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Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Exploring

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Binod Mishra
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Abstract

Arundhati Roy, a much sought- after Indian English writer keeps her readers glued to her
works not because of the fulminations but also because of her capability to capture the
complexity of human relationships in the flux of time. Like other contemporary novelists she
too calls her works fiction but they transcend what humans face every day though they pass
unnoticed. Roy's keen sense of observation and her grasp over psychological underpinnings
and her incisive eye arrests the undercurrents camouflaged under the quotidian human life
that remains oblivious to numerous crushed desires trampled under the heavy feet of
globalization responding to time and space making all the difference.

The present paper endeavours to explore the complexity of human relationships that not only
binds man to man but also distances him from his fellow humans. Human life is not as easy
as it appears and the demands of every age prompts us to make various compromises despite
the fact that 'its humdrum surface conceals at its heart a yolk of egregious violence' sparked
by political pundits weaving different patterns of meaning in an ever changing world order.
We are reminded of what Shakespeare says, “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good
and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes
would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.”

Keywords: human relationships, globalization, fulminations, complexity

***

Arundhati Roy's latest novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) is intricately woven into a web of
various characters, who strive and suffer because of their individual choices differentiating them into
two groups. The first group of characters belongs to hermaphrodite and creates their own world through
their passion for music and live life their own ways. Another group of characters though not suffering
from sexual anomaly also finds themselves misfit in the real world because of myriad problems. Roy's
array of multiple characters in this novel doesn't reflect her ideological differences against the so-
called idea of oneness, which according to her, is the enemy of this novel. In defence of her second novel,
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, she says:
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/70

It is a story that emerges out of an ocean of languages, in which a teeming ecosystem of living creatures
official –language fish, unofficial –dialect mollusks, and flashing shoals of
word fish—swim around, some friendly with each other, some
openly hostile, and some outright carnivorous. But they are all nourished by what the ocean provides.
And all of them, like the people in the Ministry, have no choice but to co-exist, to survive, and to try to
understand each other.

Roy's rebellious views may prompt over enthusiastic readers and critics to put her works into
ideological straitjacket exploding anti-establishment views. But such a notion belittles the stature of
Roy's realism. The depiction of caste that distances the true merit of individuals merely on the basis of
colour and class consciousness in her debut novel The God of Small Things itself contradicts as she
vehemently opposes the Communist government in the said work. Roy is not a slave to any ideology
despite vestiges of various transgressions in her work. While Velutha, the transgresses the boundary
much as other characters, his party men too transgress the limits of propriety and pooh-pooh the
established norms and party ideology while destroying the paravan. Neither the policemen nor
comrade Pillai relent while Velutha is smashed and his jaws and bones are broken beyond repair. Roy
seems best at portraying the social change that prompts the marginalized (both Velutha and Ammu) to
break the love laws and face the consequences. Aijaj Ahmed, despite finding several flaws in Roy's
first novel, is yet full of admiration for her realism as he rightly says:

A key strength of Arundhati Roy is that she has written a novel that has learned all that there is to be
learned from modernism, magic realism, cinematic cutting and montage and other such developments
of narrative technique in the 20th century, but a novel that nevertheless remains Realism in all its essential
features (Tickell 113).

The novel under discussion got published after two decades and the veteran writer continued her craft
of writing grounded in problems and issues affecting ordinary human lives. We have come a long way
and several significant developments have emerged worldwide. But Roy's question remains the same.
She carves stories out of several issues that appear less literary. Her response on the craft of writing
compelling non-fiction is not only an eye-opener but also thought-provoking. She says,

“For each essay, I searched for a form, for language, for structure and narrative. Could I write as
compellingly about irrigation as I could about love and loss and childhood? About the salinisation of
soil? About drainage? Dams? Crops? About structural adjustment and privatisation? About the per unit
cost of electricity? About things that affect ordinary peoples' lives? Not as reportage, but as a form of
storytelling? Was it possible to turn these topics into literature? Literature for everybody — including
for people who couldn't read and write, but who had taught me how to think, and could be read to?” (The
Wire, 18 May 2019).

Aijaz Ahmad's observations of Roy's masterpiece The God of Small Things as her 'sentimentally over
written prose'(Tickel 110) may find a remedy in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness where the narrative
flows quite lucidly as every day and commonplace language. The novel in question, if compared with
the first novel appears to disappoint ardent readers of Roy. But as a writer of exemplary mettle, she
succeeds in weaving the fragmented yarns comprising fact and fiction with equanimity. Serious
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/71

readers of literature not only enjoy the poeticity but also extract its essence in the after-effects of
globalization in the various forms of social change paving its way silently. The Ministry reminds
readers not only of the fulminations of another contemporary Indian novelist Aravind Adiga but also
takes us back to one-time champion of the deprived, Mulk Raj Anand. It's not unfair to record that both
Adiga and Arundhati are the extended selves of Anand. These writers seem not to sell their soul to
Mephistopheles but create fiction out of their crusade with the oddities of society with changing times.
It is this aspect of realism that surfaces repeatedly in Arundhati Roy's literary forte.

Since every writer depicts the age he/she lives in, Arundhati Roy too, is not an exception. But in doing
so, she does not sacrifice her dharma of a writer's vision. She is aware of the socio-cultural changes
taking place from time to time. Her reactions and rebellious views remind us of a celebrated English
poet and critic Matthew Arnold who in his famous essay on “Culture and Anarchy” had described the
present state as 'an upper class materialized, middles class vulgarized and lower class
brutalized'(Arnold). Arnold had advocated that culture should conceive of true human perfection as a
harmonious perfection which could develop all sides of our humanity as well as all sides of our
society. Roy, like Arnold reiterates that the excessive materiality and emergence of individuality
could not civilize society. Roy's dig on Capitalism, apart from other things can also be heard in
Aravind Adiga, who in The White Tiger and Last Man in the Tower fictionalizes his protest against the
capitalistic forces that alienate humans from each other. Balram Halwai in The White Tiger resorts to
violence and later establishes his entrepreneurial venture just to avenge his master's cruelties.
Likewise, Yogesh Murthy in Last Man in Tower wages a war to claim his space and right in a
capitalistic and consumerist world though he is eliminated by the builders. The act of both the heroes
appear rebellious but are not devoid of their growing epistemic strength.

Roy's The Ministry depicts various threads of protests manifested through a web of characters. The
story begins with the travails of Anjum alias Aftab, the son of Jahanara and Mulaqat Ali, who fail to
hide their son's unusual characteristics. Aftab's mother persuades him to undergo a surgery but the son
rebels and insists on living amid Hizras 'with painted nails and a wrist full of bangles' (Roy 19) and
longs to lift his salwar just a little 'to show off his silver anklets' (19). As luck would have it, Aftab
becomes Anjum--- a famous Hizra, and a disciple of Ustad Kulsoom Bi of the Delhi Gharana and later
participates in different political activities that upset the entire nation from time to time. Having spent
several years with fellow Hizras, Anjum feels disillusioned with the state of affairs at Khwabgah. She
yearns to live life like an ordinary person who could send her child off to school with her books and
tiffin box. A new ray of hope suddenly emerged one day at Jama Masjid where she found an unclaimed
and abandoned child whom she decided to adopt and explore some joys in rearing the three-year-old
infant. Anjum named her Zainab and proffered all her love on her. The child also responded to the
affection of Anjum and started calling the former her mummy and other inmates as auntie. The
novelist describes this new fond bond in the following lines: “The mouse absorbed love like sand
absorbs the sea. Very quickly she metamorphosed into a cheeky young lady with rowdy, distinctly
bandicoot like tendencies (that could only barely be managed)” (31).

Besides Anjum other members of the Khwabgah also yearned for viable relationships to carve their
identities. In this regard Zainab provided floodgates of filial emotion in Anjum and bred jealousy in
Saeeda who also wanted to possess the growing child. Having smelt of Saeeda's longings, Anjum got
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/72

cautious and blamed the former for any untoward incident, if any, in case of Zainab. Calling her illness a
result of Saeeda's black magic, she undertook a pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif to avert all evils befalling
Zainab. Anjum's absence provided Saeeda enough opportunities to snuggle with Zainab and substitute
Anjum's motherly care and concern to the extent that the child started calling Saeeda her mummy.

Roy as a keen observer of human nature delineates the fact that happiness is completely a feeling of
internal realization. While the inmates of the Khwabgah pretended to be happy, they faked happiness.
This feigned happiness seemed to offer a sort of retreat to the dreariness and debauchery present in the
real world. The novelist makes Khwabgah a mouthpiece to express her angst about the horrendous
realities of the real world. The ordinary people albeit are surrounded by external problems, the inmates of
the Khwabgah face the same internally. Roy not only refers to the unalterable truths and machinations
of the mundane realities governed by rules and regulations but also scoffs at them whole-heartedly:

'No one's happy here. It's not possible. Are Yaar, think about it, what are the things you normal people
get unhappy about? I don't mean you, but grown –ups like you – what makes them unhappy? Price-rise,
children, school-admissions, husbands beatings, wives cheatings, Hindu-Muslim riots, Indo-Pak war-
outside things that settle down eventually. But for us the price –rise and school –admissions and
beating-husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-
Pak is inside us. It will never settle down, it can't' (23).

The problems of hermaphrodite outnumber the problems of the common people as they undergo the
conflicts externally while the former suffers the battles of all kinds internally. Khwabgah represents
the microcosm of the civilized and normal human world which to the novelist is the macrocosm. Roy,
like a neutral observer, expresses the anguish of inmates' identity and also unveils its connections with
royal pride. Ustad Kulsoom Bi seems to safeguard the decline of the decreasing regal pride that
provided many ancient rulers the safe passage to their tangled relationships. What Kulsoom Bi says is
not an exaggeration but a harsh reality associated with the secrets of people in power:

'We are the Hizras of Shahjahanabad. Our rulers trusted us enough to put their wives and mothers in
our care. Once we roamed freely in their private quarters, the zenana, of the Red Fort. They are all gone
now, those mighty emperors and their queens. But we are still here. Think about that and ask yourselves
why that should be' (49).

Kulsoom Bi vouched for the historical significance of the Khwabgah though she cautioned her people
against the crumbling of its tradition. She reiterates that such a system still existed and it was not to be
written off. The novelist rightly mentions: “What mattered was that it existed. To be present in history
even as nothing more than a chuckle, was a universe away from being absent from it, from being
written out of it altogether. A chuckle, after all, would become a foothold in the sheer wall of the
future” (51).

Human relationships in the novel gain new meanings shrouded in many mysteries not only of the
inmates of Khwabgah but also of four university days' friends who in search of their vocation finally
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/73

separate and rejuvenate at intervals but in different avatars. Their relationships formulate during the
rehearsal of a drama but take different shapes because of the volatile political conditions. These
relationships are founded on love-hate syndrome spread by handful of people bent upon creating
splits in society just for some political advantage. Names act as referents to certain faiths and animals
become the symbols to ignite racial discrimination. Many characters in the novel change their names
just to protect themselves from the relentless mobocracy, which seems to have lost all rationale. Roy, a
realist, very subtly delineates the merciless murders of innocents in mob frenzy based on baseless
allegations. Anjum, a Muslim by caste is shuddered to hear the miserable plight of Dayachand alias
Saddam Hussain who had adopted this name simply because of his so-called bravery or butchery
against a throng of his avengers. Dayachand had closely watched the brutal murder of his father in the
name of cow-slaughter simply because he couldn't bribe the policeman, Sehrawat. It is quite
paradoxical that both Dayachand and Sehrawat belong to the same Hindu community which reveres
the cow as mother. Roy as a creative writer wants to awaken the sleeping and misguided mankind
from the slumber that has sealed their conscience. Her metaphoric ire against the deep-rooted malaise
keeps surfacing in the novel to show her authorial intent.

Roy creates stories within story rooted in a sort of disenchantment with the prevailing order that
destabilizes the harmony of fellow beings. What makes the novel exemplary is the novelist's
technique of weaving and connecting all other stories into a united structure. The novel apart from
depicting the tangled web of human relationships also hints at the split between two communities.
This is much in contrast with the inmates of Khwabgah which albeit comprises mostly Muslims yet it
welcomes people of other communities having different faiths. References to the conflicts between
two communities also get mentioned from time to time. The external forces, too, are found taking
disadvantage of the splits between two faiths: “The poet-prime minister of the country and several of
his senior ministers were members of an old organization that believed India was essentially a Hindu
nation and that, just as Pakistan had declared itself an Islamic Republic, India should declare itself a
Hindu one” (41). The lines in context are a dig at Indian maxim of Vasudhaib Kutumbakam, i.e the
entire world is one family. This gets shaken because of the divisive politics of our so-called
representatives who perturb the peace of millions of people just to gain access to the corridors of
power.

Roy does not side with any political party so far as her idea about politics is concerned. The change of
governments too fails to alter the fate of the commoners. The novelist makes a beautiful contrast
between the poet-prime minister's lisping with the trapped rabbit's timidity. The new prime minister's
timidity is described in the following lines:

He spoke like a marionette. Only his lower jaw moved. Nothing else did. His bushy white eyebrows
looked as though they were attached to his spectacles and not his face. His expression never changed.
At the end of his speech he raised his hand in a limp salute and signed off with a high, reedy Jai Hind
(82).

It's quite ironical to note that despite the change of guards at the centre nothing changes as such. One
community or the other becomes a victim of the years of rebellion simmering in the minds of people.
The killing of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the riot in Gujarat, The Kashmir problem are some such issues that
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/74

require due attention. But the craze for power keeps majority of political parties agog with dilly-
dallying, sometimes deviating the common masses in the glitter-glatter of globalization and yet at
other times soothing their bruises in the name of sympathy. This prompts many idealists to undertake
fast unto death, protesting against parochialism on the one hand and red tapism, on the other. The real
issues most often are relegated to the margins. The novelist graphically records:

The summer of the city's resurrection had also been the summer of scams—coal scams, iron-ore
scams, housing scams, stamp paper scams, phone scams, land-scams, dam scams, irrigation scams,
arms and ammunition scams, petrol –pump scams, polio-vaccine scams, electricity bills scams,
school –book scams, god-men scams, drought-relief scams, car-number-plate scams, voter-list
scams, identity –card scams—in which politicians, businessmen, businessmen-politicians and
politician-businessmen had made off with unimaginable quantities of public money (102-03).

The novelist is not oblivious to the fact of various relationships which fade because of the political
instability. The government policies seem to favor the elite masses and show disregard to the common
masses. People in power most often get shielded at the cost of the cold blooded murder of innocents
merely because of the fault of a handful of people or their faith. Craze for a consumerist culture pushes
the nativity ode into oblivion and the sprawling cities give everyone the illusion of a shining country
where pedestrians find little space either to relax or to revive their lost energies. In such a situation
people like Dr. Azad Bhartiya, a triple M.A in Hindi, Urdu, and History undertakes a strike for eleven
years. But ironically, this person is kept under surveillance mostly. He has become a crusader and is
ostracized by everyone yet what he says has ample substance: “Capitalism is like poisoned honey.
People swarm to it like bees. I don't go to it. For this reason, I have been put under twenty-four hours'
surveillance. I am under twenty-four hours' remote control electronic surveillance by the American
government” (129). It would be pertinent to quote the words of Natasha Walter, who in her review of
Roy's novel, writes: “By including so many voices Roy may be pressing the point that everyone is as
worthy of empathy as everyone else, but at times the effect, strangely, becomes the opposite.”

Much in contrast against fast unto death of Azad Bhartiya is the politicization of the death of a former
Prime Minister in 1984, which shook the entire nation. The fault of a body- guard brought nemesis to
the entire Sikh community. Biplab Das alias Garson Hobart, an important character of the novel,
describes the blind fury and violence in the following lines:

I was disgusted by the stupidity, the futility of it all, but somehow, I was not shocked. It could be that that
my familiarity with the gory history of the city I had grown up in had something to do with it. It was as
though the Apparition whose presence we in India are all constantly and acutely aware of had suddenly
surfaced, snarling, from the deep, and had behaved exactly as we expected it to (Roy 150).

The Kashmir issue raised in the novel also speaks volumes about the gimmick people in power are
engrossed with. The valley has become a hot bed of politics because of the sponsored Azadi syndrome,
leaving the common mass segregated and seething in anger, affecting their means of livelihood. The
confrontation between the armed forces and the recalcitrant Kashmiris has affected the peace and
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/75

harmony among people. The writer seems to sympathize with the local people and says: “So far in this
more than quarter-century –long conflict in Kashmir, it has paid off. Kashmiris mourned, wept,
shouted their slogans, but in the end they always went back home. Gradually, over the years, as it grew
into a habit, a predictable, acceptable cycle, they began to distrust and disrespect themselves, their
sudden fervours and their easy capitulations” (Roy 182).

The atmosphere of distrust misguides the immature and innocent youngsters trapped in the name of
saving and freeing Kashmir. The tug of war between the militants and the armed forces enables the
latter to make money in the name of fake encounters. A young misguided youth, Aijaj's narration
about his kidnappers' reveals the truth as he says: “They tortured me, they gave me electric shocks and
made me sign a blank sheet. This is what they do here with everybody. I don't know what they wrote on it
alter. I don't know what they have made me say in it. The truth is that I have not denounced anybody. The
truth is that I honour those who trained me in jihad more than I honour my own parents” (Roy 227).
Aijaj later reveals that the armed forces sold bullets to the jihadis and they never wanted the militancy
to end.

The novel also unfolds the tangled web of Tilo's life which is full of mystery. A foster child of a
Christian mother, Tilottama, one of Delhi University's Architecture students gets attracted towards
Musa though they take to their professions and get separated. This provides Biplab the chance to try
his luck. Attracted initially by Tilo's charm, he is at war with himself thinking what disarmed him
towards Tilo and says: “It's hard for me to describe someone who has been imprinted on me, on my
soul, like a stamp or a seal of some sort for so many years. I see her as I see a limb of mine –a hand, or a
foot' (153). But Tilo negates the question of marriage with anybody and hence this charm comes to an
end. Biplab, alias Garson, gets disappointed and his infatuation for Tilo also comes to an end.

Tilo, on the other hand, kept herself tied constantly to Musa and later married him. Musa's yearning
for Kashmir's freedom takes him to the disturbed valley where he stealthily starts a family but loses his
wife and daughter in police firing. He goes into hiding yet continues to be associated with Tilo. Soon,
people come to know about his death. It is later revealed that Musa had a dubious identity and he
created the fake news of his death. The insurgency in Kashmir affects and distances them yet they
maintain a secret bond. Tilo is trapped in Kashmir but because of Naga she is rescued to Delhi where
she marries him.

Roy as a novelist is not confined merely to literary creativity. As discussed earlier, her first novel The
God of Small Things also is not devoid of her political activism. This is amply justified in her later
writings grounded more in her poetics of protest than of sheer literary leanings. It is pertinent to quote
an observation of Geoffrey Ken, who in his article “Tuning (In or Out) the Big Voice of Arundhati Roy
Following The God of Small Things,” remarks:

Roy's persistent general focus has been and remains the exercise of power; within this domain, her
attention has passed through several phases from conflict between state or national government
agency and local within India to Indian development of nuclear weapons and Indo-Pak conflicts to
the United States' response to 9/11, and most recently to
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/76

the War on Terror what she regards as the militaristic Establishment of the American Empire. (Ken)

Tilo's marriage with Naga, the son of Ambassador Hariharan and their luxurious life loses its sheen
shortly. Out of exhaustion, Tilo leaves Naga as the former wanted 'an insular independence' (Roy 216).
She was tired of 'living a life that wasn't really hers at an address she oughtn't to be at' (Roy 231). While
Naga wanted to shine as a 'celebrity', Tilo wanted to sink into oblivion. When Naga was packing Tilo's
things to be put into a carton, he was wonderstruck by Mariam Ipe's medical reports that disclosed the
mother-daughter relationship. He later comes to discover that Tilo's individuality and her unusual
quirkiness was the result of her mother's influence on her. He failed to notice that distance from her
mother had an adverse effect on Tilo but Naga's realization was too late. The lack of companionship
not only forced her to live in a rented house but also to kidnap an unclaimed child at Jantar Mantar. But
this also didn't last long as the police started searching for the kidnapper and the suspicion lay on Tilo.
The mother of the unclaimed child had reported in the police who suspected Tilo's whereabouts. Tilo
was forced to seek shelter in Jannat Guest House established by Anjum and others.

What tangles human relations further in the novel is the mystery behind the kidnapped child later
named Miss Jebeen, the second. The real mother of the child, Revathy sends a letter to Dr. Azad stating
her miserable plight and the loathing relationship with the child. She admits with disdain that the child
was illegally begotten because the latter was conceived after her rape by police forces. Revathy had
joined Communist party just to avenge her father's atrocities on her mother. But because of her
rebellious ways, she was arrested by several policemen who had raped her one after another. She got
conceived and gave birth to the accursed child in the forest. She detested the child and named her
Udaya, who according to her, had river as mother and forest as father. The desertion of the child at
Jantar Mantar was the result both of Revathy's hatred of her and also of the hope that some good soul
would take care of the child. What Revathy discloses in her letter reveals the brutal face of armed
forces and the generous nature of recalcitrant people like Dr. Azad Bhartiya and others:

I saw many good people in Jantar Mantar so I had the idea to leave Udaya there. I cannot be like you
and them. I cannot go on hunger-strike and make requests. In the forest every day police is burning
killing and raping poor people. Outside there is you people to fight and take up issues. But inside there is
us only. So I am returned to Dandakaranya to live and die by my gun. (Roy 426-27)

Friendship and love as the foundations of every human relationship seem to fritter away because of
everyone's professional exigency. In this regard Tilo of the Delhi University friends' group keeps all of
them tied to one another because of her mysterious charm in mysterious ways. She initially attracts
Garson alias Biplab and Naga but these male members though not truly friends, maintain a sort of
adversarial relationship. The competing forces of friendship and love distance them both personally
and professionally making them rivals to each other. Musa's untimely exit from Tilo's life allows Naga to
show advances to her and later their marriage brings some fresh showers though short lived. While
Garson seethes in his lost longings for Tilo, his marriage with Chitra also suffers a breakdown even
after so many years. His desertion by his wife and daughters allows some room for his unfulfilled
romantic leanings towards Tilo. Years after he derives a faint satisfaction in renting out his apartment
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/77

to Tilo, the woman who in his 'weak, wavering way', he 'will never stop loving.'

Tilo finally seeks refuge in Jannat Guest House where she finds peace in the company of Anjum,
Saddam, Zainab, and Saeeda who are also living borrowed lives. Musa comes out of his hiding in
search of Tilo who had preserved his recoveries safely. He finally unites with Tilo and also makes
peace with Biplab alias Garson. Biplab also realizes the futility of all his years working in Bureau as
an intelligence officer bent upon toeing the right course of action though in the wrong manner just for a
little patch of land. His disillusionment with the state of affairs in Kashmir gives an eye opener to
what man has made of man. The novelist describes:

Kids on the streets with stones in their hands are facing down soldiers with guns; villagers armed with
sticks and shovels are sweeping down mountainsides and overwhelming army camps. If the soldiers
fire at them and kill a few, the protests just swell some more. The paramilitary are using pellet guns
that end up blinding people--- which is better than killing them…the world is inured to the sight of
piled-up corpses (Roy 429-30).

The aforesaid discussion substantiates that Roy is not a slave to any ideology. Her participation in
several social welfare programme and her outbursts against the politics of ideology have earned her
both brickbats and bouquets. Her humanistic concerns disseminated through several protests, articles
and pamphlets speak of her candour and courage required of an all-time humanitarian approach.
Continuing her tirade against the populist measures in any form that play divisive politics and
segregate one community from another lends her an edge over other contemporary writers. In her
latest novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, she disapproves of the governments in power
whether it be the Congress or the BJP. Her barb is against the power politics that marginalizes various
mellifluous relationships either marred or mirrored simply in the name of taboos.

The natural urge of humans to transgress the sacrosanct boundaries charted out in past hangs like an
Albatross around our necks though we may boast of living in a globalized world. It goes without
saying that Indian masses too have demystified the inter-racial marriages, live-in-relationships, and
other issues of sexuality once considered illicit. The depiction of such themes and their deliberations in
academia are no more considered profane. Hence, it is the guts, grit and gumption of Arundhati Roy,
who as a writer of realist fiction, doesn't dodge her responsibility but instead reiterates her vision and
imagination of tomorrow.

Thus, Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness weaves a story that depicts the gaps
and ruptures but finally untangles the web of human relationships by re-uniting the characters, who
despite various grievances against one another make peace. There are some characters who change
their names and identities but finally re-surface and reassess themselves for bringing harmony. In this
regard while Anjum is overjoyed to see her adopted daughter Zainab tying the knot with Saddam who
gets blessed to pay the last rites to his father murdered in cold blood. Musa gets united with Tilo while
Biplab mends his fences with Musa. Biplab's idea of starting a music channel with Naga emerges out
of his will to harmonize everyone lost on the sands of time. The shattered story of the novel gets
dovetailed with the unifying forces of love.
 Dr. Binod Mishra/Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Literary Voice September 2019/78

Works Cited

Ahmad, Aijaz. “Reading Arundhati Roy Politically” in Alex Tickell (ed.), Arundhati Roy's The God of Small
Things. London and New York: Routledge. 2007, Print
Arnold, Matthew. “Culture and Anarchy”, in Matthew Arnold: Selected Prose. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ([1869]
1970) Print.
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