Sexuality and Love in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Inakali Assumi

Inakali Assumi

Abstract

Arundhati Roy in her novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has talked about numerous socio-political issues as the novel is set against the background of the Indo Pakistan riot. It revolves around a character named Anjum, also known as Aftab who is a hermaphrodite, and through her Roy portrays the third gender of the Indian society. The novel traces the life of Anjum and how she was able to break the misconception and the stereotyping of the hijras. This paper aims to explore the themes of love and sexuality which are vividly portrayed in Arundhati Roy’s novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The major characters in the novel struggle to find a sense of belongingness and acceptance in the world which is divided in the name of gender, sexuality, class, politics etc. This paper analyses the psychological trauma and the complexity in the relationships of the two major characters Anjum and Tilo.

Keywords: Sexuality, love, belongingness, queer.

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Author Biography

Inakali Assumi

Inakali Assumi is a Ph. D. scholar from Nagaland University (Department of English). She completed her M. Phil under the Department of English from ICFAI University, Nagaland. She is aslo a writer and has published two books, which includes one co-authored book.

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1. Assumi, Inakali. “Postcolonialism in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”. Modern Research Studies: An International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (2018): 54-62.
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