1salman, Rushdie, ‘The Empire Writes Back with a Vengeance’, The Times, 3 07 1982, p.8.Google Scholar

2Alistair, Niven, ‘Shaping the Language to the Landscape’, Times Literary Supplement, 09 14–20, 1990, p.981.Google Scholar

3 In this article I will be referring to the following editions of Rushdie's three novels: Midnight's Children, 1st publ. 1981; Picador edition 1982, Shame, 1st publ.1983; Picador edition 1984; The Satanic Verses, London: Viking 1988.Google Scholar

4Salman, Rushdie, ‘Imaginary Homelands’, London Review of Books, 7–20 10, 1982, pp.18–19 (p.19).Google Scholar

5Braj, B.Kachru, The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-native Englishes, Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English 1986, p.9.Google Scholar

6Chinua, Achebe, ‘The African Writer and the English Language’, in Morning Yet on Creation Day (first published 1975; London: Heinemann, 1982), p.61.Google Scholar

7Ann, Lowry, ‘Style Range in New English Literatures’, in the Other Tongue, ed. Braj, B. Kachru, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1992, pp. 283–298 (p.288).Google Scholar

8Peter, Young, ‘Tradition, Language and the Reintegration of Identity in West African Literature in English’, in Edgar, Wright, ed., The Critical Evaluation of African Literature, London: Heinemann 1973, pp. 39–41.Google Scholar

9Tariq, Rahman, ‘Linguistic Deviation as a Stylistic Device in Pakistani English Fiction’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 1990, Vol. XXV, No.1, pp. 1–11 (p. 9).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10Babu or baboo was originally a term of respect attached to a name but came to be a slightly disparaging term applied to clerks employed in English offices during the rule of the British in India, and hence to their form of English. See, Henry Yule and Burnell, A.C., Hobson-Jobson, : A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, 1st published 1886; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1969, p.44.Google Scholar

11Naik, M. K., Studies in Indian English Literature, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers 1987, pp. 17 & 18.Google Scholar

12Timothy, Brennan, Salman Rushdie and the Third World, Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Macmillan 1989, p. 125.Google Scholar

13Knut, Kristiansen, university lecturer in Hindi and Urdu at the University of Oslo, has confirmed this aspect of these Indian languages.Google Scholar

14 I am indebted to the Norwegian author, Axel Jensen and his wife Pratibha Jensen, for explanations of some of the Indian words and names in The Satanic Verses. In his book Gud leser ikke romaner: en vandring i Salman Rushdies verden, Oslo: Cappelen 1994 (My translation: God Doesn't Read Novels: A Ramble in Salman Rushdie's World), Jensen comments on the significance of the names used by Rushdie in The Satanic Verses. See pp. 38–40, 57, 80, 174 & 213.Google Scholar

15Lars, Erslev Andersen, ‘Romaner i en bastardkultur’, (My translation: ‘Novels in a Mongrel Culture’) Morgenbladet, 18–21 02, 1994, p.8.Google Scholar