English Literature

1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
A Portrait of Anjum's Struggle with Gender Identity
: A Comprehensive Character Study

2. Details
Name: Aamena Rangwala
Roll no:- 1
Enrollment no:- 4069206420210028
Batch:- 2021-23
Email id:- aamenarangwala51@gmail.com
Subject:- Contemporary Literatures in English
Paper:- 207
Submitted to:-Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University

3. TABLE OF CONTENT
Arundhati Roy, Explanation of
Identity Crisis
The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness
About Novel
02
Introduction
01
Summing up of whole
Presentation
Conclusion
04
Anjum’s Gender Identify Crisis
Character Study
03

4. Introduction
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.
Roy’s subsequent literary output largely consisted of politically oriented
nonfiction, much of it aimed at addressing the problems faced by her
homeland in the age of global capitalism.
Roy’s publications were Power Politics (2001), The Algebra of Infinite
Justice (2002), War Talk (2003), Public Power in the Age of
Empire (2004), Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to
Grasshoppers (2009), Broken Republic: Three Essays (2011),
and Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2014).

5. Continue…
In 2017 Roy published The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, her first novel in 20 years.
Her work blends personal stories with topical issues as it uses a large cast of characters,
including a transgender woman and a resistance fighter in Kashmir, to explore
contemporary India.
In recognition of her outspoken advocacy of human rights, Roy was awarded the Lannan
Cultural Freedom Award in 2002, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004, and the Sahitya
Akademi Award from the Indian Academy of Letters in 2006.

6. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is the second novel by Indian writer Arundhati Roy
published on 6th June 2017.
“The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” has been translated into 49 languages.The Hindi
edition translated by Manglesh Darbal and Urdu edition “Bepanah Shazmani Ki Mumlikat”
have both been published by Rajkamal Prakashan .
Website: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

7. Gender Identity
What is Gender Identify?
The term gender identity was coined by psychiatry
professor Robert J. Stoller in 1964 and popularized by
psychologist John Money .
The term “gender identity” was used in a press release,
November 21, 1966, to announce the new clinic for
transsexuals at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.The
definitions of gender and gender identity vary on a
doctrinal basis.

8. Continue…
Gender identity, an individual’s self-conception as a man or woman or as a boy or girl or as
some combination of man/boy and woman/girl or as someone fluctuating between man/boy
and woman/girl or as someone outside those categories altogether.
It is distinguished from actual biological sex—i.e., male or female. For most
persons, gender identity and biological sex correspond in the conventional way. Some
people do not identify with some, or all, of the aspects of gender assigned to their biological
sex; some of those people are transgender,non-binary, or genderqueer. Some societies
have third gender categories.

9. Character of Anjum/Aftab
Anjum is born intersex and lives as a Muslim hijra
(South Asia) who lives in the Khwabgah for many
years before leaving and eventually founding the
Jannat Guest House. On her visit to a Gujarati shrine,
Anjum gets caught in a massacre of Hindu pilgrims
and subsequent government reprisals against
Muslims. She is anxious about the future of her own
community, especially the new generation. She was
born as Aftab, the long-awaited son of Jahanara
Begum and Mulaqat Ali.

10. Struggle for Gender Identity
• Aftab’s mother Jahanara Begum experiences trauma after observing his son’s body as
she clearly knows that every single thing, living and non-living thing, has a gender
except her baby and she said :-
In Urdu, the only language she knew, all things, not just living things
but all things – carpets, clothes, books, pens, musical instruments –
had a gender. Everything was either masculine or feminine, man or
woman. Everything except her baby.(8)
• Aftab, a hermaphrodite, was supposed to pose and disguise as a male identity in order to
survive in the world which offers no place for his mixed identity. He closed himself in
the house as other children used to tease him as :-
“He’s a She. He’s not a He or a She. He’s a He and a She. She- He, He- She Hee! Hee!
Hee!” (12).

11. Continue..
• Anjum was a famous activist she was never consoled. She still worried about the binary
opposition and social discrimination faced by the LGBTQ community. In the beginning
of the novel when Ziauddin told that her name written backwards in English spelled
Majnu she became hilarious and she is least bothered about it and she replied:-
I’m all of them, I’m Romi and Juli, I’m Laila and Majnu. And Mujna, why not? Who
says my name is Anjum? I’m not Anjum, I’m Anjuman. I’m a mehfil, I’m a gathering.
Of everybody and nobody, of everything and nothing. Is there anyone else you would
like to invite? Everyone’s invited (4).

12. Conclusion
Anjum from "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" by Arundhati Roy is a complex and
multi-dimensional character who struggles with gender identity throughout her life.
Through a comprehensive character study, we have explored Anjum's journey of self-
discovery and the challenges she faces in a society that does not accept or understand her.
Overall, Anjum's character study highlights the complexities of gender identity and the
challenges faced by individuals who do not conform to societal norms. Through her
struggles, we are reminded of the importance of acceptance, compassion, and
understanding towards all individuals, regardless of their gender identity.

13. Work Cited
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "gender identity". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Oct.
2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/gender-identity. Accessed 7 March 2023.
Money, John. "The Concept of Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence After 39
Years." Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, vol. 20, no. 3, 1994, pp. 163-177. doi:
10.1080/00926239408403428.
Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
2017. United Kingdom, Penguin Books Limited, 2017.
Suleman, Danish, and Faizahani binti Ab Rehman. “Transgender Issues in Indian Society from the
Viewpoint of Arundhati Roy's Novel, the Ministry of Utmost Happiness.” South Asian
Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, doi.org/10.48165/sajssh.2020.1312.
Tikkanen, Amy. "Arundhati Roy". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5
Jan.2023,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arundhati-Roy. Accessed 6 March 2023.

14. Thank you