The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

by Arundhati Roy

Need was a warehouse that could accommodate a considerable amount of cruelty.

Then came Partition. God’s carotid burst open on the new border between India and Pakistan and a million people died of hatred.

The Believers come with their guns, their prayer beads and their own Destroy-Yourselves Manual.

The only thing that keeps Kashmir from self-destructing like Pakistan and Afghanistan is good old petit bourgeois capitalism. For all their religiosity, Kashmiris are great businessmen. And all businessmen eventually, one way or another, have a stake in the status quo—or what we call the “Peace Process,” which, by the way, is an entirely different kind of business opportunity from peace itself. —