Subalternization of the Indian Minorities: A Paracolonial Reading of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Abstract

This paper explores The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) by Arundhati Roy by means of the overlapping theoretical approaches to subalternity and paracolonialism. The paper hypothesizes that even after the formal independence of India, structural hierarchies and epistemic violence of colonialism exist in new forms, i.e., economic, ideological, and cultural. The story by Roy does not just reveal the promises of the postcolonial freedom that were not fulfilled, but also reveals the way the Indian state has held on to the unfulfilled status of most of its people, such as Dalits, Muslims, transgender people, and the urban poor. By closely analyzing the text and providing some theoretical understanding of Gayatri Spivak, Antonio Gramsci, Ania Loomba, and Robert Young, this paper can theorize the Indian condition as being paracolonial, which is, under the governance of native elites, the perpetuation of colonial logic. The study shows how the novel, as authored by Roy, also serves as a political intervention to criticize the neoliberal state and redefine the subaltern spaces as the place of resistance and empathy, as well as collective hope.