Political overtones and_allusions_in_aru

Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 10(3): July- September, 2019
829
ISSN 0975-6795 (Print)
2321-5828 (Online)
DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00137.2
Vol. 10| Issue-03|
July- September 2019
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Political overtones and Allusions in Arundhati Roy’s
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Prashant Maurya1
, Nagendra Kumar2
1
Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee, India
2
Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee, India
*Corresponding Author Email: prashantlinguistics@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Published in 2017, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is the second novel of famous Indian author, and Booker
Prize winner, Arundhati Roy. The novel can be seen to have two parts where the first half of the novel is a
bildungsroman of Anjum (a hermaphrodite), set in the old city of Delhi while the second half is the story of
Tilottama, Naga and Musa spanning Kashmir insurgency. The novel engages in many political and social
incidents that have occurred in India and other parts of the world at the backdrop of its story. It is full of
allusions to many political figures, political issues, events, and incidents that have occurred in the past few
decades in India and around the world. The present paper attempts to examine the political overtones implicit in
the novel by decoding and explaining a few significant allusions used in the novel.
KEYWORDS: Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, politics, India, allusions, novel.
INTRODUCTION
M.H. Abram in his A Glossary of Literary Terms defines
allusion as “a passing reference, without explicit
identification, to a literary or historical person, place or
event, or to another literary work or passage” (12).
Allusions can be textual or non-textual. Textual allusions
in a literary work are those which hint at passages of
some other literary/non-literary texts while non-textual
allusions in a literary work are those that refer to people,
places, events, incidents or facts. Allusions have always
been a very popular trope in writing, as they are
“economical means of calling upon the history or the
literary tradition that author and reader are assumed to
share” (Baldick 7).
Received on 01.01.2019 Modified on 20.04.2019
Accepted on 09.05.2019 ©A&V Publications All rightreserved
Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019;10(3):829-839.
DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00137.2
Authors use different types of allusions like historical,
biblical, political, or popular allusions in their literary
works and as an allusion is always an indirect reference,
to any person, event or fact, it creates a safe corner for
authors; allowing them not to fall into any type of
controversy and to successfully deliver their ideas and
responses. The allusions are always made to significant,
important and popular things, issues or persons about
which the common public has varied opinions and by
using them in their works, authors have an opportunity to
praise/mock somebody/something, through their
compliance or resentment to the persons, things or issues
being alluded to thus creating a space for their readers
for (re) thinking, contention and debate.
Arundhati Roy is a prolific novelist who understands the
spirit of the time. Her present novel deals with varied
contemporary issues of ‘Modern India’ like “the matter
of the hijra communities (male-to-female trans-genders),
the rise of Hindu nationalism, the struggle for Kashmiri
independence, the plight of caste discrimination, the
impact of rapid industrialization on the environment and
the effects of globalization on society” (Monaco 58).

830
India has seen major social and political ups and down in
recent years, especially after the year 2000. After
winning the general elections extraordinarily in 2014,
Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India.
Since then, in many people’s opinion, the RSS1
backed
Modi-government is trying to saffronise2
, the ‘secular
India’. So, a flock of Hindu nationalist, Cow protectors
or Saffron Parakeets3
, to use Roy’s term, have shot up to
execute the process of saffronization (though it has been
time and again refused by the Modi Government). Many
incidents of atrocities against minorities (especially
Muslims) and Dalits in the name of cow protection, love-
jihad4
have been reported since Narendra Modi became
the prime minister. 2014 is also the year when the
Supreme Court of India in its historic judgement
declared transgender people as “third gender” giving
them equal fundamental rights like any other sex in
India. This is also very central to Roy’s novel because
her protagonist is a hermaphrodite, struggling to gain
recognition in ‘duniya’ (the mainstream world).
Arundhati Roy has overtly criticized the current Modi-
Government of India as well as its policies in Kashmir in
many of her public interviews. The same resentment can
be seen in her novel where she is hinting at the political
issue of Kashmir and propagation of Hindu nationalism
under cover of Anjum’s story. All such happenings and
events in India in the past few years inspires Roy’s
novel, where she, through her Muslim, hermaphrodite
protagonist Anjum is (re) creating the situations and is
making her witness these situations, directly or
indirectly.
The present novel is a mixture of literary and political
things. It “encapsulates the rapidly transforming face of
Indian democracy with the rise of right-wing political
ideology, the degenerating condition of the marginalized
groups of people, the atrocities that are rampant in
Kashmir valley” (Mohasin and Taskeen, 256). As in any
literary work “the nature and relevance of allusions are
not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's
familiarity with what is thus mentioned” (Baldick 7), it
becomes difficult for the readers to appreciate or criticize
the literary piece, if the allusions are not clear to them. A
reader who is not aware of the past and current political
atmosphere of India may find the present novel difficult
to understand or to understand it properly, as the present
novel is full of numerous allusions to contemporary
people, political situations, events, incidents and news
limelights from India. It also covers a few major
incidents that happened around the world. Thus in this
paper, we are aiming to highlight the political overtones
implicit in the novel by explaining a few major allusions
used in the novel. For convenience, we have arranged
the allusions chronologically (though they are scattered
in the novel).
The Emergency of 1975:
The first allusion that we find in the novel is about the
Emergency5
that was imposed upon the country by
Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India (see
pic.1 and 2). According to Ghosh, “The emergency
period from 25th June 1975 to 21st March 1977 is
referred to as the “darkest period” of independent India
as all civil rights were suspended and the freedom of
speech and expression muzzled” (2). The Emergency
which lasted for twenty-one months led to political and
civil unrest in the country. “During these 21 months of
authoritarian rule, the Congress government led by
Indira Gandhi postponed elections, censored the press,
and imprisoned 100,000 people without charge or trial”
(Clibbens 51). Public gatherings and meetings were
restricted; the police had the right to search homes
without a warrant and could arrest people without
charges. The situation during the Emergency has been
outlined in the novel as,
Civil Rights had been suspended; newspapers were
censored and, in the name of population control,
thousands of men (mostly Muslim) were herded into
camps and forcibly sterilized. A new law – the
Maintenance of Internal Security Act – allowed the
government to arrest anybody on a whim. The prisons
were full, a small coterie of Sanjay Gandhi’s acolytes
had been unleashed on the general population to carry
out his fiat. (TMUH 34)
The Emergency was followed by a 20-point program by
Indira Gandhi in which ‘sterilization’ to control the
increasing population of India was a prominent agenda
(see pic.3). According to Mara Hvistendahl, the author
of much-acclaimed book Unnatural Selection: Choosing
Boys over Girls, and the consequences of a World Full
of Men, “an astonishing 6.2 million Indian men were
sterilized in just a year, which was 15 times the number
of people sterilized by the Nazis” (quoted in Biswas, 1).
Anjum in the novel is a participant and witness of the
Emergency. Anjum and her colleague, who were at a
wedding party in their professional capacity for offering
blessings and merry-making (which they considered as
their traditional occupation), were beaten by the police
and were instructed to leave the place immediately as the
police arrested and driven away the host of the party and
his three guests from the site. Roy by situating her
protagonist in the time period of Emergency seems to be
subtly criticizing the whimsical decision of Indira
Gandhi, for the imposition of Emergency, that ensued
problems and created disturbances to the common public
who suffered a lot in their day to day life.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy:
In one of his articles published in 2004, S. Sriramachari
writes about Bhopal Gas tragedy that “[b]y all accounts
the Bhopal gas leak on the night of 2–3 December 1984,
is the worst chemical disaster in history” (905). Roy in

831
her novel mentions about the sufferers of one of the
biggest tragedies that have occurred in India. On the
night of 2nd
December 1984, a gas leak incident occurred
in Union Carbide India Limited (a pesticide plant)
situated in Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh in
India. The gas leaked was methyl isocyanate (MIC), a
highly toxic and hazardous gas which killed thousands of
people in a few days (see pic. 4 and 5). According to
Sriramchari, the tragedy “[t]ook a heavy toll of human
lives. People started dying within hours, and more than
2000 lives were lost in the first few days” (905). The
aftermath of the tragedy was not only massive human
loss but also increase in disability and biological
deformation of the future generation. Warren Anderson,
CEO of Union Carbide Corporation (see pic. 6) was
accused of this mishappening, but he, later on, fled from
India by the support of few Indian politicians to avoid
legal prosecutions. Though it is still a debatable issue
that who had helped him to flee. Roy in this novel has
given a voice to those who have been wounded, died and
those who are still suffering due to the aftermath of
Bhopal Gas tragedy. Anjum meets the group of fifty
representatives protesting at Jantar Mantar demanding
for justice, in the case. They are on the protest, with
banners which say “Warren Anderson has killed more
than Osama bin Laden” (TMUH 111). Roy here is
comparing the accused Warren Anderson with the
mastermind of September 11 attacks of New York, and
in doing so, she is probably mapping the intensity of the
tragedy which was much more tremendous and horrible
than 9/11 attacks. By comparing the two accused, she is
also highlighting the ‘little justice’ done to the victims of
the Bhopal tragedy who are still suffering from its
aftermath. In this connection, Sriram Panchu in his
article notes that “Over the years, the death and disability
total attributable to the gas leak is far higher than what
was then officially recorded, with succeeding
generations inheriting the health and environmental
disabilities” (11). Not enough has been done by the
government to compensate the victims of the tragedy as
they can still be seen protesting and demanding justice.
While U.S.A has at least “quenched Americans’ thirst
for revenge for 9/11” (Gollwitzer et al. 613) by killing
Osama bin Laden, India even failed in alleviating
extradition of Anderson from America.
September 11 Attacks:
The whole world was surprised, shocked and appalled at
the sudden attack on the World Trade Center buildings
in New York City of U.S.A. on September 11, 2001 (see
pic.7). An Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda (see pic. 8)
had hijacked two American domestic flights “American
Airlines Flight 11” and “United Airlines Flight 175” and
had dashed them into the World Trade Center buildings.
That dreadful, abominable and condemnable act of
human massacre and terrorism had led the whole world
in mourning and profound grief. People across the world
were bewailing the action and were one in sentiments
with the families of the bereaved. The residents of
“Khwabgah” in the novel, who are a thousand kilometres
far from New York can be seen sharing the grief and
sentiments of the people of the USA. “The usually
garrulous residents of the Khwabgah watched (on TV) in
dead silence as the tall buildings buckled like pillars of
sand” (TMUH 40). The tall buildings here are a reference
to World Trade Center buildings. Everyone in the
Khwabgah was watching the live broadcast of the
burning down of the towers silently, with their mouth
shut in great shock. In that prolonged silence, the
utterance of Bismillah, “Do they speak Urdu?” shows his
disposition to associate himself with those trapped and
losing their lives in the ablaze buildings. This incident in
the USA had not only perturbed the United States but
India also. The fictional characters of the novel are also
no different to it.
The Poet-Prime Minister of India in the novel is an
allusion to late Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee (see pic.9) who
has been the Prime Minister of India for three terms.
Vajpayee was an articulate orator and a noted poet of
Hindi Language. Just after three months of the terrorist
attack in New York, India encountered a terrorist attack
on its Parliament (one of the important place in a
democratic nation). Taking lessons from the recent
attacks, the Vajpayee government passed the Prevention
of Terrorism Act (POTA) in March 2002. “A new law
was passed which allowed suspects to be detained
without trial for months” (TMUH 42), the law which
Roy here is referring to in the novel is POTA. After the
terrorist attacks of New York and India, and its
responsibility being taken by Islamic terrorist groups,
events of hostility towards the Muslims in India grew, as
it has been often observed that there is always a Muslim
hand behind terrorist attacks carried out in India. The
patriotism of young Muslims (more prone to brain-wash)
of India was in question. After the implementation of
POTA, a considerable number of Muslims doubted to be
engaged in terrorist activities were interrogated and
imprisoned but it cannot also be denied fully that many
innocent Muslim youngsters might have had also been
detained unintentionally in that interrogation. While the
Muslim boys were under suspicion, transgenders and
women were spared from police interrogation. “The
female was not so much at risk as the male was. As for
the transgender, tortured and harassed as they are, they
had a better chance to survive in the insane world as they
were not counted in the world of ‘normal’ people”
(Manoj 116). Being a transgender Anjum is safe and is
thankful to the almighty that her adopted child Zainab is
a girl and not a boy; therefore, there is no risk of her
succumbing to such cases. Roy, through Anjum, is being
sympathetic and critical at the same time. She is
sympathetic to those mothers whose innocent children
were imprisoned or killed in police encounters just

832
because of doubts and is critical of the government, who
is responsible for such atrocity towards the Muslim
males.
2002 Gujrat Riots:
The flames of recent terrorist attacks were not yet
cooled; a fresh incident happened at Godhra Railway
Station in Panchmahal district of Gujrat, where a train
coach full of Hindu pilgrims, was set alight by few
vandals (see pic.15). The official investigations done
later, figured out that there were few Muslim
masterminds behind that incendiarism. The Hindu
Pilgrims burnt alive in the fire were returning from
Ayodhya6
after participating in a religious ceremony. It
is to be noted here that Ayodhya is also the site of the
disputed “Babri Mosque” of Babur which was
demolished in 1992, as it is believed by many Hindus
that it was built by demolishing the Rama Temple which
had existed earlier at the site. The barbaric incident of
burning down of train coach and the site of the dispute
has also been referred to in the novel. Arundhati writes
in the novel that “A senior cabinet minister (who was in
opposition then and had watched the screaming mob tore
down the mosque) said the burning of the train definitely
looked like the work of Pakistani terrorists” (TMUH 44).
The senior cabinet Minister referred here is Lal Krishna
Advani (see pic. 10) who has been also the ex-Deputy
Prime Minister of India. The aftermath of the Godhra
incident was a three-day inter-communal riot in Gujrat
between Hindus and Muslims. Roy has efficiently
situated Anjum and Zakir Mia in the riots. Both
characters get trapped in the riots in Ahmedabad, which
was burning in the fire of communal riot at that time.
Roy delineating the situation during the riot in
Ahmedabad writes that Muslims in Ahmedabad were
attacked by a mob who were “armed with swords and
tridents and wore saffron headbands” (TMUH 45). The
atrocities in Ahmedabad was not only limited to the
Muslims but also to their religious places. The Wali-
Dakhani shrine in Ahmedabad was “razed to the ground
and a tarred road was built over it, erasing every sign
that it had ever existed” (TMUH 46) during the riot. The
shrine was a place for people who had faith in it and who
come there to pay respect to Wali- Dakhani. Roy
emphasizes in the novel that even when the shrine was
demolished, the devotees went there to put a flower over
the place where the shrine once existed. Roy who
probably believes that the chief minister and his
controlled police were responsible for the riot writes:
Neither the police nor the mobs nor the chief minister
could do anything about the people who continued to
leave flowers in the middle of the new tarred road where
the shrine used to be. When the flowers were crushed to
paste under the wheels of fast cars, new flowers would
appear. (TMUH 46)
Zakir Mian probably died in the riot as no records of him
were found even after many searches. After a few
months of the riot, Anjum was found safe, living in a
refugee camp. When she was found, she was manly
dressed and had a haircut like a man. She had also learnt
to chant Gayatri Mantra7
. According to her, the attacking
mob during the riot used to verify whether anyone is a
Hindu or is of other faith by asking him/her to chant
Gayatri Mantra. Those who knew Gayatri Mantra and
chanted it were spared, others harmed or killed. The
asking of the vandals to chant Gayatri Mantra reminds
one, of the news, reported now and then by world media
about the insistent way of the “Islamic terrorists”, who
ask their captives to recite kalma8
before killing them.
Anjum was so terrified by the incident that when she
returned back safely to Khwabgah after few months, she
taught Zainab, Gayatri Mantra, as a safety measure so
that she may recite it if she gets trapped in such situation.
The experiences of people who had got trapped in the
riots and met atrocities are numerous whether s/he was a
Hindu or a Muslim. Many Hindus also lost their lives in
the riots but are unspoken of. It seems Roy has
deliberately chosen and situated these two Muslim
characters in the riots as she has a purpose of showing
the riots from only one perspective.
2004 State elections in Gujrat and General Elections
of India:
“Gujrat ka Lalla” was the Chief Minister of Gujrat when
the riots happened in Ahmedabad. “Gujrat ka Lalla” is
an allusion to the current Prime Minister of India, Mr
Narendra Modi who was blamed for condoning the riots.
But he has been found fair and is given clean chit by the
Special Investigation Team and Gujrat High Court. Roy
has always been critical of Narendra Modi and has
slammed him, and his government in many of her public
interviews. Her discontent with him is clearly visible in
the novel when she writes that “Some people believed he
ought to be held responsible for mass murder, but his
voters called him “Gujrat ka Lalla” Gujarat’s Beloved”
(TMUH 62). Despite denigration regarding responsibility
for the riot, Narendra Modi was successful in winning
the state elections of Gujrat in 2004 because of his
charismatic public image and his repeated agenda of
development in his election campaigns.
In 2004, the Indian National Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government came into
power under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, when the
Bhartiya Janta Party-led National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government conceded defeat in the general
elections. Anjum is very happy and rejoiced on the
defeat of BJP government because, for her, the RSS
backed BJP government in the state (Gujrat) as well as in
Centre, was responsible for the Gujrat riots, of which she
had a very horrible and dreadful experience. Her
happiness and state of mind can be reckoned in the
following lines from the novel:

833
When the lisping Poet-Prime Minister (Atal Bihari
Vajpayee) and his party of bigots were voted out of
office, Anjum had rejoiced and lavished something close
to adoration on the timid, blue turbaned Sikh economist
who replaced him. (TMUH 81)
The blue turbaned Sikh economist who succeeded the
Poet- Prime Minister is an allusion to Dr Manmohan
Singh, an Economist turned politician and former Prime
Minister of India (see pic.12). Instead of taking oath as
Prime Minister herself, (which was expected, being the
president of Congress Party as well as the UPA) Sonia
Gandhi (see pic.11), relinquished the name of
Manmohan Singh to the post of the premiership in a
shocking manner. Manmohan Singh who is not an
articulate orator has a low voice and is often mocked in
the public of India as “Maun Mohan Singh” meaning
“Silent-Mohan Singh” because of his reticent nature. He
has been referred as “trapped rabbit” in the novel, with
whom Anjum has been disillusioned, as she has known
that he is just a puppet (of the Indian National Congress
Party) and “someone else was pulling the strings”
(TMUH 81). Here “someone else” is an allusion to
Indian National Congress President, Sonia Gandhi.
Sanjaya Baru who was Media Advisor to Manmohan
Singh from 2004 to 2008, in his memoir The Accidental
Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of
Manmohan Singh has also mentioned similar things
about the subservience of Manmohan Singh towards
Sonia Gandhi. He remembers a conversation with
Manmohan Singh and writes it in his memoir when latter
told him that “There cannot be two centres of power.
That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party
president (Sonia Gandhi) is the center of power” (Baru,
chpt. 13). The Indian media has often communicated, the
gossip over Manmohan Singh in the general public of
India as “Maun Mohan Singh” and a puppet in the hand
of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Through Anjum’s disillusionment
about the Sikh, blue-turbaned, Economist Prime Minister
in the novel, Roy is presenting the views of many
Indians who have seen the tenure of Manmohan Singh as
the “silent” and “puppet” Prime Minister of India.
Though Baru in his memoir has tried to bring back the
earlier “Singh is King” image of Manmohan Singh by
presenting another narrative about his term as a Prime
Minister. In an interview with The Indian Express, Baru
also revealed his purpose of writing the memoir and said
that Manmohan Singh “has become an object of ridicule,
not admiration. I am showing him as a human being, I
want there to be empathy for him."
Anti-corruption Movement of 2011:
“In 2011, the angry cadences of India Against
Corruption movement dominated media headlines in
India” (Roy, 362). Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly
known as Anna Hazare started an anti-corruption
movement at Jantar Mantar with a hunger strike. The
movement gets nationwide publicity. “Replayed and
amplified by television and social media, a host of public
demonstrations primarily in urban centres brought
thousands of angry citizens to the streets to demand an
immediate end to political corruption” (Roy, 362). This
movement later came to be known as India Against
Corruption Movement which started against the
sequence of corruption and scams like high profile 2G
spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games Scam, Coal
Scam, Adarsh housing Scam, etc. during the premiership
of Manmohan Singh. The “tubby old Gandhian, former
soldier turned village social worker” (TMUH 101) in the
novel is an allusion to Anna Hazare, the curator of India
Against Corruption Movement. The picture of Anna
Hazare’s fast has been outlined in the novel as:
In his interviews, he smiled his gummy Farex-baby
smile and described the joys of his simple, celibate life
in his room that was attached to the village temple, and
explained how the Gandhian practice of rati sadhana –
semen retention-had helped him to keep up his strength
during his fast. To demonstrate this, on the third day of
his fast, he got off his bed, jogged around the stage in his
white kurta and dhoti and flexed his flappy biceps.
(TMUH 103)
Hazare was not alone when he had started the
movement. “Retired bureaucrats, policemen and army
officers joined in” (TMUH 102) the movement. Here, the
“retired bureaucrats” is a reference to Kiran Bedi (former
Indian Police Services Officer) and Arvind Kejriwal
(former Indian Revenue Services officer) who had
shared the stage and the strike with Anna Hazare against
corruption (see pic.13). “Mr Agarwal” in the novel who
met Anjum at Jantar Mantar is also an allusion to Arvind
Kejriwal. Later on, the two bureaucrats joined politics.
Kiran Bedi joined BJP and was later on appointed as the
Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry while more
ambitious Arvind Kejriwal started his own “Aam Admi
Party” (AAP) or “the common man’s party”, contested,
won elections and became the Chief Minister of Delhi.
The “army officer” who shared the stage with Anna
Hazare is an allusion to General V.K. Singh (retired
Chief of the Army staff of India) (see pic.14) who also
joined the BJP and is now Minister of State in Narendra
Modi’s cabinet of ministers. Visit of a Muslim film star
at Jantar Mantar in the novel refers to the visit of
Bollywood Film Star Amir Khan who went to sit with
Anna Hazare and pledged his support to the noble cause
of Anna during India Against Corruption movement.
Amir, according to an article published in Times of India
said that “I am not the biggest hero, Anna (Hazare) is the
real hero” after Hazare key aide Kumar Viswas
described the actor “as the biggest hero of the country
who has lent his support to the movement”.

834
Una Violence:
After coming into power in 2014 in the Center, the
Narendra Modi’s BJP government has often been
accused of asserting and spreading “Hindu Nationalism”
and “right-wing ideology” in the country, especially in
the BJP ruled states. Incidents of cow vigilante violence
in India has increased after 2014. Referring to such
incidents Roy writes in the novel that
The Holy Cow became the national emblem. The
government-backed campaigns to promote cow urine (as
a drink as well as a detergent), News filtered in from
Lalla strongholds about people accused of eating beef or
killing cows being publicly flogged and often lynched.
(TMUH 402)
In Hinduism, the cow is the most sacred of all animals.
Agoramoorthy and Hsu in their article note that “The
cow remains a revered and protected animal in Hinduism
today and people of the Hindu faith refrain from eating
beef. Most rural families across India have at least one
dairy cow” (8). So the killing of cows for beef in India is
believed to be an action that hurts the sentiments of
millions of Hindus. And to recall here, it was the issue of
‘cow fat’ being used in greasing cartridges that had
initiated the historic revolution of 1857 in India to throw
out the ruling British and East India Company. Many
incidents of mob lynching in the name of cow protection
has been reported after the Modi government came into
power. Few big cases are Dadri Mob lynching in 2015,
2016 Latehar Mob lynching case, 2016 Ahmedabad
lynching case etc. where the mob has lynched the
accused to death. But it has also been found that “the
perpetrators are self-proclaimed gaurakshaks or “cow
protectors” who believe that defending cows is their
ordained religious duty. Thus, “public mob lynching and
targeting minorities become rational actions for them”
(Ahuja & Prakash, web.). Even Prime Minister Modi in
many of his public speeches has condemned such acts,
directed the state governments to take strict action in
such cases and has alerted the public to be aware of such
self-proclaimed cow protectors. One famous incident
which has been alluded to in the novel is “Una Lynching
Case”, where the members of a Dalit family were
attacked by few upper caste men on the name of cow
protection. A family of skinners who has the traditional
job of removing the carcass of dead animals were
skinning a dead cow, anyhow the rumour of cow
slaughtering spread and the family was attacked. This
incident received nationwide attention. Roy has alluded
to this incident through the story of Saddam
(Dayachand) in the novel who has changed his name and
left his traditional job of skinning dead animals after the
horrific incident of mob lynching of his father and his
friends on the pretext of cow slaughtering.
News in the limelight:
The phrase “56-inch chest” in the novel is an allusion to
a political jibe which became popular in the media and
politics of India. During an election campaign for the
Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) Polls in India in
2014, Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party
attacked Narendra Modi by saying that “he had the blood
of innocents (referring to Gujrat riots) on his hand”
(Dikshit and Srivastava, web.). Narendra Modi, later
retorted to the comment and said that “Netaji (Mulayam)
would need a ‘56-inch chest’ to make a Gujrat out of
Uttar Pradesh” (Dikshit and Srivastava, web.) as
Mulayam Singh has been the Chief Minister of Uttar
Pradesh for three times and was up again in the
elections. His jibe at Mulayam Singh had become one of
the most used punch lines of the political seasons in
India during the election campaigns in 2014. From that
elections, Narendra Modi had paved his path to Delhi
from Gujrat which is also referred to in the novel as his
“March to Delhi” (TMUH 81).
News that attracted nation’s and media’s attention in
2015 was about the suit of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi which he had worn in his meeting with Barrack
Obama (former President of the USA) during latter’s
visit to India (see pic.16). There was a rumour about the
suit that its price was INR 10 lakh. The speciality of the
costly suit was that it embroidered Narendra Modi’s
name in gold. Later on, it was reported that the suit was
gifted to Modi by a Non-Resident Indian, Mr Ramesh
Kumar Bhikabhai Virani, during the Vibrant Gujrat
Summit. After being approached by media on this issue,
Mr. Ramesh said that
I presented this suit to him (Prime Minister Modi) when
I attended the recent Vibrant Gujarat Summit. I gave it
while extending an invitation to him to attend my son's
wedding on January 26…I gave this gift to my elder
brother (Prime Minister Modi) on behalf of my son. My
son had this idea of making this monogrammed suit. He
said he wanted to give a surprise to Modi Ji. (Singh,
web.)
Roy mentions about this suit in the novel when she
writes, “A devotee gifted him a pinstriped suit with Lalla
Lalla Lalla woven into the fabric. He wore it to greet
visiting Heads of State” (TMUH 395).
Narendra Modi’s winning of the Lok Sabha elections of
2014 brought a ray of hope in the majority of the public
of India who had paralyzed the government of
Manmohan Singh by setting him out of power. The
media of India reported during the campaigns the name
of Modi being chanted everywhere, Modi! Modi! Modi!
much like what Arundhati Roy has written in the novel.
She is recreating the scene before the election in the
novel when the followers of Modi were extending their
support to him in different ways. Describing the fan
following of Modi, Roy writes, “His people, wearing
paper masks of his likeness, would carry him on their
shoulders chanting his name- Lalla! Lalla! Lalla!- and
place him on throne” (TMUH 105). After coming into

835
power, the Narendra Modi government has taken many
initiatives among which two initiatives which are very
central to his government are, “Cleanliness drive” and
“Man-ki Baat”. The cleanliness drive initiated by Modi
attracted the world media, when the Prime Minister
himself was seen sweeping the roads, cleaning the sands
from the Ghats of Varanasi (his constituency) (see
pic.17) inspiring, motivating the common public of India
and sensitizing them about the importance of cleanliness
in ones’ life and the surrounding where one lives. In this
regard, John Harriss in his article writes that
In his first Independence Day speech on 15 August 2014,
Modi declared ‘Clean India!’ to be a top priority of his
new government, and he followed this on 2 October, the
national holiday for the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi,
with a call for every Indian to play a part in creating a
cleaner country and making India free of open defecation
by 2019, Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. (716)
The second initiative, “Man-ki Baat” which roughly
translates as “My heart’s voice” in English, is an
initiative hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
himself where he addresses the people of India on All
India Radio (see pic.18). Regarding the purpose of this
initiative, the official website of Indian Government says
that “Mann Ki Baat is a unique initiative of the Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi to reach the masses across
the country through the Radio. The Prime Minister
through his address on the radio aims to connect with the
common man on a regular basis and inform them about
the initiatives of the Government and also seeks the
support of the common man in nation-building and
governance” (mygov.in, web.). Both these initiatives of
the Modi government have been referred to in the novel.
Apprising the reader about the initiatives of Narendra
Modi Arundhati Roy writes that “Every week he
addressed the people of the country directly in an
emotional radio broadcast. He disseminated his message
of cleanliness, purity and sacrifice for the nation… He
popularized the practice of mass yoga in community
parks. At least once a month he visited a poor colony and
swept the streets himself” (TMUH 401).
CONCLUSION:
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
came after almost twenty years her first novel The God
of Small Things. In this novel, Arundhati Roy has tried to
encompass the recent, major incidents taking place in
India that received wider publicity. The above-discussed
allusions have shown that Arundhati Roy’s novel has
political overtones in it. The novel is a political novel
which questions the socio-political situation in India.
Keeping Anjum at the centre of various narratives in the
novel, Roy has empathized with the sufferers of
numerous incidents that happened in India, be it National
Emergency, Godhra Kand, Cow Lynching or Bhopal
Gas tragedy. Through this novel, Roy has also implicitly
criticized the political atmosphere of India. The
Narendra Modi Government is central to her criticism
but the Manmohan Government is also not spared. An
author always takes liberty in delineating the socio-
political condition of a place about which s/he intends to
write and in doing so s/he may either demean or
overstate any issue. Arundhati Roy has done this at many
places in her novel, where the harmony of India has been
shown under threat under the rule of Modi government.
In the capacity of a novelist, Arundhati Roy has the
freedom to use allusion in her work and she has made
wonderful allusions to political incidents and people in
the present novel to serve her purpose. The allusions
discussed and explained in this article will help a reader
in understanding Roy’s novel in a better way.
Notes:
1. RSS is the abbreviation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh. “This is a quasi-military brotherhood founded
in 1925, organized by pracharaks—full-time party
activists and propagandists, of whom Narendra Modi
was one at an earlier stage in his career—around
local shakhas (units or cells). ‘Expressed in the
simplest terms’, the RSS declares, ‘the ideal of the
Sangh is to carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory,
through organizing the entire society and ensuring
the protection of Hindu Dharma” (Harris 713).
2. The politics of right-wing Hindu nationalism
(Hindutva) that seek to make the Indian state adopt
social policies that recall and glorify the ancient
Hindu cultural history and heritage of India while de-
emphasizing the more recent Islamic or Christian
heritage. (The definition has been taken from “your
dictionary”, available on
https://www.yourdictionary.com/saffronization )
3. The Saffron Parakeets in the novel is an allusion to
the volunteers of Hindu Nationalist groups like
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), Vishwa Hindu
Parishad(VHP), Bajrang Dal etc.
4. "Love Jihad" or "Romeo Jihad" organization,
supposed to have been launched by Muslim
fundamentalists and youthful Muslim men to convert
Hindu and Christian women to Islam through trickery
and expressions of false love” (Gupta 13).
5. For more, see India since Independence, the Indira
Gandhi Years (1969-1973) Penguin Books, 1999 by
Bipan Chandra, Aditya Mukherjee and Mridula
Mukherjee.
6. A district in Uttar Pradesh, India which has a site that
believed to be the birthplace of Hindu Lord Rama. It
is a popular pilgrim place of Hindus.
7. A popular, highly revered ancient Sanskrit mantra
from Rig Veda.
8. “Laa ilaaha illal Lahoo Mohammadur Rasool Ullah”
meaning “There is none worthy of worship except
Allah. Muhammad is Messenger of Allah”

836
(source:http://www.islamicnet.com/kalma.htm )
Note on the Images
Eighteen pictures related to the allusions have been
added after the references as appendixes. The pictures
are taken from the internet and their sources are given.
REFERENCES:
1. Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. 1941. New
Delhi: Harcourt India, 2001.
2. Agoramoorthy, Govindasamy and Minna J. Hsu. “The significance
of cows in Indian society between sacredness and economy”,
Anthropological Notebooks. 2012; 18(3): 5-12.
3. Ahuja, Juhi and Praveen Prakash. “Cow Vigilantism in India:
Modi’s Dilemma or Legacy?” RSIS Commentary. 2017; 131:1-04.
4. “Anna Hazare real hero I am not: Amir Khan.” The Times of India,
27 Aug. 2011, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Anna-
Hazare-real-hero-I-am-not-Aamir-Khan/articleshow/9758544.cms
Accessed on 5th Dec, 2018
5. Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. OUP
Oxford, 2015.
6. Baru, Sanjaya. The Accidental Prime Minister: The makingand
unmaking of Manmohan Singh. Penguin UK, 2015.
7. Biswas, Soutik. “India’s dark history of sterilization”. BBC News,
14 Nov. 2014, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india
30040790
8. Clibbens, Patrick. "‘The destiny of this city is to be the spiritual
workshop of the nation’: clearing cities and making citizens during
the Indian Emergency, 1975–1977." Contemporary South Asia.
2014; 22(1): 51-66.
9. Dixit, Rajiv and Rajiv Srivastava. “Narendra Modi vs Mulayam
Singh: It’s about “haisiyat” and chest size in UP”. The Times of
India, 24 Jan. 2014,
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Narendra-Modi-vs-
Mulayam-Singh-Its-about-haisiyat-and-chest-size-in-
UP/articleshow/29275712.cms
10. Ghosh, Jhumur. “Indira Gandhi’s call of Emergency and Press
Censorship in India: The ethical parameters revisited”Global
Media Journal. 2016; 7(2): 1-15.
11. Gollwitzer, Mario, et al. "Vicarious revenge and the death of
Osama bin Laden." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
2014; 40(5): 604-616.
12. Gupta, Charu. “Hindu Women, Muslim Men: Love Jihad and
Conversions.” Economic and Political Weekly. 2009; 44(51): 13–
15.
13. Harriss, John. “Hindu Nationalism in Action: The Bharatiya
Janata Party and Indian Politics”, South Asia: Journal of South
Asian Studies. 2015; 38(4): 712-718.
14. Hvistendahl, Mara. Unnatural selection: Choosing boys over girls,
and the consequences of a world full of men. Public Affairs,2011.
15. Kristeva, Julia. Word, Dialogue, and Novel. Desire in Language:
A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Ed. Leon S. Roudiez.
Trans. Thomas Gora et al. New York: Columbia U. P. 1980: 64-
91.
16. “Man-kiBaat”, My Gov, https://secure.mygov.in/group/mann-ki-
baat/ Accessed on 5th Dec, 2018
17. Mohsin, Sayad Wahaj and Shaista Taskeen. “Where Margins
Intersect: A study of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness”. IJELLH. 2017; 5(10): 256-270.
18. Monaco, Angelo. “Fantasy and history in postcolonial India: the
case of Arundhati Roy’s anti-global novel”. The European South.
2018;3:57-70.
19. Panchu, Sriram. “Bhopal Gas Leak Case: Lost before the Trial”.
Economic and Political Weekly. 2010; 45(25): 10-11.
20. S, Manoj. “Historicizing Fiction: Critiquing Contemporary India
in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”, Journal
of Literature and Aesthetics, 2017: 111-120.
21. Sarin, Ritu. Sanjaya Baru interview: ‘I have written only 50% of
what I know’. Indian Express, 12 Apr. 2014,
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/i-have-written-only-
50-of-what-i-know/99/
22. Singh, Prakash. “Meet the man who gifted Narendra Modi that
infamous 'Rs 10 lakh' suit”. 18 Feb.
2015,https://scroll.in/article/707606/meet-the-man-who-gifted-
narendra-modi-that-infamous-rs-10-lakh-suit
23. Sriramachari, S. “The Bhopal gas tragedy: An environmental
disaster”, Current Science. 2004; 86(7): 905-920.
24. Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Gurgaon,
Penguin Random House, 2017.
25. Roy, Srirupa. "Angry citizens: Civic anger and the politics of
curative democracy in India." Identities.2016;23(3): 362377.
Pic.1. News clipping of front page of The Hindu stating about the declaration of Emergency.
Image source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/emergency-in-india-front-pages-of-newspapers-after-former-pm-indira-
gandhi-imposed-it-in-1975-see-pics/246166

837
Pic.2. Indira Gandhi.
Image source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/indira-
gandhi-birth-centenary-tribute-pm-tweet-shaktisthal-1089531-
2017-11-19
Pic.3. Sterilization of a man during Emergency.
Image source:
https://www.livemint.com/Politics/VPJHHyhQm3t8Rd1YcOfeRO/
When-sterlization-wasnt-a-matter-of-choice.html
Pic.4. Dead bodies lying in open after Bhopal Gas tragedy.
Image source:
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/environment/30-years-
of-bhopal-gas-tragedy-a-continuing-disaster-47634
Pic.5. Burial of a dead child whose eyes had soredby the
inflammable gas.
Image source: https://www.theindianfeed.in/bhopal-gas-tragedy-
happened-night/
Pic.6. Warren Anderson
Image
source:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11205397/War
ren-Anderson-obituary.html
Pic.7. Burning down of the World Trade Center Buildings on
September 11, 2000.
Image source: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-
america/breakthrough-in-dna-analysis-helps-identify-more-
victims-from-911-attacks-37304111.html

838
Pic. 8. Osama bin laden, the mastermind of September 11 attacks
in USA.
Image source: http://time.com/4243796/osama-bin-laden-will-and-
testament/
Pic.9. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (The poet-prime minister of India)
Image source:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/17/atal-bihari-
vajpayee-obituary
Pic.10. Lal Krishna Advani
Image source: https://www.financial express.com/india-news/l-k-
advani-puts-speculations-to-rest-rules-himself-out-of-presidential-
race/619211/
Pic.11. Sonia Gandhi, former President of Congress Party and
chairperson of UPA government.
Image source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sonia-
Gandhi
Pic.12. Dr. Manmohan Singh (The blue-turbaned Sikh economist).
Image source: https://times of
india.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/former-pm-to-return-to-pu-
as-teacher-after-52-years-today/articleshow/63703557.cms
Pic.13. Anna Hazare (in cap) along with Arvind Kejriwal and
Kiran Bedi.
Image source:
https://www.livemint.com/Politics/zYIkLHFOBvBl5xUUr75m8O/
Anna-to-restructure-his-team.html

839
Pic. 14. General V.K. Singh along with Anna Hazare.
Image source: https://www.firstpost.com/photos/images-team-
anna-ends-fast-at-jantar-mantar-404299.html
Pic.15. Coach of Sabarmati Express which was set alight.
Image source: https://scroll.in/latest/892056/2002-godhra-train-
burning-case-special-court-convicts-two-accused-acquits-three
Pic. 16. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Barack Obama
in his “10 lakh suit”.
Image source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north/story/modi-
suit-auction-smit-virani-rameshkumar-bhikabhai-virani-namami-
gange-trust-fund-swachh-bharat-abhiyan-240880-2015-02-18
Pic.17. Narendra Modi cleaning a Ghat in Varanasi as part of
Cleanliness drive.
Image source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-
others/pm-narendra-modi-brings-swachh-bharat-campaign-to-
varanasi-cleans-assi-ghat/
Pic. 18. Prime Minister Modi during the broadcast of “Man Ki
Baat”.
Image source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/prime-minister-
narendra-modis-mann-ki-baat-turns-50-today-1952947

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