STRIPPING OFF HUMANITY IN SALMAN RUSHDIE’S SHALIMAR THE CLOWN

Abstract

This article focuses on the transformation of an innocent clown into an
international terrorist in Salman Rushdie’s novel ‘Shalimar the Clown’. It shows the
globalization of terror, intricately mingling lives and countries and finding unexpected
and sometimes tragic connections between the seemingly disparate. This article
reminds that nationhood and identity are not one and the same. People are too mutable
to be contained by borders, too good at shape-shifting, and yet, wars are still fought in
spite of this knowledge. Sometimes a person fights for an idea, other times he does so
because someone has stolen his wife. The novel delves deep into the roots of terrorism
and explores the turmoil generated by different faiths and cultures attempting to coexist
and shows the global consequences of actions and emotions like love, honour, betrayal
and revenge.