Open Access English Literature / Cultural Studies

Postcolonial Identity and Hybrid Consciousness in Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Dr. Deepa Rani

Published in IJMEER (Vol. 1, Issue 2, July 2026)  ·  Pages 159-170  ·  ISSN: 3139-6003  ·  DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21809155

Full Article PDF
Download complete peer-reviewed PDF paper
📄 Download PDF (Full Text) →

Abstract

Arundhati Roy's second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017), offers a profound engagement with postcolonial nationhood, marginality, and hybrid identities in contemporary India. Applying Homi Bhabha's concepts of 'third space', 'hybridity', and 'mimicry', this paper analyzes how Roy subverts monolithic nationalistic discourses through marginal characters such as Anjum, a hijra who establishes a sanctuary in a Delhi graveyard, and Tilo, an architecture student caught in the turmoil of Kashmir. The study demonstrates how Roy's fragmented narrative structure mirrors the contested geopolitical landscapes of postcolonial South Asia.

How to Cite

Dr. Deepa Rani. (2026). Postcolonial Identity and Hybrid Consciousness in Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Explication and Emerging Research (IJMEER), 1(2), 159-170. https://www.ijmeer.com/article-v1i2p14.html

Copyright & Licensing

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

You may share, copy, and redistribute this work for non-commercial purposes, provided you give appropriate credit to the author(s) and IJMEER. Commercial use is not permitted.