This chapter explores Arundhati Roy’s second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. This paper is a sober attempt to ascertain a study of the socio-political conditions and the vulnerability of human lives. Higher power and social status give ample reason to dictate and sway the oppressed, making their lives susceptible and defenseless. To worsen the scenario, it is sometimes backed by politics, political rivalry and an uncompromising ambition for power. Indian society is commanded by taboos, which at times tend to corrupt the social equilibrium.

This paper is an attempt to study the characters in Roy's novels that become the mouthpiece of the writer herself-herself thoughts, ideologies, attitudes and sometimes her experiences emerging from the events, incidents and problems visible in their social milieu.

Roy has mingled history and imagination with sheer artistry to document the crude realities of the society. She does not isolate herself from the society, the system, the violence and the injustices around. Upper caste Christianity is presented in the novel in connection with socio-political changes.Dalits, Untouchability, Inhuman Oppression, Cultural Prejudices, Ideological Perspectives, Underprivileged, Social Harassment, Upper Caste Christianity, Socio-PoliticalĪrundhati Roy plays the role of a social critic in The God of Small Things. It is about the class and caste issues in southern India. The novel deals with the problem of untouchability and social harassment. Overall the novel is psychological presentation and observation of very small things of life. The God of Small Things (1996) is her first novel. Roy’s The God of Small Things is published after Independence. The need to define the social, moral and ideological perspectives leads to concern the social dilemma of the underprivileged and exploited in society. All human beings are born equal but there discrimination among them is created by people with vested interests. Social, political, economic, racial and cultural prejudices are seen at many places. Untouchability and slavery symbolize the deprivation, disgrace, and inhuman oppression on a section of human beings. The present study is an attempt of presenting the sufferings of dalits and their pathetic condition due to their lower caste that figure in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.

The god of small things novel