The Organization of Power in Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Foucauldian Reading

Abstract

The present study aims to highlight the role of power in Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness through the ideas given by Michel Foucault. Roy discusses various power centers present in contemporary Indian society, which institutionalize the suppression faced by various characters in the novel on the basis of their caste, religion, social class, or political affiliations. The study intends to expose the dissection of these power centers active in society as the non-linear trajectory of power. The characters of Anjum, Tilo, Musa, and Revathy face suppression to the point of marginalization. This leads them to subvert the power structures of the society by resisting against them, thus negating the linear hierarchy of power.