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.
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
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)
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
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
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.
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.
Thus,
we can say that Arundhati Roy is narrating a fragmented Nation in her novel The
Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
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>.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
The dictionary defines ‘Vocation’ as ‘career’, ‘calling’, or the particular occupation for which you are trained. so, as a research scholar what one should keep in mind? what are the differences between Scholar and Critic? How one should move from critic to scholar? All these points he is discussing in the very beginning of the present chapter. So, in a sense, the present chapter by Richard D. Altick is grounding for the research scholar.
Altick begins this chapter by quoting the words of Howard Mumford Jones –
Our business, as I understand it, is to find out in a humble spirit of inquiry what literary masterpieces really say
In the beginning, he differentiates between Scholar and critic. He says, as such, we all are dedicated to the same task, the discovery of Truth. He writes that the critic’s business is primarily with the literary work itself – with its structure, style, and content of ideas. The scholar, on the other hand, is more concerned with the facts attending its genesis and subsequent history.
He writes Literary research is devoted to the enlightenment of criticism. It seeks to illuminate the work of art as it really is. Equally, it tries to see the writer as he really was, his cultural heritage and the people for whom he wrote as they really were.
Altick was visionary that, even in the 1960s he was able to see the danger of connecting publication with the promotion in institutions. Because this is very much dangerous thing which affects the ability of teaching. Some teacher may keep on publishing so many research papers and attend many conferences and seminars but may not teach in class at all. Whereas some very good teacher who does excellent teaching, who may not publish so much are at loss.
In the present chapter Altick discusses the literary journey. A journey of Critic to a researcher to Scholar. The critic is attached to the text whereas the scholar should be detached from text. Research is an occupation but scholarship is a habit of mind or a way of life. Altick questions that what are the chief qualities of mind and temperament that go to make up a successful and happy scholar?
Subsequently, he answers that the ideally equipped literary scholar should have come to his profession after serving a practical apprenticeship in one or the other of two occupations: law and journalism. One may ask why did he emphasize more on these two professions? Because he argues, the practice of law requires a thorough command of the principles of evidence, a knowledge of how to make one’s efficient way through the accumulated “literature” on a subject and a devotion both to accuracy and to detail. Journalism, more specifically the work of the investigative reporter, also calls for resourcefulness – knowing where to go for one’s information and how to obtain it, the ability to recognize and follow up leads, and tenacity in pursuit of the facts. Both professions, moreover, require organizational skill, the ability to put facts together in a pattern that is clear and, if the controversy is involved, persuasive
According to Altick, the ideal researcher must love literature for its own sake. He must be an insatiable reader. the researcher must have a vivid sense of history: the ability to cast himself back into another age. He must be able to readjust his intellectual sights and imaginative responses to the systems of thought and the social and cultural atmosphere that prevailed in fourteenth-century England or early twentieth-century America. He must be able to think as people thought when Newton was educating them in the laws of physics and to dream like people. Otherwise, he cannot comprehend the current attitudes or the artistic assumptions that guided an author as he set pen to paper. dreamed when Byron was spinning out his Oriental romances. Before understanding a certain period in history, he must know about historical, social, political circumstances of that time. So that he may understand the time in a better way. Newton had faced so many problems and threats from the contemporary authority in convincing them about his scientific inventions. It is now that we can understand his views easily but at that time it was nearly impossible to convince the people. So, when a researcher studies about him, he should keep in mind that period and study accordingly. At the same time, he must retain his footing in the twentieth century for the sake of the indispensable perspective the historian needs. His sense of past, then, must be a double vision – intimate and penetrating and yet detached
Literary scholarship tolerates to a degree the subjective impression, as is inevitable in a discipline that deals with the human consciousness and the art it produces. But as an assembler and assayer of historical facts, a literary scholar needs to be as rigorous in his method as a scientist. Background in science can be good preparation for the science because the same qualities are required in both like : intellectual curiosity, shrewdness, precision, imagination – the lively the inventiveness that constantly suggests new hypotheses, new strategies, new sources of information, and, when all the data are in, makes possible their accurate interpretation and evaluation
Scholarship involves a great amount of detail work, in which no margin of error is allowed. It is no occupation for the impatient or the careless; nor is it one for the easily fatigued. A scholar must not only be capable of hard, often totally result in less work – he must actually relish it
Altick writes that “Learning without wisdom is a load of books on an ass’s back.” One can be a researcher, full of knowledge, without also being a scholar. He suggests a very thin line between researcher and scholar. Research is the means, scholarship the end; research is an occupation, the scholarship is a habit of mind and a way of life. A scholar is more than a researcher, for while he may be gifted in the discovery and assessment of facts, he is, besides, a man of broad and luminous learning. He has both the wisdom and the knowledge that enable him to put facts in their place
After laying a foundation in the first chapter, he advances his views in the next chapter about the spirit of scholarship. Altick begins the chapter with the following quote.
“And as I would not take the least Iota upon Trust, if possible; I examin’d the Original Authors I could meet with: ... I think a The writer of Facts cannot be too critical: It is Exactness I aim at, and would not have the least Mistake if possible, pass to the World”.
– Thomas Prince
He very clearly says that the Researcher should nor Trust / believe anything easily without examining it. Even if the author himself comes and says that this is the meaning of my words/texts, then even doubt it. It may happen that a writer may have changed his views because of some kind of pressure or protest against him. So, the researcher should doubt everything. This should be his habit of mind.
The essay is divided into three parts.
1. Error: Its Prevalence, Progress, and Persistence
2. Examining the Evidence
3. Two Applications of the Critical Spirit: Fixing Dates and Testing Genuineness
The scholar’s business is in part constructive and in part constructively destructive. It means that he has to do a critical analysis of literary texts and add more knowledge in the field, at the same time he has to show mistakes as well of writer and text.
In the first part of the essay, he notes that Criticism conducted in the shadow of error is criticism wasted. He may be a trusting person in his personal life but in his professional life as a Scholar, he must cultivate a low opinion of the human capacity for truth and accuracy. A scholar should be thoroughly sceptic. Everything is held open for question. Doubt and question everything before believing it.
Altick accepts that all humans are fallible. Knowingly or unknowingly we tend to make mistakes. So, we have to reconcile ourselves to a small, irreducible margin of error in our work. But fatalism cannot under any circumstances rationalize carelessness. The researcher can’t blame destiny for the mistakes in his work. Granted that perfection is beyond our reach, we must devote every ounce of resolution and care to eliminating all the mistakes we can possibly detect.
He advises scholars to choose the most dependable text. Because there are many editions of texts are available. It may happen that the editor may have changed something which was not in the original menu script. Or subsequent editions may be totally different than the earlier versions. Sometimes new words, phrases or even entire chapters are added or deleted. Sometimes print and pdf copy may have a lot of variations. So, one should be very careful in choosing the authentic texts. To prove his point, he gives many examples from English literary history. an edition contains an elaborate apparatus of footnotes and textual variants are no absolute guarantee that the text is indeed accurate. There is a possibility of printing error also.
As a result, it becomes very important for the scholar to examine all evidence properly to rectify the mistakes that occurred in the process of historical transmission. Author’s autobiographical narrative can be important but we should never accept them at their face value. Apart from their frequent unreliability as to specific dates, places, and other historical facts, they usually are idealized, embroidered through the artistic imagination, coloured by the desire for self-justification
Scholar’s task is even more difficult when several versions of the same story are available. it is not usually possible for a scholar to say with absolute confidence that this, and this alone, is what happened in a given episode; the best he can do is assert that everything considered, the probabilities favour one set of details more than another
Altick says the problem of evaluating primary evidence is complicated when several first-hand witnesses, all presumably of the same dependability, differ among themselves. And to prove his point he gives an example of Wordsworth that how various contemporary portrayed him vividly. So, it becomes difficult for a scholar to find out which one to believe. He adds that the source of every statement has to be analysed in view of the character, reliability, temperamental sympathy, and possible bias of the contributor.
In the third part of the essay he says very precisely that Be sure of your facts – and if in the slightest doubt, take another look
scholars must take particular care to cultivate an acute awareness of time. By applying our sharp time-sense to the documents and received narratives before us, we can often place an event more precisely in the sequence to which it belongs, and even more important, we may thereby prove or disprove a doubtful statement. Chronological considerations sometimes may lead us into deeper waters than we anticipate
He concludes his chapter by saying that All that glitters is not gold and alerts to research scholar to the possibility that a manuscript or book he is examining was produced with deceptive, if not clearly criminal, intent. The date may be erroneous; the document’s handwriting may not be that of the putative author; a “new edition” of a book may contain a text that has been reprinted without change or, on the other hand, has been silently abridged. So, one should be very careful in all these things and perhaps, in the true sense that is the Spirit of Scholarship
Altick, Richard. The Art of Literary Research. 4. New York: W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC, 1975. pdf.