Rushdie, India and Regeneration

In his essay 'Imaginary Homelands', Rushdie mentions the "Indian talent for non-stop self-regeneration"; this essentially sums up the role of the narrative in the Moor's Last Sigh (MLS). While in the essay, Rushdie is referring particularly to his first popularly acclaimed work, Midnight's Children, this is characteristic of the overarching narrative voice of the MLS as well. Considering that the story is written like an epic of the history of India ranging over 100 years, it is not surprising that it retains that regenerative quality. Set in Cabral Islands and later, Malabar Hills, there is constant movement and growth of families and their narrative. As Rushdie says, the narrative "teems"; it throws together tales of different families, at once isolated and intertwined, with a recounting of the larger historical events like the independence movement, the Indira Gandhi emergency, rise of Hindu fundamentalist groups like the Shiv Sena etc. Pitted against the tragedies of the story, this vibrant India appears to create, nourish, destroy and then set forth the cycle again.

The passage from the book that echoes this chaos of regeneration and vitality the most is the one which describes Aurora's work and Cameons marveling at it. The use of art and aesthetics is a significant tool through which Rushdie's work teems. Aurora is a fanatically driven artist who is renowned for her work. Through her the narrative plays a huge emphasis on art and aesthetics as the images constantly evolve, change and symbolize as time proceeds. It is regenerative in its essence. The paintings in the passage which cover all the walls are an eclectic mix of myth, fantasy, reality and unreality; a miniature of India itself? It travels through history, outlining conquerors, heroes, monuments; political landscape; family portraits reflecting "the dead and living but even of the never-born". Aurora's work delineates this chaos of life. If one considers this larger-than-life work to be a depiction of India itself, then it is not surprising that God is missing, for these images by child Aurora are secular. This way Rushdie separates the notion of regeneration and life from the one entity it is associated with, God. The passage eventually links to Mother India itself with extended descriptions of its relationship with its children, its mountains and plateaux, its nature and mythologies. These notions of Mother India/motherhood are devoid of the nationalistic fervor that comes through later in Aurora's work. Here, it represents the larger India, the one that is "multitudinous, hinting at the infinite possibilities of the country."