Hello! This blog is assigned by Dr. Dilip barad sir. It deals with Arundhati Roy’s second novel ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’. As a task, we are assigned three questions and from them, this blog deals with Characters, Narrative plot, and facts and fiction from the novel.
MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS
Arundhati Roy
Points to ponder while writing a blog -
2) Three points: Characters, fact and fiction, and narrative. [The blog itself]
-In brief About Arundhati Roy and The Novel:
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author and political activist, best known for her debut novel "The God of Small Things" which won the 1997 Man Booker Prize. Roy is also a vocal critic of Indian government policies and has been actively involved in various social and political issues in India, including human rights, nuclear weapons, and the treatment of marginalized communities. She also has been involved in environmental issues and anti-development movements. Roy's writing often addresses the complexities of Indian politics, history, and society, and she is considered one of the most significant voices in Indian literature. She is known for her powerful, evocative writing style and her ability to bring attention to important social and political issues.
The novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" by Arundhati Roy is a work of fiction. The novel is set in India and touches on themes and issues that have affected the country in the past and present, such as political corruption, the caste system, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Additionally, it covers the human rights and social issues of marginalized communities such as transgenders, hijras, and lower castes.
-Characters
-The Narrative Plot
The novel begins in Jannat Graveyard with a surreal image. “She lived in a graveyard like a tree..” This turns out to be an Anjum as we move in the story.
One of his clients who used to speak English said Anjum’s name is opposite to ‘Majnu’ but He was wrong Anjum means ‘Mehfil’. Ziauddin- The blind man comes to meet Anjum.
In the second chapter, we enter Khwabgah. (back story of Anjum) Anjum was born as Aftab to Jahanahar begum and Mulakat Ali, Aftab had born with the genitals of both male and female. Ahlam Baiji, a midwife announced that a boy child was born everyone was happy but the mother was not. But she thought that female genitals will seal with time and he will grow like a boy and so hid this fact from everybody. Jahanara had a series of reactions along with dying and killing a child also. And then the word ‘Hijra’, Kinnar’ was there in the world for the people like this child but this word didn't form a language. There comes a wonderful concept of the World outside the Khwabgah is Duniya- ‘Duniya wale’, The world of Khwabgah is introduced, and other characters living there.
Back life of Aftab. Aftab in the market saw a beautiful lady and followed him and reached Khwabgah later on we come to know that she was Bombay Silk. Kulsoombi was the leader of this Khwabgah haveli and she was very proud of the Hijra community, this haveli was built by the Mughal emperor and a special place and respect were given to Hijras in the Mughal empire. Kulsoombi used to take all these Hijras to Red fort where there was a light and sound show that used to show the history of Mughal emperors as it also reflected the special place of Hijras who used to take care of Mughal emperor wives. Here Roy signifies that is erasing the story of the Mughals and writing about the Rajput kings we are somewhere easing the story of Hijras also. in rewriting history, we erase many identities.
Jahanara Begum realizes the female genitals in Afatab are not vanishing and so she takes her to the Dargah of Hazrat Sarmad. there comes a consequence story of Sarmad. He came from the Iranian reign/ Argentinian to Delhi in the love with Abhaychand. He adopts Islam and also disowns it after some time. He used to road naked in the time of King Aurangzeb. He was caught and was asked to recite the whole ‘Kalima’ but he recite only ‘Laa Illaha’ which means there is no god and he was beheaded on the steps of Jama Masjid. Roy compares it with a post-modern element with a motorist, as a motorist is picking up his helmet, Sarmad is picked up his head and went to heaven.
Jahanhara had to talk about Aftab's reality to Mulakat Ali, He is an Hakim who makes medicine and he tells that he would have been told earlier they might have done some medicine but now it is too late. Mulakat Ali is not happy to live with a third-gender child. There comes a backstory of Mulakat Ali. there comes a reference to Changez khan- he was anti-Islam and considered a sky god. But one of his children after winning the Arabic world, came in contact with Islam and adopted Islam religion and spread it wide. On the other side, there comes a story of Changez Khan as a lover, His wife was Borte Khartum; he fought for his wife. There is a reference to Ramayan also where Rama goes for 14 long years canvas everyone cam to give him farewell, he addressed male and female and asked to return but forgot to address the third gender and they stood there for fourteen long years as they were not asked to return.
Aftab at the age of 14- 15 decides to live in Khwabgah as it's near to their house so he could be easily taken care of. Anjum starts her own life. Suddenly on the day she went out and visited Jama Masjid and there they found a child of around three years, Zainab, and they brought her to Khwabgah. She always had a cry for motherhood but medication didn't help. Anjum becomes the mother of Zainab. There comes the character of Saeed who is seen as Anti- anjum. Anjum was demanded at a young age her interviews were taken, and she was a hot favorite of Hijra. But Saeeda takes that place. Anjum feels Saeeda did black magic on Zainab and takes her to Ajemre Sharif with Zakir Mian. Zakir had relatives in Gujarat and they come to Gujarat. It was the period of 2002 and there comes the scene of Godhra kand. The riots were going on in response to it. Suddenly the connection was lost back is homeland, Sakim goes to find them and he finds the completely changed and new Anjum. She has lost her charm and connection with Zainab also. She starts dressing Zainab in a boy's dress, and the trauma of the riots changed her. On asking she says Zakir Mian was terribly killed there but she was spared as she was Hijra. She started flaunting himself as a man and started going against Kulsoombi’s rules. She left the Khwabgah and moves to Graveyard/ Jannat.
Anjum constructs them one by one room with help of Gupta in the graveyard and creates a Janat guesthouse. Here the story comes back to the beginning where Anjum is talking with Ziaudding- Blind Imam.
Further, Jannat Guesthouse gets one permanent guest Sadam Hussein (Muslim). He introduces himself as working in a government hospital near the graveyard and there comes satire of doctors who instruct the lower caste people to do works like postmortem and they are disgusted. Sadam has left his job and is working as a security guard with an agency handled by Sangeeta madam and presents the corruption of all these private agencies. Sadam was caught lying that he is Muslim which was caught by Anjum. Then comes a back story of Sadam, His real name was Dayachand, a Chamar from Haryana. In his childhood, his father used to do a job of skinning the skin of dead animals. It refers to the leaching of Dalits in Una, Gujarat which has happened in Haryana in the Novel. His father was caught by Shehrawat, he was standing outside the police station as his father went for negotiation. But then suddenly there was a group of people coming after the Dusshera celebration with slogans like ‘ jai Shree Ram’. Shehrawat called people that he has caught one who kills cows and Dayachand’s father was hitten and killed by a group of people. He says that when he came to Delhi, he saw America was hanging Sadam Hussein which was coming on tv, even when he was being hanged there was a sense of dignity on his face. So he adopted his name thinking one day he will also take revenge on Shehrawat and will be confident like Sadam.
Moving to Jantar Mantar/ protest site in New Delhi scene. A group from Jannat Guest house decides to go to Jantar Mantar as there was a lot of news about protests and people gathering. Reaching there they raised that it was not only one protest but many. The list of protests is-
- Tubby Old Gandhian and supporters.
- Mothers of Disappeared- Kashmiri mothers
- Manipur nationalist; women against ARSPA
- Delhi Kabadiwala
- Bhopalis- against union carbide [gas kand]
- One who wanted Hindi as the national language.
There also comes a reference to Irom Chanu Sharmila who was on the longest fast and story about it. The prominent figure Dr. Azad Bharti was protesting at Jantar Mantar for the last 11 years, he has adopted the name ‘Azad’. On the footpaths a small baby was found, Anjum decides to take the baby but others defended themselves as they were hijras, and there come Mr. Agarwal who fights with Anjum, and the police were called. Suddenly the baby was lost. Here the episode of Jantar Mantar ends.
The world of Kashmir. The novel is in the third person but here suddenly in the Chapter named ‘Landlord’ the narration changes to the First person, narrated by BiplavDas Gupta, He is in I.B. (Intelligence Bureau). S. Tillotama, is working in an architectural program in Delhi. They both were studying in the same college and were working on the same drama. Nagaraj Hariharan and Musa Yeswi, all these four characters are four friends in College. Musa becomes a terrorist, Hariharan Journalist, S. Tillotama is found in Kashmir around Musa. Tillo was non- Kashmir lady caught in Kashmir, she referred Biplav and was saved by Nagarjuna, Later after living together for fourteen years with Nagarjuna they got married. After many years she is found in Delhi, living in a rented room given by Biplav. When he is introduced he has just returned from Kabul and is visiting a rehabilitation center as he has turned Drunkard. His wife is Chitrarupa and his two daughters Rabia and Ania. The baby which was lost from Jantar Mantar was taken by Tillo. Dr. Azad suggests she keep/ give the baby in Jannat's guesthouse and this way they all get connected. The baby is known as Jebeen (later, Jebeen, the second). Musa, his wife Arifa, and their daughter lived in Kashmir. Accidentally Musa’s wife and daughter were killed in an encounter by security forces. And this caused Musa to be a terrorist. All this has a wonderful description in the novel.
Cap Amrik Singh was one who believed violence is necessary and many times killed many without any strong grounds. Once Jalil Qadri (famous among Kashmiri) was caught in simple checking by Amrik Singh and Later Qadri’s dead body was found in river Jehlum. People were angry and even team members of Amrik were against him, so Amrik and Lavllen left Kashmir and went to Jammu. But still, as they didn't feel safe there they went to Canada and from there to America and were living in California. There came the news of Amrik Singh killing his family and did suicide. The doubt arose that there must be some terrorists, might be Musa who went to California and killed them. It remains the secret in the novel, along with whose Jebeen first. Tillo was found missing so Baiplav went to her apartment, he found many documents and photos which made Bipav realize that Tillo knows a lot of behind things. Nagaraj Harihar who is a Journalist, and terrorist felt he is writing for them but he was the handler of the government. IB used to give him information that was to be leaked and it seemed as if a journalist has done an investigation. Nagaraj was also unaware that he was being used. Nagraj with an interview with Aijaz gets to know how terrorist groups work.
By the time, Sadam proposed to marry Zainab, they were married a month later. Dr. Azad came with a letter written to him at Jannat guesthouse by Revathy, she is the mother of Udaya (the baby found at Jantar Mantar) who was named Jebben, the second by Tio in memory of his friend Musa and his wife Arifa. Later the baby was known as Udaya Jebeen.
[in the last 20 pages there is a long letter written by Revathy of 9 pages]
The letter brings a tragic story of tribal people who saved the forest. Revathy was raped by six police officers and Udaya was the daughter of this rape. She is the daughter of 6 fathers and 3 mothers (Tillo, Revathy, Anjum). Udaya connects the whole story.
There again comes the first-person narration by Biplav, he is looking in all the files at Tillo’s place. There suddenly someone came and was Musa and they had a talk. Biplav asks the question ‘Did you kill Amrik Singh?’ Biplav argues that your passport says you were in California and there are tickets for your travel. Musa explains that he hasn’t killed them but they all together created an environment through which Amrik Singh and his all family lived a frightful life, which made them take their own life. Musa says, “ one day Kashmir will make India self-destruct the way terrorists have killed Amrik Singh.”
In the last chapter, Guih Khom- Dung Beetle
Musa is reading something written by Tillo. And Tillo, she sussed to teach in the graveyard, shares a couplet that she wants to write on her tomb. Musa reads a poem written on Tillo’s page which turns a theme of the novel ‘shattered poem.’ This new home, Jannat, Musa remembers the story of Mumtaz Afal Malikh’ a young taxi driver who was killed by Amrik Singh. Musa was killed in one of the encounters later.
Last scene of the novel (last two paras). Anjum was restless at night and talked about her first sight of Bombay sim to Uadaya Jebeen. Anjum and Uadaya went for a walk. Returning to House back everyone was asleep except Dung beetle- Guih Khom who was working hard. It was on its back like it will safeguard the earth when heaven will fall. It seemed that he also knew that everything will end beautifully and happily as now Uadaya Jebeen has come. Jebeen is seen as the hope. The novel ends hopefully.
-Fact vs fiction
For the purpose of authoring this blog, Dr. Diip Barad sir's YouTube videos are referred to. CLICK HERE.
Despite the blog's length, I tried to cover the entire storyline. Due to the complexity of the book, I might have missed something. Please use the comment section to let know if there is anything we missed. Thank you.
[Words- 2750
Images- 3
Videos- 1]
