Roy with her political activist background has written a book in which she has brought into the fictional fabric, many of the political stands that she has been very vocal about. Indian authors have criticised her, with her post 2008 Mumbai bombings comments being shot down as "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian". Whatever exaggerations she may be voicing in her political opinions ( and we don't know if they are exaggerations, or not ), her novel of 2017 presents a good political landscape within a fictional fabric, which makes for a engrossing read. While it is apparent that she wanted to touch on her all political pet subjects in one extended volume, it works largely and makes for an interesting read overall. We see here, how India treated her Hijra or transgender people, and how over the last decade or so with advancement of technology their conditions have improved. There are the Muslim-Hindu conflicts visited in some detail via 2002 Gujarat violence. Speaking of Gujarat, her public denouncement of a leading Indian politician is given its space too.
Hell was closing in on the home front too. Gujarat ka Lalla had 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. A devotee gifted him a pinstriped suit with LallaLallaLalla woven into the fabric. He wore it to greet visiting Heads of State.
Arundhati Roy. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Kindle Locations 5689-5691). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Her political fabric doesn't stop there - dalits, religious minorities and Adivasis are all included to show the political unrest in India, while it shines and makes an impressive presence in a Global context. But her main political subject is Kashmir. The larger potion of the book is interwoven with the Kashmiri situation as well as how the subjects have been victimized by both the Indian and Pakistani Military.The following extract which is towards the final part of the book, after a many a heart breaking and painful episode in the Kashmir, is probably her way of leaving a cautionary message to India at large ( I feel). I only hope that she is wrong.
‘One day Kashmir will make India self-destruct in the same way. You may have blinded all of us, every one of us, with your pellet guns by then. But you will still have eyes to see what you have done to us. You’re not destroying us. You are constructing us. It’s yourselves that you are destroying.
Arundhati Roy. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Kindle Locations 6146-6148). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
At times, the stretches she goes on to include all her political demons is obvious and contrived. How she includes the Adivasi grievance is a case point.
For all her one sided nature of most of the political utterances in the public fora, she comes out well with a more balanced outlook in most of the political cans of worms she opens, here. She even introduces humor at times:
Yesterday a Pakistani friend forwarded me this – it’s making the mobile phone rounds, so you may have seen it already:
I saw a man on a bridge about to jump.
I said, ‘Don’t do it!’
He said, ‘Nobody loves me.’
I said, ‘God loves you. Do you believe in God?’
He said, ‘Yes.’ I said,
‘Are you a Muslim or a non-Muslim?’
He said, ‘A Muslim.’
I said, ‘Shia or Sunni?’
He said, ‘Sunni.’
I said, ‘Me too!
Deobandi or Barelvi?’
He said, ‘Barelvi.’
I said, ‘Me too! Tanzeehi or Tafkeeri?’
He said, ‘Tanzeehi.’
I said, ‘Me too! Tanzeehi Azmati or Tanzeehi Farhati?’
He said, ‘Tanzeehi Farhati.’
I said, ‘Me too!
Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Uloom Ajmer, or Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat?’
He said, ‘Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat.’
I said, ‘Die, kafir!’
and I pushed him over.
Thankfully some of them still have a sense of humour.
Arundhati Roy. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Kindle Locations 2359-2377). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Her take on the communist parties and how its membership looks at the party may even have something that one of the local parties can relate to:
My Party is my Mother and Father. Many times it does many wrong things. Kills wrong people. Women join because they are revolutionaries but also because they cannot bear their sufferings at home. Party says men and women are equal, but still they never understand. I know Comrade Stalin and Chairman Mao have done many good things and many bad things also. But still I cannot leave my Party. I cannot live outside.
Arundhati Roy. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Kindle Locations 6032-6035). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Yet despite these obvious political plans or little agendas of hers' the book is interesting to read, although it is convoluted at times. Maybe the diversity of India, touching most of its peoples and their challenges bring a rainbow like colorfulness, not withstanding the brutality of some of the anecdotes.
Would I recommend this to other readers ? Yes, I would, for those who can go through a labyrinth, of a complex novel to enjoy the holistic joy such a work gives, as well as the certain parts it can reward one with. I am not under any illusion that this is a ground breaking novel. No, it is a vehicle for Roy to bandwagon all her political djinns, yet she has done it in an admirable way. However it is not for the faint hearted, who are easily perplexed by the non-linearity of a narration or the untied loose ends which the author ties at some point, but in her own cool time. Me ? I was impressed, and I might even store a physical copy, for a revisit. A complex work by a complex author is good for postponed or revisited digestion.
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