What is the name of the narrator in Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children'?

The narrator of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” is Saleem Sinai. He tells the story of his life while reflecting on India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition.

Saleem is born at the exact moment India becomes independent: midnight on 15 August 1947. The novel links his personal history to the nation’s, giving him a symbolic identity as a child of independent India. He later discovers that children born during the first hour of independence possess extraordinary abilities, including telepathy.

Saleem’s narration is deliberately imperfect. He tells his story to Padma, his listener and future wife, and often mixes memory, exaggeration, historical fact, and magical events. That unreliability is central to the novel’s style rather than a mistake in the quiz question. Padma is an important character and audience within the story, but Saleem—not Padma, Aadam Aziz, or Shiva—is the narrator.