Reflection of Violent World Order in Shalimar the Clown

Abstract

Salman Rushdie's latest novelShalimar the Clown(2005) is about the world badly shaken by terrorism and violence born of personal and communal animosity. The novel includes references ranging from the Second World War and the Nazi atrocity upon the French Jews to the rise of American military power and political interest in the world, to the destruction of the Himalayan state of Kashmir after the Indian independence of 1947 which gave birth to two nation states of India and Pakistan. At the personal level, the novel is about love, vows and broken vows, revenge, hope and despair. The novelistic characters are portrayed in their nobility as well as meanness: Maximilian Ophuls, the flying Jew and French resistance hero, himself turns a predator and seduces Boonyi the dancer thereby devastating her life; Shalimar Noman the clown becomes a calculating and cold blooded murderer. At the societal level, the peaceful and harmonious state of predominantly Muslim Kashmir is beset by religious violence. Many Kashmiris lose their life as the Pakistan-supported Muslim fanatics infiltrate Kashmir and wreck havoc upon the Hindu villagers, and the counter terrorist action of the Indian army in return do the same. Kashmir, the heaven of earth is finally devastated forever. This parable is applicable to the plight of themodern world which is very similar to war torn Kashmir.Shalimar the Clownin this light can be read and interpreted as a precautionary tale about the predicament of humanity in this planet.