This blog is a direct response to the thinking task provided by Dr. Dilip Barad, the Head of the Department of English at MKBU. I aim to address the questions assigned by Dr. Barad, which are:
Introduction: Arundhati Roy is an Indian author, best known for her novel "The God of Small Things," which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997. Apart from her literary work, she is also an activist, known for her outspoken views on social, environmental, and political issues in India and globally. Roy's activism spans a range of topics including environmental justice, anti-globalization, and human rights.
1) How is the intertextual references to other writers in the novel connected with the central theme of the novel? [also mention the epigraphs in English & Hindi]
1. I mean, it’s all a matter of your heart.[ यानी सारा मामला दिल का है- नाज़िम हिकमत ]
Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness tries to open the mysteries of uncounseled people who are suffering from many of the ill practices being performed in India, thus it comes to be a matter of the heart.
2. In what language does the rain fall / on tormented cities? [ बारिश किस भाषा में गिरती है/ यातनाग्रस्त शहरों के ऊपर ? - पाब्लो नेरुदा ]
Pablo Neruda's final work, "The Book of Questions" or "Libro de las Preguntas," was published after his death in 1974. One of its thought-provoking lines queries, "In what tongue does the rain descend upon troubled cities?"
3. Death flies in, thin bureaucrat, from the plains”, a fit frame for the third “section"[ मौत एक छरहरी नौकरशाह है, मैदानों से उड़कर आती हुई - आग़ा शाहिद अली ]
Inspired by Agha Shahid Ali's Kashmiri poetry, the epigraph initiates a theme of impending mortality and bureaucratic apathy. This prelude lays the foundation for depicting the oppressive political milieu in Kashmir and the individuals ensnared within its turmoil. The excerpt aptly establishes the ambiance for the third section, narrated by "The Landlord," a detached and somewhat cynical representative of the State. Agha Shahid Ali, who departed Kashmir for the USA in his youth, intimately understood the anguish and despair of his homeland's devastation from a distance. His anthology, "The Country Without a Post Office," containing the referenced poem, has served as a source of solace and inspiration for numerous Kashmiris. Even after his passing in 2001, Ali's influence endures as a guiding beacon in the works penned by Kashmiris, whether overtly through direct quotes and epigraphs or implicitly, as in Roy’s novel.
In a poignant moment, Roy vividly portrays mourners at a funeral fleeing from gunfire, abandoning the deceased and injured, alongside "thousands of shoes." This scene encapsulates the heart-wrenching reality of the conflict in Kashmir.
4. Then, as she had already died four or five times, the apartment had remained available for a drama more serious than her own death. "क्योंकि वह पहले चार या पाँच बार मर चुकी थी, अपार्टमेंट उसकी मृत्यु से भी ज़्यादा गंभीर किसी नाटक के लिए उपलब्ध था। - ज्याँ जेने"]
The novel "Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs" by Jean Genet, along with his personal experiences, unexpectedly align with the themes explored in "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." Genet's life, marked by anguish, incarceration, and activism, strikes a chord with Roy's depiction of characters and political motifs. Genet's narrative innovation, genre fluidity, and aversion to categorization likely served as inspiration for Roy's multifaceted storytelling. Roy's novel encompasses elements of comedy, satire, tragedy, poetry, and more, employing shifting perspectives and a fragmented timeline. Genet's influence reverberates in the portrayal of transgender individuals and the examination of the intersection between death and life. The fusion of themes and narrative techniques enhances Roy's exploration of complexity within her work.
5. And they would not believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true."और वे मेरी बात पर सिर्फ़ इस वजह से यक़ीन नहीं करते थे की वे जानते थे कि मैंने जो कुछ कहा था वह सच था। - जेम्स बाल्डविन"]
James Baldwin's contemplation on truth and skepticism reverberates within the broader socio-political landscape. This epigraph serves as a bridge to the exploration of truth, justice, and the resistance against societal biases, echoing Baldwin's scrutiny of race dynamics in the United States. Embedded within Arundhati Roy's novel is a poignant reflection on an epigraph drawn from James Baldwin's essay. Baldwin's examination of the denial of cruelty finds resonance in Roy's extension to the caste system in India, critiquing the tendency of intellectuals to overlook caste issues. Roy's preference for Baldwin over Martin Luther King stems from her critical stance on Gandhi's distorted narrative. She draws parallels between casteism and racism, emphasizing their shared foundation in ancestral discrimination. This passage connects Baldwin's observations on dehumanization to the Indian context, with a symbolic detail about horse ownership in the novel symbolizing the caste-based discrimination faced by Dalits, as illustrated by a tragic real-life incident.
Here are some of the epitaphs of the people which are interconnected with the themes of the novel.
In the Mazar-e-Shohadda, Miss Jebeen and her mother were buried next to each other. On his wife’s tombstone, Musa Yeswi wrote:
ARIFA YESWI
12 September 1968–22 December 1995
Wife of Musa Yeswi
And below that:
Ab wahan khaak udhaati hai khizaan
Phool hi phool jahaan thay pehle
Now dust blows on autumn’s breeze
Where once were flowers, only flowers
Next to it, on Miss Jebeen’s tombstone it said:
MISS JEBEEN
2 January 1992–22 December 1995
Beloved d/o Arifa and Musa Yeswi
Akh daleela wann
Yeth manz ne kahn balai aasi
Na aes soh kunni junglas manz roazaan
The epitaph on her mother’s
tombstone simply read:
COMRADE MAASE REVATHY
Beloved mother of Miss Udaya Jebeen
S Tilottama's wished Epitaph: Read by Musa
‘When I die,’ Tilo said, laughing, ‘I want this to be my epitaph.’ “How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By solely becoming everything.”
2) What is the symbolic significance of Vulture and Gui Kyom (Dung Beetle) in the novel?
The symbolic significance of Vulture:
Vultures play a crucial role in ecosystems as scavengers. They primarily feed on carrion, or dead animals, helping to clean up the environment by consuming carcasses that could otherwise spread disease. Their efficient scavenging behavior helps prevent the spread of pathogens and reduces the presence of decaying matter. In this way, vultures contribute to maintaining ecological balance and the health of ecosystems. Here in the novel, Roy makes vultures as representatives of the intellectuals, the ones whose intellectual is being harmed by some factors of the society and politics.
The description is as following,
At magic hour, when the sun has gone but the light has not, armies of flying foxes unhinge themselves from the Banyan trees in the old graveyard and drift across the city like smoke. When the bats leave, the crows come home. Not all the din of their homecoming fills the silence left by the sparrows that have gone missing, and the old white-backed vultures, custodians of the dead for more than a hundred million years, that have been wiped out. The vultures died of diclofenac poisoning. Diclofenac, cow-aspirin, given to cattle as a muscle relaxant, to ease pain and increase the production of milk, works –worked – like nerve gas on white-backed vultures. Each chemically relaxed, milk-producing cow or buffalo that died became poisoned vulture-bait. As cattle turned into better dairy machines, as the city ate more ice cream, butterscotch-crunch, nutty-buddy and chocolate-chip, as it drank more mango milkshake, vultures’ necks began to droop as though they were tired and simply couldn’t stay awake. Silver beards of saliva dripped from their beaks, and one by one they tumbled off their branches, dead. Not many noticed the passing of the friendly old birds. There was so much else to look forward to.
At dusk she did the opposite. Between shifts she conferred with the ghosts of vultures that loomed in her high branches. She felt the gentle grip of their talons like an ache in an amputated limb. She gathered they weren’t altogether unhappy at having excused themselves and exited from the story. When she first moved in, she endured months of casual cruelty like a tree would – without flinching. She didn’t turn to see which small boy had thrown a stone at her, didn’t crane her neck to read the insults scratched into her bark. When people called her names – clown without a circus, queen without a palace – she let the hurt blow through her branches like a breeze and used the music of her rustling leaves as balm to ease the pain
Roy refers of disappearing of vultures and getting totally harmed by the chemicals used by human beings. Then in another description, Roy gives the place of vultures to the corrupt political leaders who has lost their sense of honesty, writing that India is being ruled by Vultures who are totally corrupt.
These are the Latur earthquake victims whose cash compensation has been eaten up by corrupt collectors and tehsildars. Out of three crore rupees only three lakh rupees reached the people, 3 per cent. The rest was eaten by cockroach people on the way. They have been sitting here since 1999. Can you read Hindi? You can see what they have written, Bharat mein gadhey, giddh aur sooar raj kartein hain. It means India is ruled by donkeys, vultures and pigs.
The symbolic significance of Dung Beetle
Dung Beetle is a little insect which play a vital ecological role in their ecosystem by feeding on dung. They collect and roll dung into balls, which they then bury underground as a food source and a place for their eggs to develop. This behavior helps to recycle nutrients, control parasites, and aerate the soil, contributing to the health of the environment.
"By the time they got back, the lights were all out and everybody was asleep. Everybody, that is, except for Guih Kyom the dung beetle. He was wide awake and on duty, lying on his back with his legs in the air to save the world in case the heavens fell. But even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to. Because Miss Jebeen, Miss Udaya Jebeen, was come." (288)
3) Instead of privileging the center stage, "The Ministry of the Utmost Happiness" shifts the spotlight to the back alleys and hidden corners, granting agency to those typically relegated to the sidelines. Analyze how Roy's decision to center the periphery enriches our understanding of social, political, and existential realities often ignored by mainstream narratives.
By centering the periphery, Roy gives voice and agency to marginalized individuals and communities who are typically relegated to the sidelines in mainstream society. Through her portrayal of characters living in the back alleys and hidden corners of society, she sheds light on their experiences, struggles, and aspirations, thus humanizing those often dehumanized or ignored by dominant narratives. This shift in perspective challenges readers to confront their preconceived notions and biases, fostering empathy and understanding towards the marginalized.
Through some selected characters, Roy provides the center stage to the marginalized people in the society and political agencies, bringing spotlight together on the issues which are getting on the periphery intentionally by power politics.
Those Characters are Anjum, and Revathy...
Anjum: Anjum is a transgender in the novel, who is being introduced as a woman kept in man's body. 'Ministry of Utmost Happiness' represents the sufferings of the transgender people who are often being thrown out of the society.
‘Who’s happy here? It’s all sham and fakery,’ Nimmo said laconically, not bothering to look up from the magazine. ‘No one’s happy here. It’s not possible. Arre yaar, think about it, what are the things you normal people get unhappy about? I don’t mean you, but grown-ups like you – what makes them unhappy? Price-rise, children’s school-admissions, husbands’ beatings, wives’ cheatings, Hindu–Muslim riots, Indo–Pak war – outside things that settle down eventually. But for us the price-rise and school-admissions and beating husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo–Pak is inside us. It will never settle down. It can’t.’
Anjum in the early middle part of the novel, comes to leave a Khwabgah, and build her Jannat Guest house, for where she says everyone is invited, orphans, old people and transgenders, also the one who is suffering from many ill behavior of the surroundings.
Revathy: Revathy is the one who represented the aftermath and causes and ill practices going on in India. Revathy had been raped by six police man, and had a child from that rape. In the letter she send to Azad Bharathiya, what she writes is..
"My comrade Suguna knows to send this letter to you when she hears that I am no more. As you know we are banned, underground people, and this letter from me you can call as underground of underground."
The pains given by authorities and the treatments done by police to the innocent people, makes innocent people violent and they can make them criminals by considering them violent. revathy's letter includes that portion of the country also
Operation Green Hunt is announced by Government. War against People. Thousands of police and paramilitary are in the forest. Killing Adivasis, burning villages. No adivasi can stay in her house or their village. They sleep in the forest outside at night because at night police come, hundred, two hundred, sometimes five hundred police. They take everything, burn everything, steal everything. Chickens, goats, money. They want adivasi people to vacate forest so they can make a steel township and mining.
This way Arundhati Roy has put brought many other characters in her novels in order to involve and describe the ill treatments done with the powerless people in India.
Victims of the Religious Scandals: There is a a specific part of novel on the name of Kashmir where the happenings and violence on powerless people was more worrisome. Here are the dialogues....
"Azadi ka matlab kya?
La ilaha illallah"
"Some Kashmiris die twice too. The shooting stopped only when the street was empty, and when all that remained were the bodies of the dead and wounded. And shoes. Thousands of shoes."
"And the deafening slogan there was nobody left to chant: Jis Kashmir ko khoon se seencha! Woh Kashmir hamara hai!"
Thank You!
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