Thinking Activity : The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Hello Readers ,

I am Aditi Vala and I am student of Department of English, MKBU. This blog is a part of my classroom thinking activity and this activity given by Dr.Dilip Barad Sir. In this blog i would like to said about the famous writer Arundhati Roy's novel " The Ministry of Utmost Happiness ".

                          First of all we can discuss basic information about the author and novel  ;

Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.

 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is the second novel by Indian writer Arundhati Roy, published in 2017, twenty years after her debut, The God of Small Things

 

1)Political issues in the novel

 The novel discusses political issues such as Godhra kand, when Anjum went to Ajmer and riots were broken like anything. Another issue is the Kashmir issue. It's very horrible. It's connected with territories and the Indian Military. Another major issue was discussed at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and in an emergency in 1975. Where all stats people are gathered for various issues. In this, all Godhra kand and Kashmir issues are major things.

 2) Gender Issue in the Novel

 As Danish Suleman writes in the article, since ancient times the culture has been split into the weak and dominant, where vulnerable people are subjected to the dominance and flattery of society's authoritative class and hence become the perpetrators of paranoia. In society they have no name and life. Their identity is at stake, or they live with a decapitated uniqueness. They are the miserable species in this world who have no experience, thus are the perpetrators of deep lowliness and feel always terrified to be insulted. This study addresses transgender abuse and identity crisis at the root of the gender identity issue. Gender identity insinuates a person's identity due to the level of feminine or masculine characteristics in an adult that conforms to the traditional concept of society as a male or female. A person's gender identity is a psychological component of an individual's sexual orientation. In an article, “Let Us to Live: Social Exclusion of Hijra Community”, Hijra (Eunuch) or Transgender has been identified by Sibsankar Mal (2015) as “an umbrella term to signify individuals who defy rigid, binary gender constructions and who express or present a breaking and blurring of culturally prevalent stereotypically gender roles”.

We have two genders in our thoughts, minds, everywhere. And apart from that third gender community people didn't get a place in society. They have to fight for their rights. This problem is discussed by Roy in this novel.

3) Environmental Concern in the Novel

 In the novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" various environmental issues are raised by Arundhati Roy. Issues ranging from Indian vulture crises, deforestation, dismal condition of migrants and quarry workers, predicament of captivated zoo animals, deficient health facilities, scum-laden rivers, mushrooming slums, mounting poverty, speedily increasing dumping grounds, unplanned urbanization, unrestricted consumer indulgence, enslavement of Adivasi (tribal) girls and genetic modification have been comprehensively studied.

She writes to inspire action and encourage her readers to participate in the process of nation-building and for creating a more sustainable planet (Syed  Wahaj).

We see a dung beetle is portrayed as earth saver here. With the point of nature Roy includes  insects, birds, animals and they are playing a pivotal role in their life which are connected with human life and their actions and activities affect them. The important aspect was about Vultures.

4.) Narrative patterns in the novel.

The storey begins in the strange setting of a necropolis, illustrating the long litany of necropolitics created by India's compromised pseudo-democratic structure in the grip of political scandals. The novel begins with the storey of Anjum, a trans-woman, or more accurately, a woman trapped in a man's body, according to the novel's framework. The main stream of the storey builds up a dystopian society, providing the readers a catastrophic warning, whilst Roy develops a utopia, guided by Anjum, that is built up by the society's rejects. This is the way the storey unfolds.

 

 Thank You...