Introduction

            Rushdie is best known as the author of The Satanic Verses (1988), the book condemned by many Muslims as an insult to their religion. Former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for the execution of Rushdie and his publisher, forcing the author into hiding from bounty hunters for almost a decade until the publication of The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). With this latest work, Rushdie chose to return to limited public exposure, and some critics have found evidence in the book to suggest that Rushdie has reconciled himself to life under threat of death. Salman Rushdie (1947- ) was born in Bombay to Muslim parents, but sent to England in 1961 for his education. He has taken a degree in History from Cambridge University and has written Grimus (1975), Midnight's Children (1981), Shame (1983),The Satanic Verses (1989) and The Last Moor's Last Sigh (1995). The novels of Salman Rushdie deal with the representation of India (even though his boyhood was spent in Pakistan to where his family migrated after the partition) as seen by an exile. Actually Rushdie’s novels, deeply immersed in rootlessness, try to recreate the past and analyze the uncertainty of the migrant. Magic realism, transculturation and hybridity emphasize the historical importance of Hindu mythology and the pluralistic nature of Indian society.