Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Corruption, Political Violence, and Capitalism
Resilience and Hope
Gender Identity, Social Division, and Coexistence
Social Hierarchy vs. Social Inclusivity
Religion and Power
Summary
Analysis
Miss Jebeen the First has always insisted on being called “Miss.” In the early years of the Kashmir occupation, being called “Miss” was one of the many obsessions that gripped the people of the valley—young ladies wanted to be called “Miss” and go roller skating, while young men wanted to become physical trainers. This culture boomed alongside the prevalence of weapons, grenades, spies, and special ops. Many of the fashionable young women also wanted to grow up and become nurses, although Miss Jebeen didn’t live long enough even to learn to roller skate. She is buried in the martyr’s graveyard, which has a sign at the entrance that reads, “We Gave Our Todays for Your Tomorrows.”
In this passage, Roy discusses with levity and humor the ways in which Kashmiri culture flourishes in the face of the violence that plagues the region. Roy creates juxtaposition between something as sweet as a young child insisting on being called “Miss,” or young girls wanting to roller skate, and the rapid weaponization of the region. In doing this, she demonstrates how the Kashmiris’ resilience allows them to continue to tend to matters of daily life even in the midst of such violence.
Themes
By the time she dies, Miss Jebeen hasn’t “notched up” many todays, but then again “the algebra of infinite justice [is] never so rude.” She is buried alongside her mother, Arifa Yeswi, who dies by the same bullet as her young daughter—it passes through Miss Jebeen’s temple into her mother’s heart. In photos of Miss Jebeen’s corpse, the blood from her bullet wound looks “like a cheerful summer rose arranged just above her left ear.” In the massacre in which mother and daughter die, 15 others are also slain.
That a young child would be viewed as a martyr for Kashmiri independence shows how dire the violence has become. Kashmiris are so desperate for freedom, and so many lives have been lost in the fight to obtain it, that they need to believe that somehow all of the death will lead to something in the future. By casting their dead as martyrs, Kashmiris attempt to make meaning out of what would otherwise be senseless violence.
Themes
For Kashmiris, the maintenance of the martyr’s graveyard is an act of resistance, respecting the lives of those who have fought to free Kashmir. When the graveyard was founded, a gunman from the resistance was the first to be buried there. Some believe, though, that an “empty duffel bag,” not a corpse, was buried. When asked whether this is true, one of the founders of the graveyards replies to his young interlocutor, “This is the trouble with you youngsters, you have absolutely no idea how wars are fought.” Of course, those who believe in the integrity of the graveyard assume the rumor about the duffel bag is just another lie perpetuated by the “Rumors Wing in Badami Bagh, Military HQ, Srinagar; just another ploy by the occupation forces to undermine” the resistance movement. (The existence of this wing of the military, it must be said, is also a rumor itself.)
In this passage, Roy examines from another angle the role of language and manipulation in conflict. Already, readers have been exposed to the government and military manipulating journalists in order to hold onto public support for the war. Dr. Azad Bhartiya, advocating for the end of many forms of oppression, calls himself a doctor even though he doesn’t have a doctorate because that way, people will believe him. Similarly, the Kashmiris seem to have started the martyr graveyard based on a lie, because they knew that such a graveyard would keep Kashmiris emotionally inspired to continue fighting for Azadi. In all three cases, no party believes that wars can be won with truth and truth alone. Rather, manipulation and exaggeration seem to be the only paths to victory in such a corrupt system.
Themes
Whether it was founded by a “real” martyr or not, the martyr’s graveyard in Srinagar is filling up “at an alarming pace.” As the resistance movement grows and conflict with the military becomes all the more commonplace, Kashmiri doctors, lawyers, students, and engineers alike are seduced by the idea of martyrdom. Exchanging the tools of their trades for machine guns, many Kashmiri young men join the various Islamic resistance organizations. In doing so, they commit to lives that, if short, are entirely dedicated to the movement for Kashmiri independence.
What’s most notable about this passage is that it emphasizes that Kashmiri martyrs aren’t, as one might expect, only limited to poor Kashmiris who wouldn’t have access to a high quality of life, anyway, and who are suffering more under the oppression of the military. Instead, the emotional pull to sacrifice oneself for Kashmiri independence is so strong that even those in positions of privilege, like doctors, lawyers, and engineers—people with more to lose, in a way, who have far more opportunity for success under the occupation, are also called to sacrifice themselves.
Themes
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But passionate young men aren’t the only ones who are seduced by the myth of martyrdom. Also intrigued are Kashmir’s many, inevitable businessmen, who involve themselves in the increasing sales of grenades, guns, and other weaponry, distributing these “like parcels of choice mutton at Eid.” In the process, they become wealthy, and with wealth come both property and women.
Previously, Biplab has revealed to readers that many Kashmiri businessmen profit from the “peace process,” which is a euphemism, ironically, for unending violence. Here, Roy provides further details about how capitalism influences some people to exploit Kashmiris’ emotional desperation for Azadi to make a profit.
Themes
In this climate, “dying [becomes] a new way of living” and “tombstones [grow] out of the ground like young children’s teeth.” There is a graveyard in every town in Kashmir, no matter how small the population. As the tourism industry evaporates and the military moves in with more and more men, the job market disappears—except, of course, for the gravediggers, for whom there is always far too much work.
While the imagery of so much death is extraordinarily bleak, there is also a way in which Kashmir’s relationship with death and dying demonstrates hope. No one would be martyr for a cause they didn’t think it was ever possible to achieve, after all. In this way, dying as a way of living is, in Kashmir, a tragic but profound expression of hope for freedom in the future, even if that future is very distant.
Themes
The day Miss Jebeen and Arifa die, they are sitting on the balcony outside their home watching the funeral procession of a local professor who was active in the movement for Azadi but disagreed with the more radical new resistance groups. After several warnings from the militants, Abdullah continued to speak out against their action. And so, he was assassinated to prove to the people of Srinagar that “there was to be no more of that folksy, old-world stuff.” What the murdered professor disagreed with about the new resistance groups was their strict definition of Azadi: “What does freedom [Azadi] mean? There is no God but Allah.”
In this passage, Roy demonstrates the ways that religious extremism only serves to divide the Kashmiri population and, consequently, weaken it. The definition of “freedom” as “There is no God but Allah,” is so far from true freedom that it becomes unclear whether Kashmiris would be more liberated under the Indian government or under such an extremist, religious government, one that also discourages dissent through violence, as evidenced by the murder of the professor.
Themes
With the rise of the new resistance movement, the people of Srinagar are thrown into indecision. While, on the one hand, the less-strict militants are more pleasant to live with—they flirt with young women, write poetry, and are stylish—the “Strict Ones,” perhaps because they are so strict, seem more capable of winning the war against the Indian Army. Ultimately, the Strict Ones take over (not necessarily because they have the support of the people, but because they out-fight the less strict ones). But the struggle for control over the village for the militants is seemingly unending: each “line” of thought ends up creating “more lines and sublines. The Strict Ones beg[et] even Stricter Ones.” In this way, the militants fight against each other just as much as they fight against the Indian army’s occupation.
Because violence has become so normalized in the Kashmir region, it is basically impossible even for resistance forces to maintain a posture of nonviolence. Those that are “less strict,” or less violent are, necessarily, replaced by those who are more willing to use violence to conquer the enemy and subjugate the people. By showing the ways in which both the Kashmiri resistance and the Indian Army are violent groups, Roy paints a complex and nuanced picture of the many reasons behind the continued conflict in the region.
Themes
On the day of the professor's funeral, Arifa wants to honor the deceased professor but doesn’t want to put Miss Jebeen in danger by going out into the street to join the funeral procession. They watch from the balcony, where Arifa imagines they are safe. Meanwhile, the Indian Border Security Force watches the funeral procession from the sidelines as well: hidden and barricaded in bunkers on the side of the road, with machine guns pointed at the mourners just in case something happens. Out of nowhere, there is an explosion “loud enough and close enough to generate blind panic.” The soldiers emerge from their bunker already shooting straight into the unarmed crowd. Even as the crowd runs away, soldiers shoot to kill into their backs. Thinking a bomb may have been thrown from a house, they shoot into the balconies. One of these bullets kills both Arifa and Miss Jebeen.
In this passage, it is clear how the soldiers have come to regard the Kashmir population with no trust and no regard for their humanity. The response to the supposed explosion, when carefully investigated, does nothing to keep anyone safe. Shooting into the backs of people that are fleeing cannot be called self-defense on the soldiers’ part. Their use of force against the Kashmiri people is aimed at persecuting them rather than protecting them.
Themes
After the massacre is over, within an hour shops have reopened, the street has been cleaned —“blood [has been] directed into the open drains” and normalcy, “always a declaration,” has been declared. It is discovered that the explosion came from a car driving over an “empty carton of Mango Frooti on the next street,” but there is no further investigation into the causes of the massacre. In the public mind, “this [is] Kashmir. [The massacre is] Kashmir’s fault.”
The fact that the “explosion” was really only a car driving over an empty carton of juice emphasizes that the massacre of so many innocent people was truly in vain. Under a just government, soldiers would be punished for this, but because the Indian government clearly has no interest in protecting or serving the people of Kashmir, nor does it want to be critical of its own men, an official investigation of the massacre is never even opened.
Themes
When he buries his wife and daughter, Musa is quiet and withdrawn. In fact, he is so quiet and withdrawn that it seems suspicious, and, after the funeral, he is picked up from his home and taken to the Shiraz Cinema Interrogation Center.
That a man being quiet and withdrawn at his wife and only child’s funeral is perceived as evidence of guilt highlights the lack of trust that the Indian Army has in the Kashmiri people. In reality, there are few responses more appropriate or natural to such a tragedy than being quiet and withdrawn.
Themes
Photographs taken of Miss Jebeen at her funeral become wildly popular in the world of the documentation of suffering. They are reprinted time and time again “in papers and magazines and on the covers of human rights reports that no one ever read[s].” In India, however, the photograph of the dead child is not met with as much sympathy from the audiences—they find the images of “Bhopal Boy,” one of the Union Carbide gas leak victims, to be much more compelling.
Miss Jebeen’s photographic competitor, so to speak, is only more popular in mainland India presumably because he is Hindu, and because the Indian population, due to the circulation of propaganda by the military and government, does not support the Kashmiri cause or people. Roy’s detail that Miss Jebeen’s image is on human rights reports that no one reads is a cynical evaluation of the superficiality of mainstream engagement with human rights.
Themes
At the mass funeral in which Miss Jebeen and Arifa are buried, many young men, rage ignited inside them like a fire, begin leaping very high in the air “like flames kindled from smoldering embers.” The Indian army thinks this activity could be related to sympathies towards militant causes, and later, their informers “who mingle[] with the crowd and [shout] slogans as passionately as everybody else (and even mean[] them)” will submit photo evidence of the jumping young men, each of whom will, in the coming days, be taken into custody by the military.
Again, the soldiers are overly suspicious of Kashmiri citizens. It is perfectly natural for people to express anger at a mass funeral after a massacre. However, the soldiers are so on guard, so programmed to suspect Kashmiris of violence, that they subject those who expressed grief to interrogation. It is strange that the informers might even “mean” the slogans about Kashmiri freedom, and suggests that perhaps informers are people who don’t feel empowered enough to resist the military.
Themes
When Musa is arrested, he is at home grieving Arifa’s and Miss Jebeen’s deaths after the funeral. His father, Showkat Yeswi, is the one to announce with surprise that Major Amrik Singh wishes to talk to Musa. Showkat is a close friend of the major—he supplies building materials to the military—and so isn’t too concerned that his son will go into custody.
Musa’s father seems to be among the corrupt Kashmiri businessmen who profit off of the conflict. Although supplying building materials to the army isn’t as egregious as supplying something like weapons, it is still an action that makes Showkat complicit in the violence his community faces.
Themes
When Musa arrives at the Shiraz Cinema interrogation center, he sees dozens and dozens of chained, tortured men on the floor of a brightly lit lobby, where the cinema’s old snack bar continues “to advertise things it no longer stock[s]” and now functions as a desk where those about to be tortured—or, if they’re lucky, truly just interrogated—are registered. Musa, however, isn’t registered, and goes straight up the stairs to Major Amrik Singh’s office, where he invites Musa to sit down and immediately tells the soldiers accompanying him to leave.
The soldiers’ failure to register Musa’s presence in the interrogation center indicates their corruption. This is likely because Musa is Showkat’s child, and therefore has the privilege to be treated differently from the other detained people. The juxtaposition between the old snack bar and the chained, tortured captees highlights how much Kashmir has changed under the conflict, and how extreme the violence is.
Themes
This isn’t the first time Musa is crossing paths with Major Amrik Singh. The major has imposed his friendship on Musa’s father, Showkat, who, although he does business with the military, doesn’t necessarily want to be intimately involved with an army officer but can’t refuse. After the major’s first visit, Showkat begins to suspect his son of being part of a militancy group, checking his fingers for a “trigger callus” and asking Musa whether he knows anything about “boxes of ‘metal’ being moved through [their] family’s orchards.” Although Musa doesn’t know anything, Showkat insists that his son be present for the major’s next visit, in which the major takes of his belt to show his pistol to his guests. By the time this occurs, the people of Srinagar have already heard of the many disappearances and murders that Amrik is suspected of, and father and son alike become nervous.
The major’s relationship with Musa and his father is one of dominance disguised as comradery and cordiality. Showkat can’t refuse the major’s offer of friendship, of course, because the major could kill him and his whole family on a whim. This power dynamic between the army and the Kashmiri people indicates an extreme abuse of power on the part of the army. Showkat and Musa represent two different approaches to occupation: Showkat is complicit and doesn’t want to take sides, whereas Musa, as readers already know, believes strongly in the resistance movement and participates in it.
Themes
In his office, the first thing Major Amrik Singh does is order tea and offer Musa his condolences, “genuinely unaware of the irony of picking up a man whose wife and child [have] just been shot and bringing him forcibly, under armed guard, to an interrogation center.” Musa remembers all of the frightening things he has heard about the major, who seems to greatly enjoy his violent job. At some point, Musa heard that the Major, thrilled by the chase and capture game of killing militants, referred to himself as the “Jannat Express”—the jihadi militants’ fast-track to their final destination, paradise. The major is even rumored to have released a high-priority terrorist that he had captured, only to enjoy the thrill of seeking him out again. Musa believes that it is in this manipulative, violent spirit, that he invites him to the interrogation center to apologize.
As Musa observes, the major seems to be totally emotionally out of touch with the grief and despair that Kashmiri citizens are dealing with, which indicates that he has dehumanized Kashmiri citizens in his mind. This is further evidenced by the major’s obvious enjoyment of murdering people. His choice to jokingly refer to himself as “Jannat Express” demonstrates the cold cruelty with which he kills. Additionally, the fact that he is willing to let go of “high-priority” terrorists only to enjoy the search once again suggests that he doesn’t even care about the real military responsibilities that he has. He just wants to play games with human lives.
Themes
When the tea arrives, Musa recognizes the tea-bearer, a captive, formerly very successful, militant. The militant leaves the room after saluting and saying “Victory to India!” At this point, Major Amrik Singh subtly offers Musa a job in construction with the army, but Musa does not respond and asks to leave. As he walks out the lobby, where there is a “torture break” taking place, Musa makes eye contact with a bleeding boy whom he knows, and plans to tell the boy’s mother, who is searching desperately for her son, that he has seen him.
At this moment, readers realize that Musa is likely to be deeply involved in the resistance, since he recognizes not one but two of the captured militants. Major Amrik Singh’s offer to give Musa a job in construction is a distorted peace offer, as he wants to control Musa and make sure he is out of the resistance. By saying no, Musa refuses the chance at living a life in which he’ll be more or less safe from being persecuted by the military.
Themes
But before Musa can make his final escape, Major Amrik Singh appears at the staircase, shouting that he has completely forgotten something. The something is a bottle of whiskey for Showkat—a subtle trick, for if Musa does not accept, “it would be a public declaration of war with Amrik Singh […] which [makes] him, Musa, good as dead.” But if he does accept, he admits that his Muslim father drinks, which would put his family in danger from the Islamist militant groups.
That simply refusing a gift from Amrik Singh would cause Musa to be in danger of military persecution demonstrates the military’s corruption. Members of the army should not be able to act, in a military capacity, on their personal disagreements with civilians. What’s more, Amrik Singh takes advantage of the Muslim resistance factions’ religious extremity to put Musa in danger. This is an example of the army pitting Kashmiri citizens against one another.
Themes
Knowing the risks of his decision, Musa does not accept the whiskey. That night, after writing a loving letter to the deceased Miss Jebeen and leaving a note for his sister to take to the mother of the boy he saw in the interrogation center, Musa leaves home indefinitely to begin his life underground. Although he never fully joins any particular group, he participates in various resistance groups, trying to persuade “his comrades to hold on to a semblance of humanity, not to turn into the very thing they abhor[] and [fight] against.”
Musa’s choice not to commit to one specific group demonstrates his strength of character. While it likely would be easier for him to be fully integrated into one movement, he chooses to remain loyal to his core values. This commitment allows him to fight against the increasing violence, extremism, and corruption in the resistance groups.
Themes
When Musa has been on the run for nine months, Tilo comes to Kashmir for the first time. Tilo is at her usual tea stall when she receives a cryptic note from an unknown messenger bearing and address in Kashmir and a date for her to arrive. Although she has not heard from Musa in a long time, she goes, knowing the note has something to do with him. On her first bus ride into Kashmir, Tilo is struck by the beauty and fertility of the autumn season in the region. And yet, simultaneously, she is acutely aware that there are soldiers everywhere, in all of the beautiful apple orchards and paddy fields. Because she and everyone else on the train are “in the rifle-sights of a solider, whatever they might be doing […] they [are] a legitimate target.”
Here, Roy juxtaposes Kashmir’s natural beauty with its heavy atmosphere of violence and fear. Tilo’s detailing of the natural fertility of the region, which symbolizes life, contrasts strongly with the soldiers’ chilling presence, which is a threat of death. The level of distrust that exists between soldiers and civilians is very clear in this passage: the bus passengers are so distrustful of soldiers that they fear being targeted even for doing nothing wrong.
Themes
When Tilo’s bus arrives in Srinagar, a stranger meets her at the station and takes her to a houseboat on the lake. On the way to the boat, she learns that her escort’s name is Gulrez. The next day, as Tilo admires the small but lovely houseboat and the beauty of the surrounding lake, she and Gulrez get to know each other, and she learns that Musa will soon join them. Gulrez shows her pictures of Miss Jebeen and Arifa’s funeral, and Tilo understands that the women are Musa’s family. Musa finally arrives later that night, and although they are the same age, Tilo notices that Musa looks much older. She also notices the calluses on his trigger finger. Musa tells Tilo that he and Gulrez share the same name—in militant circles, Musa is known as Commander Gulrez.
Once again, the beauty of Kashmir contrasts sharply with the constant threat of violence. Tilo’s observation that Musa looks much older than she is, even though they are the same age, suggests that the burden of living under so much violence and the constant threat of being killed, particularly as a member of the resistance, has had a profound effect on Musa’s health. At this point, readers already know that Commander Gulrez is the “A-category terrorist” whom Major Amrik Singh captures when he arrests Tilo. Readers know now that it is Gulrez, and not Musa, who is captured at that point.
Themes
Musa tells Tilo that Gulrez is a mout—in his words, someone who “lives in his own world, with his own rules.” One day, Gulrez thought he saw the Pakistani army coming to liberate the Kashmiris, and ran towards them, trying to kiss their hands. In response, the soldiers—who were from the Indian army—shot Gulrez in the thigh and beat him with their rifles, leaving him for dead. Traumatized, Gulrez now tries to run whenever he sees a solider, which is “the most dangerous thing to do.” Musa adds that almost all of the mout have been killed in Kashmir, “because they don’t know how to obey orders.” Musa wonders if that’s why they need mout people—to teach them how to be free. Tilo challenges him, saying, “Or how to be killed?” To this, Musa responds, “Here, it’s the same thing. Only the dead are free.”
The soldiers lack compassion for Gulrez, who, because he seems to suffer from developmental or mental health problems, cannot be expected to respond to the military in the same way that an able-bodied, able-minded person would be able to. That the military responds to him not with empathy, but with excessive violence, shows their lack of respect, or even goodwill, for the Kashmiri people. Musa’s grim observation that “only the dead are free” colors readers’ understanding of the martyrdom trend in the region—perhaps those who sacrifice themselves aren’t only trying to free their homeland, but are also trying to be free of the stress of living under constant violence.
Themes
After dinner, Musa begins to tell Tilo about his family. When she asks about Arifa, immediately wanting to know if Musa loved her, he says yes, and that he had wanted to tell Tilo out of respect for their relationship. He shares that he met Arifa “in the most horrible way” in 1991, when Kashmiris thought Azadi was about to be theirs. Hearing about Musa’s wife makes Tilo remember when she had thought of him as “her people” and “they had been a strange country together for a while, an island republic that had seceded from the rest of the world.”
The language surrounding Tilo’s independence often compares her to a sovereign country. Roy correlates freedom and independence with total separation from the rest of the world. This is similar to what Anjum creates for herself at Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services, and it is also what Kashmiris seek for themselves in the struggle for independence. In this way, Roy paints isolation and separatism as true forms of liberation.
Themes
Distracted by talking about the wildness of 1991 in Srinagar, Musa interrupts his story and asks Tilo if they should go inside. Before entering Tilo’s bedroom, he asks if he can come in, which makes her feel sad and distanced from him. But she soon forgives him, and kisses him as he sits on her bed. After they make love—although it is “less lovemaking than lament,” they hold each other and momentarily reject the real world they life in “call[ing] forth another one, just as real. A world in which maet [give] orders and soldiers need[] eardrops so they [can] hear them clearly and carry them out correctly.”
In this moment, Tilo and Musa’s vision for an ideal world is one in which the current power structures are reversed. Rather than living under the rule of the powerful, of the privileged, Tilo and Musa dream of living under the rule of maet—people with special needs—who, currently, are at the very bottom of the social pyramid. In this way, liberation is born not of marginalized people merely separating from mainstream society, but coming to dominate it.
Themes
As she lies on top of Musa, Tilo remembers a day when the two were in college together and Maqbool Butt, a revolutionary Kashmiri separatist, was hanged publicly in Delhi. At the time, she herself didn’t pay much attention, nor did any other student at the university. But Musa said to her with quiet intensity, “Some day you’ll understand why, for me, history began today.”
Musa’s comment that history for him begins at the moment he becomes passionate about Kashmiri independence is another moment where Roy emphasizes the importance of representation in history. For Musa, the events of India’s history up until that moment lack significance, because they do not address the needs or experiences of people from his region. However, Maqbool Butt’s hanging is a historical event that is directly tied to Musa’s own experience, which makes it not only relevant to him, but critical in forming the meaning of his life.
Themes
While in bed together, Musa shares with Tilo the story of Gulrez’s rooster, Sultan. Gulrez was very attached to the animal, who followed him everywhere like a dog. One day, the army arrived in Gulrez’s village and made everyone assemble. Sultan, of course, came and stood beside Gulrez. One of the army captains sent his dog to kill Sultan, and the soldiers took the dead rooster to eat for dinner. Since then, Gulrez curses Sultan, saying, “If you didn’t know how to live with the military, why did you come into this world?”
This tragic story is yet another example of the military’s commonplace brutality in Kashmir. Killing Sultan is nothing more than a game and a show of dominance for the military, and yet Sultan is one of the most important parts of Gulrez’s life. Gulrez’s implication that no being should come into the world of Kashmir without knowing how to live under the military is equally sad, and suggests that he understands military occupation to be a constant, unending fact of Kashmiri life.
Themes
The two continue talking into the night, and Musa finally tells Tilo the story of Miss Jebeen and Arifa. The “horrible way” in which he met Arifa, apparently, was in the middle of a bombing. Musa went out wearing nice boots after a fight with his father, who told him to take them off, because they made him look like a militant. Musa left anyway to run errands at the stationary store, and a grenade exploded on the street right outside. Soldiers attacked everyone in all the stores, destroying everything they see, and beating Musa. When they left him, he checked to see if his new boots were okay, when he saw Arifa resting her head on them. For him, “it was like waking up in hell and finding an angel on [his] shoe.” Seemingly unperturbed by the bombing, Arifa smiled at Musa and said, “Nice boots.”
Here, it is clear that Musa is attracted to Arifa because of her strength of character. Her ability to remain so casual and cool-headed even in the middle of a bombing is a form of resilience. Arifa doesn’t allow the violence of her surroundings stop her from flirting with a man she thinks is attractive. Her insistence on continuing to life live relatively normally, in spite of the daily threats of death and violence, demonstrates her great courage in the face of adversity.
Themes
Tilo and Musa soon fall asleep and, when they wake up, Tilo watches Musa say his prayers—something she has never seen him do before. Afterwards, Musa comes to her and tells her that the hardest thing for Kashmiris to fight against is, surprisingly, pity. For them, self-pity is easy to fall into, but at the same time, it is “debilitating” and “humiliating.” For him, rather than Azadi, the conflict is a fight to maintain the dignity of the Kashmiri people. But he believes that in order to fight, Kashmiris must “simplify […] standardize [… and] reduce [themselves]…everyone has to think the same way, want the same thing…[they] have to make [themselves] as single-minded…as monolithic…as the army [they] face.”
Musa’s thoughts on how Kashmiris can achieve victory seem to conflict with the other views on freedom that Roy has presented in the novel. Musa seems to think that Kashmiris need to, essentially, ignore or erase all types of intellectual and religious diversity that exist among them. While differences in opinion do separate Kashmiris from one another, the prospect of turning Kashmiris into a people as “monolithic” as the army itself is bleak. This would, necessarily, limit people’s freedom of thought and expression. In Anjum’s portion of the story, by contrast, Roy paints the freedom the people at Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services experience as one that celebrates diversity and difference, and manages to create community in spite of these obstacles.
Themes
Musa leaves soon after describing this to Tilo, and tells her to wait for a woman called Khadija to show her around Kashmir. Tilo travels with various friends of Musa’s around Kashmir, seeing orchards upon orchards and graveyards upon graveyards. At one point, she meets a woman whose brother died. The hands of his corpse, when it was brought home, “were full of earth and yellow mustard flowers grew from between his fingers.”
The image of the flowers growing out of the clenched fist of a corpse symbolizes resilience and hope. Flowers symbolize life, and that they would grow from between the fingers of a murdered body suggests that life will tenaciously persist in spite of all of the violence that surrounds it. The flowers symbolize hope for the future of Kashmir.
Themes
After Tilo’s travels around the valley, she returns to the houseboat alone where she was with Musa. Briefly, Musa dines with her one evening, but is much more stressed than he was the last time they were together. Eighteen have been killed in the city that day. Musa leaves right after dinner, asking her not to come out onto the balcony to say goodbye to him, although she doesn’t listen. In the middle of the night, the police and military break into the houseboat, beating Gulrez and demanding to know where “he” is. They gag Tilo and tie her hands behind her back. Every time Gulrez tells them that he doesn’t know where “he” (presumably, Musa) is, the police beat him harder. The police guide the blindfolded Tilo and the wailing Gulrez onto a boat, surrounding both with armed guards.
Here, Tilo gets a taste of the violence that Musa lives in fear of every day, as the soldiers begin beating Gulrez seemingly without even confirming his identity. Their assumption that Gulrez is lying to them, without having any evidence at all that this is the case, demonstrates their lack of respect for him and, in a way, their lack of respect for their own work. If what they really cared about was finding “him,” they might recognize that capturing and torturing Gulrez is a waste of time.
Themes
The man in charge is a Sikh officer in a green turban, and Tilo guesses correctly that he is Major Amrik Singh. Tilo prays that the police squadron will not catch up with Musa, who departed just an hour before, hidden at the bottom of a rowboat. And her prayer is answered, although by someone “unlikely to [be] God.” Musa is nowhere to be found, but when the soldiers dock the boat, Tilo hears a gunshot and an explosion. They return with “no Gulrez,” but carrying a “heavy, shapeless sack that needed more than one man to lift.” Gulrez, who “left the boat as Gul-kak Abroo return[s] as the mortal remains of the dreaded militant commander Gulrez,” and the death count for the day shoots from eighteen to “eighteen plus one.”
In this passage, the contrast between the “Gul-kak Abroo” (Tilo and Musa’s nickname for Gulrez) that leaves the boat, and the “dreaded militant commander” that returns dead to the boat highlights the military’s corruption. At no point have they confirmed Gulrez’s identity or affiliation with the military. However, the soldiers are so eager to claim having taken out an important terrorist that they kill him with no proof of his culpability.
Themes
Once his men have murdered Gulrez, Major Amrik Singh tells Tilo that she has been charged with “being the accomplice of a terrorist,” but that nothing will happen to her if she tells them everything. He wants to know everywhere she’s been while in Kashmir, everyone she’s met, and how she knows Gulrez. The major reminds Tilo that he and his team “already know the details,” and that she won’t be helping them; on the contrary, they will be testing her. But stubbornly, filled with hatred for the major’s blank, emotionless stare, Tilo resolves not to say anything, no matter what the circumstances.
Again, the major’s claims against Tilo are unfounded, since they have no evidence that Gulrez was a terrorist (and, indeed, he wasn’t). The major’s attempt to intimidate Tilo by implying the military has been following her every move is further evidence of his cruelty. Tilo demonstrates her strong character and independence by resolving not to say anything to the major, no matter what dire consequences this may cause her to face.
Themes
When the boat docks in front of the Shiraz Cinema Interrogation Center, Tilo is handed over to ACP Pinky for questioning. ACP Pinky brings Tilo into the interrogation room, which, with its ample supply of “hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, ropes” and other assorted equipment, does not make much of an effort at disguising its true function as a torture chamber. The Assistant Commandant gives Tilo a piece of paper and tells her to write, warning her not to waste her time. On this paper, Tilo writes the message “G-A-R-S-O-N H-O-B-A-R-T” for Biplab.
The description of the “interrogation center” demonstrates how superficial the military’s attempts at disguising its war crimes are. Because they know they are unlikely to face any sort of consequences for violating Kashmiri citizens’ rights, the army is able to openly operate a torture chamber.
Themes
When ACP Pinky returns to the room, she is in the company of Major Amrik Singh, and Tilo observes from their behavior with one another that they are “more than just colleagues.” When the major reads Biplab’s name on the note that Tilo has written, he asks how she knows him. ACP Pinky doesn’t miss a beat, and asks Tilo how many men she sleeps with at the same time. Tilo doesn’t respond, not out of resilience, but out of exhaustion. Still, ACP Pinky observes that the major seems to admire Tilo’s quiet strength, and she suspects that it is for this admiration—not, as the major says, because Tilo has written down the name of a high-ranking official—that he tells Pinky to “find out what [she] can” but without leaving any injury marks on Tilo.
ACP Pinky chooses to shame Tilo for, presumably, sleeping around, in order to hurt Tilo. In doing so, the army official uses the rigid gender norms imposed on women to create a narrative about Tilo that she assumes will make Tilo ashamed. The irony in this moment is not only that readers know Tilo isn’t sleeping with Biplab, but also that Tilo, being so different and unattached to the norms society imposes on her, is unlikely to care whether ACP Pinky thinks she sleeps with dozens of men at once. Because Tilo doesn’t value the social norms, ACP Pinky’s abusive technique is unlikely to be effective.
Themes
Offended by her lover’s attention to Tilo, ACP Pinky is upset that she hasn’t been allowed to leave injury marks. Under this constraint, she hardly knows how to torture someone, as no injury marks “[is] not a courtesy extended to Kashmiris.” She slaps and kicks Tilo (slaps and kicks “[come] under the category of ‘questioning’” and not torture) but receives no response. Meanwhile, Major Amrik Singh has gotten in touch with Biplab, and realized just how important an official Tilo’s contact is. He rushes back to the room to make sure ACP Pinky hasn’t done Tilo any real damage, and discovers that his colleague has “found a cheap, clichéd way around her problem” and has had the military camp’s barber shave Tilo’s head.
In this passage are two important indications of the military’s brutality and corruption. Firstly, that ACP Pinky would have no idea how to question someone without leaving marks on their body shows the extent to which the military depends upon egregious violence in their work. Furthermore, it is highly corrupt that Tilo is able to escape her military detention simply because she knows someone in a position of power. What’s more, ACP Pinky’s choice to shave Tilo’s head to torture her demonstrates the extent to which she buys into the importance of traditional female beauty standards, as she assumes Tilo will be devastated to lose her hair.
Themes
Upset that ACP Pinky has done this to Tilo, Major Amrik Singh attempts to make up for it in some way by “put[ting] a huge hand protectively on her scalp—a butcher’s blessing. It [will] take Tilo years to get over the obscenity of that touch.” He apologizes, and orders for talcum powder and a balaclava to put on Tilo’s head.
The use of the term “butcher’s blessing” harkens back to Anjum’s use of “butchers” to refer to the Hindu extremist terrorists in Gujarat. By using the word to describe the Indian Army and Hindu extremists alike, Roy draws readers’ attention to the similar ideologies that are the backbone of each organization.
Themes
Two hours later, Naga arrives to collect Tilo, escorted into the room where she waits by the cheerful Ashfaq Mir. Half an hour later—after Ashfaq has offered them food, brought them Aijaz to interrogate, performed an overly ceremonious handover—Naga brings Tilo to the hotel where he is staying, hands her two sleeping pills, and orders for hot water to be brought for her to have a bath. Tilo is surprised by his consideration, which is a trait she has never recognized in him before. Naga suggests that they take the next flight to Delhi, but Tilo doesn’t want to leave Kashmir until she hears from Musa. Luckily, the next morning, Khadija knocks on her door, bearing news.
The comfort Tilo has access to now that she has been able to leave the interrogation center contrasts starkly with the mistreatment she suffered at the hands of the army before they knew of her important connections. The interrogation center and Naga’s hotel are worlds apart. The difference between the two experiences goes to show the extent to which one’s personal connections to privilege shape one’s experience with government organizations, like the military. Tilo is safe only thanks to her country’s corruption.
Themes
Khadija has brought Tilo a fresh change of clothes and invites her to go with her through the city. She tells Tilo that Musa is alive, and plans to attend Gulrez’s funeral. Together, they “step[] out of the hotel and into the streets of the city that [comes] alive only when it [has] to bury its dead.” In the city, the streets are packed with people who have come to honor the funerals of Gulrez and the others that died the day before. Even small children shout Azadi, showing their solidarity with the martyrs that have died. Tilo tells Khadija that she wants to attend the funeral as well, but Khadija responds saying that no women are allowed near the grave, anyway. Tilo wonders, “[Is] it to protect the grave from the women or the women from the grave?”
Here, again, the Kashmiris’ insistence upon honoring every person killed in the conflict, no matter how many, demonstrates their resilience as a community. They could respond to so much death with defeatism, but instead, they continue to honor lives lost. Khadija also demonstrates resilience in her pragmatism. She is unphased by Tilo’s having been taken into police custody, and simply shows up with the change of clothes she knows Tilo will need and continues with normal life. Khadija’s strength and dedication to her cause is remarkable, and these traits make it especially ironic that someone with such emotional fortitude and commitment to Kashmiri liberation wouldn’t be allowed near the graves of the dead. Khadija and the other women of Kashmir, the novel suggests, can certainly handle the grief, and certainly deserve to participate in the rituals given all they sacrifice for Kashmir.
Themes
Khadija takes Tilo to a safe corner of the city, where it seems that militants rather than the army are in charge. There, she gives Tilo her backpack, which someone has saved from the houseboat, and invites Tilo to take a nap and have some tea. Musa will arrive in two or three hours, Khadija explains. When he arrives, he sits next to Tilo on the mattress Khadija has laid out, “wishing he could wake her up into another, better world.” He tells Tilo that it isn’t safe for her to stay alone when she goes back to Delhi, that she should live with friends, or someone like Naga. He promises that they will win the Kashmiri war, and that after that, he and Tilo will be together again—although this never does happen.
Here, readers realize that the whole reason Tilo marries Naga points back to Musa. Tilo wants cover so that the government won’t persecute her for her involvement with Musa and the Kashmir conflict, and so she uses Naga’s position of social and political power to protect herself. Naga is only powerful because he is corrupt, and so, in this way, Tilo finds a safe space to act on her radical politics by hiding behind someone whose politics are carefully monitored and controlled by the government.
Themes
Before going back to the hotel, Tilo and Khadija go to visit Gulrez’s grave. While at the graveyard, Tilo also pays a visit to Miss Jebeen’s grave, as well as Arifa’s. Back at the hotel, Tilo knocks on Naga’s door in the middle of the night, and the two sleep together “on a purely secular basis.”
That Tilo has only been in Kashmir a matter of weeks and already has three graves to visit goes to show the shocking extent of violence, death and political persecution in the region.
Themes
When Tilo has been married to Naga for two months, she discovers that she is pregnant, although she and Naga have never slept together. Knowing the father is Musa, Tilo considers keeping the baby, naming it Gulrez if it’s a boy or Jebeen if it’s a girl. Tilo has no particular desire to be a mother, and ultimately, fearing that the baby she brings into the world will have to navigate the same painful challenges that she has had with her own mother, Maryam, Tilo choses to abort. She does not have enough money to go to a private hospital, and doesn’t want to ask Naga, so she goes to the public hospital.
Although Tilo decides that having her own child is not an appropriate way to honor the lives of the loved ones she has lost, she does go on to pay homage to Gulrez and Miss Jebeen in different ways. Tilo’s inspiration to help the Kashmir conflict comes from her honoring of Gulrez’s unjust death, and her choice of the name Miss Jebeen the Second for her adopted baby comes from Miss Jebeen. In this way, Tilo keeps the spirits of her dead loved ones alive by honoring their legacies in her own life.
Themes
There, she is treated with hostility by patients and doctors alike, who believe that abortion is immoral. The doctors tell her they cannot use anesthetic unless they have a signed consent form from someone who’s accompanied her, “preferably the father of the child.” Tilo agrees to abort even without it, and passes out during the operation from pain. When she wakes up, she is in the general ward, where there is more than one patient in every bed. She observes that it feels “like a wartime ward. Expect that in Delhi there [is] no war other than the usual one—the war of the rich against the poor.” When she leaves the hospital, Tilo goes to an “abandoned Muslim graveyard” behind the hospital to rest. She falls asleep on a grave and, when she wakes up, feels “better prepared to go home and face the rest of her life.”
The doctors’ hostility towards Tilo shows their sexism and lack of belief that Tilo should be able to choose what to do with her own body. Withholding anesthetic unless the male parent consents to the abortion is further evidence that the doctors believe that a woman’s husband and not the woman herself should mandate what happens to her body. The poor condition of the public hospital shows the government’s disregard for the lives of the poor. Roy’s symbolic placement of the graveyard behind the government hospital suggests that in the hospital, the care is so bad that it’s a place people go to die.
Themes
