Midnight's Children Book II

Historical Events

Dead fish found on the beaches

January 1948

Gandhi assassinated (p.163)

1948

In the novel, Gandhi is assassinated the day that "The Lovers of Kashmir" premieres, but Saleem openly admits to getting this chronology wrong.

Snakes escape from the Schaapsteker Institute (p.155)

February 1948

Tenzing Norway and Edmund Hillary summit Everest (p.177)

1953

Language marches

1956 - February 1957

Language marches block off Methwold's estate in Feb 1957

Nehru thinks about the Five Year Plan (p.179)

1956

Suez Canal crisis (p.171)

1956

India divided into 14 states and six territories (p.216)

October 1956

Election campaigns begin in India (p.211)

January 1957

Election of 1957

1957

Sputnik launches with Laika (p.243)

1957

Indian government announces that can't accept more "development loans" (p.236)

August 1957

Government tries to figure out how to divide Bombay; riots (p.256)

December 1957

Walkeshwar Reservoir explodes

December 25, 1957

Sabarmati guilty (p.303)

August 1958

Iskander Mizra, President of Pakistan, forced into exile (p.333)

November 1 1958

Krishna Menon prepares to use force to Chinese away from Himalyas (p.337)

September 9, 1962

Indian army prepares to attack China (p.341)

October 9, 1962

China attacks India (p.341)

October 15, 1962

China defeats India at That La ridge

October 20, 1962

India attacks China (p.344)

November 1, 1962

Border between India and Pakistan closed (p.363)

1963

Government searches for the hair of Muhammad (p.318)

December 27, 1963 - January 6, 1964

New government in India

1964

President of Pakistan announces the election of 1964 (p.367)

1964

Nehru dies (p.319)

May 27, 1964

Distrust of Ayub Khan; assassination attempt (p.382)

April 1, 1965

War in the Rann

April 1965 - July 1965

Kashmir War between India and Pakistan (p.387-393)

August 8, 1965 - September 23, 1965

Pakistani troops possibly cross into Kashmir; war begins with India (p.387)

August 8, 1965

India drops bombs over Pakistan cities (p.390)

September 22, 1965

United Nations announces end of war (p.393)

September 23, 1965

Saleem's personal life

Midnight's Children are born (p.224)

August 15, 1947

Ahmed's assets are frozen (p.153)

January 1948

"The Lovers of Kashmir" premieres (p.161)

1948

Schaapsteker becomes the Sinai's renter (p.156)

February 1948

The Brass Monkey is born

September 1, 1948

Saleem considers his nose (p.177)

1953

Narlikar and Ahmed devise the tetrapod scheme (p.179)

1956

The Monkey sets fire to things (p.171)

1956

Washing-chest accident (p.182)

June 1956

Wee Willie Winkie probably dies (p.205)

December 1956

Amina visits Nadir at the Pioneer Café (p.249)

1957

Evie Burns arrives at Methwold's estate (p.207)

January 1, 1957

Saleem has his bike accident (p.214)

January 1957

Saleem watches Sputnik (p.243)

1957

Saleem gives the language marchers their chant (p.219)

February 1957

Saleem turns 10 (p.237)

August 15, 1957

Cats invade Methwold's estate (p.256)

December 25, 1957

Midnight's Children Conference begins (p.259)

January 1958

Mutilation of Saleem; discover Amina and Ahmed are not his parents (p.269)

January 1958

Saleem sends his note; Colonel Sabarmati murders (p.298-300)

1958

Saleem's first exile begins (p.275)

1958

Hanif commits suicide (p.310)

August 1958

The inhabitants of Methwold's Estate depart (p.304-305)

August 1958

Amina and her children move to Pakistan (p.324)

September 1958

Mary admits that she switched Saleem and Shiva at birth (p.321)

September 1958

Saleem's second exile

September 1958 - September 1962

Saleem "helps" Zulfikar plan the coup (p.332)

October 1958

Ayub Khan visits Zulfikar's house (p.329-332)

October 7, 1958

Saleem witnesses the exile of Mizra (p.333)

November 1, 1958

Jamila's talent is discovered (p.335)

September 1, 1962

Amina receives a telegram about Ahmed "heartboot" (p.337)

September 9, 1962

Amina and the children return to Bombay (p.338)

September 16, 1962

Saleem recontacts the Midnight's Children Conference (p.341)

October 9, 1962

MCC discovers that Saleem has closed his mind (p.341)

October 15, 1962

The Midnight's Children attack Saleem (p.241)

October 20, 1962

Saleem's sinus infection becomes severe (p.344)

November 1, 1962

Saleem has a sinus operation; loses his mind powers (p. 346)

November 21, 1962

The Sinais leave Bombay for Pakistan (p.349)

Feb 1963

The Sinai's arrive in Karachi (p.350)

February 9, 1963

Aadam Aziz leaves for Kashmir (p.317)

December 25, 1963

Aadam Aziz (?) steals hair of Muhammad (p.317-318)

December 27, 1963

Naseem and Pia arrive in Pakistan

1964

Saleem attends the wedding of Zafar and the Nawab's daughter (p.369)

1964

The Sinai family begins to fall apart (p.381)

1965

Zafar Murders Zulfikar (p. 385)

July 1965

Sinai family continues to fall apart

August 8, 1965

Bombs kill Naseem, Pia, Amina and Ahmed; Saleem "achieves purity" (p.390)

September 22 1965

Saleem is "wiped clean" (p.393)

September 23, 1965

Quotations having to do with the repetition of events in Saleem's life

Gandhi's assassination happens against the backdrop of the past

1948

"The love of Pia and Nayyar, against a background of Dal Lake and ice-blue Kashmiri sky, expressed itself in kisses applied to cups of pink Kashmiri tea" (162)

Ahmed's hand

January 1957

: “my father’s hand—walloping my ear in (conscious? Unintentional?) imitation of another, bodiless hand, which once hit him full in the face” (191)

Repetition is inevitable

September 1958

"There was no escape from recurrence" (326).

Is the house really a new beginning?

February 1963

“ ‘A new beginning,’ Amina said, “Inshallah, we shall all be new people now” (353).

Saleem's love for Jamila is a repetition of Aziz and Naseem

1964

“Pakistan fell in love with a fifteen-year-old girl whom it had only ever glimpsed through a gold-and-white perforated sheet” (359).

Rebirth for Saleem after the bombs

September 22, 1965

"After that there is only a tiny but infinite moment of clarity while I tumble forwards to prostrate myself before my parents' funeral pyre" (392).