Celebrating Multiculturalism: Politics of Inclusion in Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Abstract

This research work is a study of Haroun and the Seaof Storiesof Salman Rushdie which has a reference of two different nations–Chupland and Gupland. First kind of nation is fundamentalist that censors people's rights to free speech and narrative and the later one is performative nation that respects people's rights to free speech and narratives Rushdie prefers later type of nation i.e. performative nation but does not isolate the first one. His main concern is to construct a single multicultural nation. In the novel, fundamentalist Chupland and performative Gupland are merged and a Utopia named Chupland formed. The newly formed nation is the dream model of Rushdie where every citizen is treated in equal footing. People tell their respective cultural narratives that lead them to state of negotiation. After the negotiation, the nation gets changed. So, Rushdie's nation is multicultural, that serves mini-narratives and is constructed and reconstructed in course of time.