"This process is 'multiply enriching' (Ibid), it opens new possibilities for each culture, reveals hidden 'potentials' (Ibid.), promotes 'renewal and enrichment' (Bakhtin, p. 271) and creates new potentials, new voices, that may become realisable in a future dialogic interaction."
"The aspiration of carnival is to uncover, undermine - even destroy, the hegemony of any ideology that seeks to have the final word about the world, and also to renew, to shed light upon life, the meanings it harbours, to elucidate potentials; projecting, as it does an alternate conceptualisation of reality."
Bakhtin's description of dialogism sheds light on Rushdie's style through Saleem's telepathic encounters. As he goes through others' thoughts, such as of a starving infant to the Prime Minister (page 199), Saleem literally reveals "hidden 'potentials'" that wouldn't have been made available unless he was able to connect telepathically. He uses run on sentences on page 194 in order to show his family's thoughts, like his father's fantasies about his secretaries or his uncle's sadness. New voices throughout India are introduced that reveal a different perspective on its culture and also the draining of culture (page 204 -"The businessmen of India were turning white" literally and metaphorically). Being able to listen to the nation's thoughts excites Saleem as first, but also pains him as he realizes his family's and country's issues and faults. "Soon the cracks will be wide enough for them to escape" (205) - perhaps referring to what Saleem gathers from everyone he hears and other midnight children?
Rushdie's decisions to make Saleem represent India is carnivalesque in my opinion because, as mentioned before, he uncovers what others are thinking and their motives for their actions. Rushdie adds a mystical element to this novel, changing what is seen as reality to Saleem and to the people around him.
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