The document summarizes a presentation on Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. It provides key facts about the author and novel, including that it was published in 2017 and explores themes of gender identity, social divisions, and political violence in India. It then summarizes the complex, non-linear plot involving many characters and shifting between storylines focused on Anjum/Aftab, the residents of Jannat Guesthouse, and the conflict in Kashmir.

1. The Ministry
of Utmost
Happiness
Author-Arundhati Roy
S.B.Gardi DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Presented by:
Aamena Rangwala
Divya Sheta
Nilay Rathod
Janvi Nakum
Vachchhalata Joshi
MA Sem-IV Batch:2021-23
Date: 2 Jan 2023

2. ➢ Key Facts
➢ Context
➢ Plot overview
➢ Important Characters
➢ Major Theme
➢ Research Article
➢ Learning Outcome
Topics

3. ❖ Full Title: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
❖ Where Written: Minnesota
❖ Year Published: 2017
❖ Literary Period: Contemporary, Postmodern
❖ Genre: Postcolonial Literature, Magical Realism, Political Literature, Realism
❖ Setting: India ( 2002)
❖ Climax: Tilo moves into Jannat House Funeral Services to raise a baby with
Anjum.
❖ Antagonist: The Indian government
❖ Narration : First and Third Person
Key Facts

4. “I have never been particularly ambitious. I am not a
careerist, I am not trying to get anywhere in a career. It is
more important to engage with society, to live it, to have
different experiences”, said Roy, addressing the audience
at Sharjah International Book Fair.
Author

5. ● Arundhati Roy, full name Suzanna Arundhati Roy
● She was born November 24, 1961, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
● Indian author, actress, and political activist who was best known for the award-
winning novel.
● Roy has also concentrated on penning down political issues. She has written on
diverse topics such as Narmada Dam project, India’s nuclear weapons and
American power giant Enron’s activities in India. She also served as a critic of
neo-imperialism and has been linked with anti-globalization movement.
● Her career began with television and movies. She wrote screenplays for “In
Which Annie Gives It Those Ones” (1989), a movie which talked about her
experiences as an architecture student and she appeared as a performer. Later,
she wrote for “Electric Moon” (1992) both movies were directed by her husband
Pradip Krishen.

6. Awards
❏ Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things.
❏ She won National Film Award for Best Screenplay 1989.
❏ She won the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award in 2002 for her work regarding the
civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most tyrannical governments and
monopolies.
❏ She was awarded a special recognition as a Woman of Peace at the Global Human Rights
Awards in San Francisco in 2003.
❏ Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004 for her social campaigns and for promoting
tolerance and nonviolence.
❏ In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.

7. 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
:http://theministryofutmosthappines
s.com
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

8. Arundhati Roy Young readers likeable or unlikeable her work
because we get difficult to understand the novel. Another side we
like a Chetan Bhagat Novel because we get understand the novel.
The novel deal with on issues of cast, gender, religion, divisions
based on country and Political reality in Contemporary time.
Learning outcome

9. Characters part I : Khwabgah
Mulaqat Ali (hakim,father of anjum)
Jahanara Begum (mother of anjum)
Aftab/Anjum - Son of Jahanara
Alham Baaji (Midwife of Mulaqat ali)
Imam Ziauddin - (Blind Imam)
Kulsumbi - Ustad of Khwabgah
Bombay silk,Mary,Gudia & Bulbul
Razia, saeeda
Nimmo Gorakhpuri
Bismillah(Bimla)
Zainab - A child {later on marries
saddam Hussein (Dayachand)}

10. Characters Part - II Graveyard/Jannat Guest house
Zakir mian
Contractor Gupta
Dr.Azad Bharatiya(One from Protestors)
Saddam Hussein(Dayachand) (wanted to take revenge of his father’s death)
Sherawat (allegedly blamed for murder of dayachand’s father)

11. Characters Part III : Kashmir and Dandakaranya
Biplab Dasgupta (IB)
Chitrarupa(wife of Biplab)
S.tilottama(friend of musa,
nagaraj(marries),biplab)
Nagaraj Hariharan(journalist)
Musa Yeswi(was involved into
terrorist activities)
Arifa Yeswi (Wife of Musa)
Jebeen The First(Died)
Captain Amrik Singh(officer)
Jalib Qadri (human right activist)
Loveleen singh(wife of amrik)
Acp Pinkey Sodhi(brutal interrogator)
Balbir Sodhi(Pinkey’s brother)
Revathy(mother of udaya)
Udaya (Jebeen the second)

12. Learning outcome
How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody.No by slowly
becoming everything.
I found that How the pages of History one by one revealed by Arundhati Roy
and how Jantar Mantar symbolises a place for protestors.The life of Aftab
ended as Anjum is a reality of Each intersex borned baby. Meanwhile the
incident of death of zakir in riots shows the truth behind the concept of
“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. The novel covers history, myths ,
contemporary riots , life of transgender community and their survival. While
reading the novel we can see through the words of author.

13. Summary
● Aftab is a hermaphrodite born in Old Delhi and raised as a boy. However, Aftab is
never comfortable with this and when he reaches adulthood, he opts for gender
reassignment surgery. Aftab is reborn as Anjum, a glamorous woman whose
affectionate, outgoing manner quickly ingratiates her with many members of the
community.
● Anjum finds a home with the residents of the place called Khwabgah, meaning
"House of Dreams." This is a community of non-conformists, many who are either
intersex or transgender like Anjum. Calling it home, she remains there for thirty
years, during which time she becomes a mother figure to a little girl named Zainab
and raises her to adulthood.
● Plot summary

14. ● Plot summary
● However, when she is forty-six, she survives in 2002 riots Ahmedabad and decides to
leave the Khwabgah She moves into a local cemetery transforming it into a guesthouse
that she names Jannat, or "Paradise.
● She opens a funeral services company catering to marginalized and persecuted groups.
One day, a baby is found at an observatory in Delhi. Anjum takes the child in, but she
disappears one day. Anjum tracks the baby down to the house of the woman who took
her.
● Saddam Hussein, an untouchable, awaits the day when he can avenge his father’s
lynching.

15. ● The narrative then shifts to the story of S. Tilottama, called "Tilo" for short, the woman
who took the baby. The story flashes back to her college days, her narrative spliced
together with the stories of two men who loved her during these years. One is an old
bureaucrat called Garson Hobart, the other, a mainstream journalist named Naga whom
she eventually marries.
● Tilo, a dark-skinned, smart woman, had been close to architecture student Musa Yeswi in
university. After university,Musa and Tilo reconnected shortly after his wife died.
However, Musa became involved with the Kashmiri separatist movement advocating for
independence for the Muslim región at the border of Pakistan.
● Plot summary

16. ● Musa and his friend, Commander Gulrez, raise the attention of Indian bureaucrats led
by the ruthless Major Amrik Singh. Singh, known for torturing his suspects brutally,
captures Musa and Gulrez.
● Musa manages to escape, but Gulrez is killed as Tilo watches. Shaken and realizing
how close she came to being caught up in an extremely dangerous, plot, Tilo decides
to play it safe and marry Naga. Fourteen years later, they divorce and Tilo rents an
apartment .They reconnect, but she soon disappears again with the baby from the
observatory. She has named the baby Miss Jebeen the Second, after Musa's slain
daughter. Anjum finds her, and invites both of them to move into the Jannat
guesthouse With her .

17. ● The narrative then flashes back to show how Miss Jebeen the First died, in the
conflict of Kashmir. She and Musa's wife, Arifa are shot by soldiers.
● Although Major Singh later tries to make peace with Musa by paying him off, Musa
angrily rejects him and goes undercover. We also see more of the night Gulrez died,
and it is revealed that Tilo was pregnant (with Musa's child) when she escaped
Kashmir and married Naga. However, she chooses to have an abortion.
● Back in the present, the residents of Jannat celebrate Zainab's wedding to fellow
resident Saddam. One day, they receive a letter written by Miss Jebeen the Second's
mother.

18. ● A member of communist Comrade Maase Revathy was raped, and although she could
not care for her child, she reveals she named her Udaya. The residents of Jannat agree
to name the child Miss Udaya Jebeen . The book ends as Garson Hobart reads
through Tila's documents, realizing that he now sides with her on Musa arrives at his
apartment, and they talk about Kashmir, with Musa saving that the conflict will make
the country explode one day.
● Musa joins Tilo at Jannat for the night but leaves to rejoins the fight in Kashmir,
where he's killed. Anjum takes Miss Udaya Jebeen for a walk around Delhi in the last
scene, while a small dung beetle observes the world around.

19. The story begins and ends in a graveyard. And in between so many incident took place.
The novel is mysterious addresses a wide range of issues facing contemporary Indian
society. Through Anjum/Aftab character I found that how the transgender faces the
problem in society is the real struggle even it's same even though the rules are made but
society is not ready to accept.
Learning outcome

20. Themes
1.Corruption, Political Violence, and Capitalism
2.Resilience and Hope
3.Gender Identity, Social Division, and Coexistence
4.Social Hierarchy vs. Social Inclusivity
5.Religion and Power
(Roy #)

21. 1.Corruption, Political Violence, and Capitalism
● a portrait of contemporary, postcolonial Indian politics.
● highlights corruption in all political groups involved: the Indian army, Indian leftists
who oppose the occupation of Kashmir, and the Kashmiri locals and militants who
apparently resist the military occupation.
● Roy ultimately sheds light on the ways in which corrupt capitalism undermines the
supposedly moral intentions of the groups involved in the Kashmir conflict.
● Aijaz shares with Naga that the militant group buys their ammunition from the army,
explaining, “They don’t want the militancy to end. They are very happy with the
situation as it is. Everybody on all sides is making money on the bodies of young
Kashmiris.”
● Biplab Dasgupta,“everyone [the military] picked up was always “dreaded,” seldom less
than “A-category,” […] because each of those adjectives had a responding incentive,”
● Indian soldiers are willing to undermine their own supposed mission—to win the war
against Kashmir—for capital gain.
● Naga embodies the corruption of the media

22. 2. Resilience and Hope
● resilience in the face of contemporary political oppression.
● hope is the most important sources of empowerment for those facing oppression,
● Jahanara Begum - Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed - this spirit that helps Anjum’s mother to
love Anjum
● Miss Udaya (sunrise) Jebeen - represents hope in the face of violence - the second
chance at building a better future.

23. 3. Gender Identity, Social Division, and Coexistence
● Anjum, a transgender woman (Urdu word Hijra) and former sex worker who was born
intersex.
● Roy challenges not only the idea of a gender binary, but also other artificial forms of
social division—particularly nationality and religion.
● Anjum’s marginalized identity literally saves her life. “killing Hijras brings bad luck.”
● the folklore surrounding Hijras—that they are “holy souls trapped in bodies”—protects
her.
● suffers discrimination in her society for being a Hijra
● Nimmo the conflict between India and Pakistan, violent partition of the two countries.
● “No one’s happy here […] The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never settle
down.”
● Aftab disagrees with Nimmo’s pessimistic outlook, thinking to himself that he was
“happier than he had ever been.” This suggests that he himself might also have an
understanding that the gender binary is artificial, and a recognition that multiple genders
can coexist within the same being.

24. 4. Social Hierarchy vs. Social Inclusivity
● social hierarchy is isolating and perpetuates violence, whereas social inclusivity
allows characters to live more happily and peacefully.
● Social Hierarchy - Biplab Dasgupta introduces himself as the “upper-caste,
upper-class oppressor from every angle,” or, in other words “a tragedy-less
man.”
● he never had the courage to tell Tilo
● Social Inclusivity - Anjum- Jannat, which means “paradise.” - the only space
of utopia
● “the one clear criterion was that Jannat Funeral Services would only bury those
whom the graveyards and imams of the Duniya had rejected.”

25. 5. Religion and Power
● the characters observe and experience in the novel stems from conflicts between
Hindus and Muslims.
● Anjum goes on a pilgrimage to a Muslim place of worship, she disappears because of
Hindu extremist attacks.response to the burning of a train full of Hindus by “Pakistani
terrorists.”
● ‘unofficial spokesperson’
● the façade that the government is not officially advocating for the murder of Muslim
citizens, the ruling party has an unofficial spokesperson say this.
● Gujarat ka Lalla, a politician who was deeply involved with the Hindu nationalist
movement, “swept the polls and was the new Prime Minister. People idolized him,
and temples in which he was the presiding deity began to appear in small towns.”

26. ● Learning Outcome
● Narrative technique is quite complicated (present-past-past-present) - tried to
engaged the self till the end
● “It was nothing but still it was something.” - something that become realistic!?
● Hybridization of emotions – romance, satire on government, identity crisis,
political environment, thriller, reality, history – though it is colorful! Because of
the reality that author put with certain emotions.

27. Journal of
Postcolonia
l Writing
“Too much blood for good
literature”: Arundhati
Roy’s The Ministry of
Utmost Happiness and
the question of realism
-Filippo Menozzi
The article examines the ways in which the novel
engages with the tradition of realism in literature, and
how it challenges and subverts the conventions of
this tradition. The article also discusses the ways in
which the novel uses elements of magical realism
and the grotesque to create a unique and innovative
literary style. The article also consider the political
and social implications of the novel's engagement
with realism and the themes it explores.
Journal Article Title Research Focus
Articles

28. Pakistan
Journal of
Language
Studies
Arundhati Roy’s Novel
“The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness”: A Study of
Innovative Use of
Translation and
Intertextuality
-Ghazala Tabbassum
This article examines how Roy uses translation and
intertextuality in her novel to explore themes of
identity, nationhood, and the complexities of
modern India. The article also discusses the role of
translation in shaping the literary and cultural
landscape of India and its impact on the way we
understand and interpret literature.

29. Representa
tions of
Precarity in
South
Asian
Literature in
English
“[S]titched Together by
Threads of Light”:
Perturbatory Narration,
Queer Necropolitics as
Biopower, and
Transversality in Arundhati
Roy’s The Ministry of
Utmost Happiness
-Alberto Fernández
Carbajal
The article likely examines how these literary
techniques and concepts are used in the novel to
explore themes of identity, power, and resistance. The
article also consider the political and social implications
of these themes and the ways in which the novel
engages with contemporary debates on these issues.

30. The Wire 'The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness' Is Timely, but
Not Deserving of the
Booker
-Oeendrila Lahiri
Discusses the literary merit and themes of the novel, and
presents the author's perspective on whether or not it is
deserving of a major literary award. It is possible that the
article also examines the context in which the novel was
published and the reception it received upon release.
Penguin Arundhati Roy on The
Ministry of Utmost
Happiness
Arundhati Roy on language, identity and politics - and
how she set out to write a story 'like the streets of a great
city'

31. Learning Outcome:
Finding Articles : Open Source/ Limited Access
In her own words, Roy wanted to bring the subcontinent’s castaways under
one roof. – Complexities
Unlike Americanah or Twelve Killings, The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness lacks the creativity and subtlety needed to turn issues and
themes into an engaging literary masterpiece. The storyline manages
to hold our sympathy but the drama cannot hold within it the multiple
political and emotional surgeries the author wants to conduct. (Lahiri)

32. ● Arora, Chhagan. "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, (2017) Summary in
Hindi." YouTube, English with Chhagan Arora, 9 Dec. 2018, youtu.be/7vu8-3aA9fs.
Accessed 2 January 2023.
● Batra, Jagdish. "Politico-literary response to terrorism: a study of Arundhati Roy's the ministry
of utmost happiness." (2017).
● Carbajal, A.F. "“[S]titched Together by Threads of Light”: Perturbatory Narration, Queer
Necropolitics as Biopower, and Transversality in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness." In Representations of Precarity in South Asian Literature in English, edited by
Dwivedi, O.P., Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06817-1_9.
● Dwivedi, Om Prakash, editor. Representations of Precarity in South Asian Literature in
English. Springer International Publishing, 2022.
● Lahiri, Oeendrila. “'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' Is Timely, but Not Deserving of the
Booker.” The Wire, 1 September 2017, https://thewire.in/books/ministry-utmost-happiness-
arundhati-roy.
● Menozzi, Filippo. ““Too much blood for good literature”: Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of
Utmost Happiness and the question of realism.” Taylor and Francis, 25 September 2018,
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17449855.2018.1507919.
Works Cited

33. ● Roy, Arundhati. “Arundhati Roy | Biography, Books and Facts.” Famous Authors,
https://www.famousauthors.org/arundhati-roy. Accessed 2 January 2023.
● Roy, Arundhati. “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Study Guide | Literature Guide.”
LitCharts, 23 December 2019, https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-ministry-of-utmost-
happiness. Accessed 2 January 2023.
● Roy, Arundhati. “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Themes.” 2019. LitCharts,
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-ministry-of-utmost-happiness/themes. Accessed 2 January
2023.
● Tabbassum, Ghazala. "Arundhati Roy’s Novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”: A
Study of Innovative Use of Translation and Intertextuality." Pakistan Journal of Language
Studies 3.1 (2019): 20-30
● Tikkanen, Amy, and Nora Sørena Casey. “Arundhati Roy | Biography, Books, & Facts.”
Britannica, 20 November 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arundhati-Roy.
Accessed 2 January 2023.