Language in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
- Deconstructing English
- Nov 23, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 10, 2020
Despite the end of imposed dominance, many post-colonial societies are still being held back by the tacit belief that the Imperial centre is, in some way or another, superior to them. However, in the aftermath of colonialism, authors such as Arundhati Roy – in her novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) – have not only illustrated the detrimental effects that marginalisation has had on postcolonial people, but they have also shown the Subaltern’s resistance to their supposed ‘inferiority’ through the exploration of one of the topics where this discrepancy is made most evident: language. In order to discuss its use in The Ministry, notions such as the Other and hybridisation are going to be considered, through the theoretical background presented by Gayatri Spivak, Bill Ashcroft, Homi Bhabha, among others.
The self-assured superiority of colonialist countries has not only been attained by the fluttering of armed forces, they have also indoctrinated the masses by means of their ‘proper education’ and language. As novelist George Lamming voices, since “England had acquired, somehow, the divine right to organise the native’s reading, it is to be expected that England’s export of literature would be English” (As cited in Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 14). An instance of this is found in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness when the narrator walks past a primary school and mentions that he “can hear children’s voices in their classrooms, shouting Baa baa black sheep, rising to a shriek on Wool! and Full!” (Roy, 2017, p. 147). As well as when one of the main characters, Tilo, quotes Shakespeare “as an old tune remembered” (Roy, 2017, p. 241). India is one of those countries that have been subjected to this imposed tuition that includes not only the teaching of English as a second language, but also the reading of British Literature, seen as the centre of the Western Canon.
The adoption of an imported language has induced people to believe that their native culture should be belittled when compared with the stately centre. Regarding this spiritual subjugation, the Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o says that “in schools and universities [native languages] were associated with negative qualities of backwardness [and] underdevelopment” (As cited in Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 290). The disparity between those who have have learnt an European language and those who have not is illustrated by Roy in another main character. Anjum, an Urdu speaker, undervalues herself both as a person and a mother when compared with Saeeda, who is “a graduate [that] knew English” a person who “could speak the language of the times” (Roy, 2017, p. 38). By downgrading herself and her native tongue, she embodies the disparaging and self-deprecating ideas many postcolonial citizens have accepted as truths.
In spite of the cultural distance that the English language provokes, it is crucial to acknowledge its significance as a lingua franca. By adapting this foreign medium, post-colonial authors have expressed to multicultural audiences their repudiation of colonialism and its long-lasting effects. Moreover, they have also alluded to the conflicts that take place within their own independent homeland. For instance, Braj B. Kachru says that in India “Hindi [is commonly associated] with the Hindus; Urdu with the Muslims; and Hindustani with the… pandits” (As cited in Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 292), showing the note of discord that has crept into relations between Indians over the native language they speak and the religion they profess. A portrayal of this appears in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, “Saddam had just enough time to whisper a small prayer of gratitude that the word [Anjum] used for the Almighty was the generic Khuda and not specifically Allah mian before the battle lines were drawn” (Roy, 2017, p. 121).
The public use of Allah mian, spoken in Urdu, would have displeased the non-Muslim listeners, which is why a more neutral Persian term is preferred to address their god (Persian used to be the country’s lingua franca). Evidently, languages are carriers of culture and, at times, bearers of negative connotations – in this case among Indian tongues. Therefore, English has become a neutralising foreign code that provides the writer with social neutrality to convey referential meaning, sans most negative connotations (Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 292).
More importantly, since British English cannot appropriately define the native society, it has been acculturated and nativised in order to carry the weight of the post-colonial experience (Kachru as cited in Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 294). Thereby, an Indian version has entered the multi-culturally minted group of englishes that attempt to modify this language to suit peripheral literatures. Many are the ways in which this is achieved. For instance, novelist Gabriel Okara says that “the only way to use [native ideas] effectively is to translate them almost literally from the […] native language […] into whatever European language [the writer] is using as medium of expression” (As cited in Ashcroft et al., 2003, p. 286). Verbatim might even imply an alteration of the English syntax, which is surely delimited by the necessity of the text being understood. Another instance of inter-language is relexification or code-mixing, which is repeatedly used in The Ministry. In some cases, there are words such as hijra or azadi that are left untranslated since no English word could possibly transmit their significance. Fortunately, the reader could decipher their meaning through context. However, in other cases, whole untranslated poems are included, leaving the reader with the duty of translating them on their own, an opportunity for them to show the depth of their interest in the language of those who were colonised. As a result of this interlanguage, Homi Bhabha mentions that languages are a place of hybridity and inclusive expression (1994, p. 25). In particular, English – once a metropolitan tongue – is transformed into a vehicle for social, linguistic and historical revolution.
Works Cited
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2003). The post-colonial studies reader. London: Routledge.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture (1st ed.). London: Routledge.
Roy, A. (2017). The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (1st ed.). London: Penguin Books.
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