Episode description

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is Arundhati Roy’s second novel, written after she spent twenty years producing journalism and political essays. We discuss Ministry alongside her 2019 essay collection, My Seditious Heart, much of which ended up in the novel in one form or another. The result is a sweeping, unapologetically political narrative that follows lives, grudges, and romances across the breadth of modern India. Along the way, Roy charts the violence of capitalism and empire and the growth of a far-right that serves them both.

Recorded in January of 2021.

Literal Vultures // The interplay between neoliberalism and ethnonationalism // fame // betraying art // an architectural approach to narrative // the BJP and pogroms in India // The denatured politics of protest // the graveyard as a site of hope // The Kashmiri and Maoist insurgencies // the psychology of counterinsurgency and empire

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Theme music by ex-official: https://exofficialexo.bandcamp.com/

Art by Eli Liebman: https://elimack.weebly.com/