A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF FORGOTTEN VOICES: SUBALTERN MEMORY IN RUSHDIE’S MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN

Abstract

This research study explores the silencing and erasure of marginalized and subaltern voices in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight‘s Children (1981) through postcolonial lens, focusing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of subalternity and the politics of representation. The novel which is set against the backdrop of India’s transition from colonial rule to independence and partition, explores how history is constructed and whose voices are remembered or erased. This study highlights the struggles of characters like Saleem Sinai, and other marginalized figures who symbolize unheard and forgotten. This study employs the qualitative approach, providing a close textual analysis to investigate how language, politics and history writing play a role in silencing subaltern voices. Spivak’s theory reveals that even when the subaltern attempt to speak, they are misrepresented or completely ignored by hegemonic power. By deconstructing themes of memory, silence and forgotten histories, this research contributes to postcolonial studies and challenges the way that dominant discourses frame our perception of the past.