Resilience and Hope Theme Analysis

While The Ministry of Utmost Happiness paints, on the whole, a relatively bleak portrait of politics and violence in modern India, resilience and hope among the characters is an important thread throughout the work. In the novel, Roy addresses social inequalities, political corruption, and a great deal of violence through the points of view of various characters. However, she also highlights the history of hope and resistance in India, and the characters’ resilience in the face of contemporary political oppression. In doing so, Roy suggests that hope is the most important sources of empowerment for those facing oppression, and suggests that although the characters may not see the immediate effects of their resistance or resilience, these powerful forces are ultimately capable of thwarting oppression.

At the beginning of the story, Anjum—a transgender woman and one of the book’s main characters—is taken as a baby by her mother to the shrine of Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed, a martyr who is a source of spiritual nourishment for many characters in the story. Anjum’s mother asks the spirit of Shaheed to help her love her baby, whom she has discovered is intersex. Shaheed was a Jewish merchant who moved to Delhi to be with a Muslim man he was in love with. For his beloved, Shaheed later converted to (and then renounced) Islam. Shaheed was executed because he renounced Islam, and even when given the opportunity to save his life by proclaiming his loyalty to the faith, he refused. Although he lost his life for this, his spirit lives on in the shrine, encouraging visitors towards “stubborn, ecstatic love even when faced with the prospect of annihilation.” It is, presumably, this spirit that helps Anjum’s mother to love Anjum in spite of her intersex gender. Over the course of the novel, Anjum visits Shaheed’s shrine with various other characters, and, presumably, draws strength and support from his spirit. The fact that Shaheed’s spirit is able to continue loving and nourishing people even though he himself was executed exemplifies the idea of resilience. It seems that his spirit defied the wills of those who executed him, seeking to destroy both him and his ideas. Through casting a noble martyr as a source of spiritual support for the characters in the novel, Roy demonstrates the importance of hope in spite of obstacles.

Roy also subtly celebrates the resilience of the non-corrupt, civilian members of the Kashmiri resistance. In her descriptions of the Kashmiri conflict, Roy draws much attention to the dead bodies of both innocent citizens and members of the militia, highlighting how Kashmiris go out to give their dead proper burials in spite of the threat of a military attack. This act of courage alone demonstrates the resilience of the Kashmiri people. In one moment, the sister of a murdered, innocent young man describes how “when her brother’s body was […] brought home, his fists, clenched in rigor mortis, were full of earth and yellow mustard flowers grew from between his fingers.” In this moment, the juxtaposition of rigor mortis and the mustard flowers is a metaphor for home. Although rigor mortis implies the rigidity and apparent permanence of death, the mustard flowers represent new life being born of and nourished by death. In other words, death is not a permanent end, since it serves to create new life. This image suggests the inevitability of life continuing in the face of violence. Roy infuses the description of the dead body with the possibility of hope for a better future.

Finally, the story of Miss Udaya Jebeen—the baby adopted by Anjum and Tilo (another central character)—epitomizes the power and importance of hope. Miss Udaya Jebeen is an abandoned baby whom Tilo found and adopted. Tilo originally named her “Miss Jebeen the Second” after Miss Jebeen, her lover Musa’s daughter who was murdered by the Indian army in Kashmir. Once Tilo and Anjum have adopted the baby, they receive a letter from her mother, a member of the Communist resistance who became pregnant because she was raped by policemen in custody. She named her baby Udaya, which means “sunrise.” In this way, Miss Udaya Jebeen’s represents hope in the face of violence. Sunrise is often a metaphor for the future and new beginnings. Additionally, in being named after Miss Jebeen, Miss Udaya Jebeen is a metaphorical reincarnation of her namesake. She represents the second chance at building a better future.

The story of Miss Udaya Jebeen is particularly important, because it is on this note that Roy ends the narrative. In the last passage of the novel, Guih Kyom the dung beetle is “wide awake and on duty, lying on his back […] to save the world in case the heavens fell. But even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to. Because Miss Jebeen, Miss Udaya Jebeen, was come.” Here, Roy makes it clear that the baby symbolizes hope, and survival in spite of the threats of enormous violence. The fact that this passage is told from the perspective of a dung beetle furthers this claim, as dung beetles sustain their own lives by feeding on the waste of other animals. They represent the turning of one cycle into another. By ending the story on a hopeful note, Roy draws readers’ attention to the importance of the characters’ resilience throughout the novel, implying that their strength and continued resistance will eventually allow them to achieve a more peaceful future.