The Salman Rushdie's Literary Way

According to Salman Rushdie “Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale of the imagination and of the heart. Literature revenues it’s stated to the meagre replication of life and civilization in which life and society have been predisposed by surroundings, reactions, frame of mind, longings, love, rapport and appetites. Literature in precise is an ingenious or imaginative writing, particularly of familiar creative worth: It is a form which is described about various things in both written and spoken material. Literature is nothing but any verbal or transcribed body of work which contains of precise use of language, bounces preference and reproduces human life in it. For example Epic, Poetry, Novel, Short story, Drama, Essay, Biography and Autobiography. Literature consists of particular use of language, “an object of splendour is a happiness constantly”, for all the time and converts ceaseless; a foundation of information and it has originator(s).

Literature leads and imitates human life and civilization. It has conveyed a dogma or assumed of a distinct or nation. Literature is a uniqueness of a discrete, a cluster, a society, a communal or a nation. Every literature have a specific reason overdue its conception. Literature is essentially is destined for entertainment or inclination also conveys knowledge penchant varying over the years. Literature doesn’t have no restrictions to the subject which means it can explain any themes or subject. It is the greatest operative means of expression of passions and sensation. In literature the genres may contrast conferring to their methods and construction but the aims of each literary genre is to silhouette the lives of all human through the scenic of motion texts. In this kind of academic discipline or literature, Indian English is placed the very important role in every institution and field of studies.

The Indian English literature was started during the rule of British in India. In the opening certain authors like Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao were started to write in English language. Those writers were seeds the English literature in India. In modern time most of the writers were innate in the field of Indian English literature. Also those writers were received so several awards from all over the world. Indian English literature means the writings of the writers in India who write in English language. It’s also called as “Indo-Anglican literature”. This Indo-Anglican literature is very much differ from Anglo-Indian literature.

The first book has written by an Indian in English is “Travels of Dean Mohamet” in the year 1793 by Sake Dean Mohamet. The first novel written by an Indian in English is “Rajmohan’s Wife” by Bankim Chandra Chatterjay and it was published in the year 1864. “Dhan Gopal Mukerji” is the first Indian writer who won the literary award in United States. Even though all those authors were started the English literature in India, there were some of the important writers who have developed the English literature in India. Those authors are called as pillars of Indian English literature. They are Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. These three authors are considered as important people and backbone in Indian English literature.

The first writer is Raja Rao (1908-2006).He was a novelist, short story writer and he was the first philosopher in Indian English writing. His novel is Kanthapura (1938). His famous writings are The Serpent in the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), The Cow of the Barricades. Raja Rao was received Neustadt International prize for literature in the year 1998.

The second writer is Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004). He was a novelist, short story writer, critical essayist and he considered as an originator of the English- language Indian novel. His first novel is Untouchable published in 1935. Some of his famous writings are The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1939), The Sword and the Sickle (1942). He was received Padma Bhushan, Sahatiya Academy award for his writings.

The third author is R.K. Narayan (1906-20010. His full name is “Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami”. He was a novelist, short story writer and essayist. He is one of the mile pebble in Indian English literature. He has received Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, and Filmfare award for best story. His famous writings are Swami and Friends, The English Teacher and The Dark Room. All these writers were lived during the British colonial period. So they were expressed some of the themes and aspects of colonialism in their writings. Colonial period has emerged before postcolonial period.

Colonialism is a kind of supremacy on any individuals to another or it’s a kind of power towards the people. The word “colony” came from the Latin word. The meaning for this word is “former”. The term colonialism has designated about the settlement of European people in North, Australia, New Zealand, and also in India. These are some of the countries were colonized by European people. During the time of colonization Europeans were claims their culture specifically their language in colonized country. The concept of colonialism is diligently associated with the idea of Imperialism. After the colonial period which means after the independence from British Empire the postcolonial period were started.

Postcolonialism means the academic discipline that investigates, elucidates and retort to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism speaks about the human consequences and anguishes which was happened during the colonial period. This theory is explains and describe about the antiquity, culture, literature and European imperial power. Postcolonialism represents the colonialist views which was simply describe a system that comes after colonialism. This theory surveys the social and political power associations that withstand colonialism. Every countries were suffered by colonialism. They were shown it through their writings. In India now also some of the authors were explained about the impact of postcolonial period in their country.

India is also a postcolonial society which was ruled by British Empire. The European culture is totally different from India. Because during the colonial period the colonizers were spread their cultures and language in colonized country. That is the reason even after the independence India is suffering not only by political and religious conflict but also by cultural conflict. The Indian people are following both western culture and Eastern culture. That is the greatest impact of postcolonial period in India. So during that time people were struggle between two cultures, two language and also the multiple religions. Now also they are living under same issue. In postcolonial period there are some of the critic and philosopher who were expressed their views about postcolonialism and they were introduced some new terms in the theory postcolonialism.

The first important critic is ‘Homi K Bhabha’. He was born on November 1, 1949. He is the most important critic in the field of contemporary postcolonial studies. He received Padma Bhushan award for his writings. He was explained some of the postcolonial ideas such as hybridity, ambivalence cultural difference, enunciation and stereotype and mimicry were formative for postcolonial theory. His influence has grown for beyond postcolonial literary and cultural studies.

The second important critic is ‘Edward Said’. He was born in 1935. His views about postcolonialism is, this theory focus on the misrepresentation of the colonized by the colonizers and the former’s attitude of resistance, draws new lines for literature and suggests a way of imperialist ideologies. Edward Said was deeply expressed his views about orientalism and imperialism. According to Said the effects of colonial language, the colonial state bureaucracy, and colonial attitudes is represents the economic development more than other things.

The third and modern postcolonial critic is ‘Gayathri Spivak’. She was born in 24 February 1942. Spivak is paradisciplinary, ethical philosopher. Even though her early career would have comprised “applied deconstruction”. Her writings are absorbed on post structuralism, deconstructionism, Marxism, feminism and post colonialism. Spivak is one of the leading thinker in postcolonial theory. She tells everybody that she plans her headway from colonial discourse to transcontinental cultural studies. In English literature there are some of the important postcolonial writers have produced some writings related to the theory postcolonialism. They are; Frantz Fanon (1925-19610, Salman Rushdie, Edward Said (1935-2003), V.S.Nailpaul (1932-2018), Helen Tiffin, Amitav Ghosh and Leela Gandhi. Among all these writers Salman Rushdie has considered as important postcolonial writer in English.

Salman Rushdie was congenital on June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India. He is a British-Indian novelist. He did his schooling in Rugby school. He was studied in the University of Cambridge in King’s college, there he was studied history. He was enthused to Pakistan in 1964 with his maternities. There he was worked as television writer, after that he refunded to England in 1970. In England he was toiled as a copywriter for a publicising intervention.

In 1975 Salman Rushdie was published his first book Grimus. It is a science fiction which was received tepid reviews. After that in 1981 Rushdie published his master piece to prove his ability and intelligence in the field of writing. In 1981 he was published Midnight’s Children which is tells the complicated history through the character Saleem Sinai who wsa working in pickle-factory. He was received Booker prize award and the James Tait Black award for his fiction. After that he was published the novel Shame in the year 1983. For this novel he was received the French literary prize award and Booker prize awrd.

After that in 1988 he was published another novel named Satanic Verses. This particular novel was changed his life totally. Because he was wrote against Muhammad. So the Muslim people were tried to kill him then he away from India and settled in British. In 1989 this novel was banned by Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran. Later he was published another novel The Moor’s Last Sigh in the year 1995. Then in 2012 he was published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an autobiographical novel.

Rushdie has written Eleven novels and he was published several collection of essays. His Twelfth novel is Two Years Eight Month and Twenty-Eight night was published in 2015. He is the important writer in postcolonial period. Most of his novel based on postcolonialism theory. He is great and famous writer in English literature. Rushdie’s books have been translated into more than forty languages.

In this thesis the researcher has chooses the fifth novel of Salman Rushdie The Moor’s Last Sigh. This novel is the fifth novel of Salman Rushdie which was published in the year 1995. The setting of this novel is Bombay and Cochin. This novel has the huge historical background. Even the title of the novel has been related to the story of “Boabdil”. He was the last Moorish king of Granada, who is often mentioned in this novel. The novel is explain about the real historical events such as Bombay bombings and also the history of Boabdil. This book won the Whitbread prize in the year 1995. In 1996 this book als won the Aristeion prize.

Every characters in this novel is playing important role. In this novel Moreas (Moor) is the important character and he is the protagonist of this novel. This novel has explains about the life history of Moor and also the difficult situation of Bombay after the independence. This novel is divided into four chapters. They are; A House Divided, Malabar Masala, Bombay Central, The Moor’s Last Sigh.

Each chapters is explain about the life of Moor and his sufferings because of his hereditary disease. Rushdie was used both optimistic and pessimistic aspects in this novel. Especially in some of the places Moor has changed the pessimistic situation into optimistic one. In this novel some of the important characters are Moreas, Aurora, Uma sarasvati, Vasco Miranda, and Abraham Zogoiby.

The protagonist Moreas (Moor) came from the generation Boabdil. He has a rare genetic condition which causes his age twice. He is not like a normal man. Even he did not enjoy his childhood days because he was avoided by every people even he was hatred by his own father and he did not get any love and affection from his mother. The reason for all these problem is his rare genetic problem. He is looking very older than his age. His mother Aurora was a good painter. She was spent most of her time in paintings only. Her all paintings were tends to feature the Moor, especially she has a collection of paintings called Mooristan.

All the paintings of Aurora seem to be optimistic, the last one is called as “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and portrays the Moor as a shadowy figure lots in a kind of hell-a depiction that turns out to be prophetic. Always Moor was used to stay in home only. He has spent his time alone in his room. That time he was identified his passion that was story telling. When he was started to tell the story he became deeply aroused. Later he became deeply and romantically involved with Aurora’s rival painter Uma Sarasvati, whose influence drives a wedge between Moor and his mother.

Then Aurora was kicked Moor out of her house because of the death of Uma Sarasvati. Then he was put into jail. He was released soon because he helped to solve some cases through his talents. In between Aurora was died in a political war. She died by Raman Fielding group. This is the group who killed the people those who spoke against Hindu especially the did not like Muslims. In that issue only Aurora was died. After that Abraham, Moor’s father also was died.

Later Moor went to Andalusia where he has fought with Vasco Miranda who has stolen all the Mooristan paintings of Aurora. There Miranda was imprisoned Moor in his castle. There the only way for him to live his life is to write his own story. So there he was started to write his own life story. Later he was found that Miranda is not only the enemy of Aurora rather he is also the jealous lover of this mother. After that Miranda was died with the battle of Aoi Ue, a Japanese art historian. Now Moor realizes that he is now 36 years old which means his body’s age is 72 years. He was understood that now he is close to death.

In this novel Moraes is not linked only with Boabdil rather he was also connected with Dante going through the inferno of tourists, and Martin Luther whose life history is somewhat linked with the life of Moor, and of course Jesus persecuted by the authorities. Some of the themes of this novel is Ancestry and identity, the need of maternal love, Political Strife, Hybridity, struggle for individual identity, and migrant or displacement.