The novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is written by Arundhati Roy. She is a writer and a political activist. She is actively involved in numerous environmental and human causes. The novel begins with the story of Aftab, a hermaphrodite, who is born in Old Delhi. He is raised as a boy by his family. However, when he reaches adulthood, he opts for gender reassignment surgery. Thus, Aftab is reborn as Anjum. Anjum finds a residence in the place called "Khwabgah", a community of people who are either intersex or transgender. After 30 years, she leaves “Khwabgah” and moves into a local graveyard. She makes the graveyard a guest house and opens a funeral service company for marginalized and persecuted groups.
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The second section of the novel
is narrated by the character, Tilottama. The narrative flashbacks to her
college days. There are two men in her life, Garson Hobart, a bureaucrat, and a
mainstream journalist Naga, whom she eventually marries. There is also Musa who
is involved in Kashmiri Separatist Movement. The novel also shows another
character, Major Amrik Singh who is known for torturing his suspects brutally.
Tilo takes a baby from an observatory and names her Miss Jebeen the second,
after Musa's slain daughter. Anjum invites them both to move into her
guesthouse. The narrative flashes back to show how Miss Jebeen the first died
in the conflict of 1990s Kashmir. She and Musa's wife are killed on Major Amrik
Singh's orders. In the end, the narrative takes the reader back to the present
where the residents of Jannat celebrate Zainab's wedding to Saddam. The book
ends as Garson Hobart reads through Tilo's documents.
Although the novel focuses mainly
on the issue of Kashmir, it also has certain diasporic elements. The most
significant diasporic element in the novel is identity. The story shows the
lives of the transgender community and how their identity is problematized.
Their experiences as transgender problematize the relationship of self to the
body and the relationship of self to others. Transgenders are individuals whose
identities do not pertain to their biological sex. Hence, the boundaries of
identity, stability of identity, and the coherence of identity are compromised
in the novel. As a result, transgenders face social, legal, and economic
difficulties. The transgender characters, Kulsum Bi, Gudiya, Bulbul, Anjum,
Razia, Bismillah, and Nemo Gorakhpuri all face discrimination in their lives.
It can be observed that the residents of "Khwabgah" and "Jannat
Guest House" are trapped between two opposite worlds. Similarly, the
aspect of identity issue is shown in the relationship struggles of the
characters with family and dominant social class. Tilo moves around the world
as a solitary observer. The novel constantly shows the belief towards the
self-assertion that the world could become like the "Khwabgah", a
place where people of all shades and shapes are accepted.
The novel also shows the other
diasporic elements such as culture, exile, and marginalization. The transgender
community faces difficulties in adjusting to the culture of Indian society. The
story shows the sense of exile through the lives of the characters who are
disowned by their families and society. These characters find peace in
"Khwabgah" and "Jannat Guest House". Finally, transgenders
are discriminated against in society and become a marginalized group of
society.
The element of home and
alienation is also shown in the novel through the journeys of the characters
and their return to their homes. For example, the journey of Anjum and Tilo
depicts the unrest and isolation of being away from home. Moreover, most characters
in the novel are alienated in one way or the other. Thus, the novel proves to
be a narrative with multiple diasporic elements.
The article is written by Saba Alam, one of the contributors at the School of Literature.
