The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2002)
War Talk (2003)
Public Power in the Age of Empire (2004)
Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers (2009)
Broken Republic: Three Essays (2011), and Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2014).
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017)
Information about The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, a 2017 novel by Arundhati Roy, follows the interconnected lives of several characters against the backdrop of contemporary India. Large cast of characters, including a transgender woman and a resistance fighter in Kashmir etc.
1)The Reader’s Digest Book of English Grammar and Comprehension for Very Young Children by S. Tilottama. (Question - Answer)
The Informer – I
In the notified area of Tral. A village called Nav Dal. It’s 1993. The village is bristling with militants. It’s a ‘liberated’ village. The army is camped on the outskirts, but soldiers daren’t enter the village. It’s a complete stand-off. No villagers approach the army camp. There is no exchange of any sort between soldiers and villagers.And yet, the officer commanding the camp knows every move the militants make. Which villagers support the Movement, which ones don’t, who offers militants food and lodging willingly, who doesn’t.For days a close watch is mounted. Not a single person goes to the camp. Not a single soldier enters the village. And yet, the information gets to the army.Finally the militants notice a sleek black bull from the village who regularly visits the camp. They intercept the bull. Tied to his horns, along with an assortment of taveez (to keep him from illness, from the evil eye, from impotence), are little notes with information.The next day the militants attach an IED to the bull’s horns. They detonate it as he approaches the camp. No one dies. The bull is severely injured. The village butcher offers to do ‘halal’ so the villagers can at least feast on the meat.The militants pass a fatwa. It’s an Informer Bull. Nobody is allowed to eat the meat.
Amen.
Q-1 Who is the hero of the story?
Ans-1 Sleek black bull from the village who regularly visits the camp and was passing the information so the bull is hero of the story.
The Careerist
The boy had always wanted to make something of himself. He invited four militants for dinner and slipped sleeping pills into their food. Once they had fallen asleep he called the army. They killed the militants and burned down the house. The army had promised the boy two canals of land and one hundred and fifty thousand rupees. They gave him only fifty thousand and accommodated him in quarters just outside an army camp. They told him that if he wanted a permanent job with them instead of being just a daily wage worker he would have to get them two foreign militants. He managed to get them one ‘live’ Pakistani but was having trouble finding another. ‘Unfortunately these days business is bad,’ he told PI.‘Things have become such that you cannot any longer just kill someone and pretend he’s a foreign militant. So my job cannot be made permanent.’PI asked him, if there was a referendum whom he would vote for, India or Pakistan?‘Pakistan of course.’‘Why?’‘Because it is our Mulk (country). But Pakistan militants can’t help us in this way. If I can kill them and get a good job it helps me.’He told PI that when Kashmir became a part of Pakistan, he (PI) would not be able to survive in it. But he (the boy) would. But that, he said, was just a theoretical matter. Because he would be killed shortly.
Q 1: Who did the boy expect to be killed by?
(a) The army
(b) Militants
(c) Pakistanis
(d) Owners of the house that was burned.
Ans(b) Militants
The Nobel Prize Winner
Manohar Mattoo was a Kashmiri Pandit who stayed on in the Valley even after all the other Hindus had gone. He was secretly tired of and deeply hurt by the barbs from his Muslim friends who said that all Hindus in Kashmir were actually, in one way or another, agents of the Indian Occupation Forces. Manohar had participated in all the anti-India protests, and had shouted Azadi! louder than everybody else. But nothing seemed to help. At one point he had even contemplated taking up arms and joining the Hizb, but eventually he decided against it. One day an old school friend of his, Aziz Mohammed, an intelligence officer,visited him at home to tell him that he was worried for him. He said that he had seen his(Mattoo’s) surveillance file. It suggested that he be put under watch because he displayed ‘anti-national tendencies’.When he heard the news Mattoo beamed and felt his chest swell with pride.
Q 1: Why was Mattoo shot?
(a) Because he was a Hindu
(b) Because he wanted Azadi
(c) Because he won the Nobel Prize
(d) None of the above
(e) All of the above.
Ans(a) Because he was a Hindu
Q 2: Who could the unknown gunman have been?
(a) An Islamist militant who thought all kafirs should be killed
(b) An agent of the Occupation who wanted people to think that all
(c) Neither of the above
(d) Someone who wanted everyone to go crazy trying to figure it out.
Ans(a) Islamist militants thought that all kafirs should be killed
2. Three points mentioned in the photo of board -work .
Characters
Anjum -Major character of the book who is Muslim and a hijra. On her visit to a Gujarati shrine. Anjum gets caught in a massacre of Hindu pilgrims and subsequent government reprisals against Muslims. She is anxious about the future of her own community, especially the new generation. She is born as Aftab the long-awaited son of Jahanara Begum and Mulaqat Ali.
Mulaqat Ali-The husband of Jahanara Begum and the father of Aftab. He is a hakim, a doctor of herbal medicine, and a lover of poetry. Ali is the direct descendant of Mongol Emperor Changez Khan - through the emperor's second-born son, Chagatai.
Zainab-A three years old girl whom Anium picks up on the steps of the Jama Masjid. Zainab is brought up at Khwabgah and later goes on to become a fashion designer who marries Saddam.
Saddam Hussain (Dayachand)-One of the guests of Jannat Guest House. Saddam works odd jobs - in a mortuary, as a helper in a shop, a bus conductor, sells newspapers at the New Delhi railway station, a bricklayer on a construction site and as a security guard. Saddam wants to avenge his father's death by killing Shehrawat the Station House Officer of the Dulina police station.
Dr. Azad Bharatiya-One of the many protesters near Jantar Mantar. He continues his 10-year fast and runs a newsletter called "News & Views".
S. Tilottama-Tilottama is a student at the Architecture School who is estranged from her Syrian Christian mother - Mariyam Ipe.
Tilo becomes friends with three men - Musa Yeswi, Nagarai Hariharan and Biplab Dasgupta whom she meets while working on sets and lighting design for the play Norman directed by David Quartermaine.
Nagaraj Hariharan-Cast as Norman in the play. He later becomes a top-notch journalist who works in Kashmir. Tilo marries Naga as suggested by Musa for strategic reasons and later abandons him.
Biplab Dasgupta -He was going to play the role of Garson Hobart in the play Norman. He later works for the Intelligence Bureau as Deputy Station Head for. Biplab secretly loves Ino and rents her room after she walks out on Naga.
Musa Yeswi-Musa is a reticent Kashmiri man who is classmates with Tilo in Architecture School and her boyfriend. Musa later returns to his homeland to become a militant and fight for Azadi. Musa marries Arifa and is father of Miss Jebeen the First.
Begum Arifa Yeswi-Wife of Musa Yeswi. Musa meets Arifa in a stationery shop where a grenade explosion takes place.
Major Amrik Singh-A military officer in charge of counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir. Murderer of Jalib Qadri, a well-known lawyer and human rights activist. Amrik Singh, subsequently seeks asylum in the US claiming to be the victim of the tortures he has inflicted on others.
Comrade Revathy-A Maoist from East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh who is raped and tortured by policeman. She's the mother of Udaya (Miss Jebeen the Second). Revathy leaves Udaya in Jantar Mantar.
Imam Ziauddin-The first friend Anjum makes when she moves to the graveyard.
Miss Jebeen- Musa’s daughter, who died at the age of three in a massacre in Srinagar, Kashmir.
Miss Udaya Jebeen Second -Miss Udaya Jebeen, Miss Jebeen the Second is the baby Revathy gives up at the Jantar Mantar protest, whom Tilo kidnaps and then raises at Jannat Guest House with Anjum.
Gulrez-A friend of Musa’s who has special needs.
D.D Gupta -One of Anjum’s most loyal and oldest clients, who works in construction in Iraq.
Maryam- Tilo’s mother, a South Indian Syrian Christian born into an upper-caste family.
Aijaz- A young Kashmiri militant whom Nagaraj interviews when he goes to rescue Tilo from the interrogation center.
Ustad Hameed Khan-The singing teacher who teaches Aftab to sing beautifully, but in such a tone that he is teased by his peers for sounding like a girl. Later, Ustad Hameed Khan gives singing lessons to Zainab.
Zakir Mian-An older Muslim man and a friend of Mulaqat Ali, with whom Anjum travels to Gujarat to go to an important Muslim shrine to seek spiritual assistance for Zainab’s ill health.
ACP Pinky Sodhi-The only female character in the army, ACP Pinky is known for her violent interrogation techniques, which seem at odds with her beauty.
Balbir Sodhi -ACP Pinky Sodhi's brother. A senior police officer who had been shot down by militants in Sopore.
Mr. Aggarwal-A bureaucrat and aspiring politician.
Tubby Gandhi
Gujarat ka Lalla-Gujarat ka Lalla refers to a Hindu fundamentalist politician who rises to fame and is eventually elected Prime Minister in India.
Saeeda-A “more modern” Hijra who lives with Anjum at the Khwabgah, Saeeda is young Zainab’s second favorite.
Loveleen Singh-wife of Amrik Singh
Khadija -A friend of Musa’s who takes messages to Tilo from his part, Khadija herself becomes a good friend of Tilo’s as well.
Kulsoom Bi – The Head Hijra of the Khwabgah, Ustad Kulsoom Bi
Nimmo Gorakhpuri -A Hijra, and friend of Anjum, who believes that Hijira's are totally incapable of happiness.
Summary -Plot-Narrative Style
Aftab is a hermaphrodite born in Old Delhi and raised as a boy. However, Aftab is never comfortable with this and when he reaches adulthood, he opts for gender reassignment surgery. Aftab is reborn as Anjum, a glamorous woman whose affectionate, outgoing manner quickly ingratiates her with many members of the community. Eighteen and independent for the first time, Anjum finds a home with the residents of the place called Khwaboah, meaning "House of Dreams." This is a community of non-conformists, many who are either intersex or transgender like Anjum. Calling it home, she remains there for thirty years, during which time she becomes a mother figure to a little girl named Zainab and raises her to adulthood. However, when she is forty-six, she survives a massacre in Ahmedabad and decides to leave the Khwabgan. She moves into a local cemetery transforming it into a guesthouse that she names Jannat, or "Paradise." She opens a funeral services company catering to marginalized and persecuted groups. One day, a baby was found at an observatory in Delhi. Anjum takes the child in, but she disappears one day. Anjum tracks the baby down to the house of the woman who took her.
The narrative then shifts to the story of S. Tilottama, called "Tilo" for short, the woman who took the baby. The story flashes back to her college days, her narrative spliced together with the stories of two men who loved her during these years. One is an old bureaucrat called Garson Hobart, the other, a mainstream journalist named Naga whom she eventually marries. Tilo, a dark-skinned, smart woman, had been close to architecture student Musa Yeswi in university. After university. Musa and Tilo reconnected shortly after his wife died. However, Musa became involved with the Kashmiri separatist movement advocating for independence for the Muslim región at the border of Pakistan. Musa and his friend, Commander Gulrez, raise the attention of Indian bureaucrats led by the ruthless Major Amrik Singh. Singh, known for torturing his suspects brutally, captures Musa and Gulrez. Musa manages to escape, but Gulrez is killed as Tilo watches. Shaken and realizing how close she came to being caught up in an extremely dangerous plot, Tilo decides to play it safe and marry Naga. Fourteen years later, they divorce and Tilo rents an apartment from Garson Hobart. They reconnect, but she soon disappears again with the baby from the observatory. She has named the baby Miss Jebeen the Second, after Musa's slain daughter. Anjum finds her, and invites both of them to move into the Jannat guesthouse With her.
The narrative then flashes back to show how Miss Jebeen the First died, in the conflict of 1990s Kashmir. She and Musa's wife, Arifa are shot by soldiers on Major Singh's orders. Although Major Singh later tries to make peace with Musa by paying him off, Musa angrily rejects him and goes undercover. We also see more of the night Gulrez died, and it is revealed that Tilo was pregnant when she escaped Kashmir and married Naga. However, she chooses to have an abortion. Back in the present, the residents of Jannat celebrate Zainab's wedding to fellow resident Saddam. One day, they receive a letter written by Miss Jebeen the Second's mother. A member of the Communist party, Comrade Maase Revathy was raped, and although she could not care for her child, she reveals she named her Udaya. The residents of Jannat agree to name the child Miss Udaya Jebeen, to honor both parents' wishes. The book ends as Garson Hobart reads through Tila's documents, realizing that he now sides with her on Kashmir Musa arrives at his apartment, and they talk about Kashmir, with Musa saving that the conflict will make the country explode one day. Musa joins Tila at Jannat for the night but leaves to rejoin the fight in Kashmir, where he's killed. Anjum takes Miss Udaya Jebeen for a walk around Delhi in the last scene, while a small dung beetle observes the world around.
Fact and Fiction
Tubby Gandhi -Anna Hazare
Mr.Aggarwal- Arvind Kejriwal
Gujarat ka Lalla -Narendra Modi
Trapped Rabbit - Manmohan Singh
Dr.Azad Bhartiya- Obsession for adopting the surname
Godhra Riots 2002 - Anjum and Zakir Mian after their visit to holy place they came to Ahmedabad and riots started.
Una Case(lynching of Dalit) - Saddam Hussain father's lynching was done by shehrawat and even was killed in Haryana.
Hanging of Saddam Hussein by America- Inspiration for Dayachand to adopt the name Saddam Hussein because he wanted to take revenge for his father's death and wanted to kill Shehrawat.
3)Write about any one theme or character of the novel with the help of Chat OpenAI GPT. Ask to Chat GPT and put a screenshot as well as copy-paste the answer generated by this response generator.
(Que)Identify Crisis through the character of Anjum in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.
(Ans) In Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, the character of Anjum is a hijra, a person who identifies as a gender other than male or female. Anjum's struggles with societal discrimination and rejection due to their gender identity can be seen as a representation of the crisis of marginalized identities in India. Additionally, Anjum's experiences as a member of the hijra community, who are often rejected by their families and forced to live in poverty, highlight the broader crisis of poverty and social inequality in the country.
Word Count :- 2,840
