'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' by Arundhati Roy

Reviewed by Pranav Minasandra

02 Aug 2022

I have always been unsettled by Arundhati Roy’s writing. Reading The God of Small Things back in college, at a time when I was beginning to find my place in India’s accursed political spectrum, was a crucial event in my life. I was understandably a bit hesitant to pick up The Ministry of Utmost Happiness a few months ago. But then, running away from issues just because they make one uncomfortable is exactly what is not needed, especially when the writing is from a famously no-nonsense person like Roy.

Ministry is a bit confusing to read. It tells two stories, which start to come together only at the very end; but then they never seem to do so satisfactorily enough. The first story follows Anjum, a muslim trans-woman’s journey in Delhi’s Shahjahanabad. The second story is Tilottama’s, and deals with Kashmir, that oh-so-forbidden word in Indian households. In the backdrop is India’s real and blood-stained recent history: the emergency, the Gujarat riots, the fall of the congress, and Modi’s rise to power.

Roy’s writing, as always, is candidly and casually terrifying. When there is a painful event in a character’s history, Roy can show it to you casually from that character’s perspective. Show, don’t tell they say, and that is exactly what she does. Roy never tells you that this event was painful, or that you need to feel sad for someone. She just tells you what happened, and how her characters felt, and your heart does the rest.

I recommend reading Ministry because it serves as a much needed reminder about what has happened and is happening in India. If you are unfamiliar with Indian politics and want to learn, while there are definitely better sources, there are perhaps not as many sources which are this engaging, Or maybe I am just not well-read enough. That’s possible too.