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50 free Midnight's Children trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Midnight's Children trivia quiz covers Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel from its first page to its afterlife. You will meet Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947 with a telepathic gift and a perpetually dripping nose, his nemesis Shiva of the Knees, Parvati-the-witch, the midwife who swapped two babies, and the Widow whose Emergency ends the children's powers. The questions move from the plot and the sprawling cast to the book's prizes, the Indira Gandhi lawsuit, the word chutnification, the aborted BBC series and the 2012 Deepa Mehta film shot secretly in Colombo with a script Rushdie sold for one dollar. The early questions are friendly to anyone who has read the opening chapters; the late ones reward readers who remember the boatman Tai, the CUTIA dog unit and a 512-year-old courtesan. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote Midnight's Children?
Salman Rushdie
It was only his second novel, yet it is widely credited with launching the 'post-Rushdie' decade of Indian writing in English.
Q 02Who is the narrator and protagonist of the novel?
Saleem Sinai
Saleem tells his own life story aloud to Padma, his wife-to-be, in a structure the novel likens to the Arabian Nights.
Q 03At what exact moment is the narrator born?
Midnight, 15 August 1947
The timing makes him precisely as old as independent India, and the novel treats the two biographies as one.
Q 04In which year was the novel first published?
1981
Jonathan Cape published it, with a cover design by Bill Botten.
Q 05Which major literary award did the novel win in the year it came out?
The Booker
It went on to be named Booker of Bookers in 1993 and Best of the Booker in 2008.
Q 06What special prize did the novel receive in 1993 for the award's 25th anniversary?
Booker of Bookers
It repeated the feat in 2008, taking the Best of the Booker for the prize's 40th anniversary.
Q 07During which hour are all the gifted children of the novel born?
Midnight to 1 a.m.
Those born closest to the stroke of midnight wield the most powerful gifts.
Q 08What special power does Saleem use to gather the other children?
Telepathy
He convenes a Midnight Children's Conference, a mirror of the young nation's divisions over language, religion and politics.
Q 09Saleem's nemesis is known by which body-part nickname?
Of the Knees
He is the 'knees' in the prophecy of knees and nose, while Saleem is the nose.
Q 10What is the nickname of the girl from the conjurers' ghetto who befriends Saleem?
The witch
She is the only one of the children to become Saleem's friend, and later his wife under the name Leylah Sinai.
Q 11Into how many books is the novel divided?
Three
Book One covers roughly 1915 to 1947, before Saleem is even born.
Q 12In which jungle does Saleem recover his memory during a quasi-mythical exile?
The Sundarbans
He had suffered amnesia through the wars on the subcontinent before reconnecting with his childhood friends.
Q 13Which Indian prime minister's Emergency ends the potency of the midnight's children?
Indira Gandhi
Saleem is held as a political prisoner during the period, and the passages are scathing about her lust for power.
Q 21Who staged a theatrical adaptation of the novel in 2003?
The Royal Shakespeare Company
A planned BBC mini-series with Rahul Bose had collapsed a few years earlier when its filming permit was revoked.
Q 22Who directed the 2012 film of Midnight's Children?
Deepa Mehta
Rushdie wrote the screenplay himself, paring the 600-page book down to 130 pages.
Q 23Which actor played the narrator in the 2012 film?
Satya Bhabha
Mehta had wanted Imran Khan but could not afford him, and cast Bhabha after seeing video of him in a play.
Q 14Which German novel is it often compared to for fusing personal and national biography?
The Tin Drum
Günter Grass's Oskar Matzerath and Rushdie's Saleem Sinai both narrate their nations through their own bodies.
Q 15What word did Rushdie coin in the novel for adding Indian elements to English culture?
Chutnification
Fittingly, the narrator ends up working in a pickle factory.
Q 16To whom does Saleem recount his life story aloud?
Padma
Padma Mangroli, plump, muscular and hairy, plays the listener in the novel's storytelling frame.
Q 17Who sued over the novel in the British courts in 1984?
Indira Gandhi
A single sentence in chapter 28 was the issue; the case was settled when Rushdie agreed to remove it.
Q 18Where did the novel place on the BBC's 2003 Big Read poll of best-loved novels?
Number 100
The poll surveyed the UK's favorite books of all time.
Q 19Roughly how many copies has the novel sold in the UK alone?
Over one million
Its sales and prizes made the 1980s the 'post-Rushdie' decade for the Indian English novel.
Q 20Which BBC radio program gave the book its one memorable bad review?
Kaleidoscope
Presenter Sheridan Morley kept begging the critic to find something to praise; the critic refused.
Q 24For how much did Rushdie say he sold the film rights to the novel?
$1
He told the BBC about the token sum; he and Mehta had first considered adapting Shalimar the Clown.
Q 25In which city was the 2012 film secretly shot?
Colombo
Mehta feared protests in Pakistan and from Gandhi-family loyalists in Mumbai, so cast members signed secrecy clauses.
Q 26Which country's complaint briefly halted filming in Sri Lanka?
Iran
Mehta appealed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who let shooting continue.
Q 27What was the film's working title during the shoot?
Winds of Change
Filming lasted 69 days and used 800 extras.
Q 28At which festival did the film premiere in September 2012?
Toronto
It was later nominated for Best Picture and seven other categories at the first Canadian Screen Awards.
Q 29Which streaming service announced, then abandoned, a series adaptation in 2018?
Netflix
Showrunner Vishal Bhardwaj walked away over a special-effects budget Netflix would not agree to.
Q 30Who was to star in the BBC's aborted 1990s mini-series of the novel?
Rahul Bose
Bose eventually appeared in the 2012 film instead, as General Zulfikar.