74 pages • 2 hours read
The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Spanning the 1950s to the 2010s, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, a 2017 novel by Arundhati Roy, follows the interconnected lives of several characters against the backdrop of contemporary India. The novel skips backwards and forwards in time freely, often pauses for detours into the stories of minor characters and includes several texts within the main text (e.g., Bhartiya’s manifesto, or Tilo’s Kashmiri-English Alphabet). At heart, however, the novel consists of two main narrative threads, one of which is centered in Delhi, and the other in Kashmir.
The first begins with Anjum, a Muslim Hijra (a traditional third gender in India comparable to the term “transgender woman”). Anjum, who is born intersex and named Aftab, is initially raised as a boy. Once Aftab enters adolescence, however, he rejects this male identity and joins the Khwabgah, or “House of Dreams”—a local community of Hijras—taking the name Anjum. Anjum spends more than three decades in the Khwabgah, earning her living (as many Hijras do) as an entertainer and a sex worker. Although she becomes quite successful, she longs to experience life as an “ordinary” (33) woman and, in her 40s, adopts an abandoned toddler whom she names Unlock all 74 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
