Abstract

 Arundhati Roy’s Azadi . Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. (2020) is a clarion call to the world at large and India in particular to break the shackles of obsoleteness, and reimagine a new and improved world. This wakeup call has been prompted by the pandemic which has brought the entire globe down on its knees. It has forced humankind to question the values that modern societies have been built on – all that they have chosen to venerate and those they have derided. COVID-19 has ridiculed borders: geographical, political, economic and cultural. The pandemic for Roy is a “portal, a gateway between one world and the next” (214). This anthology consists of 9 essays/ lectures written between 2018-2020. They are all linked together as they yield insights into how the world should be recreated. This paper attempts to critically assess the diverse ways in which Roy seeks to reinvent the world post -pandemic.
Highlights
It provides a ray of hope to the nation in the form of Jebeen the Second
She is a child discovered at Jantar Mantar where people from across the nation have gathered “to fight for a better world in this democracy zoo” (132)
She is raised at Jannat Guest House, the graveyard where caste, class, creed, colour and sex differences are of little significance
Summary
1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a fictionalized representation of the new reimagined India. In The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy recreates Indian heterogeneity and diversity. In Azadi Roy says that the future can only be reimagined with the English language. In her second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy even names a character - The Man Who Knew English.
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