The Desire for Recognition in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Abstract

This research paper analyses the different ways which the society adopts to categorise emotions, feelings and desires on the basis of the gender of a person. The paper investigates why the society does not accept those who do not adhere to the gender binaries. It highlights the biases of the society towards the feelings of gender non-confirmative and attempts to underline the ways these people are marginalised and treated as others. Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) has been selected to probe the biases of the society towards the feelings and natural desires of gender non-conforming, employing Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Butler presented her theory of gender performativity to highlight that gender is a set of repetitive actions and not innate. She asserts that society has constructed gender roles and whosoever fails to perform their gender is alienated and othered. Research design is qualitative. Research approach is inductive. This study concludes that feelings and desires, being universal, should not be categorised on the basis of the gender of a person. The main cause of the issues that the gender non-normative face, needs to be explored and eradicated as a solution for a harmonious settlement. This novel can be analysed from a postmodern perspective of other theorists.