This blog is part of a Thinking Activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad, in which we were asked to choose two videos from the five provided. From the selected videos, we have to present our learning outcomes, and also share the learning outcome from one given article.
Click here for read the article: Erasure and Oppression: The Bulldozer as a Toolof Authoritarianism in Midnight's Children
Mr. Rushdie and Mrs. Indira Gandhi
Learning Outcomes from the Video
1. Understanding the Political-Literary Conflict in Midnight’s Children
Recognize how Salman Rushdie uses satire and caricature particularly the portrayal of “The Widow” to critique Indira Gandhi’s leadership, especially during the Emergency (1975–1977).
Appreciate the novel’s role as a literary record of political excesses, censorship, and suppression of civil liberties.
2. Analyzing Indira Gandhi’s Political Persona and Its Impact on Democracy
Understand how political leaders’ popularity can shift into authoritarian control, eroding freedom of speech and democratic values.
Reflect on the dangers of equating a political leader with the identity of the nation, and how this phenomenon has historically led to harmful consequences.
3. Evaluating Literature as a Counter-Narrative to “Official Facts”
Learn how Rushdie positions literature as a corrective voice that challenges state-controlled narratives and exposes uncomfortable truths.
Explore the idea that fiction can hold political figures accountable by embedding historical events within imaginative storytelling.
4. Recognizing Historical Parallels and Political Censorship
Identify parallels between global authoritarian episodes (e.g., Hitler, Stalin) and the Indian Emergency, linking them to artistic suppression in literature and cinema (e.g., the banning of Gulzar’s Aandhi).
Understand the manipulation of art and media to reinforce political propaganda, and how censorship reshapes public memory.
5. Exploring the Rushdie–Indira Gandhi Dynamic
Analyze Catherine Frank’s biographical insights into the personal and social similarities between Rushdie and Indira Gandhi, despite their ideological opposition.
Reflect on Rushdie’s refusal to meet Indira Gandhi in 1982 as a statement of literary independence and moral positioning.
6. Learning from the Emergency as a Democratic “Black Spot”
Grasp the human cost of the Emergency mass sterilizations, wrongful imprisonments, custodial deaths and its long-term imprint on Indian political consciousness.
Recognize the importance of preserving such episodes in public education to foster historical alertness against future democratic backsliding.
7. Connecting Past Political Suppression to Present-Day Freedom of Expression
Draw comparisons between the silencing mechanisms during the Emergency and modern restrictions on dissent via digital platforms and social media.
Reflect on the ongoing need for vigilance to protect democratic rights in both political and literary spheres.
Deconstructive Reading of Symbols
Learning Outcomes from the video
1. Understanding Symbols in a Post-Structuralist Context
Recognize that symbols in Midnight’s Children are not just literal or metaphorical but operate within post-structuralist and postmodern frameworks.
Understand how the novel challenges meta-narratives of history by narrating the nation’s story from the margins (through Saleem’s perspective).
2. Derrida’s Concept of Pharmakon
Grasp the dual meaning of the Greek word pharmakon remedy and poison and its undecidable nature.
Connect Plato’s Phaedrus myth (speech vs. writing) to Derrida’s argument that meaning is never fixed and exists in a free play of opposites.
Learn how pharmakon illustrates the instability of binary oppositions such as remedy/poison, speech/writing, interior/exterior.
3. Archie-Writing and the Nature of Language
Understand Derrida’s concept of archi-writing: before speech or written text, there is an original “writing” in thought or mind.
Recognize that Derrida subverts the hierarchy of speech over writing by showing their interdependence.
4. Reading Symbols with Opposite or Shifting Meanings
Apply Derrida’s logic to symbols in Midnight’s Children:
- Perforated Sheet → reveals & conceals simultaneously; represents fragmented perception and narration.
- Silver Spittoon → symbol of memory & amnesia; preserves heritage yet causes forgetfulness.
- Pickles → preserve stories & identities while also breaking them down; symbol of both immortality and decay.
- Knees & Nose → creation & destruction; power & vulnerability.
5. Beyond Binary Oppositions
Move beyond Western rigid binaries by also seeing complementary relationships (e.g., Saleem and Shiva as yin and yang).
Understand that opposites may coexist and depend on each other in meaning-making.
6. Allegorical and Political Implications
Interpret Saleem’s amnesia and Shiva’s forgetfulness as metaphors for India’s “amnesiac nation” a country burdened by memory yet forgetting its heritage.
Relate symbolic readings to political power how forgetfulness can make individuals or societies more susceptible to manipulation.
7. Critical Thinking & Analytical Application
Develop the ability to question fixed meanings in literature.
Practice applying deconstructive analysis to multiple symbols within a narrative.
Recognize the fluidity of meaning as an interpretative strength rather than a weakness.
Erasure and Oppression: The Bulldozer as a Tool of Authoritarianism in Midnight's Children
Learning outcome from the Article
The Bulldozer as a Symbol of Authoritarianism and State Power
The article establishes the central thesis that the bulldozer is a powerful, multi-layered symbol in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. It's not just a machine but a metaphor for the brutal, unchecked power of the state, particularly during Indira Gandhi's Emergency (1975-1977). The term's historical roots in violent intimidation in the American South are a key part of this symbolism, highlighting a historical link between the word and oppression.
Political Cleansing and "Beautification":
The bulldozer's main function in the novel is to carry out what the government calls a "civic beautification programme." This is a profound learning outcome: the article teaches us how authoritarian regimes often use a facade of progress or improvement to justify the destruction of marginalized communities. The demolition of the magicians' ghetto under this pretext directly critiques Sanjay Gandhi's real-world urban renewal drives.
Erasure of History and Identity:
The article's analysis of specific quotes reveals how the bulldozer is a tool of historical and cultural erasure. The destruction of the narrator's heirloom, the silver spittoon, symbolizes the severing of ties to personal and familial history. The machine's insatiable appetite for destruction represents the state's attempt to obliterate the past and any tangible connections to it, leaving individuals "unmoored" and vulnerable.
Dehumanization and Voicelessness:
By analyzing the quotes, the article shows how the bulldozer dehumanizes its victims. The dust-storm from the demolition reduces people to "neglected furniture," and the narrator's scream is unheard over the machine's roar. This powerfully demonstrates how state power, in its relentless pursuit of control, silences dissent and renders its citizens powerless, reducing them from individuals to mere obstacles to be cleared.
Critique of Ruthless Governance:
The repeated appearances of the bulldozer serve as a sustained critique of Indira Gandhi's authoritarianism. The article explains how Rushdie uses the symbol to highlight the human cost of ruthless governance, where "a few deaths" and the obliteration of fragile lives are considered acceptable collateral damage for the sake of a grand, yet hollow, vision of modernization. The image of the "girl with eyes like saucers" being crushed is a gut-wrenching example of this critique.
Broader Context and Literary Significance :
Alignment with Real-World Events: The article explicitly links the novel's events to the historical and contemporary political use of bulldozers for demolitions, making Rushdie's fictional portrayal not just a symbolic critique but a reflection of a real-world political tool.
References
Barad , Dilip. “Deconstructive Reading of Symbols.” YouTube, youtu.be/KgJMf9BiI14?si=6lF5YPD5DfvpRq7k. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
Barad , Dilip. “Mr. Rushdie and Mrs. Indira Gandhi.” YouTube, youtu.be/Mobzaun3ftI?si=QodQVLfpHWJ7vcFp. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
Barad , Dilip. “(PDF) Erasure and Oppression: The Bulldozer as a Toolof ...” Researchgate, Aug. 2025, www.researchgate.net/publication/383410297_Erasure_and_Oppression_The_Bulldozer_as_a_Toolof_Authoritarianism_in_Midnight’s_Children. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. Jonathan Cape, 1981.
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