As
an activist of human rights and middle-class establishment, Arundhati Roy
illustrates the dingy sides of Indian politics in her novel, The Ministry of
Utmost Happiness. She voices against the cruelty of capitalism and discusses
the revolt of victims severely wounded by capitalist thoughts. She puts light
on the pain of marginalized people who are ruled by the elite class members of
society.
Through the characters in the novel, she
presents how the people under capitalism were inhumanly treated and entirely
deprived of their basic rights.
|
What does Roy's stance about capitalism in The Ministry
of Utmost Happiness? |
Saddam, the first guest of Jannat House
presented as a continuous class struggle of the working class. He was oppressed
by Sangeeta Madam when his eyes were burnt due to watching a lifelike stainless
steel Banyan tree. Moreover, he was dismissed by his job at Safe n' Guard
Service.
Transgenders are always treated as second
class in India. Anjum, a Muslim hijra (transgender), is a character that is
presented to talk about economic manipulation. Anjum gets concerned after the
massacre of Muslim pilgrims and makes her unique world, Jannat. She builts this
Jannat in a cemetery where bodies sleep but souls live.
Roy
also refers to coworkers in the novel, who serve for capital class in the
novel. They are treated like alienated and fulfill their duties at the cost of
self-negation.
