Patriarchal Dominance over Transgenders: A New Literary Aspect in the Indian English Writing

Abstract

The paper will bring out the change in the Indian English writing genre that highlights the transgenders life struggle. This paper attempts to throw light on the pathetic condition of the transgenders in the society. Transgenders are all a subject of abuse and they form the lowest strata in the society, as they are in a state of being in ‘no man’s land’. However, this paper shows how a transgender child first had to fight a battle within their own family to gain acceptance of their gender identity. The paper deals with the journey of a transgender character Aftab in the novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, where the aforementioned character goes through the trauma of being a trans person as well as an individual who completes the task of surviving in this world. Arundhati Roy has highlighted the gender roles performed in the post-colonial society. This novel explores the cultural variation in the lives of trans people, which is explicitly political and violent. The concept of dominance of hetero-normative society and the analysis of in-between identities has been discussed in this paper. The paper attempts to underline the pathetic life of transgenders in the mainstream society. The paper highlights the patriarchal dominance in the life of Anjum (who was initially Aftab), the protagonist of the novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.