Narration of Nation in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

 

• Introduction

    Man Booker Prize-winning author for her debut novel ‘The God of Small Things’ in 1997, pens almost after twenty years her second fiction entitled ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ in 2017 which received wide critical acclaim for its subject matter.

    How does one narrate a fragmenting nation? Much of postcolonial fiction grapples with the failure of the postcolonial nation-state to deliver on the promises of democracy and the betrayal of the people by the anticolonial nationalists who quickly turned into postcolonial dictators. From Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiongo to Salman Rushdie and M.G. Vassanji, postcolonial writers have grappled with this question (TICKELL).

    The Ministry of Utmost Happiness articulates a nation’s history from the perspective of the marginalized. Anjum, a hijra, and Saddam Hussain, a Dalit, and Tilottama, a maverick young woman. and it is through the tales of these characters Arundhati Roy presents the failure of Nation-state.

     Her present novel deals with varied contemporary issues of ‘Modern India’ like “the matter of the hijra communities, the rise of Hindu nationalism, the struggle for Kashmiri independence, the plight of caste discrimination, the impact of rapid industrialization on the environment and the effects of globalization on society”.

    Even though it is a fiction, it depicts the crude reality of contemporary India. Roy uses lots of allusions to satirize various people and ideologies of our time. There are few Indian writers who through their work try to depict the injustice and inequalities in our society. If the writers are writing about the negative sides of the nation, then we have to learn to accept that this is the greater process of self-examination and to become a better society such kind of self-criticism is very essential. It is appropriate to quote here the words of Arvind Adiga that “"At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society," he said, adding that the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens of in the 19th century helped England and France become better societies. "That's what I'm trying to do - it's not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination," the writer told Guardian (The Newswire).

 

     Much of the western European history conditions us to see human differences in simplistic opposition to each other: Dominant/subordinate, good/bad, up/down, superior/inferior, Male/Female. We are habituated to think in binaries only. This systematized process of oppression automatically creates someone as superior and others as dehumanized inferior. So, one can’t imagine the condition of doubly marginalized transgenders. these characters are mostly torn between two worlds- male- female, love-hate life-death and so on (Raina) There is a very narrow space for the queers in Indian literature and India is never a utopia for the transgender (Raj). Aftab / Anjum is 'hijra' in the novel, so through his/her character, Roy is presenting the plight of transgender in the Indian community.

     Apart from this, environmental decay is also a significant issue that can be pondered in novel. Supriya  Mandal in an article entitled 'An Analysis from  the  Perspectives of  Postcolonial Ecocriticism  of Arundhati  Roy’s   The  Ministry  of  Utmost Happiness" writes that The  Ministry  of  Utmost  Happiness draws  out  the  issues  of  the deteriorated condition of  river  due  to construction of  dams  and   the  sewage  system  of   industrial  wastages, the ‘otherness’ of animals, birds, fishes  and trees  and  their  easy exploitation,  the  wiping  out  of  sparrow, vulture  from  biodiversity due  to excessive scientific  manifestations,  the  predicament of  zoo  animals,  the  abolition  of the forest for  the steel  and mining  factories  and the uselessness  of  nuclear  testing etc.  The author unravels that most of the environmental dilapidations are the result of Euro-American ideology of ‘development’ project which is a disguised form of neo-colonialism and imperialism (Mandal).

     Novel has many allusions like The Emergency of 1975, Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the anti-Sikh riots, 9/11 attack, 2002 Gujrat Riots, Narmada Bachao Andolan, the unrest in Kashmir, Maoist insurgency, atrocities against Dalits, the rise of the gau rakshaks, the saffron wave, Modi's ascendancy (he's referred to as "Gujarat ka Lalla"), the anti-corruption brigade of Anna Hazare, the advent of Arvind Kejriwal and that entire movement  of 2011, state election and general Election of India, Una Violence,(mob lynching) issues with minorities etc. 

    Roy refers to The Emergency, 21month period from 1975 to 1977 that was imposed by Indira Gandhi. During Emergency the elections were suspended and civil liberties were curbed. At that time press was also censored and opposition political leaders were imprisoned. Public gatherings and meetings were restricted; the police had the right to search homes without a warrant and could arrest people without charges. The situation during the Emergency has been outlined in the novel as,

    Civil Rights had been suspended, newspapers were censored and, in the name of population control, thousands of men (mostly Muslim) were herded into camps and forcibly sterilized. A new law – the Maintenance of Internal Security Act – allowed the government to arrest anybody on a whim. The prisons were full, a small coterie of Sanjay Gandhi’s acolytes had been unleashed on the general population to carry out his fiat. (TMUH)

     Roy mentions to Bhopal Gas leak tragedy occurred at (UIC), Union Carbide India Limited (a pesticide plant) situated in Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh in India. The gas leak was so dreadful that it killed thousands of people overnight. Moreover, many people lost their eyes permanently, became disabled and affected biological deformation of the next generation also. A 2014  report in Mother Jones quotes a "spokesperson for the Bhopal Medical Appeal, which runs free health clinics for survivors" as saying "An estimated 120,000 to 150,000 survivors still struggle with serious medical conditions including nerve damage, growth problems, gynaecological disorders, respiratory issues, birth defects, and elevated rates of cancer and tuberculosis (Wikipedia)."[CEO of the company Warren Anderson was responsible for all these but it was believed that he was able to flee the country with the support from the politicians.

In the novel, Roy has used this incident as a backdrop. Novel shows people are still protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi for justice. Roy in this novel has given a voice to those who have been wounded, died and those who are still suffering due to the aftermath of Bhopal Gas tragedy. Anjum meets the group of fifty representatives protesting at Jantar Mantar demanding for justice, in the case. They are on the protest, with banners which say “Warren Anderson has killed more than Osama bin Laden” (TMUH). Roy here is comparing the accused Warren Anderson with the mastermind of September 11 attacks of New York, and in doing so, she is probably mapping the intensity of the tragedy which was much more tremendous and horrible than 9/11 attacks. By comparing the two accused, she is also highlighting the ‘little justice’ done to the victims of the Bhopal tragedy who are still suffering from its aftermath (Prashant Maurya).

The residents of “Khwabgah” in the novel, who are a thousand kilometres far from New York can be seen sharing the grief and sentiments of the people of the USA. “The usually garrulous residents of the Khwabgah watched (on TV) in dead silence as the tall buildings buckled like pillars of sand” (TMUH 40). The tall buildings here are a reference to World Trade Centre buildings. Everyone in the Khwabgah was watching the live broadcast of the burning down of the towers silently, with their mouth shut in great shock. In that prolonged silence the utterance of Bismillah, “Do they speak Urdu?” shows his disposition to associate himself with those trapped and losing their lives in the ablaze buildings. This incident in the USA had not only perturbed the United States but India also. The fictional characters of the novel are also no different from it (Prashant Maurya).

    In the novel Arundhati Roy refers to former Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee as The Poet Prime Minister. Immediately after 9/11 attack Govt. of India passed a law, POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) in 2002 which was also included in the novel.

     Roy also includes the incident of Godhra riots of Gujrat in 2002. The incident was such that few pilgrims were returning from Ayodhya in Sabarmati Express. The entire coach was set to fire and then riots break out in the state. Roy has efficiently situated Anjum and Zakir Mia in the riots. Both characters get trapped in the riots in Ahmedabad, which was burning in the fire of communal riot at that time. Roy delineating the situation during the riot in Ahmedabad writes that Muslims in Ahmedabad were attacked by a mob who were “armed with swords and tridents and wore saffron headbands” (Roy). So, in a way by putting her characters amidst the riots, Roy is criticizing the dark episode in the history of the nation.

     Arundhati is very critical of current prime minister Narendra Modi, whom she refers in the novel as ‘Gujrat ka Lalla’. Even former prime minister Dr Man Mohan Singh is also criticized as “Maun Mohan Singh” meaning “Silent-Mohan Singh” because of his reticent nature. The novel shows him as just a puppet of someone. And that someone is actually Sonia Gandhi. Kejriwal, the current Delhi Chief Minister is referred as Mr Agarwal.

 

In 2011 The Anti-corruption Movement led by Anna Hazare was the centre of attention of the entire Nation. On 4 April 2011– Anna Hazare started the ‘fast to death’ at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding the government to draft and pass the Jan Lokpal Bill to fight against corruption. The country was tired by series of scams including 2G scam, Coal mine distribution scam, Commonwealth games scam etc. so in Delhi, there was a huge protest against the corruption, which was joined by many people including bureaucrats, film stars, some politicians etc. Roy includes this episode also in the story to show the darker reality of the nation.

Mob lynching on the name of cow protection is also one of the most debated issues of recent time. There are few instances which were the talk of the town and were in headlines that people got killed by a mob. Recent incidents include Dadri Mob lynching in 2015, 2016 Latehar Mob lynching case, 2016 Ahmedabad lynching case etc. where the mob has lynched the accused to death.

Roy projected the contemporary critical and sensitive socio-political issues of India. Under the covers of secularism and democracy how intolerance, racism, discrimination and injustice frequently practised. How people are slaughtered and innocents are buried in the dark (Raj). So in a way novel is a commentary on the crude sides of present Indian society, with the backdrop of real incidents like Bhopal Gas massacre of 1984, Gujarat riot of 2002, Kashmir insurgency, the plight of Kashmir Pandits, clash between the Muslims and Hindus  Maoist and Naxalite movements, problems of Adivasi’s and Dalits as well as other political, religious aspects, war, Capitalism, Nationalism and so on.

 

•  conclusion

Thus, we can say that Arundhati Roy is narrating a fragmented Nation in her novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Mandal, Supriya. "An Analysis from the Perspectives of Postcolonial Ecocriticism of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." The Criterion: An International Journal in English 9.2 (February 2018).

Prashant Maurya, Nagendra Kumar. "Political overtones and Allusions in Arundhati Roy’sPolitical overtones and Allusions in Arundhati Roy’sThe Ministry of Utmost Happiness." Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 10.3 (2019). PDF. 14 8 2020.

Raina, jaaved Ahmad. "Transgender Marginalization and Exclusion”: A study of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." The Creative Launcher (n.d.).

Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Gurgaon: Penguin Random House India, 2017. Print.

The Newswire. "My book highlights brutal injustices of India: Adiga." 16 10 2008. PDF. 13 8 2020. <https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/my-book-highlights-brutal-injustices-of-india-adiga/621065>.

RAJ, SUSHREE SMITA. "A STUDY ON ARUNDHATI ROY’S “THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION STUDIES (IJELR) Vol. 5. .Issue.2., 2018 (April-June) (n.d.).

TICKELL, ALEX. "Writing in the Necropolis: Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." Moving worlds: A journal of Transcultural studies (n.d.).

Wikipedia. Bhopal disaster. n.d. 14 8 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bhopal_disaster&oldid=971888690>.

 

 

What is Globalization? What are Cultural and Social Dimensions of Globalization? Explain

• ·      Preface

    Globalization is not a new phenomenon. Trade between two distant territories is happening since centuries via sea. Industrial Revolution played a major role in speeding up this process in the last two centuries. The term ‘Globalization’ is quite complex to define because it involves so many aspects. Definition of globalisation also varies in emphasis from the economic and technological to the socio-cultural and political. 

 Globalisation is neither singular condition nor a linear process, rather it is the best thought of as a multidimensional phenomena involving diverse domains of activity and interaction, including the economic, political, technological, military, legal, cultural and environmental.

•  So, let's have a look upon some of the definitions of Globalizations.

 

The concept of globalization has been explained by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) as ‘the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows and also through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology.’ In a broad overview definition, “globalization is the worldwide process of homogenizing prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits.

Sheila L. Croucher argues that “globalization can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in 2002 reports that:  Globalization is a widely-used a term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour. Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth-century, but its spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inward-looking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries, however, the pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century.

Tomlinson defines globalization simply as “complex connectivity,” the expansion of social ties across the planet. As we travel more easily through space, interact with others across vast distances, receive information from near and far, our sense of who “we” necessary change as well. Globalization “alters the context of meaning construction.

According to Anthony Giddens “Globalization can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”

Martin khore's definition of globalisation is what we see in the Third World have for several centuries called colonization.

Globalization has made a huge impact on thinking across the Humanities, redefining the understanding of fields such as communication, culture, politics and literature., the impact of globalization on its culture and literature is quite significant. the discipline of literary studies is undergoing a dramatic transformation.

Modern technologies such as satellite communications and World Wide Web have made a drastic change in dissemination of various forms of literature and quite irrelevantly information explosion has played a central role in the distribution of social and cultural packages all around the globe. People can even read novels, poetry, short stories, song and play online now. a person in India can read Dostoevsky or Anton Chekhov in his own language and vice versa.  Russian student can look of Indian author on the internet. With globalization, it is nearly impossible to stop the spread of ideas, because its very nature brings to light the interconnectivity of all individual.

The economy of India had undergone significant policy shifts at the beginning of the 1990s. This new model of economic reforms is commonly known as the LPG or Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization model. P V Narasimha Rao, then Prime Minister initiated ground-breaking economic reforms & Dr. Manmohan Singh, then Finance Minister played a key role in implementing these reform policies. since then India is going through a rapid transformation.

 

• Cultural and Social Dimensions of Globalization

    Every coin has two sides. Similarly, Globalization is also one of the hotly debated issues because of its advantages and disadvantages. Proponents of globalization believe it allows developing countries to catch up to industrialized nations through increased manufacturing, diversification, economic expansion, and improvements in standards of living. Outsourcing by companies brings jobs and technology to developing countries. Trade initiatives increase cross-border trading by removing supply-side and trade-related constraints. Globalization has advanced social justice on an international scale, and advocates report that it has focused attention on human rights worldwide (Kopp). Globalization detractors argue that it has created a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small corporate elite which can gobble up smaller competitors around the globe. Globalization has become a polarizing issue in the U.S. with the disappearance of entire industries to new locations abroad. It's seen as a major factor in the economic squeeze on the middle class. globalization has also increased homogenization (Kopp).

    On one hand, globalization has created new jobs and economic growth through the cross-border flow of goods, capital, and labour. On the other hand, this growth and job creation is not distributed evenly across industries or countries (Kopp).

    Globalization motives are idealistic, as well as opportunistic, but the development of a global free market has benefited large corporations based in the Western world. Its impact remains mixed for workers, cultures, and small businesses around the globe, in both, developed and emerging nations (Kopp).

    Nowadays all local cultures are merging into each other and global culture is emerging out of that. Technology has played a key role in making this cultural change at a great pace. cultural boundaries are swept away by fax machines, internet, satellites, and cable TV. The mixture of GLOBAL and LOCAl culture has created new GLOCAL culture.

        As John Tomlinson conceives, “the impact of globalization in the cultural sphere has, most generally, been viewed in a pessimistic light. Typically, it has been associated with the destruction of cultural identities, victims of the accelerating encroachment of a homogenized, westernized, consumer culture. This view tends to interpret globalization as a seamless extension of – indeed, as a euphemism for – western cultural imperialism.” An alternative perspective on cultural globalization emphasizes the transfiguration of worldwide diversity into a pandemic of Westernized consumer culture. Some critics argue that the dominance of American culture influencing the entire world will ultimately result in the end of cultural diversity. Such cultural globalization may lead to a human monoculture. This process, understood as cultural imperialism, is associated with the destruction of cultural identities, dominated by a homogenized and westernized, consumer culture. The global influence of American products, businesses and culture in other countries around the world has been referred to as Americanization. This influence is represented through that of American-based television programs which are rebroadcast throughout the world. Major American companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola have played a major role in the spread of American culture around the globe. Terms such as Coca-colonization have been coined to refer to the dominance of American products in foreign countries, which some critics of globalization view as a threat to the cultural identity of these nations (Wikipedia). It is generally believed that western culture is overpowering the local culture. The traditional way of living life is diminishing and more Americanized or Westernized way of living is becoming prominent everywhere. Culture and customs, Food habit, festivals, dressing, games, work culture, education and much more are changing very fast. More number of people are craving for the life Europeans or Americans live. So, in that sense, one can say that we are living in the era of Neocolonialism.  

     Claiming that “globalization actually proliferates rather than destroys identities,” Tomlinson elaborates more on the claim “that globalization actually generates identity – and, indeed, in some circumstances, it produces too much identity.” This is a very interesting observation by Tomlinson that how globalization is creating so many identities. Earlier it was so that one’s identity was very limited as per language, caste, or Nation. But in the era of globalization, all these things are changing very fast.

     “Globalization can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” Such a definition reminds us of how the social dimension of globalization is characterized variously from different viewpoints. Through another standpoint, we can say that the social dimension of globalization “refers to the impact of globalization on the life and work of people, on their families, and their societies.

     As far as the role of culture in the global process is concerned, there are mainly two approaches. One focuses on the globalization’s positive consequences: here globalization is defined as “a process in which goods and people, ideas and behaviours, technology and information are freely exchanged and disseminated between different cultures worldwide.”42 Accordingly, then the economic side of globalization is “de-emphasized” and just “another instance of cultural diffusion or hybridization” is conceived. It is believed that “the most sophisticated version of cultural globalization is given by Malcolm Waters‟ theorem, which purports that while material exchanges localize and political exchanges internationalize, symbolic exchanges globalize.

     Globalization is a term that is used in many ways, but the principal underlying idea is the progressive integration of economies and societies. It is driven by new technologies, new economic relationships and the national and international policies of a wide range of actors, including governments, international organizations, business, labour and civil society.

        Broadly speaking, the process of globalization has two aspects. The first refers to those factors - such as trade, investment, technology, cross-border production systems, flows of information and communication - which bring societies and citizens closer together.

     The second refers to policies and institutions, such as trade and capital market liberalization, international standards for labour, the environment, corporate behaviour and other issues, agreements on intellectual property rights, and other policies pursued at both the national and international level which support the integration of economies and countries. In terms of the latter aspect, the existing pattern of globalization is not an inevitable trend - it is at least in part the product of policy choices. While technological change is irreversible, policies can be changed. Technological advances have also widened the policy choices available.

     The social dimension of globalization refers to the impact of globalization on the life and work of people, on their families, and their societies. Concerns and issues are often raised about the impact of globalization on employment, working conditions, income and social protection. Beyond the world of work, the social dimension encompasses security, culture and identity, inclusion or exclusion and the cohesiveness of families and communities.

     Globalization brings new potentials for development and wealth creation. But there are divergent views and perceptions among people as concerns its economic and social impact, and indeed widely varying impacts on the interests and opportunities of different sectors and economic and social actors. Some argue that the present model of globalization has exacerbated problems of unemployment, inequality and poverty, while others contend that globalization helps to reduce them. Of course, these problems predated globalization, but it is clear that for globalization to be politically and economically sustainable, it must contribute to their reduction. Hence the goal of globalization which meets the needs of all people.

     Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a long history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among overview.

    The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (WCSDG) is one of those organizations which aims at making globalization a fairer and more suitable process for all. As stated in the working paper No.24 for the 2004 sessions of WCSDG, certain objectives were delineated to be achieved: [Commission’s] broad goals were: to identify policies for globalization that reduce poverty, foster growth and development in open economies, and widen opportunities for decent work; to explore ways to make globalization inclusive, so that the process can be seen to be fair for all, both between and within countries; to promote a more focused international dialogue on the social dimension of globalization; to build consensus among key actors and stakeholders on appropriate policy responses; and to assist the international community forge greater policy coherence in order to advance both economic and social goals in the global economy.

     A large number of people are migrating and travelling across the world which plays a vital role in cross-cultural exchanges. Technology is also helping in integrating newer culture with each other. A visible aspect of the cultural globalization is the diffusion of certain cuisines such as American fast-food chains. The two most successful global food and beverage outlets, McDonald's and Starbucks, are American companies often cited as examples of globalization, with over 36,000 and 24,000 locations operating worldwide respectively as of 2015.The Big Mac Index is an informal measure of purchasing power parity among world currencies (Wikipedia). Social impact of globalisation includes effect on life and work of people, on their families and societies. It also includes an impact on employment, working conditions, income and social protection, security, culture and identity and the cohesiveness of families and communities.

• conclusion

    Thus, Globalization is a very complex phenomenon affecting each and every corner of the world.

 Works Cited

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990. p.64.

Bernhard G. Gunter and Rolph van der Hoeven, Foreword, “The Social Dimension of Globalization: A Review of the Literature,” Working Paper No. 24. Policy Integration Department, World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, International Labor Office: Geneva, June 2004.p.iii.  

Kopp, Carol M. "Globalization." 30 04 2020. Investopediahttps://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/globalization.asp. 09 08 2020.

Wikipedia contributors. "Cultural globalization." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Jul. 2020. Web. 12 Aug. 2020.