Thinking activities The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

 I am Kishan Jadav. Student of the Department of English , MKBU.This blog is a part of my classroom thinking activity.This activity given by Barad Sir. In this blog I would like to talk about the one famous contemporary novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.

So first of all let's throw some light on writer.

Arundhati Roy :

Arundhati Roy, full name Suzanna Arundhati Roy, (born November 24, 1961, Shillong, Meghalaya, India), Indian author, actress, and political activist who was best known for the award-winning novel The God of Small Things (1997) and for her involvement in environmental and human rights causes.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness :

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.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness opens in a graveyard full of flying foxes, bats, crows, and sparrows. Lest the reader mistake it for a place of romantic wildness, it is also a place where the vultures have died of diclofenac poisoning, which is used to ease the pain of cows so that they’ll produce more milk. In the graveyard is Anjum, born a hermaphrodite, not technically a Hijra — a female trapped in a male body, as a doctor in the novel describes it.

1) Political issues in the novel :

We see a lot of political issues in this novel. It has also seen things that reflect the current political leaders. In which Narendra Modi, Kejriwal, Rajiv Gandhi etc. different political leaders are shown. All these things are presented in this novel in a way that we do not easily understand. It is very complicated to understand these things in this novel as the novel is divided into five sections. Kashmir is also mentioned in this novel. So at the present time it is a political issue. Terrorists carry out attacks in Kashmir and harass the locals. Like now they are also ready to become terrorists.

Indian history such as reform 2002 Godhra train burning and Kashmir insurgency

the right of the LGBT community

The reference of Emergency in 1975

2) Gender concerns in the novel

One word we find in many places in this novel is Hijra. The term is used for third gender. A boy and a girl are portrayed alike. The third gender has also been used along with it.

Neoliberalism and Globalization

Gender identities, caste and class hierarchies, the ills of neoliberalism and globalization are some of the major thematic concerns in Roy’s novel. When Anjum’s (Aftab) mother, Jahanara Begum, discovers a ‘girl-part’ in her child, she is shocked beyond belief. After three girl children, Aftab was supposed to be the ‘coveted’ boy who would carry forward the family name. Instead, the reality of begetting a Muslim “hijra” was not what Jahanara Begum was prepared for. She tries to cover up the child’s identity until it is no longer a plausible idea.for further Click here

Neoliberalism and Globalization

 3) Environmental concerns in the novel / Ecofeminist study

The way we look at feminism in a very different way at the present time also shows the map of ecofeminism which is inherently connected with nature. Discussions have taken place within many fields of feminism. Feminism is associated with the environment. From this arose a new term called ecofeminism. Even in this novel we can see ecofeminism. Throughout Kashmir, women are extremely insecure, and the consequence is their bravery to take to the streets to continue their lives. Khadija, a woman from Kashmir tells Tilottama about her stamina and self-confidence. The shalwar kameez, hijab and the pheran offer them a sense of security commended by Tilottama. The nation, which is devastated by strife over years, implicates diverse magnitudes of suppression as of women, “Women are not allowed. Women are not allowed.

4.Narrative pattern in this novel :

This novel is very long divided into five parts so you're not directly understanding the narrative pattern. The narrative in this novel changes from first person to third person.Roy uses varied narrative techniques like epistolary, stream of consciousness, pamphlets, news articles, hospital records, photographs, poems, addressed to an unknown character etc. The novel starts with the setting of the graveyard, then moves backward to Shahjahanabad, Delhi then to Khwabagh or the House of Dreams to the Jannat Guest House.

Thank you😊