Is Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children an example of historical fiction?

I think that many consider Rushdie's work to be an example
of historical fiction.  Being true to form about his own capacity as an artist, Rushdie
might hold some views on the subject.  If one considers historical fiction to be
something that has to be more on the side of the "history" as opposed to the "fiction,"
then I think that there are some  The most elemental is that we, as the reader,
understand what happens in the work through the eyes of Saleem.  We take what he gives
us about the time period and this becomes a source of where the historical fiction
content has to be questioned.  Saleem is not the most reliable of narrators.  For those
who are driven by historical fiction reflecting historical reality, this becomes a
challenge.  For Rushdie, though, it is a source of liberation because the unreliable
narrator allows him to explore the freedom by which he is so animated in both his
beliefs and in the message of the work, itself.  Consider his own words on this
subject:

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Many readers wanted it [the book] to
be the history, even the guidebook, which it was never meant to be; others resented it
for its incompleteness, pointing out, among other things, that I had failed to mention
the glories of Urdu poetry, of the plight of the Harijans, or untouchables, or what some
people think of as the new imperialism of the Hindi language in South India. These
variously disappointed readers were judging the book not as a novel, but as some sort of
inadequate reference book or encyclopaedia... History is always ambiguous. Facts are
hard to establish, and capable of being given many meanings. Reality is built on our
prejudices, misconceptions and ignorance as well as on our perceptiveness and knowledge.
The reading of Saleem's unreliable narration might be, I believed a useful analogy for
the way in which we all, every day, attempt to 'read' the
world.

In the end,
I think that Rushdie's work, like Rushdie, himself forces the reader to assess reality
beyond categorical distinctions, and engage in a reflective exercise about ourselves and
our experiences that forces us to question what defines genre, literature, and
historical reality.