This blog post is the response to the thinking activity on Documentation: Preparing the List of Works Cited given by our professor ma'am Ms.Megha Trivedi.
Arundhati Roy is one of the prominent authors in Indian English Literature. Her major writings covered the political, social, economic,
Is novel the right word, though? I hesitate. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, hulking, sprawling story that it is, has two main strands. One follows Anjum, a hijra, or transwoman, struggling to make a life for herself in Delhi. The other follows Tilo, a thorny and irresistible architect turned activist (who seems to be modeled on Roy herself), and the three men who fall in love with her. But as was true of The God of Small Things, there is more than a touch of fairy tale in the book’s moral simplicity—or clarity, if you’re feeling charitable. Roy will say of a character, “He was a very clean man. And a good one too,” and he is swiftly, unequivocally pinned to the page. (Sehgal)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a curious beast: baggy, bewilderingly overpopulated with characters, frequently achronological, written in an often careless and haphazard style and yet capable of breathtakingly composed and powerful interludes. The idea that the personal is political and vice versa informs its every sentence, but it also interrogates that assumption, examining its contours and consequences.
We begin with Anjum, who has taken up residence, for reasons that gradually unfold, in a graveyard, where she lives “like a tree” (part of the natural world, unspeaking, all-seeing is one interpretation; attempting to avoid notice another), but also as a “mehfil”, “a gathering. Of everybody and nobody, of everything and nothing. Is there anybody else you would like to invite? Everyone’s invited.” And indeed, over the course of the novel, Anjum’s graveyard home comes to function as a secular, or at least multifaith, sanctuary, protected by willpower from the turbulent outside world. (Clark and Myers)
Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness presents the shattered stories of misfits and weirdoes. The marginal people are suppressed under the socio-political structure of the government guided by the Hindu ideology in the novel. According to the novelist, after the rise of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the political system, Muslims, Dalits, women and other ethnic minorities are thought to be out of the social structure. India has stood as a federal democratic country in the world with its stratified societies of diverse culture, ethnicity and religions. The novelist believes that a true democratic state ought to accept and tolerate different ideologies. It must accept pluralism and tolerance. The accretion of monolithic vision over governing the nation aggravates the social harmony, which lessens the individual potential, subjectivity and agency. Thus, the literary writings of postcolonial India have become one of the important hidden scenes to reflect the biased policies of the nation that hinders the citizens’ potentiality. (Aryal)
Roy effortlessly captures the love Anjum feels for an abandoned child named Zainab, whom she adopts as a daughter; and the friendship she develops with a young man who calls himself Saddam Hussain and who also takes up residence in the graveyard. Roy’s depiction of Tilo and Musa’s furtive romance in Kashmir has a cinematic quality — a reminder of her work as a screenwriter — as well as a genuine poignancy and depth of emotion. (Kakutani)
It’s when Roy turns from the specifics of her characters’ lives and tries to generalize about the plight of India that her writing can grow labored and portentous: “Normality in our part of the world is a bit like a boiled egg: its humdrum surface conceals at its heart a yolk of egregious violence. It is our constant anxiety about that violence, our memory of its past labors and our dread of its future manifestations, that lays down the rules for how a people as complex and as diverse as we continue to coexist — continue to live together, tolerate each other and, from time to time, murder one another.” (Kakutani)
Book Review by ChatGPT:
"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is a novel written by Arundhati Roy that takes the reader on a journey through the complexities of India's social and political landscape. At its core, the book is about the search for happiness and love in a world that is rife with inequality, violence, and injustice.
The novel follows the lives of several characters who are all connected in some way. The main character, Anjum, is a transgender woman who runs a guest house in Delhi. The other characters include Tilo, a woman who has a complicated love life; Musa, a Kashmiri militant; and Saddam Hussain, a young boy who grows up in a slum in Delhi. The book is set against the backdrop of India's recent history, including the rise of Hindu nationalism, the conflict in Kashmir, and the riots in Gujarat. Roy does an excellent job of weaving these events into the narrative of the book, without ever losing sight of the human stories at the heart of the novel.
One of the key themes of the book is the struggle for identity and belonging. All of the characters in the book are searching for a place where they can be themselves and feel accepted. Anjum, in particular, is a powerful example of this theme. As a transgender woman, she has faced discrimination and rejection her entire life. Yet she is determined to live her life on her own terms and find happiness in the world around her. Another theme of the book is the power of love to overcome even the most difficult of circumstances. Tilo, in particular, embodies this theme. Despite facing numerous obstacles and challenges in her relationships, she remains committed to the people she loves and is willing to make sacrifices for them.
One of the most striking aspects of the book is its use of language. Roy has a unique and poetic writing style that immerses the reader in the world of the book. Her descriptions of people, places, and events are vivid and evocative, and she has a talent for capturing the emotional nuances of her characters' lives. At times, the book can be difficult to follow due to its nonlinear structure and the sheer number of characters involved. However, this is a minor quibble given the depth and complexity of the novel as a whole. "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that offers a unique perspective on contemporary India. It is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and a celebration of the power of love and acceptance to bring people together. Anyone who is interested in exploring the complexities of modern India and the human experience more broadly will find much to enjoy in this book.
Work Cited
Aryal, Binod. “Reading Polity from the Margin in Arundhati Roy’s the Ministry of Utmost Happiness.” SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities, vol. 4, no. 1, 2022, pp. 77–86., https://doi.org/10.3126/sjah.v4i1.43057.
Clark, Alex, and Benjamin Myers. “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy review – a patchwork of narratives.” The Guardian, 11 June 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/11/ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-review. Accessed 14 March 2023.
Kakutani, Michiko. “Arundhati Roy's Long-Awaited Novel Is an Ambitious Look at Turmoil in India (Published 2017).” The New York Times, 5 June 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/books/review-arundhati-roy-ministry-of-utmost-happiness.html. Accessed 14 March 2023.
Sehgal, Parul. “Review: ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,’ by Arundhati Roy.” The Atlantic, 15 August 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/arundhati-roys-fascinating-mess/528684/. Accessed 14 March 2023.
OpenAI. ChatGPT. OpenAI, 2021, https://openai.com/. Accessed 9 March 2023.
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