Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part A (2025)

It has been said that Arundhati Roy's nonfiction work represents the "realist drive" that has been at the center of postcolonial literature since 2000 and represents a departure from the self-reflexive and metaphorical tone of her debut book, The God of Small Things. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy's second book, is discussed in this article as it re-evaluates the conflict between fictional and nonfictional writing (2017). The Ministry of Utmost Bliss suggests a contradictory and digressive poetics where fictitious and nonfictional aspects coexist rather than adopting a definition of realism interpreted as straightforward, factual portrayal of truth. Roy's critique of realism incorporates both her will to interact with modern history and her doubts about how well writing can depict misery. The Ministry of Maximum Joy On the basis of a narrative that spans the last three or four decades of Indian political history, Arundhati Roy criticizes the current state of the country. A vast range of cultural, economic, social, and political events from the Indian subcontinent are included in the novel's geography.