The third part of The Moor's Last Sigh follows the protagonists exploits in Bombay's underworld, as hired thug of Raman Fielding. Among other things, Rushdie portrays the experience and texture of urban life in modern India within this section. In particular, a very telling and powerful description at the beginning of this section frames Rushdie's position on Indian urbanity and the violence of its processes.
"You are in Bombay Central lock-up. It is the stomach, the intestine of the city. So naturally there is much of shit."
This metaphor, though it is contained within a description of Bombay Central Jail (where the narrator finds himself locked-up), can be extended to the whole of Bombay city, given the way Rushdie has written this section.
The metaphor itself, when applied to Bombay in its entirety, paints the city as a blind, mechanical and inexorable process. The process of urbanization, like any other process, produces certain homogenized outputs (and waste) from particular and unique inputs (usually human), without any direct human control over its operations. Individuals and groups may be involved within this process as inputs, or as cogs that keep the machine running, but no one individual and group has his finger on the trigger.
Further along in the same chapter, the importance of this metaphor becomes clearer. The textile mill strikers are, in many ways, shown as the waste of urban processes by Rushdie. One need not refer to Aurora's final painting (a thematically revealing collage of the city, made from waste and 'found objects') to make this point. The strikers, by refusing the lowly position assigned to them, outweigh their usefulness for the city, and must be dealt with accordingly. Naturally, the city has at its disposal a whole cadre of people to deal with its human waste - the hired thugs and enforcers of Fielding and Abraham fulfill this function: they "skimmed off the filth, and left a sparkling, up-to-date powerloom industry behind" (307). The metaphor in question here, thus, allows us to understand this moment as a result of the city's near-continuous process of reinvention and development.
However, it is not just in the treatment of its human waste that the city shows itself as a blind, inexorable process. This aspect of the city is most pronounced in the effect these urban processes have on its subjects. Rushdie clearly shows how both the subjects and perpetrators of violence are "irreversibly changed" by these encounters (307). More importantly, every individual is changed in the same way. The subjects of violence come out with a diminished sense of inner freedom and greater sense of detachment in relation to the world. The perpetrators, on the other hand, all reveled in the exaltation of their violent acts.
In these ways, then, the city-as-process metaphor is so revealing of Rushdie's ultimate portrayal of modern-Indian urbanity.
"You are in Bombay Central lock-up. It is the stomach, the intestine of the city. So naturally there is much of shit."
This metaphor, though it is contained within a description of Bombay Central Jail (where the narrator finds himself locked-up), can be extended to the whole of Bombay city, given the way Rushdie has written this section.
The metaphor itself, when applied to Bombay in its entirety, paints the city as a blind, mechanical and inexorable process. The process of urbanization, like any other process, produces certain homogenized outputs (and waste) from particular and unique inputs (usually human), without any direct human control over its operations. Individuals and groups may be involved within this process as inputs, or as cogs that keep the machine running, but no one individual and group has his finger on the trigger.
Further along in the same chapter, the importance of this metaphor becomes clearer. The textile mill strikers are, in many ways, shown as the waste of urban processes by Rushdie. One need not refer to Aurora's final painting (a thematically revealing collage of the city, made from waste and 'found objects') to make this point. The strikers, by refusing the lowly position assigned to them, outweigh their usefulness for the city, and must be dealt with accordingly. Naturally, the city has at its disposal a whole cadre of people to deal with its human waste - the hired thugs and enforcers of Fielding and Abraham fulfill this function: they "skimmed off the filth, and left a sparkling, up-to-date powerloom industry behind" (307). The metaphor in question here, thus, allows us to understand this moment as a result of the city's near-continuous process of reinvention and development.
However, it is not just in the treatment of its human waste that the city shows itself as a blind, inexorable process. This aspect of the city is most pronounced in the effect these urban processes have on its subjects. Rushdie clearly shows how both the subjects and perpetrators of violence are "irreversibly changed" by these encounters (307). More importantly, every individual is changed in the same way. The subjects of violence come out with a diminished sense of inner freedom and greater sense of detachment in relation to the world. The perpetrators, on the other hand, all reveled in the exaltation of their violent acts.
In these ways, then, the city-as-process metaphor is so revealing of Rushdie's ultimate portrayal of modern-Indian urbanity.
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