We've been talking a lot about how Midnight's Children reminds us of One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it also reminds me a lot of Things Fall Apart. In this novel, the narrator is literally falling apart. His skin is cracking, and he foreshadows him busting into pieces.
It also reminds me of Things Fall Apart because both are about the invasion of the West into areas that are not the West's to invade. When the West gets involved, the society begins to split. You see this in Things Fall Apart when some of the Igbo people join the side of the Christians and others remain in their traditional culture. The split in Midnight's Children occurs between the Hindus and the Muslims.
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Nice point, Isabel. Kashmir was also falling apart at this time. In 1948, Indian groups invaded Kashmir to caputre it because it was previsouly a Muslim state ruled by a Hindu prince. India refused to accept Pakistans claim to Kashmir, though half the population was Muslim. In addition, Eastern Pakistan felt their needs were being ignored by Western Pakistan, since the government was located there. They separated from Pakistan in 1971, becoming Bangladesh with the support and military backup of India.
Both Bonnie and Izzy have some great points. I think we definitely see the physical deterioration of any sort of unity within India rejected in Saleem's own feeling of falling apart. For some reason, when I first read that quote in the book, I thought of this song from the movie Anastasia. In it, the villain Rasputin is performing a jazzy song and dance number while dead and hanging out in limbo. Ironically, the movie takes place in late 1910s-early 1920s Russia, which was also going through huge political transitions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocm8QdNR_d8
This is actually a great point. England thought everything would be perfectly fine and decided to hand off the process to the Indian government. Their intentions might have been good, but it turned sour quickly. This once again shows how intentions can be determined, but not outcomes - a kantian philosophy.
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