Responding to the Primitive Force: Arun Joshi s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas

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2 Responding to the Primitive Force: Arun Joshi s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas Dr. Supriya Associate Professor, Ranchi Women s College (An Autonomous Unit of Ranchi University), Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. Arun Joshi s fictional forte is an effective portrayal of the crisis of self and a quest for meaning of life. In The Strange Case of Billy Biswas the search for identity takes spiritual dimensions against the backdrop of the clash between the superficiality of highly materialistic Indian upper class and the earthy values of the tribals who live in close association with nature. There is a sensitive portrayal of the dilemma of a double exile, Billy Biswas, a highly educated anthropologist with an aristocratic background who feels a strong mysterious pull towards the primitive force. A decisive moment comes and he responds to the call of Maikala hills in the Sal forest and enters into the solidarity of a marginalised group that has refused to accept any mainstream socio-cultural interference. While pursuing his higher spiritual goals this primitive pilgrim s progress has been thwarted by the civilised society which reclaims him and gets only his ashes. The gripping story gives the readers an opportunity to appreciate life from a different point of view. This paper attempts to explore Arun Joshi s artistic treatment of the theme of cultural self-exclusion and spiritual quest in the face of a situation where the world is too much with us. Exclusion in the socio-political context may be defined as the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society in which they live. (Sonowal: 2) The concern for this marginalisation surrounds the social inequality and unequal opportunities. In the literary expressions also the paradigms of disadvantage are related to lack of resources and identity based discriminations. There are several effective voices in Post-colonial Commonwealth literature relating how the dominant sections of society construct and reconstruct the members of these marginalised groups as persons of lesser worth through beliefs, attitudes and behaviour which they disparage, stigmatise, stereotype and discriminate against. However, from the cultural perspective, one distinct consequence of colonization is the phenomenon of assertive westernized populace pushing the ethnic groups on to the fringe. Hegemony based on cultural superiority saw voices from the margin writing back to map their differences, to represent their cultures on the mosaic, asserting their differences and asking for their evaluation by their own standards. Of course, cultural exclusions happen to be voluntary as well. The exclusion of self sufficient cultural groups such as some tribal societies in India happens to be a self imposed criterion. They do not need to interact with mainstream cultural societies for their social, cultural and physical existence. Similarly, though an individual is a product of culture, social apparatus and his social circumstances, a critical juncture comes when he makes a decision of changing his circumstances and opts for a self-exclusion. Such chosen exclusion is a consequence of the rupture of emotional and social bond between the individual and the main-stream socio cultural setup. Imaginative writings set in a socially and politically recognizable milieu provide space for sharing painful marginalized experiences. In India, writers like Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, Mahasweta Devi, Sadat Hassan Manto, Bhishm Shahni, Kamala Markandaya 1 Editor-In-Chief

3 etc., with their keen social consciousness, have brought into centre the questions of the marginalised. With writers like Arun Joshi the focus shifted to the individual crisis from the gender or the class consciousness, to the universe within from the world without. In a sociocultural scenario that is losing its cohesiveness under the impact of modern complexities, he transmutes authentically the emerging outer and inner compulsions by focussing on the delineation of the psychic aspect of the individual responses. In his novel, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, the crisis of self and a quest for fulfilment takes a spiritual dimension in the sensitive portrayal of the dilemma of a double exile, Billy Biswas. The protagonist is a young, rich, America educated Indian who is torn between the mysterious pull that he feels towards the primitive force and his rational self. A decisive moment comes and he responds to the call of Maikala hills. He enters into the solidarity of a tribal group and lives as a seminaked tribal seeking a meaning of things above and beyond all that everyday civilisation can provide. While pursuing his higher spiritual goals this primitive pilgrim s progress has been fatally thwarted by the civilised society, with its culture of consumerism. This paper attempts to explore Arun Joshi s artistic treatment of the dilemma of an individual who feels alienated and is reduced to a marginal status in his own social circumference, dares to step out of its stifling confines (240) and enters into a marginalised group. The paper also appreciates the imaginative expression of the spiritual quest of the protagonist, a refugee from civilisation, (140) as an integral part of a primitive culture which helps us understand the philosophy of life of those who live on the margin from their point of view. Arun Joshi s choice of the epigram for the novel sets the tone of the saga of the restive soul of Billy. He quotes from Matthew Arnold s Thyrsis (line no. 41): It irk d him to be here, he could not rest. He is an anthropologist by natural aptitude and training. On completing his studies his only wish is to return to India, travel through the wilderness, and learn more about the aborigines. He tells his friend and narrator, Romi: Travel, Travel. A little bit here and there, but mostly in India. You have no idea what fascinating societies exist in India. (10) The novel effectively presents the protagonist s restlessness, anxieties and his spiritual pursuits through Romi. Romi symbolises a perspective, that of an involved friend and a detached narrator which helps infusing the story with a considerable degree of authenticity, warmth and the immediacy of felt experience. (Surinder Joshi: 70) Disillusioned and lost in the labyrinth of dehumanised pseudo-westernised culture, Billy prefers to be Human, by which he suggests the need to live life at a more subcutaneous level (Chandran and Baskaran: 107). The path which leads him to the self imposed exile is fraught with doubts, apprehensions, uncertainty and the experience of rejection, bringing him very close to Camus hero Meursault. But his situation is grimmer than the western hero as he is very much a part of a social structure that cherishes relationships. A retreat from such an environment into the wilderness in response to the call of the primitive force is effected only with great effort; it implies the breaking away from natural kinships, societal affiliations and obligations. Billy s intense hatred against the materialistic culture of his social class is expressed in terms of powerful imagery: I see a roomful of finely dressed men and women seated on downy sofas and while I am looking at them under my very nose, they turn into a kennel of dogs yawning (their large teeth showing) or snuggling against each other or holding whisky glasses in their furred paws. (96) 2 Editor-In-Chief

4 Caught between the two polarities - the instinctual pull and the social expectations, he goes through moments of intense anguish. As a certificate of normalcy he gets married to Meena, a typical product of earning and spending civilisation. But, there is a basic mental incompatibility between the two, with very divergent worldviews. The marriage has a negative effect on the psyche of Billy. Romi notices: Gone was the staggering intelligence, the spectroscopic interests, the sense of humour...the Billy Biswas I had known was finished and snuffed out like a candle left in the rain. (70) His impatience is hinted at earlier when Billy wanted to call off his engagement after his violent reaction against one of Meena s friend s remarks:...all banjaras were thieves and their women were no better than whores. (60) A time comes when he fails to communicate with his people. He can connect with only Tuula who understands him and shares Billy s indifference to money. Suffering from a crisis of identity, he is perplexed, Who am I? Where have I come from? Who are my parents, wife, child, etc.! (97) To satisfy his soul, this professor of anthropology, undertakes expeditions to tribal belts. But he gets only momentary peace. He writes to Tuula: When I return from expedition, it is days before I can shake off the sounds and smells of the forest. The curious feeling trails me everywhere that I am a visitor from the wilderness to the marts of the big city and not the other way round. (96) Having his conjugal life turned into the most precarious of battlefields (81), in a desperate attempt to have a sympathetic response for his injured and tortured self, he enters into an adulterous relationship with Rima Kaul taking advantage of her infatuation. Soon he realises that a tremendous corrupting force (189) was working on him. He feels estranged to his soul: It was as though my soul were taking revenge on me for having denied it for so long that other thing that it had been clamouring for. (189) He realises that he is swiftly losing grip on life. (97) Obviously before his physical disappearance into the forest, he had ceased to belong to the world. As a superb technical skill the author invests his hero with a high degree of potential to move away from collective codes, the capacity to accept a changed system and its inherent challenges. Billy hates the artificial and materialistic surroundings both in high hybrid society of India and America. To him, India is a land full of uncertainties (27) and White America...was much too civilised. He favours A life which has no craving for money or ambition. (Saleem: 65) In America, he prefers to live in the slum of Harlem and finds the Black Americans ghetto to be an oasis of humanity in the desert of civilisation of White American society. Romi is struck by the incongruity of that soft cultivated voice amidst the clatter of pots and pans, the thumping of children s feet and the raucous noises of late afternoon... (7) Billy s identification with Harlem symbolises his courage and conviction in choosing to be isolated from the main- stream civilised society where man is drawn into the world of objects and has lost or is continuously losing. (Tillich: 142) During a party in America, as Billy played a pair of bongo drums for nearly a quarter of an hour, it conveyed a message more fundamental than the rhythm, a mesmeric pull that held us by its sheer vitality. (17) His preference for jazz music is symbolic of the streak of primordial aspiration for freedom and liberation from shackling tendencies imposed by the civilised society. He has the tendencies of an anarchist, a rebel who disapproves of the so-called civilised society for possessing the social order difficult to redesign. (Sharma: 3) Working in a mental hospital gives him his first glimpse of the other side (18) as it had inmates who looked at life from a totally different point of view. (19) He tries to make Romi understand: Most of us are aware of the side on which we are born, but there is 3 Editor-In-Chief

5 always the other side, the valley beyond the hills; the hills beyond the valley.(18-19) Billy s frequent lapses into inexplicable behaviour which he tried to hide, bewilders and scares his friend and narrator who concludes apprehensively: There were many things that I did not see which Billy saw and which, step by step led him to the only end that awaits those who see too much. (39-40) Billy himself throws light on his visions: It would be like a great blinding flash during which I would be totally unaware of anything else. And invariably it left me with the old depressing feeling that something has gone wrong with my life. I wasn t where I belonged. (181) As a fourteen year old, his visit to the tribal night fair proved to be the turning point in his life. He was overwhelmed by an erotic energy in the tone and tune of music while they were dancing and celebrating life. He has a feeling of unreality sharper than any he had known. He could only exclaim: Something has gone wrong with my life. This is where I belong. This is what I have always dreamt of. (125) It is obvious that this other side which so totally illumines his vision concerns the primitive life untouched by the sophistication, inhibition and restraints of the civilised world. Tuula, a Swedish friend of Billy, who came to America for advanced training in psychiatric social work understands what goes on in the dark, inscrutable, unsmiling eyes (19) of Billy. She identifies the unique energy A great force, Urkraft...a primitive force (23) in him. Urcraft triggers off his creative energy to the extent of prompting him to do what he thinks fit with total disregard for social expectations. It is this moral courage that makes him defend human sacrifice and argue with his justice father about ordinary human laws being inadequate to judge people who live and work under different circumstances. The society refuses to understand him with his belief that there are worlds at the periphery of this one, above it and below it, and around it of which we know nothing until we are in them. (54) A person with such extraordinary perceptions and rare sensibility to the primeval forces is bound to be a misfit. Billy s quest for a world of more meaningful relations is strongly motivated by a desire to meet the demands of the inner self by outstripping the narrow confines of the self. (Jain: 122) To Romi s question, But don t you think you had responsibilities towards her, towards your son? Billy s answer is, I had greater responsibilities towards my soul. (186) Hari Mohan Prasad aptly observes, The novel articulates, almost with the intensity of Lawrence and Conrad, human craving for the primordial, the ellan vital of our anthropological heritage. (Prasad: 46) In the words of R.K.Dhawan, In a bid to seek communion with the primitive world, Billy opts out of the modern world. (Dhawan: 20) He responds to the irresistible call of a great force, Urcraft...a primitive force which makes him abandon his conventional identity. He is led to a state where layer upon layer was peeled off...until nothing but (his) primitive self was left trembling in the moonlight. (119) The society from which he excludes himself is spiritually empty; the society which he chooses for himself exists on the margin, uncorrupted by forces of civilization like law, intelligence, judgement and the so called pretensions. (Mani Meiti: 17). Here the meaning of life and happiness consist of the earth, the forest, the rainbow, the liquor... an occasional feast... dancing and lovemaking, and no ambition, none at all. (148) He justifies his action, Any choice worth its name is drastic. It is another matter that we whittle it down or gloss over it until it ceases to be drastic...deep down we are afraid that the price of making such choice is terrible, not realising that the price of not making them is even more terrible. (190) C.N. Srinath observes that his exit reminds one in a minor way of Siddhartha s renunciation of wife and children in search of Enlightenment. To Billy it is a movement from darkness to light. (Srinath: 122) But unlike the ascetic Siddhartha, Billy Biswas opts out of his sociocultural setup for an authentic and fuller life. The eventual vibrant life that he leads as a tribal proves that he does not withdraw from the world of love and pain, but enters into a world of 4 Editor-In-Chief

6 sensuality and sensitiveness among the aborigines, and his relationship with Bilasia, who is the essence of the primitive force. On his last expedition (a promise extracted by Meena), sitting outside his tent in the forest, Billy listens to the calls of the streams, the hills, the forests, and the tribals: Come, now, come. Take us. Take us until you have had your fill. It is we who are the inheritors of the cosmic night. ( ) In the fascinating primitive surrounding, Billy gets a glimpse of Bilasia in Dhunia s hut. In the festive moonlit light, she captivates him as the essence of the primitive force. Her enormous eyes, only a little foggier with drink, poured out sexuality that was nearly as primeval as the forest that surrounded them. (141) Bilasia knows how to experience joy from communion with Nature, from naked primeval passions and the rhythm of the integrated and harmonised souls. Money has no place. (Prasad: 59) In Bilasia, Billy finds the right woman who can enliven his soul. In the words of Prasad, Meena deadens his senses, Rima corrupts him and the material civilisation kills his innate natural instinct. It is Bilasia who causes explosion of senses the proper medium to reach soul. (58) Now Billy s fascination for primitivism becomes an experience, a realisation. For him Bilasia is Prakriti and he is Purush and the cosmic can be experienced in their union. Chandtola which was quiet and lifeless after the death of the last king of the tribals begins to glow, as was predicted by Devi Ma, when Billy and Bilasia become one. Billy is believed to be the reincarnation of the king. Bilasia and her people live a simple life without any ego and with limited needs. Nothing except death can stop the dancing and drinking and... love-making of the people. (118). They do not bother about the changes that take place in the civilized world. Nobody there is interested in the prices of food-grains or new seeds or roads or elections and stuff like that. (113) They have no ambition, none at all... (148) Money means to them a whole lot of paper. (177) The people there are...the children of kings condemned to exile by those rapacious representatives of civilization... (143) The villagers need a minimum of goods. (176) The girls are more independent than our own girls. (148) There are numerous references to the people who cherish many secrets of Nature, their ethno-science, ethnomedicine, strange folklores, astrological acumen, inexplicable supernatural healing techniques. When Romi asks Dhunia about Billy s drastic step in his life, he offers an explanation that is quite poetic and mystifying: When the kala pahar calls you, collector sahib, there is nothing you can do but go. The first time I heard this drumming, I knew the Rock had called him. It is like woman calling you. You become blind. All you see is the Big Rock. All you hear is its call. Day and night it calls you. Night and day. And you go like a fish hooked on a string, in spite of yourself, bound hand and foot. There is nothing you can do but go, when the Kala pahar calls you. Yes, collector sahib, the Black Rock is the master of us all. (160) The sense of awe and reverence reflected in this description suggest that man s language is grossly inadequate to communicate the mystery of a different kind of knowledge from what is offered by the materialistic, rational world. The quick succession of short sentences suggests the nature of the overpowering effect of the Black Rock on Dhunia who verbally sways to its spell. His answer emphatically asserts the otherness of life lived with the elemental forces totally uncontaminated by civilisation. The alienated, excluded rebel of the civilized society is included and integrated into the primitive group. It is not an escape from order and form into reckless freedom and 5 Editor-In-Chief

7 wilderness that we see in Billy s life, now his life as a tribal reveals order and form of a different kind. He wore a loin-cloth and nothing else (102); eats roots, and drinks countrymade liquor. He becomes simple enough. (176) Billy himself talks about his metamorphosis (121), new transformation (139) and final metamorphosis. (141) This strange process of regeneration (Ghosh: 79) embarks Billy on to the path of a spiritual journey. He begins to play a new role, that of a healer, a priest and a magician who cures dying children, he wards off tigers, and helps the primitive people with their worldly problems and spiritual troubles. To the primitive folk, he appears like rain on parched lands, like balm on a wound. (59-60) Billy is worshipped as a god-man. Billy himself confides to his friend Romi: Becoming a primitive was only a first step, a means to an end...i realised then that I was seeking something else. I am still seeking something. (187) Siddharth Sharma comments: Like Indian sages he (Billy) was seeking divinity in man, a god-head (51) During their visit to the remote temple of Fate in the Maikala hills, Romi gets a glimpse of Billy s rare quest for spiritual awakening. The baffling experience of another presence seemed to signify a message: There are things that the like of you may never know. There are circles within circles, and world within world. Beware where you enter. (190) Unfortunately Billy s spiritual quest remains unfulfilled. He has been disposed of in the only manner that a humdrum society knows of disposing its rebels, its seers, its true lovers. (240) Billy s death is metaphorical. It all started with Billy making contact with the mainstream society, after ten years of his disappearance, to help out his best friend Romi, the Collector of the district. His first appearance was as a representative of drought-hit villagers in order to prevent any kind of violence. It is remarkable to note that the D.C. who is incharge of all welfare measures did not even know the existence of these primitive habitats in his district. Billy s reappearance is a well kept secret until he cures Romi s wife of a nagging migraine and in turn is revealed to his wife Meena and his father. Being highly influential people, they pressurise government to search out Billy in the jungle. In this venture which ultimately becomes a man-hunt, Billy is shot down. Interestingly, Joshi calls these civilized people irresponsible fools and common criminals. (231) Romi is more than aware that it was for him that Billy took the risk of stepping out of the sanctuary of the great god of the primitive world who had until then guarded as his own. (241) His comment is very significant, Gradually it dawned upon us that what we had killed was not a man, not even the son of a Governor but someone for whom our civilized world had no equivalent. It was as though we had killed one of the numerous man-gods of the primitive pantheon. (236) His dying accusation against his friend, You bastards, (233) is the most scathing remark against the infringement of the dehumanized civilized society on the uncivilized and innocent primitives. The Strange Case of Billy Biswas is an eloquent assertion of the primitive way of life. It celebrates the charming simplicity of an authentic life in a primitive community, the virtues of which may act as a corrective to the overly materialistic, pseudo-western culture of today. The affirmation of these values is very fundamental to human beings, offers challenges, yet, unfortunately, living up to them, and the refusal to be a part of a collective inauthenticity, has proved to be fatal, reducing it to a mere strange case. The novel suggests a bitter conclusion that nothing but blind, blundering vengeance awaits all those who dare to step out of stifling confines of the mainstream culture and thought-process. The outcome of the confrontation is as disastrous a certainty as the end of a solitary boat struggling against a maelstrom. The remarkable control exhibited by the novelist in handling this challenging theme is astounding; at no point does it glide into sentimentality or melodramatic verbiage. With a stroke of rare artistic skill Billy s new life is narrated by himself with remarkable 6 Editor-In-Chief

8 restraint and sense of humour. His depiction of tribal life has a rare authentic touch. We see it through one of us who is now an integral part of this life. The references to Primordial Forces, Sankya system of Prakriti and Purush, impact of worlds beyond this planet upon the mortals, magic, the faceless God in ancient temple of Fate, birth and re-birth, incarnation, fate, significance of waiting, communion with nature and above all liberation from the fetters of mind consciousness reaching out to the vitalizing spirit of Life make the novel a powerful voice that urges the readers to look at the lives of primitives and their philosophy of life beyond the confines of the materialistic progress and developmental concerns. Works Cited: Chandran, M.R. and Bhaskaran, G. The Quest of an Alienated Hero in Arun Joshi,s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, COLLEGE SADHANA-Journal for Bloomers of Research vol. 3. No.1. August, Dhawan, R.K. The Novels of Arun Joshi, New Delhi: Prestige Books, Ghosh, Tapan Kumar. Arun Joshi s Fiction: The Labyrinth of Life, New Delhi: Prestige Books, Jain, Jasbir. Foreigners and Strangers: Arun Joshi s Heroes Journal of Indian Writing in English 5.1-2, Joshi, Surinder. Point of View and Theme in Arun Joshi s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, Glimpses of Indo-English Fiction, Vol.3 Ed. Saxena, O. P. New Delhi: Jainsons Publications, Joshi, Arun. The strange Case of Billy Biswas. New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, Mani Meiti M. The Strange Case of Billy Biswas; Awareness of Worlds within Worlds, The Quest 4.2, Prasad, Hari Mohan. Arun Joshi, New Delhi: Arnold- Heineman,1985. Saleem, Abdul. Arun Joshi s Fiction: Self in Exile, New Delhi: Creative Books, Sonowal, C. J. Indian Tribes and Issues of Social Inclusion and Exclusion Studies of Tribes Tribals, Vol. 6, No.1, New Delhi: Kamala-Raj Enterprises, July, 2008, accessed on Sharma, Siddarth. Arun Joshi s Novels: A Critical Study, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, Sharma,D. R. The Fictional world of Arun Joshi Indian P. E.N , Srinath, C. N. The Fiction of Arun Joshi:The Novel of Interior Landscape, The Literary Criterion, , Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be New Haven: Yale University, 1952 as quoted in Chandran and Baskaran. 7 Editor-In-Chief