The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy: Building Paradise in a Graveyard

This blog is written as a task assigned by the head of the Department of English (MKBU), Prof. and Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. Here is the link to the professor's worksheet for background reading: Click here.

To read more about the Flipped Learning Network: Click here.

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PHASE 1: PRE-CLASS TASK (CORE E-CONTENT)

Video 1: Khwabgah

• Introduction to Narrative Structure: The novel opens with complex, non-linear storytelling and elements of magic realism, beginning with Anjum living in a graveyard "like a tree",.
• Anjum’s Origins: The video traces Anjum’s backstory as Aftab, born to Jahanara Begum and Mulaqat Ali in Old Delhi. Upon discovering the child is intersex, the mother goes through five stages of shock, ranging from denial to contemplating suicide.
• Life in Khwabgah: Seeking belonging, Aftab moves to the Khwabgah (House of Dreams), a community for Hijras led by Kulsoom Bi. Here, Aftab transitions into Anjum, embracing her identity in a space that offers refuge from the binary norms of the outside world, referred to as the "Dunya".
• The 2002 Gujarat Riots: A pivotal trauma occurs when Anjum travels to Gujarat and gets caught in the 2002 riots. She witnesses the massacre of pilgrims and her friend Zakir Mian; she survives only because the mob believes killing a Hijra brings bad luck.
• The Graveyard (Jannat): Traumatized by the violence, Anjum leaves the Khwabgah to live in a graveyard, which she transforms into the Jannat Guest House—a sanctuary where the living and dead coexist,.

Video 2: Saddam Hussein and Jantar Mantar

• Saddam Hussein’s Backstory: The video introduces Saddam Hussein (born Dayachand), a Dalit character who works at the Jannat Guest House. He shares his traumatic past where his father, a cobbler, was lynched by a mob over false accusations of cow slaughter, an act filmed and celebrated by the perpetrators,.
• The Name Change: Dayachand renames himself Saddam Hussein after watching the execution of the Iraqi president, admiring the dictator's refusal to beg for mercy in the face of American power,.
• Systemic Oppression: The character highlights issues of caste discrimination in government mortuaries and the economic exploitation of security guards by corrupt agencies,.
• Jantar Mantar Protests: The narrative shifts to the Jantar Mantar observatory, described as a gathering place for India’s marginalized voices. The video critiques the 2011 Anti-Corruption Movement (referencing Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal figures) for dominating media attention while ignoring other protests, such as the Mothers of the Disappeared from Kashmir and activists from Manipur and Bhopal,.
• The Abandoned Baby: A baby (later known as Miss Jebeen the Second) is discovered at the protest site, leading to a custody dispute involving Anjum before the child mysteriously disappears,.

Video 3: Kashmir and Dandakaranyak

• Narrative Shift: The story moves to a first-person perspective through "The Landlord" (Biplab Dasgupta), an Intelligence Bureau officer, introducing a new set of characters: Tilo, Musa, and Naga,.
• Tilo and Political Resistance: Tilo is depicted as an enigmatic figure resembling Arundhati Roy, who rescues the abandoned baby from Jantar Mantar,.
• Musa’s Tragedy: Musa Yeswi, initially a peaceful man in Kashmir, turns to militancy after his wife Arifa and daughter Miss Jebeen are killed by a single bullet during a military action.
• Captain Amrik Singh: The video discusses the antagonist Amrik Singh, an army officer who commits atrocities in Kashmir. He eventually flees to the USA to seek asylum but ultimately kills his family and himself, driven to madness by the fear Musa instills in him,.
• Revathy’s Letter: The video concludes with the revelation of a letter from Revathy, a Maoist fighter in the Dandakaranya forest. She reveals she is the biological mother of the abandoned baby, born after she was raped by police officers, describing the child as having "six fathers and three mothers",.

Video 4: Udaya Jebeen & Dung Beetle

• Convergence at Jannat: The shattered storylines of Anjum, Tilo, Saddam, and the baby converge at the Jannat Guest House.
• The Dung Beetle (Guih Kyom): The lecture analyzes the dung beetle as a central symbol of resilience and hope. Though it works with waste, it is "environmentally friendly" and keeps the earth clean, symbolizing how the marginalized characters create a meaningful world out of society's refuse,.
• Resilience and Survival: The video emphasizes that the characters do not find a perfect "happy ending" but find resilience. Saddam moves away from his desire for revenge and marries Zainab, while Anjum finds purpose in caretaking.
• "Becoming Everything": The lecturer discusses the novel's closing philosophy on storytelling: "How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By slowly becoming everything," suggesting that fragmented narratives are necessary to reflect a fractured reality,.

Video 5: Thematic Study

• The Nature of Paradise: Paradise (Jannat) is redefined not as an afterlife, but as a secular, inclusive sanctuary created on earth for those rejected by society.
• Ambiguity and Diversity: The novel celebrates internal and external diversity, using Anjum’s intersex identity to challenge rigid binaries of gender, religion, and nationality,.
• The Cost of Modernization: The lecture critiques "development," utilizing symbols like the Mercedes Benz to represent wealth inequality and the disappearance of vultures to symbolize ecological devastation caused by veterinary drugs,.
• Boundaries Between Life and Death: The theme explores how the line between the living and the dead is blurred, particularly in the graveyard where the living sleep among graves and "second burials" are performed for emotional closure,.
• Social Status and Hierarchy: The video examines the caste system and the marginalization of specific groups, such as the Hijra community and Kashmiris, critiquing the hierarchy that places them at the bottom of the social pyramid.
• Religion and Power: The lecture highlights the dangerous intersection of religion and politics, criticizing how religious symbols are used to manipulate voters and justify violence,.

Video 6: Symbols and Motifs

• Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed: The historical saint executed for apostasy serves as a symbol of dangerous love and the rejection of orthodox rigidity.
• The Old Man (Anna Hazare): Represents the 2011 Anti-Corruption movement, symbolizing how Gandhian imagery was used to mobilize the masses, eventually leading to a shift in political power,.
• Shiraz Cinema: A cinema hall in Kashmir that was shut down by militants (cultural war) and transformed into an interrogation center by the military, symbolizing the loss of joy and the pervasiveness of trauma,.
• Jannat Express: A dark metaphor used by security forces to describe killing militants, cynically facilitating their "journey to paradise".
• Motherhood: Contrasts the biological inability of Anjum to bear children with her inclusive "mothering" of the outcast community, while critiquing the aggressive nationalist symbol of "Bharat Mata" (Mother India),.
• Internal Organs: The motif of internal organs "whispering" or fighting each other represents the deep, internalized trauma and division within the characters.
• Saffron Parakeets: A symbol representing the rise of Hindu nationalism and the organized political crowds associated with it.

PHASE 2: AI-ASSISTED WORKSHEET ACTIVITIES

Activity A: The "Shattered Story" Structure (Textual Analysis with ChatGPT)

Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness employs a deliberately fragmented and non-linear narrative structure to mirror the psychological and historical trauma experienced by its characters. As Prof. Dilip Barad explains, Roy refuses to tell a story in a smooth, linear progression because trauma itself does not unfold logically or sequentially. Instead, the novel adheres to the governing principle explicitly stated in the text: “How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By slowly becoming everything.” This narrative strategy allows the novel to assemble broken lives, displaced histories, and marginalized spaces into a porous, expanding structure rather than forcing them into a chronological order,.

The non-linear timeline is most visible in the trajectory of Anjum, whose life is ruptured by the trauma of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Her narrative does not follow a straight developmental arc; rather, it shifts spatially and symbolically from the “Khwabgah” (House of Dreams) in Old Delhi to the “Graveyard” (Jannat Guest House). Initially, the Khwabgah serves as a refuge for Anjum (formerly Aftab) and the Hijra community, a place of relative safety within the "Dunya" (world),. However, after surviving the massacre in Gujarat—where she witnesses her friend Zakir Mian’s death and is spared only because killing a Hijra is considered bad luck—her sense of self is shattered. She cannot simply return to her old life. The narrative mirrors this internal disintegration by moving her to the graveyard, where she lives “like a tree”,. This spatial transition marks a shift from the living world to a liminal space where the living and dead coexist, demonstrating that for the marginalized, survival often requires inhabiting the ruins of history,.

Furthermore, the novel’s structure functions by stitching together seemingly disparate worlds through shared trauma. This is best exemplified by how Tilo’s story in Kashmir connects to Anjum’s life in the graveyard via the found baby (Miss Jebeen the Second/Udaya). Tilo’s narrative is fragmented by the political violence of Kashmir, enforced disappearances, and her relationship with the militant Musa,. These threads converge with Anjum’s story when the abandoned baby is discovered at the Jantar Mantar protest site. Tilo rescues the child and eventually brings her to the Jannat Guest House,. This plot point acts as a structural bridge, linking the gendered trauma of Old Delhi with the political trauma of the Kashmir insurgency. By converging at the Jannat Guest House, the narrative demonstrates that a "shattered story" creates a new kind of wholeness, where the "refuse" of society—orphans, outcasts, and survivors—come together to form a resilient, unconventional family,.

Ultimately, Roy’s refusal of linearity is an ethical choice. By telling the story in fragments and allowing it to "become everything"—absorbing letters, protests, graveyards, and silences—the novel reflects the reality of a fractured nation where trauma is not an event with a clear end, but an ongoing condition of life,.

Activity B: Mapping the Conflict (Mind Mapping with NotebookLM)

Image courtesy: NotebookLM - Representational

Activity C: Automated Timeline & Character Arcs (Auto-mode with Comet)

1. Anjum’s Journey: From Aftab to the Graveyard

• Birth as Aftab (Old Delhi):

◦ Event: Born to Jahanara Begum and Mulaqat Ali. The midwife discovers the child is intersex (possessing both male and female attributes),.

◦ Context: The mother hides this truth due to societal fear, hoping the condition will resolve naturally, leading to a childhood marked by secrecy,.

• Living in Khwabgah (Adolescence & Young Adulthood):

◦ Event: Around age 15, Aftab follows a Hijra named Bombay Silk to the Khwabgah (House of Dreams) and eventually leaves home to join the community,,.

◦ Transition: Aftab transitions into Anjum, finding a sense of belonging and language for her identity under the mentorship of Kulsoom Bi,.

• Trauma in Gujarat (2002 Riots):

◦ Event: Anjum travels to Gujarat with her friend Zakir Mian to visit a shrine and gets caught in the 2002 communal riots. Zakir is murdered by a mob,.

◦ Impact: Anjum survives only because the mob believes killing a Hijra brings bad luck. This event shatters her worldview, leading her to perceive the "riot" as something now living inside her,,.

• Moving to the Graveyard (Jannat):

◦ Event: Traumatized and alienated from the Khwabgah, Anjum adopts a masculine appearance (Pathani suit) and moves into a graveyard near a government hospital,,.

◦ Motivation: She establishes the Jannat Guest House among the graves, creating a sanctuary for the "living dead" and society’s outcasts, symbolizing a move from marginalization to creating her own "paradise",,.

2. Saddam Hussain’s Journey: From Dayachand to Jannat

• Witnessing Father’s Lynching (Haryana):

◦ Event: Born Dayachand, a Dalit (Chamar), he witnesses a mob lynch his father after falsely accusing him of killing a cow. The police officer, Sehravat, is complicit in the violence,,.

◦ Context: The perpetrators film the act with pride, treating the murder as a celebrated spectacle, which instills a deep desire for revenge in Dayachand,.

• Changing Name to Saddam Hussain (Defiance):

◦ Event: Dayachand converts to Islam and renames himself Saddam Hussain after watching the execution of the Iraqi President on television,.

◦ Motivation: The name change is verified as an act of defiance. He admires the Iraqi dictator’s refusal to beg for mercy in the face of American power, using the persona to stand against the "mighty Goliath" of local caste oppression and police brutality,,.

• Meeting Anjum (The Jannat Guest House):

◦ Event: After working exploitative jobs in mortuaries and as a security guard, Saddam meets Anjum at the graveyard,,.

◦ Resolution: Anjum uncovers his true history, and he integrates into the Jannat community. He eventually shifts his focus from solitary vengeance to collective resilience, becoming a permanent resident of the Guest House,,.

Activity D: The "Audio/Video" Synthesis (Multimedia with NotebookLM)

Video courtesy: NotebookLM - Representational

References:

Barad, Dilip. "Flipped Learning Worksheet on The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." ResearchGate, Feb. 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399801292_Flipped_Learning_Worksheet_on_The_Ministry_of_Utmost_Happiness

DoE-MKBU. "Part 1 | Khwabgah | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-29vE53apGs.

DoE-MKBU. "Part 2 | Saddam Hussein and Jantar Mantar | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1z1AEXPBU.

DoE-MKBU. "Part 3 | Kashmir and Dandakaranyak | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIKH_89rML0.

DoE-MKBU. "Part 4 | Udaya Jebeen & Dung Beetle | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH5EULOFP4g.

DoE-MKBU. "Thematic Study | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NYSTUTBoSs.

DoE-MKBU. "Symbols and Motifs | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy." YouTube, 28 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBOqLB487U.Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Knopf, 2017.