his ‘parents were believers but neither was insistent of doctrinaire. Remembering Eid he says; 

Two or three times a year, at the big Eid festival, I would wake up to find new to find new clothes at the foot of my bed, dress and go with my father to the great prayer maidan outside the Friday Mosque in Bombay, and rise and fall with the multitude mumbling my way through the uncomprehended Arabic much as Catholic children do –or used to do- with Latin. The rest of the year religion took the back seat. I had a Christian ayah (Nanny) for whom, at Christmas, we would put up a tree and sing carols about baby Jesus without feeling in the least ill-at-ease. My friends were Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and none of this struck me as being particularly important.  (Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands 377-378)

The narrator of the novel Saleem Sinai recreates the same milieu of multicultural implications in the Midnight’s Children when he recollects; 

There were people among whom I spent my childhood; Mr Homy Catrack, film maker and race horse owner, with his idiot daughter Toxy who had to be locked up with her nurse, Bi Appah, the most fearsome woman I ever knew; also the Ibrahims in Sana Souci, old man Ibrahim. Ibrahim with his goatee and sisal, his sons Ismail and Ishaq, and Ismail’s tiny flustery hapless wife Nussie, whom we always called Nussia- the – duck on account of her wedding gait, and in whose womb my friend Sony was growing, even now, getting closer and closer to his misadventure with a pair of gynecological forceps.  (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 111-112)

It becomes clear from a brief reference to the biographical facts of Rushdie that he was born and brought in the milieu where he inhaled the air of plural faiths and beliefs and practiced a plural philosophy; the philosophy that denies every kind of fanaticism and pays stress of natural equality of all faiths without being skewed towards any faith. 

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children published in 1981 is a landmark in the history of Indian English novel. The novel, rightly taken to the novel of memory, is a pronounced revelation of Rushdie’s political idealism realized in terms of relationship between history and individual. He candidly asserts that ‘everything in both the books (Midnight’s Children and Shame) has had much to do with the politics and the relationship between individual and history.’ (Rushdie, Gentleman, 57) The with all vastness of the narrative spread along the time and space aptly represents the political process responsible for the destiny of a common man. The narrator Saleem Sinai, rightly confesses that he has been ‘mysteriously handcuffed to history'  and  his ‘destinies have been ‘indissolubly chained to those of his country.’ (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children,05), and it is this interdependence of history and human fate that the protagonist exclaims; Why, alone of all the five hundred million, should I have to bear the burden of history? (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 457),  it is interesting to note that the narrative is spread along a wide span of the time and space covering almost whole of the twentieth century with action being reshuffled at various points of space from Kashmir, Agra, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Bengal and Southern part of India. A large part of the narrative is centered on Bombay and Delhi also. The realization of the action of novel along such a vast span of time and space makes it obligatory for the narrative to include the elements of multiculturalism. The action which is a perpetual escape, begins with Kashmir with seemingly uniform culture dominated by Muslim ethics. But in the backdrop of Muslim background, the narrator fuses the elements of multiculturalism. The landscape with primitive beauty of Kashmir is delineated with the ‘temple of Sankara Acharya, a little black blister on a khaki hill’ that ‘dominated the streets and lakes of Srinagar.’ (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 05) The boatman Tai, who ‘has seen the mountains being born,’ is another very important character that foretells the advent of multicultural elements in the narrative. ‘I saw that Isa,’ he claims, ‘that Christ when he came to Kashmir, and predicts the prominence of multicultural elements in the narrative that acquire shape and form in the coming phases of the narrative. The death of Tai ‘who was infuriated by India and Pakistan’s struggle over the valley,’ is strongly supportive of the multiculturalism which at this phase of the narrative can be taken to be biculturalism. Tai ‘walked to Chhamb with the express purpose of standing between the opposing forces and giving them a piece of his mind.’ (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 36) 

It is obvious that the action of the novel in the first part of the narrative is set in the backdrop of the natural beauty of Kashmir and the Dr. Adam Aziz is the first protagonist of the novel who renders shape and form to the action of the novel. The first major event of the novel is the gradual fragmentation by making hole in the perforated sheet that is used as veil to cover the Muslim girl. The making of hole for diagnosing the ailments of the Naseem, the daughter of the landlord. The perforated sheet is delineated with a number of metaphorical implications. On one hand, it symbolically represents the fragmented vision of the author and on the other hand, it serves the purpose of parody which in one of the most important aspect of the technique of narration of Salman Rushdie in all his novels. The symbol of perforated sheet aptly represents the purdah system of Muslims to parody; 

So gradually Doctor Aziz came to have a picture of Naseem in his mind, a badly fitting collage of her severally inspected parts. This phantom of partitioned woman began tom haunt him and not only in his dreams. (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 23)

It is further noticeable that the gradual perforation of the sheet eventually leads to the reconciliation of the landlord. ‘The story of the perforated sheet got out too,’ the narrator tells Padma, and the ‘lady wrestlers were evidently less discrete than they looked.’ It is noticeable that the dissolution of the myth is further ratified when the narrator says that ‘women giggled behind their palms…’(Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 30) The symbol of perforated sheet invites another interpretation from the point of view of multiculturalism. The introduction of the perforated sheet structures the milieu of unicultural milieu in the introductory part of the novel and through the element of parody, Rushdie makes clear that a single culture structuring the background for the novel like this ceases to suffice and the reconciliation of the landlord confirms the invasion of multicultural elements in the narrative. The image of the perforated sheet is recreated with Jamila Singer. The image however serves the same purpose but with obvious change in the nature and function of parody;

But when Jamila singer, concealed within a gold burqa arrived at the palace, Mutassim, the handsome-who owing to his foreign travels had never heard the rumors of his disfigurement-became obsessed with the idea of seeing her face; he fell hand-over heal with the glimpses of her demure eyes he saw through her perforated sheet. (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 383)

The symbol of the perforated sheet is recreated but with the piercing figurative implication as the symbol now is set in the fanatic society of Pakistan. The vulgarization touches the peak when Saleem and Jamila realize that ‘they were not truly brother and sister’ and the ‘blood in his veins was not the blood in hers.’ (Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, 387)

The elements of multiculturalism acquire more space in the narrative with the Ahmad Sinai’s escape to the Bombay; the city that makes the cultural metaphor of Indian. The escape of the protagonists from Kashmir to Agra and then to Bombay, gradually intensify the scope and possibility of multiculturalism in the novel. Ahmad Sinai ignores Alia’s relationship with Nadir Khan and marries her. ‘Time for a fresh start,’ Ahmed tells Alia, ‘throw Mumtaz and Nadir Khan out of the window.’(Rushdie. Midnight’s Children70) The ‘fresh start’ indicated by the protagonist father refers to the making of the new world which can aptly be defined in terms of synthesis of many cultures. The birth of the protagonist itself is a pronounced testimony of multiculturalism. He is son o Wee Willie Winkie and his wife Vanita whose actual father is Mr. Methwold. He is exchanged with the child of Ahmed and Amina Sinai by the midwife Marry Pereira to please her communist lover Joseph. Thus the birth of the protagonist itself marks the beginning of the multicultural identity of the protagonist. The identity crisis of the protagonist which he shares with the author is delineated in natural correlation with the idea of multiculturalism. There is a continuous fragmentation of the identity of the protagonist and this fragmentation is realized in the backdrop of multicultural locale of the action. 

                       

Works Cited

Eliot,T.S  After Strange Gods. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.  

Eliot, T.S. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. 1948; London; Faber and Faber.

Gokak, V.K.  India and World Culture. 1972; New Delhi: Sahitya Academy,  

Martyshin, Orest. Jawahar Lal Nehru and His Political Views. 1981; Mascow; Progress Publishers, 1989.

Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. 1980; New Delhi; Avon Books, 1982.

Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. London; Granta Books, 1991.

Art as Technique in Salman Rusdhie's The Moor's Last Sight

Art as Technique in Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh

by; Dr. Rajesh Trivedi

Associate Professor

Gyan Ganga College of Technology 

Jabalpur.

Ms Namrata Soni

Assistant Professor

Gyan Ganga College of Technology

Jabalpur.

Modern paintings have always been the most conspicuous as well as inseparably integrated aspect of the technique of narrations of the novels of Salman Rushdie. Many critics are of the view that the painterly imagination crept in the narrative technique of Rushdie for the first time in his novel The Moor’s Last Sigh, (1995), however, the fact cannot be denied that since his first novel- Grimus, (1975) the masterpieces of the painters of the first half of the century have been contributing significantly to the narratives in delineating the meaning and experience inherent therein. It is undisputable that the paintings come out with great aesthetic significance in The Moor’s Last Sigh for the obvious reason that one of the major characters of the novel is a renowned painter, thus, the author has more specific opportunity to use paintings in the narrative.

The influence of the surrealist masters like Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall is more than conspicuous in the caste of the narrative in his first novel, Grimus, which for the obvious reasons failed to invite sufficient critical attention in the time of its publication, yet, the fact stands beyond all questions that the novels sows the seeds of the technical predilections of Salman Rushdie that grow into a blooming garden in all his succeeding novels. The use of modern paintings is one such element that makes the first spark in Grimus and continues to grow in his better known novels. Salvador Dali is undoubtedly the most conspicuous influence in shaping the narrative of the first novel of the master. The fictional world of Grimus presents before us the primordial conflict between the time bound and the timeless which has always been on the focus of the surrealist masters of the first half of the twentieth century. The opening paragraph of the novel reminds us of the famous painting of Salvador Dali titled The Persistence of Memory (1931) which brings into attention the paradoxical images of the timeless and the time bound. The eternal antithesis between the timeless and time bound becomes clearer in Dali’s elaboration of the limp watches in the painting. ‘Like fillets of sole,’ he comments, ‘they are destined to be swallowed by the sharks of time.’ (quoted by Januszczak,152) it is another irnoical resemblance between Rushdie and Dali that the same painting when remade after about a long gap to two decades, with a new title. Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, (1954) reminds us of the last paragraph of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

The delineation of the Flapping Eagle, the protagonist of the novel owes much to the surrealist fantasy of Marc Chagall. Grimus, frequently reminds us of the images and symbols used by Marc Chagall. The use of the ornithological images and symbols is one common aspect of the technique used by these two great masters working on different species of expression.  The protagonist is given the name of Eagle which further ratifies the ornithological inclinations of the author in portraying the character of Flapping Eagle.  Paris through the Window (1913) is one of the great works of Chagall which shares the aesthetic domain with Grimus. The painting unifies a cat with human figure and in the perspective, depicts a flying man. The Juggler (1943) is another painting which capitalizes the form and function of ornithological images in order to delineate the complex idea of human predicaments. Shearer West, commenting on this painting of Chagall, points out that Chagall’s Juggler is both, ‘an acrobat and a rooster standing in a ring which contains Russian village.’ It becomes clear that there is re echo of Chagall’s The Juggler in Rushdie’s Grimus. Rushdie’s debt to Chagall becomes more obvious when he delineates Flapping Eagle on a donkey;

The Griibbs’ donkey, perhaps the most obedient, least mulish donkey that ever was, jogged demurely along the cobble way with a divided Flapping Eagle upon its back. (Rushdie, Grimus157))

The description of Flapping Eagle which makes use of Freudian discoveries of human subconscious, reminds us of The Dream (1927), the famous work of Marc Chagall.  The Dream (1927) having a semi nude woman figure, on the back of a donkey, reflecting isolation and detachment.

Rushdie’s second and third novels- Midnight’s Children (1980) and Shame (1983) are more overtly political novels dealing chiefly with the socio- political realities of the Indian subcontinent. The discrepancies prevailing in the socio-political set ups of India and Pakistan constitute the axis of the dynamics of the narrative in these novels. These two masterpieces draw a very close parallel with Picasso’s Guernica (1937) and other canvasses painted during the late thirties in the mood of fear, frustration and anger. Guernica is an immediate reaction to news of destruction of the small town Guernica near Madrid as a result of the bombardment by the fascist forces. There is a complex array of symbols – a bull, a horse, a distorted image of the sun, crying women and their butchered children and a lamp. These symbols, in complementation with one another, excite the feeling of rage, indignation, and impotent revolt. The comparison is however questionable on the ground that  the Picasso’s Guernica is the master’s response to a single event and Midnight’s Children and Shame (1983) are Rushdie’s response to the political processes of Indian and Pakistan, yet the fact cannot be denied that Guernica foretells a gory inhuman future of mankind. ‘It constitutes,’ says Hans LC Jaffe, ‘a warning to mankind of unleashing the forces of darkness.’ (Jaffe37) The most obvious comparison between the works of Picasso and Rushdie is that Guernica, on one hand and Midnight’s Children and Shame on the other hand, are passionate and sentimental reactions to the loss of human values. Herbert Read discussing the famous statement of Picasso that the painting is ‘an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy,’ further elaborates the implications of Picasso that ‘one must fight everything that threatens the freedom of imagination.’ (Read160) It is obvious that the two creators had similar intentions and they created with similar passion and conviction. 

The surrealist fantasy used by Rushdie in delineating the political characters in Midnight’s Children and Shame owe their genesis to the surrealist masterpieces of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. The Widow is delineated with hallucination and monstrousness of surrealist intensity;

Now one by one the children mmff are stifled quite the Widow’s hand is lifting one by one the children green their blood is black unloosed by cutting fingernails it splashes black on walls (of green) as one by one the curling hand lifts the children high as the sky the sky is black there are no stars the Widow laughs her tongue is green but see her teeth are black. (Rushdie, Midnight’s Children249)

The character of Sufiya Zinobia is delineated through a process of surrealist fantasy. The complete perception of the character comes only if we place the character in the context of the two masterpieces of Salvador Dali – Premonition of Civil War (1936) and The Young Virgin Auto Sodomized By Her Own Chastity (1954), and Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman (1937).  The three masterpieces in complementation with one another ratify and consolidate the meaning and experience inherent in the character of Sufiya Zinobiya. The Premonition of Civil War shows a beast distorting a woman by holding her breast. The distortion of the woman by the beast, draws a close metaphorical parallel with the essentials of the character of Sufiya Zinobiya delineated with tremendous hallucination and futurism. The second Dalinean masterpiece, The Young Virgin Auto Sodomized By Her Own Chastity portrays the idea of the suppression of libidos that recolor the character with new metaphorical implications that acquire graver meaning and significance in the social context of the locale of the action. Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman was painted during the World War II and the woman in the painting comes out with strong metaphorical suggestions of the suppression of  rage and desires with futuristic implications.

Rushdie’s fourth novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1991), is the work done during the exile that was an aftermath of the religious decree issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. The two characters Iff and Butt of the novel owe their origin to the sixteen century masterpiece, Summer (1563) by Gueseppe Arcimboldo. The masterpiece presents a human figure visualized through cleaver artistic manipulation of fruits and vegetables.  Both the characters are the impulses of optimism that have been delineated with artistic fantasy of Acrimboldo.  Iff the water genie puts a ‘purple turban on his head,’ and ‘a baggy silk pajama gathered at the ankles’ those are ‘aubergines.’ The author reverts to Chagall in delineating the character of Butt the Hoope which is a bird that leads all other birds to their ultimate goal.’ (Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, 55) The novel reminds us of the painting The Portrait and the Dream (1953) by the Jackson Pollock, which presents before us a human figure with the ordered disorder of anatomical images. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, there is a well controlled dynamics of the fantasy in its varied forms and the reader while reading the novel perceives the human figure that is Rushdie himself making the backdrop and imparting the meaning.

The Moor’s Last Sigh is the sixth novel of Rushdie which was published in the year 1996 and as usual the novel invited controversy for a number of reasons. The most important of them was the English bulldog named Jawahar Lal. The book was banned in India for few months and then the circulation of the book was allowed. The use of painting in The Moor’s Last Sigh becomes more frequent in this novel as one of the major characters of the novel is an accomplished and widely known painter. It is another very conspicuous aspect of the novel that the character of Aurora draws a close parallel with the legendary painter of the first half of the century Amrita Sher Gill. She also plays a defining role in portraying the thematic contents of the novel. Aurora is delineated with the intensity of the surrealist paintings.

At the age of thirteen my mother Aurora da Gama took to wandering barefoot around her grandparents’ large odorous house on Cabral Island during the bouts of sleeplessness, which became for a time, her nightly afflictions and on those nocturnal odysseys she would throw open all the windows- first the inner screen window whose fine meshed netting protected the house from midges and mosquitoes flies next the leaded glass casements themselves and finally the slatted wooden shutters beyond.  (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 07)

Aurora also served to portray the hybridization of human race. His conjugation with Abraham is termed as ‘pepper love’ which aptly illustrates the idea of cultural synthesis. The parallel between Amrita Sher Gil and Aurora becomes more explicit in the light of the background and foreground of the painter. Amrita Sher Gill was daughter of a Sikkh businessman and a Hungarian woman.  Various biographical studies and memoirs, written on Amirta Sher Gill, ratify the comparability that subsists between the young painting of the early twentieth century and the painter in the novel. Mulk Raj Anand the noted fiction writer and a contemporary of Amirta Sher Gill, writes;

Amirta Sher Gill, born of Marie Antoinette, a cultured Hungarian mother and Sardar Umrao Singh Gill,  an aristocrat from Maiithia family of Amritsar, was, then, like many of the new young in the intelligentsia from big houses of that time, charged with indignation against injustice and full of human concern. Ofcourse, she could not in the feudalistic household of her uncle Sir Sunder Singh Majithia, Prime Minister of Patiala State, do more than sympathize with egalitarian urges. But she was aware of the struggle for liberation intensified by Gandhi, of whom she did sketches as he was speaking to a mass audience and she admired Jawahar Lal Nehru, hwo reciprocated her regards by going out of his way to meet her in Gorakhpur. (Anand02)

Anand portray the painter as young extrovert, enthusiast with political vigilance and awareness. The most conspicuous quality which the painter shares with her fictional counterpart, Aurora in The Moor’s Last Sigh. The narrator reveals that Aurora ‘grew into a large public figure’ and she is delineated as ‘the great beauty at the heart of Nationalist Movement.’ Aurora’s extrovert behavior is further ratified when the narrator portrays her as loose hair marching alongside Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad when they took out processions.’  (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 118)  Nehru’s visit to Amrita is recreated by Rushdie when he reciprocates the appreciation of Aurora by writing her a letter;

My voice is very hoarse, I don’t know why I attract these crowds. Very gratifying, no doubt, but also very trying and often very irritating. Here in Simla I have had to go out to the balcony and verandah frequently to give darshan. I doubt if I shall ever be able to go out for a walk because of crowds following except at the dead of night. (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 117-118)

Khushwant Singh, in his obituary to the Amrita Sher Gill also expresses the similar views and presents Amrita as same extrovert and flamboyant woman with vigilance. He writes;

I met her only twice. But those two meetings remains imprinted in my memory. Her fame as an artist, her glamour as a woman of great beauty which she gave credence in some of her self portraits, and her reputation for promiscuity snowballed into a veritable avalanche, which hasn’t ended to this day and gives me an excuse to include her in my list. (Singh121)

Singh’s views expressed in the obituary to Amrita Sher Gill present her a woman of fame and name, and, at the same time, tremendous social vigilance. The verbal portrait of Amrita Sher Gill, portrayed by her two contemporaries, when combined together, becomes identifiable with Aurora, and, Aurora in turn emerges as the fictional equivalent of the legendary painter of the first half of the twentieth century.

The paintings of Aurora in the novel, unlike those of Amrita Sher Gill, owe their genesis to the masters of early twentieth century. It is however interesting to note that not all the painting narrated in the novel are from the works of the great masters and many of them come out of the painterly imagination of the novelist. The Scandal painted by Aurora is one such masterpiece which is created in words by the narrator. The Kissing of Abbas Ali Baig is one of the paintings based on the actual incident that took place in Bombay in the third match against Australia ‘which had not been going India’s way,’ and Baig’s half century ‘enabled the home side to force a draw.’ The narrator further reveals;

When he reached 50, a pretty young woman ran out from the usually rather staid and upper-crust North Stand and kissed the batsman on the cheeks. Eight runs later, perhaps a little overcome, Baig was dismissed (C Mackay b Lindwall), but by then the match was safe. ((Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 228)

The socio-political and cultural vigilance is another very important aspect which makes Aurora and her art comparable with that of many great masters of India and Europe. Picasso’s Guernica (1937) and Dali’s irreverent delineation of Lenin in Six Apparitions of Lenin on a Piano (1933), are the works that confirm the political vigilance of these masters. In India M. F. Hussain has also been known for his socio-political and cultural vigilance. His series on Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa and film luminaries, Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit, ratify his range and vigilance.

Aurora’s Chhipkali or lizard exhibition is dominated by animal imagery with surrealist implications. The images of snakes and lizards and other reptiles owe its origin to the surrealist paintings of Salvador Dali. The paintings, like The Visage of the War (1940), make good use of such images with prophetic conviction and surrealist intensity. The images of snakes in the works of Dali serve to excite the feelings of fear and libidos and the fear and libidos on the paintings of Aurora depict the fear of common man due to the oppressive policies of the British Government and libidos at the same time can be correlated with the character of Aurora representing the growing freedom of woman in relatively conservative society of contemporary India. Dali while making this painting was haunted by the images of death and destruction while the inherent implication of fear in the lizard exhibition of Aurora can be attributed to the fear pervading the mind of common Indian during the first four decades of the twentieth century. ‘Spain would serve as a holocaust to that post war Europe,’ says Dali, ‘tortured by ideological dramas, by moral and artistic anxieties.’ (Descharnes96) It is understandable that Spain provides the platform to Picasso and Dali which is comparable with fictional locale (India) of Aurora in the novel.

Varied influences of Picasso are evidenced in the works of Aurora created during the narrative span of the novel. One of the most outstanding works of hers in the novel is a self portrait. The self portrait captures our attention chiefly due to interdisciplinary technique used by Pablo Picasso in many of his works painted during the early twenties where the pictures in pigments impress us for their sculptural effects. Many of his famous painting like Three Women at the Fountain (1921), Two Women Running on the Beach (1922), Three Women at the Spring (1921), Mother and Child (1921) etc are known for inducing sculptural effects on the canvass with pigments. Aurora’s Self Portrait owes inspiration to Picasso’s famous work Woman with a Fan (1906). It is remarkable that the technique which attained its peak in twenties and even in some of the paintings, of thirties, like Reclining Nude (1932) and Woman in the Red Armchair (1932), of thirties, was first seen in the his work in the early second half of the first decade of the twentieth century, little before the Les Demoisseles D’ Avignon (1907) appeared on the horizon of fine art and changed the history.  Hans L C Jaffe, commenting of this phase or Picasso’s creative period, rightly remarks that it was the period when the plasticity of the bodies, their three dimensional existence was at the center of his interest.’ (Jaffe86) In the novel, Aurora gives the ‘anguished, magisterial, appallingly unguarded series of late self portraits,’ and a reference to Rembrandt, credited with as many as seventy self portraits,  confirms the super numeracy of the self portraits and a reference to Goya, a prominent influence of Picasso reveals the essential nature of the tones and moods of the works. The narrator details the painting and confides;

Aurora/Ayxa sat alone on these panels beside the infernal chronicle of the degradation of her son, and never shed a tear. Her face grew hard, even stony but in her eyes there shone a horror that was never named as if she were looking at the things that struck at the very depths of her soul, a thing standing before her, where anyone looking at the pictures would naturally stand- as if the human race itself had shown her its most secret and terrorizing face, and by doing so had petrified her turning her old flesh into stone.  (Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh, 304)

The reference to Picasso’s Woman with a Fan (1907) firmly reveals the transformation of the archetypal mother image into a woman reflecting rich endurance of the vulgarity of a metropolitan city like Bombay. An interesting contrast between the painting of Picasso and that made by Aurora in the novel can be traced. Hans L C Jaffe commenting on this technique of Picasso claims that ‘for all the rigidity of the structure, these paintings clearly reflect the rest and relaxation of stay in the country.’ (Jaffe 89) It is further noticeable that the eyes in Picasso’s masterpiece are reposed with sleep whereas the eyes of Aurora’s self portrait are painted with an unnamed horror. Thus the eye image in the self portrait of Aurora are suggestive of intellectual vigilance paving way for the process of realization paradoxically leading to inert submission to the forces of history. A tacit reference to Michael Angelo’s Pieta (1499) cannot be denied. Miriam holding dead Christ draws a close metaphorical parallel with the self portrait of Aurora where the physical death of the son on the lap of the mother figuratively represents the emotional and ethical decay of Moor, the son. A reference to Picasso’s Self Portrait (1906) painted little before Woman with a Fan is also obligatory in which Picasso presents himself in the same mood and tone of hard sculptural effects. The Self Portrait of Aurora in its essence is a summation of the two works of Pablo Picasso foretelling the great revolution in the world of art.

Aurora’s series on Moor is another very conspicuous revelation of Rushdie’s debt to the great painters of the first half of the twentieth century. In the early Moors, ‘the hand’ of the protagonist was ‘transformed into a series of miracles.’ The hand image used in the paintings titled ‘early Moor’, owe their imagistic worth to the paintings of Salvador Dali using the image of hand painted with hallucination and surrealist intensity. Some of the well known works of Dali using hand image, are Apparatus and Hand (1927), The Lugubrious Game (1929) and The Hand; Remorse (1930). The hand image of Dali is fused with the images that have their origin in the folklore to balance the centrifugal surrealist fantasy with centripetal primitivism. Aurora too fuses the image of peacock fused with the hand image. ‘I was Moor as peacock, spreading my many eyed tail,’ Moor reminisces, and ‘she painted her head on the top of a dowdy pea hen’s body.’ The transformation of the fact through reverse relation contributes significantly to the hallucinatory effect of the narration when Aurora is painted as ‘girlish, adorning’ and the protagonist ‘in patriarchal lapel gripping pose, frock coated and bewhiskered like a prophecy of all-too-near future.’ The reversal of the relation between mother and child is further ratified by Aurora. ‘If you were twice as old as you look,’ she says, ‘and I was half as old as I am, I could be your daughter.’ (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 224) the reversal of the mother and child relation is used with prophetic intentions as it foretells the son- Sanjay Gandhi over powering his mother Indira Gandhi during and before the Emergency. The Shakespearean imagination is also transformed into the artistic imagination in Aurora’s To Die Upon a Kiss, in which Aurora portrayed herself as ‘murdered Desdemona flung across her bed while’ Moor ‘was stabbed Othello.’ (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 224-225) The reversal of the relation between mother and son at this point of time also recreates the milieu of timelessness created in the surrealist masterpieces of Salvador Dali and at the same time it reveals the vulgarization of human emotions.

The second phase of Moor Paintings by Aurora is represented principally by the picture-Mother- Naked Moor Watches Chimene’s Arrival. It is a picture which according to the narrator owes its inspiration to Velezquez’s Las Meninas (1656) but a closer scrutiny of the narrator’s description reveals that the painting owes more to Pablo Picasso’s series based on the same paintings by Velazquez. In one of these paintings by Picasso, which falls closest to the narrator’s description of Aurora’s painting, Picasso has shown a number of hooks that remind us of a slaughter house; there is a grant to whose head touches the roof of the palace. The dog of the royal family, a Cocker Spaniel, in the work of Velazquez’s Las Meninas has been replaced by a rat. It is obvious that Picasso further intensifies the emotion of grief and tormenting isolation as the two figures in the background are painted in compositional semblance with a coffin. One of the characters in the foreground is shaped as a circle while other has been painted in typical cubistic strokes that demonstrate degradation of human values. In Aurora’s painting the palace of the king is replaced by a chamber of Aurora’s with sight lines. The Moor ‘stands naked in the lozenge pattern technocolour. The giant in Picasso’s masterpiece in the verbal description of Aurora’s Mother- Naked Moor Watches Chimene’s Arrival, is replaced by a vulture from the tower of silence. The mouse of Picasso in Aurora’s painting is ‘nibbling through the lacquered melon drum’ of a sitar and thus killing the possibility of music and melody. The ‘fearsome mother Aurora in the flowing dark robes’ is holding a full length mirror’ to his ‘nakedness.’ Aurora embodies the central emotion of Velazquez’s Las Meninas. The three works if arranged in precise chronology, issue forth the process of rapid vulgarization of human emotions. ‘Reality and sham reality,’ says Hans L.C. Jaffe, ‘are interlocked in Velazquez’ masterpiece.’ (Jaffe120) The shadowy figure inon the door of the room is replaced by glamorized Uma who ‘caste an image of Sophia Lauren in El Cid.’ Surrealist fantasy creeps into the narrative again as ‘between the outspread inviting hands were many marvels-golden orbs bejeweled birds, tiny homunculi floating magically into air.’  (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 246-247)

It is clear from the above discussion that Rushdie recreates the magical chiaroscuro and imagistic magnificence of Velazquez in words. It is another very note worthy aspect of the narration of Rushdie that the recreation of Las Meninas in The Moor’s Last Sigh is actually a step ahead of Picasso’s recreation of the original Las Meninas painted by the seventeenth century master. The painting in the narrative acquires special significance in the narrative in the light of Aurora- Moor relationship which is recreated in this painting and other paintings of early Moor series as Moor is the much desired model for his mother in most of her paintings of this series. The view of Jaffe again invites our attention. Commenting on Picasso’s fascination for Las Meninas, he confides;

In addition to the painting’s Spanish character, Picasso may have been particularly fascinated by the fact that it treats-in a brilliant mysterious way-a problem that had often preoccupied him; the painter and his model. (Jaffe120)

The views of Jaffe when examined in the light of the context structured by Rushdie in The Moor’s Last Sigh make it clear that the painting, besides constructing a bridge between India and Europe, plays the important role of narrating a peculiar aspect of the theme of the novel, that is the emancipation of the mother and child relation from the cultural orthodoxy.

A discussion on the art influence on Salman Rushdie can not be taken as complete without a reference to the works of Bhupen Khakhar. Rushdie's oft quoted admiration for Khakhar obliges a natural inference that the such a mega dimensional application of modern art in the narrative is not complete without the inclusion of a work of art by Khakhar, the master who fetched maximum accolade from Rushdie in recent years. The last triode of the Moor Paintings by Aurora can be attributed to a famous work by Khakhar titled You Can't Please All in which the protagonist is positioned at an altitude watching the drama of life taking place there below. Khakhar himself makes clear the role of painting in The Moor's Last Sigh and says that 'the painting means a lot to,' him. 'It shows,' he further describes, 'a protagonist standing stark naked as looking daringly the world below.' The protagonist painted in grey overtones makes clear the emotional void and spiritual hollowness pervading around the protagonist. 'You Can't Pleas All depicts homosexuality,' Khakhar further explains, 'but not necessarily as a central theme.' (Khakhar02)The title of the last part of the Moor Paintings makes clear that the Moor in Aurora's series of dark Moors can easily be identified with the make standing naked in Khakhar's masterpiece. The painting serves to introduce a number of disparity prevailing in the modern metropolitan set up that constitute the character of  the protagonist of the novel. The narrator says;

The Moor in exile sequence- the the controversial ‘dark Moors’, born of passionate irony that had been ground down by pain, and later unjustly accused of ‘negativity’, ‘cynicism’, even ‘nihilism’-constituted the most important work of Aurora Zogoboiby.’s later years.  (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 301)

The paintings in the series of Naked Moor also owe their origin and genesis to the masterpiece of Khakhar and image of the Naked Moor is taken straight from this masterpiece and is recreated with slight compositional variations. Even in Mother- Naked Moor Watches Chimene’s Arrival,  the role of You Can't Please All, (1981) cannot be denied. The image of the protagonist standing as stark naked not only pervades the creative spirit of the milieu but also rules over it with despotic authority. There are however some compositional changes that have been made in narrating the paintings of the Dark Moor. The use of collage is another very significant change introduced by the narrator as there is no use of collage in the original painted by Khakhar. The use of collage, on one hand, suggests the cultural synthesis of the country, and, on the other hand, it is suggestive of the rapid vulgarization of the culture and society. The technique of the painting narrated by the narrator lacks chastity of the classic works of Rembrandt and Goya and even Picasso and Dali and suffers the inclusion of modern devices of the collage that too in the style of Dadaism. The narrator confides;

The unifying narrator/ narrated figure of the of the Moor was usually still presentbut was increasing characterized a jetsam, and located in an environment of broken and discarded items , pieces of crates and vanaspati tins that were fixed to the surface of the work and painted over. (Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh, 301)

It is obvious from the above discussion that the modern painting is an inseparable aspect of the technique of narration employed by Rushdie. In the first his first novel, he makes use of the works of March Chagall in structuring the milieu defined in terms of the antithesis between the time bound and the timeless. In the second and third novel- Midnight’s Children and Shame the influence of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali acquires prominence to delineate the political realities of the Indian subcontinent. Surrealism plays a dominant role in shaping the fantasy and the interrelation of the fantasy and prophesy further confirmed in both the novels. The Moor’s Last Sigh is the novel with most frequent and outstanding use of paintings in shaping the narrative. Again the role of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali becomes prominent in the caste of the narrative. Aurora being a natural extension of the legendary painter Amrita Sher Gill, enriches the scope of the inclusion of the paintings in the narrative. It is a very important aspect of the use of paintings in the narrative that these paintings play a functional role in almost every aspect of the technical ambit of the novel. They determine the tone of the narrator and define and meaning and experience latent there in the narrative; they also play an important role in structuring the narrative by paving way for the inclusion of new characters. The characterization is undoubtedly the highly benefitted domain enjoying maximum scintillation taken from the chiaroscuro of the masterpieces painted in the early twentieth century. 

Bibliography

Acrimboldo, Giueseppe. Summer. (1563) Oil on Canvass. Kunstistoriesche Museum. Vienna.

Anand, Mulk Raj. Amrita Sher Gill. 1989; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

Chagall, Marc. Paris through the Window (1913) Oil on Cavass. Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

- - -  The Dream (1927) Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris.

- - -  The Juggler. (1943) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

Dali, Salvador. Apparatus and Hand. (1927) Oil on Panel. Private Collection.

- - -  The Lugubrious Game. (1929)Oil and Collage on Canvas.  Claude Hersaint Collection, Paris.

- - -  The Hand; Remorse; (1930) Oil on Canvas. Private Collection.

- - - .The Persistence of Memory. (1931) Oil on Canvass. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

- - -  Premonition of Civil War. (1936) Oil on Canvass. Philadephia Museum of Art, Arsenberg.

- - -  The Visage of War. 1940. Oil on Canvass. Museum Baymans -van Beauningen, Rotterdam.

- - - - A Young Virgin Autosodomized by Her Own Chastity. (1954) Oil on Canvass. Private Collection.

- - -  Disintergration of the Persistence of Memory. (1954) Oil on Canvass. Salvador Dali Museum, cleaveland.

Janusszczak, Waldemar. Techniques of the World’s Great Painter. London; Tiger, 1987

Jaffe, L C. Picassso. London; Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Khakhar, Bhupen. My Life as  Gay Man. The Times of India; 24 December 2001, Sunday Times 02.

Madox, Conroy. Dali. 1983; Balthasarstr, Taschen.

Picasso, Picasso. Self Portrait.(1906) Oil on Canvass. Private Collection.

- - -  - Woman with a Fan. 1906. The Hermitage. Leningrad.

- - -  Three Women at the Fountain. 1921. Sanguine on Canvass.  Picasso Meseum, Paris.

- - -  Mother and Child. 1921. Oil on Canvass. Private Collection.

- - -  Two Women Running on the Beach. 1922. Gouache on Plyboard.  Picasso Meseum, Paris.

- - -  Recling Nude. 1932. Oil on Canvass.  Picasso Meseum, Paris.

- - -  Woman in a Red Armchair. 1932. Oil on Canvass.  Picasso Meseum, Paris.

- - -  Guernica (1937) Oil on Canvass. Prado, Madrid.

- - -  Weeping Woman. 1937. Oil on Canvass. Tate Gallery, London. 

- - - Las Meninas (after Velazquez) 1957. Museo Picasso, Barcelona.

Pollock, Jackson. Dream and the Portrait (1953) Oil on Canvass. Museum of Modern Art. New York.

Read, Herbert. A Concise History of Modern Painting. 1959; London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.

Rushdie, Salman. Grimus. 1975; London; Granta, 1977.

- - - Midnight's Children. 1980.  New Delhi.  Avon Books, 1982.

- - - Shame. Calcutta, Rupa, 1983.

- - - Haround and the Sea of Stories. London; Granta, 1991.

. . . The Moor's Last Sigh. 1995; Vintage Books,

Singh, Khushwant. “Amrita Sher Gill: Femme Fatale” Death at my Doorsteps. 2005; Roli Books, New Delhi.

Art as Technique in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Shame

                 Art as Technique in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Shame
                                                 Submitted by;
                                          Dr. Rajesh Trivedi
                                      Associate Professor
                                  Department of Humanities
                       Gyan Ganga College of Technology Jabalpur.
                                  Ms. Namrata Soni
                               Assistant Professor,
                             Department of Humanities Gyan Ganga College of Technology Jabalpur.
             
                            Art as Technique in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Shame
Modern paintings have always been the most conspicuous as well as inseparably integrated aspect of the technique of narrations of the novels of Salman Rushdie. Many critics are of the view that the painterly imagination crept in the narrative technique of Rushdie for the first time in his novel The Moor’s Last Sigh, (1995), for the obvious reason that one of the major characters of the novel is a renowned painter who owes her genesis to the famous Indian painter of the first half of the twentieth century-Amrita Sher Gill. However, the fact cannot be denied that since his first novel- Grimus, (1975) the masterpieces of the painters of the first half of the century have been contributing significantly to the narratives in delineating the meaning and experience inherent therein. It is undisputable that the paintings come out with great aesthetic significance in The Moor’s Last Sigh for the obvious reason that one of the major characters of the novel is a renowned painter, thus, the author has more specific opportunity to use paintings in the narrative. The second and third novel of Rushdie Midnight’s Children (1980) and Shame (1983) are exclusive about the socio- political and cultural transition of the Indian subcontinent which offers a close comparison with the cultural upheavals that took place in the first of the twentieth century in Europe as a follow up of the First World War. Salman Rushdie’s first novel- Grimus, though failed to invite optimum critical attention, hold importance from the point of view of technical and thematic predilections set by the author for the further development of his art as a novelist. Grimus makes use of the masterpieces of the twentieth century surrealist masters like Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso in delineating the characters and painting landscapes. The opening paragraph of the novel reminds us of the famous painting of Salvador Dali- Persistence of Memory (1931), which deals with the contrasting images of the timeless and time bound manifest in mutual correlation with the images of time and space. The views of Dali on the limp watches used in the painting further ratify the function of the masterpiece in the narrative. ‘Like fillets of sole,’ he comments, ‘they are destined to be swallowed by the sharks of time.’ (quoted by Januszczak,152). The delineation of the characters in the novel also owes it aesthetic magnificence of the ornithological imagery of masterpieces of Marc Chagall. Paris through the Window (1913) is one of the great works of Chagall which shares the aesthetic domain with Grimus. The painting unifies a cat with human figure and in the perspective, depicts a flying man. The Juggler (1943) is another painting which capitalizes the form and function of ornithological images in order to delineate the complex idea of human predicaments. Shearer West, commenting on this painting of Chagall, points out that Chagall’s Juggler is both, ‘an acrobat and a rooster standing in a ring which contains Russian village.’ It becomes clear that there is re echo of Chagall’s The Juggler in Rushdie’s Grimus. Rushdie’s debt to Chagall becomes more obvious when he delineates Flapping Eagle on a donkey “The Griibbs’ donkey, perhaps the most obedient, least mulish donkey that ever was, jogged demurely along the cobble way with a divided Flapping Eagle upon its back”. (Rushdie, Grimus,157)The description of the protagonist in the lines quoted above owes its origin to the masterpiece of Marc Chagall which depicts a nude on a donkey. The above discussion makes it clear that the Grimus sows the seeds of the technical preferences that are capitalized by Rushdie in his later novels that acquire the apogee in the succeeding two novels. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Shame, from the point of view of the form and function of the novel, invite a very close comparison with Picasso’s Guernica (1939) painted as a reaction of the destruction of the small town Guernica in Spain by the fascist army. The painting has a complex array of symbols- a bull, a horse, a distorted image of the sun, crying women and the butchered children and a hand holding a lamp. These symbol in complementation with one another issue forth an impression of waste, a composite feeling of rage, indignation and impotent revolt. The comparison may however by objected to as Picasso’s Guernica is an immediate reaction to a single event and Midnight’s Children and Shame are Rushdie’s response to the long political processes of the two main countries of the Indian Subcontinent, namely India and Pakistan. However, it is undeniable that Guernica foretells a gory, inhuman future of human race which cannot be limited to a time period or a country. The views of Hans L C Jaffe on Guernica, further confirms the comparability between the masterpiece of Picasso and the two novels of Rushdie. He opines that Guernica ‘constitutes a warning to mankind of unleashing the forces of darkness.’ Jaffe further explains the inherent implications of Guernica and says; But the meaning, the emotional expressiveness of the signs has become more tense and more explosive; the horse and the bull are graven more deeply on the viewer’s memory than are the human figures; thus it is the mythological signs of suffering and ruthlessness that dominate the work. (Jaffe37) The views of Picasso on the function of painting further ratify the parallel between the masterpiece and the novels. He says that the painting is ‘an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.’ He further intensifies the comparison when he says that ‘one must fight everything that threatens the freedom of imagination.’ (Read, 160) It is obvious that the two masters had similar intentions and points of view and they created with similar passion and convictions that owe their genesis to their love for the origin despite displacement. The characterization in Midnight’s Children owes its metaphorical magnificence to the use of dream imagery. It is evident that the characters peopling the fictional domain of Midnight’s Children and Shame are realized through a process of fantasy that denies chronological development. They are generally types or caricatures. The cubistic technique used by Pablo Picasso seems to be the main source of inspiration. The fantasy reduces these characters to a caricature through mockery or parody. Picasso, in his portraits, opts for the complete elimination of the third dimension. The elimination of the third dimension makes the human figure, a representative of the time and place that is contemporary Europe which is characterized by spiritual hollowness and emotional and ideological void. Rushdie by using the cubistic technique in drawing the verbal portraits of the human figures, draws a close metaphorical parallel between Europe of the first half of the twentieth century and the Indian subcontinent of the post Independence era. Many cubistic paintings of Picasso portray the contemporary in flat tones and fragmented figures. The characterization in both these novels is the main area of the application of modern paintings in the narratives. The distortion of human image has always been the favorite device of the painters of the first half of the twentieth century. Almost all the characters in Midnight’s Children and Shame undergo the distortion of normal proportions. Rushdie portrays the protagonist of the Midnight’s Children exactly in the cadence of the cubistic figures of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the pioneers of cubistic movement in the history of modern painting. The outright denial to the conventional modes of characterization makes a reader feel like viewing a cubistic painting. The three dimensional appearance of the protagonist is reduced to two dimensions which is the most eye catching aspects of the portraits painted in cubistic manner. Saleem’s face in his childhood was ‘too perfectly round.’ (Rushdie, Midnight’s Children,144) The roundity of the face of Saleem reminds of a number of cubistic portraits painted with elimination of the third dimension. The character of Widow is an important testimony of Rushdie’s debt to surrealist painters. She is delineated with ghostly hallucinations and prophetic intensity that have always been the defining features of the surrealist paintings of the first half of the twentieth century. Widow, an embodiment of political evil pervading the country, is delineated with surrealist monstrousness in black and green background and foreground. It is remarkable that the black on one hand is symbolic of darkness and green on the other hand symbolizes envy. Saleem introduced Widow in the backdrop of surrealistic nightmarish hallucination to Padma. He narrates; Now one by one the children mmff are stifled quite the Widow’s hand is lifting one by one the children green their blood is black unloosed by cutting fingernails it splashes black on the walls (of green) as one by one the curling hand lifts children high as sky the sky is black there are no stars the Widow laughs her tongue is green but see her teeth are black. (Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, 249) The character of Widow reminds us of the famous painting of Salvador Dali titled Premonition of the Civil War painted in 1936. The character of the Widow is identified with that of Mrs. Indira Gandhi however to associated the character directly with an individual is not justified as in the larger context we come to understand that the character is an embodiment of the political vices pervading the system. The parallel between the India of Midnight’s Children and the Europe of Salvador Dali becomes obvious as India of Midnight’s Children was enduring the fright and horror of suspension of human rights and freedom of imagination and expression during the Emergency and the condition of Europe, under the dark clouds of the Second World War had similar socio-political uncertainties and the fear of unpredictable holocaust. The beast holding the woman figure by her breasts draws an obvious parallel with the character of Widow and the woman enduring nerve rending cruelty is obviously a figurative parallel of the midnight children subjected to political atrocities that is the aftermath of the abuse of political power. The comparison between the painting and the character of Widow also confirms the parallel between the Civil War of Spain and the Emergency of India. Sufiya Zinobia is realized through a process of fantasy. She is undoubtedly the most important of all characters in the novel. Rushdie himself elaborates the idea of mutual interdependence of these two emotions. He says; “I suppose Sufiya Zinobia came out because I wanted some kind of the idea the book dealt with. You have to make the connection between shame and violence.” (Gentleman, February1984, 59) She is the embodiment of shame with violent outlet and illustrates the universal interdependence of these two paradoxical aspects of human behavior manifest at political level. The first spark of the violence is seen when innocent Sufiya, at the age of twelve, kills as many as seventeen turkeys of Pinky Aurangzeb with astounding brutality “Sufiya Zinobia had torn off their heads and then reached down into their bodies to draw into their guts up through their necks with her tiny and weaponless hands.” (Rushdie, Shame,138) Sufiya Zinobia finally turns into a complex metaphor representing the suppression of shame, guilt, humiliation and libidos and thus aptly represents the future of a country like Pakistan routed by the religious fanaticism and consequently exploited by the political heads of the country. Irony rules supreme in the delineation of the character of Sufiya Zinobia which, in mutual complementation with surrealist fantasy, strengthens the metaphorical status of the character. Irony creeps in delineation of the character right from the birth. Uma Parmeswaran rightly remarks that ‘she is not the sex her parents desired her to be,’ and it is because of this ‘humiliation’ that she ‘becomes sensitive from birth to the emotion of shame.’ (Parmeswaran78) Sufiya Zinobia soon grows into a metaphorical illustration of shame and violence The use of irony acquires graver dimensions when the narrator tells about the growth of the character. Sufiya Zinobia ‘has grown,’ the narrator confides, ‘her mind more slowly than her body.’ The irony acquires a graver twist when the narrator, ‘for his slowness,’ takes her to be somehow clean (pak) in the midst of this dirty world.’ (Rushdie, Shame, 120) The importance of the character along metaphorical dimension continue to grow as the idea of suppression is not limited to political motifs but the suppression of sexual desires contribute to the making of the character with comparable significance. Sufiya’s conjugation with the protagonist- Omar Khayyam Shakil, is a step towards the realization of the ironic pervading within and around the character. The narrator confides that ‘she was his wife yet she was not his wife.’ (Rushdie, Shame, 210) About marital conjugation, Sufiya only knows that ‘there is a thing which woman at night with husbands,’ but ‘she does not do it.’ The irony acquires assiduous turn when Sufiya realizes that ‘Shahbanou does it for her.’ (Rushdie, Shame, 215) The suppression of sexual desires fused with the emotion of shame is the axis around which the character moves and the dynamics of violence is aptly defined around this axis. The natural interdependence of unsatisfied libidos and the emotion of shame seek outlet in form of violence of melodramatic intensity. The narrator confides; Shame walks the streets of night. In the slums, four youths are transfixed by those appalling eyes, whose deadly yellow fire blows out like a wind through the lattice-work of the veil. They follow her to the rubbish dump of doom, rats to her piper, automata dancing in all consuming light from the black veiled eyes. Down she lies and what Shahbabou took upon herself is finally done to Sufiya. (Rushdie, Shame, 219) It is clear from the above discussion that Sufiya Zinobia is a complex character with strong metaphorical suggestions sprawling over a vast space covering numerous aspects of socio- political realities of a country like Pakistan which is ruined by fanaticism and political malpractices. The origin of the character of Sufiya Zinobia can however be traced in the works of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. The character of Sufiya Zinobia draws a close parallel with the woman in the works of Pablo Picasso painted during the Second World War. The Weeping Woman (1937) is the most outstanding work done during this period which enshrines all the pains and humiliation of a common man aptly represented by Sufiya in the narrative. The Weeping Woman is one of the series paintings and drawings connected with Guernica. It is an expression of grief and frustration expressed through the portrait of Picasso’s mistress, Dora Maar. Picasso adopts the technique of fusion. In the painting, the fingernails of the weeping woman become one with the tears of her and her handkerchief, clenched in her teeth become one with her face. Picasso portrays the woman and the background in dark shades which draws an ironic parallel with her frustration and misery. Jesse Mc Donald expresses surprise on the use of colors in this painting and says The Weeping Woman reappears in similarly apocalyptic works of the period, but in this case, in strikingly dissonant colors, in contrast to the austere palette of black, white and grey, which helps to reinforce the paralyzing terror of Guernica.” (Mc Donald.17) The surprise of Jesse Mc Donald is however well answered by Hans LC Jaffe who discussing the distinction in the choice of colors in these two paintings- Guernica and The Weeping Woman, says In one respect the picture differs from Guernica – in the strident dissonance of the colors. They help to elevate the dramatic conflict to the timelessness of myth.” (Jaffe,108) It is interesting to note that the ironic contrast of the dark and stark shades of The Weeping Woman makes is more readily comparable with Sufiya Zinobia of Shame. Sufiya embodies numerous shades of human emotions and human relationship that remind us of the ironic emphasis of the portrait. The woman is subject to nerve rendering pain and soul tormenting frustration manifest chiefly at political level painting the landscape of contemporary Spain in pain and grief. The woman in Picasso’s masterpiece is the same as Sufiya in Salman Rushdie’s Shame. The sexual frustration of Sufiya Zinobia can be traced in the masterpiece of Salvador Dali titled Young Virgin Autosodomized by her own Chastity (1954). In this painting the surrealist master paints a young virgin as nude, leaning against the wall of the terrace being surrounded, rather attacked by the horns of rhinoceros. The painting justly juxtaposes the modern with the classical and structures a new myth defining the sexuality of the modern woman. Dali’s views on the symbolic worth of the horns of the rhinoceros, confirms the motif. He says The horn of the rhinoceros, the former uniceros is in fact the horn of legendry unicorn, symbol of chastity. The young virgin can lean on it, play with it morally as was practiced in time of courtly love. (Maddox80) Dali’s views on the use of the symbol in this painting, justly ratifies the parallel between the young virgin chafing against her own chastity and Sufiya Zinobia enduring suppression and helplessness. The reference to courtly love further confirms the parallel between Dalinean figure and the character of Rushdie. The irony in portraying the young virgin becomes sharper when the inward movement of the horns of the rhinoceros, in an ironic manner, illustrate the outward movement of the desires pervading the psyche of the young virgin. Both the young virgins are delineated with similar intentions and comparable motifs. Rushdie, however, doesn’t limit his character to endurance and goes beyond to delineate her with retaliation and revenge. It is clear from the above discussion that the two masterpieces- Picasso’s The Weeping Woman and Salvador Dali’s Young Virgin Autosodomized by her own Chastity make the foundation of the most important character of Rushdie’s masterpiece- Shame. The socio-political implication of the character can be traced back in the masterpiece of Picasso who portray the fear and frustration of the common man in the times of the Second World War through this portrait of tremendous intensity. Sufiya, in the narrative, emerges is an embodiments of same emotions of fear and frustration. However Picasso’s Spain was at war with Germany whereas Rushdie’s Pakistan is more at war with itself than with any external power. The subjectivity of Sufiya Zinobia can easily be defined in terms of the leers and libidos seeking outlet which owes its origin to Dalinean masterpiece. The young virgin of Dalinean masterpiece invite our attention for suppression and endurance whereas in Rushdie’s Shame action of the young virgin- Sufiya Zinobia is not limited to endurance but it enters the realm of retaliation. It is clear from the above discussion that the most conspicuous aspect of the technique of narration in the novels of Salman Rushdie is the use of modern paintings. There are however various domains of the technical frame work where the art influence operates, yet, the delineation of the characters is no doubted the most widely operated area of technicalities where the twentieth century art seeks invasion and redefines and motif and intentions of the master. Pablo Picasso is unquestionably the most outstanding influence on him which determines the essential nature of the narrative. References Chagall, Marc. Paris through the Window (1913) Oil on Cavass. Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. - - - The Dream (1927) Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris. - - - The Juggler. (1943) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. - - - .The Persistence of Memory. (1931) Oil on Canvass. Museum of Modern Art, New York. - - - Premonition of Civil War. (1936) Oil on Canvass. Philadephia Museum of Art, Arsenberg. - - - - A Young Virgin Autosodomized by Her Own Chastity. (1954) Oil on Canvass. Private Collection. Janusszczak, Waldemar. Techniques of the World’s Great Painter. London; Tiger, 1987 Picasso, Jaffe, L C. Picassso. London; Thames and Hudson, 1988. Mc Donald, Jesse. Pablo Picasso. London; Park Lane, 1985. Parameswaran, Uma. The Perforated Sheet. New Delhi, Affiliated East West Publications. Picasso, Pablo. Guernica (1937) Oil on Canvass. Prado, Madrid. - - The Weeping Woman. 1937. Oil on Canvass. Tate Gallery, London. Rushdie, Salman. Grimus. 1975; London; Granta, 1977. - - - Midnight's Children. 1980. New Delhi. Avon Books, 1982. - - - Shame. Calcutta, Rupa, 1983. - - - Haround and the Sea of Stories. London; Granta, 1991. . . . The Moor's Last Sigh. Vintage Books, 1995. . ... Interview. Gentleman, february 1984, West, Sheares. Chagall. New York; Gallery Books, 1989. - - -