Politics of Frontiers, Exile, Hybridity and Multiculturalism in the Novels of Salman Rushdie

Abstract

Salman Rushdie was the first novelist who used the term “mongrelization” for the first time giving the idea of cultural hybridity. Homi K. Bhabha propounded his theory of hybridity in his famous essay The Other Question and Location of Culture. Bhabha’s theory has evoked great interest among the cultural theorists. The modern cultural landscape is a juxtaposition of diverse cross-cultural influences, and the multicultural nature of society has become an inevitable reality. The world is a family today and with the growth of science and technology mobility has become much easier. The modern culture is fluid, hybrid and interstitial, moving between spaces of meaning. Most of Rushdie’s characters are migrants, they cross frontiers, their migrancy is always transgressive, crossing of frontiers, which permanently transforms them. Rushdie’s parameter of diaspora also changes in The Ground Beneath Her Feet. In this paper the global vision of Rushdie is explored from the perspective of Post-colonial theory of cultural disruption and multiculturalism. With his hybrid and global characters, Rushdie points towards a future in which the world will be united to face any threat.