CHAPTER III IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE NOVELS OF ARUN JOSHI

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1 72 CHAPTER III IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE NOVELS OF ARUN JOSHI The need for a sense of identity is so vital and imperative that man could not remain sane if he did not find some way of satisfying it. Man may be defined as the animal that can say I, that can be aware of himself as a separate entity. According to Eric Fromm, Man, being torn away from nature, being endowed with reason and imagination needs to form a concept of himself, needs to say and to feel: I am I (The Sane Society 59). The human child has a natural tendency to develop its power to acquire a sense of identity. All strivings of man are attempts to find an answer to his existence. Many substitutes for a truly individual sense of identity were sought for and found. Nation, religion, class and occupation serve to furnish a sense of identity. I am a Canadian, I am a Hindu, I am a peasant are the formulae which help a man experience a sense of identity, after the original clan identity has disappeared and before a truly individual sense of identity has been acquired. The need to feel a sense of identity stems from the very condition of human existence. The problem of the sense of identity is

2 not, as it is usually understood, merely a philosophical problem, or a problem only concerning our mind and thought. The fact that man has reason and imagination leads not only to the necessity for having a sense of identity, but also for orienting himself in the world intellectually. In the medieval world, the individual was identified with his social role in the feudal hierarchy. When the feudal system broke down, this sense of identity was shaken and the acute question who am I? arose or more precisely how do I know that I am I? This is the question which was raised in a philosophical form by Descartes. Philosophers from Descartes to Kant accepted Hume s explanation that identity means the sameness of someone or something. Personal identity may be defined in Eriksonian terms as the selfsameness and continuity of one s existence in time and the perception of the fact that others recognize one s sameness and continuity (Youth and Crisis 50). A person s identity springs from biological factors, group identity, caste, class, nation etc., and gets transmitted to the infant s earliest bodily experiences. Disturbances of the individual sense of identity like, alienation, identity confusion, depersonalization and psychic fragmentation have psychosocial factors at their root. 73

3 Erikson defines crisis as a necessary turning point, a crucial moment, when development must have one or another marshalling resource of growth, recovery and further differentiation (Identity and the Life Cycle 16). This definition is applied by him to crisis in the development of the individual. In adolescence, identity problems are most pronounced. Erikson attributes crisis to stages of development earlier and later than adolescence. He recollects that the term identity crisis was first used in Mt. Zion Veterans Rehabilitation Clinic during the Second World War to refer to the problem of people who had lost a sense of personal sameness, historical continuity and a central control over themselves owing to the presence of war. What was originally considered to be a common operative pattern of disturbance was later identified as a pathological aggravation, an undue prolongation of, or regression to a normative crisis belonging to a particular stage of individual development (17). Heinz Lichtenstein conceives of identity as a musical theme and its variations. In his own words self may be defined as the sum-total of all the transformations which are possible functions of an early-formed invariant correlation of the various basic elements of the mental apparatus (126). Quest for identity is the reflection of any modern man who is without any social, spiritual and personal roots. A person s identity gives 74

4 him the strength to survive in the world to correlate with his fellow beings to know his social work. After 1950 s, the interest of the Indian novelists shifted from the public to the private sphere, their main concern being the delineation of the individual quest for the self in all its varied and complex forms. These novelists renounced the larger world in favour of the inner man and engaged themselves in a search for the essence of human living (Verghese 124). Indian novel in English has become a primary instrument of art to unfold the emergence of the self as historical entity and has highlighted aesthetically designed conjunction between the self and society. On account of historical reasons, however, Indian English novelists have to face unprecedented problems. The greatest challenge before them is to seek and assert identity. The displaced person s quest for identity is a commonplace theme in modern fiction, but it has a peculiar pertinence in the Indian context. A sense of identity is a perennial sustaining creative force in a writer. It would be difficult to realize adequately the magnitude of the problem of loss of identity, unless we bear in mind that it is the root cause of all problems. The loss of identity would make a person a pathetic figure. Donald Oken rightly points out that the loss of identity results in alienation (84). 75

5 It would be interesting and instructive to attempt an in-depth analysis of Indian English novelists search for identity and to see how far they have progressed at all in exploring and affirming it in their works. The modern man has shown a serious concern for the spiritual malaise of modern life and the search for identity has been one of his chief preoccupations. Dennis Wrong observes that the term identity has become a value charged almost a charismatic term with its secure achievement regarded as equivalent to personal salvation (77). Despite all its imprecision, identity and its quest refer to the spiritual odyssey of the modern man, who has lost his social and spiritual moorings and who is anxious to seek his roots. When an individual finds himself in the fullness of his capacity, having satisfied all his needs, his identity can be said to have been established. Today the crisis in the search for identity is no longer confined to the individual; it can characterize a group, an institution, a class, a profession or even a nation. Regarding different connotations of the search for identity, Sudhir Kakar says: An individual s sense of identity is neither completely conscious nor unconscious, although, at times, it appears to be exclusively the one or the other. At some places identity is referred to as conscious sense of individual 76

6 77 uniqueness, at others to an unconscious, striving for continuity of experience and at yet other places as a sense of solidarity with a group s ideal. (16) The search for identity is thus a metaphor which roughly corresponds to something which a large number of people may be engaged in at least some of the time. Moreover, the whole effort towards searching for identity may be visible only to some observers and quite meaningless to others. It is particularly relevant to people who are in a special kind of perplexity. People with a colonial consciousness, for example, have been found to be particularly susceptible to identity crisis. A sense of sensibility, of security, and of belongingness is necessary for man s happiness. When this sense of harmony and belonging is lost for one or another reason, man suffers from a feeling of insecurity and loss of confidence. Indian English novelists have persistently dealt with this very important aspect of human predicament. Their protagonists search for identity and belongingness disintegrate and decay when they fail to achieve their identity. The whole issue of identity, its quest, crisis and assertion as treated in English novels deserves to be analyzed in detail. The issue of Indian English writers search for identity has been treated

7 variously. C.D. Narasimhaiah of Dhoynyaloakha, Mysore University, while impressed by their achievements, feels that they have not been able to create and assert their identity. It is because they have not discovered their cultural identity; they have not seriously probed it at all. Vincent Buckley holds unconventional views regarding the nature and role of identity in literature. To him the very notion of identity is vacuous. The sense of identity of any people he says, cannot be established chiefly or centrally from its literature, since most of the media which forms the culture of the masses bypass literature (3). The mass media do help express the identity of a people in a systematic way. But in the present state of affairs, literature continues to remain our only reliable guide to a country s identity. It gives all salient information regarding where we are, what we think, how we feel, how our mental make-up and human habit are and so on. The identity of the individual and that of his nation are inextricably entwined. While probing his individual identity, a writer forges his national identity also. The quest for identity in a country like India is unlike that in the West, more socially oriented and less personal. A competent piece of literature cannot divorce itself from traces of national identity. All good literature is national, because the writer is concerned with his environment, his people, his situations and the events that take place around him. Only by 78

8 belonging to his soil and people, he can discover his roots and find a voice that will ring with authenticity and integrity. The relevance of national identity in literature was discussed thoroughly in a conference held in Australia in August1968. Almost all the speakers in it felt that notwithstanding its universal appeal, a good literary work bears an indelible stamp of national identity. It can be confirmed that in many cases, not only the novelists, but also the characters in their novels face what psychologists call identity crisis. The problem of individual identity has a complexity in its various manifestations. Psychologists and philosophers have extended due attention to the predicament of modern life and man and have found in both, traits of deep-rooted anxiety, alienation and absurdity. Our international connections have rendered us rootless. One of the forms of rootlessness is self alienation, which in its turn is related to the loss of identity and its quest to get out of its crisis. This theme has become commonplace not only in modern European fiction but also in Indian English literature. R.S. Pathak has written in this context: Indo English novelist s reiterative treatment of alienation, his persistant delineation of rootless characters and awareness of his predicament seem to be symptomatic of his own uprootedness (Indo English Novelist s Quest for Identity 90). 79

9 Personal identity has three basic components: a sense of personal distinctiveness, a sense of personal continuity, and a sense of personal autonomy (Apter 50). A person comes to develop a strong sense of his or her identity if he sees himself or herself as different from other people, indeed distinctive and unique. He will feel his identity to be threatened if he is faced with a situation not salutary to any one of all. Identity crisis in general refers to psychological stress or anxiety about the sense of identity. A person undergoes the psychologically distressing experience when he feels that his personal identity is being spoiled or threatened. In short, identity crisis means the feeling of the loss of a sense of personal identity or depersonalization. A person who pretends to possess an identity that he does not have or dissembles an identity that is fundamental to him, often becomes neurotic or even schizophrenic. The feeling of split-personality is both painful and troublesome. Having lost the sense of personal identity, such a man feels alienated and lonely and makes frantic effort to seek, organize and affirm his sense of identity. His affiliation with the group of his choice, his acceptance and recognition as a person in career-role in society, his commitment to definite values and beliefs in life will produce feelings of belonging and security resulting in regaining and reaffirmation of his lost identity. 80

10 Many an Indian English novelist has dealt with the theme of identity crisis in his works. Manohar Malgaonkar in many of his novels has focussed on the theme of alienation and the crisis of identity. He has addressed this problem in his novels such as Combat of Shadows, A Bend in the Ganges, Distant Drum and The Princes. Kamala Markandaya probes the problem of identity systematically in her novels. She is concerned with the predicament of identity faced by man. In her novel Possession she presents an account of deindianization and the resulting loss of identity. The protagonist s dilemma in A Handful of Rice is at the sociological level. Ravi records all his sufferings, disillusionments and tragic experiences that are part of the predicament of identity. He has a terror of losing his identity in an indifferent city which he considers akin to death. The much talked of and controversial author Salman Rushdie has very sincere concern for the problem of roots and identity. There is much in his novels that is fantastic. The peculiar set of experiences and circumstances in the early life of Sindi Oberoi, the protagonist in The Foreigner, conspired to make him what he is. His father is an Indian-born Kenyan sceptic, mother British, and himself born in Kenya. He lost both his parents at the age of five and hence, the question of loyalty to any country of his parents did not arise. Presumably, his own sense of belonging either to his family or 81

11 nation was indeterminate. After his uncle s death, Sindi s sense of security wore much thinner. He felt he existed only for dying (TF 56). Such external factors apart, his own subjective sensibility had much to do with his predicament. He considered himself an uprooted young man living in the latter half of the twentieth century who had become detached from everything except himself (TF 164). Life in London was very crucial in determining the course of Sindi s life; for it is there that he came face to face with pain. All the major incidents in the London story are events connected to Sindi s association with two women, Anna and Kathy. Sindi had left Anna voluntarily, but Kathy whom he loved passionately deserted him, which sent his heart bleeding. Anna and Kathy had given him rich experience of sex, which again had an illusory ring about it. It is during the period of his suffering that Sindi gets insights into the mystery of pain. Sindi comes into contact with some persons, but the relationship that he establishes with them doesn t last much. On account of his problematic childhood as an orphan, Sindi couldn t develop a fullfledged personality. As far as his relationships with others are concerned, he is like modern man who attaches no importance to human relations. According to Erich Fromm, There is not much love or hate to be found in human relations of our day. There is rather a superficial friendliness 82

12 and a more than superficial fairness, but behind the surface is distance and indifference. There is also a good deal of subtle distrust (The Sane Society 135). Devoid of parental love, Sindi shows indifference towards his parents. When Mr. Khemka, the Indian business man, asks him how their death took place, his reply has a sting and disdain in it. For the hundredth time I related the story of those strangers whose only reality was a couple of wrinkled and cracked photographs (TF12). A person to whom his parents are none, but strangers, cannot socialize with others. Hence, Sindi can be said to be a nowhere man, an eternal outsider. Joshi brings out the protagonist narrator s point of view through Sindi Oberoi s words in his maiden novel The Foreigner: You had a God, you have roots in the soil you lived upon. Look at me. I have no roots (TF118). Through the character of Sindi, Joshi presents the plight of the modern man, who is pulled off his roots because of his problems. A pervasive sense of his rootlessness along with his loneliness is a great threat to him. He lives in a no man s land and is incessantly haunted by his past. He has no belief in himself or in the society around or in the land he is born. As stated by R.S. Pathak in his article Human Predicament and Meaninglessness: The work of Arun Joshi, reads like the spiritual Odyssey in the twentieth century man who has lost his spiritual moorings (109). Sindi s sense of rootlessness and identity 83

13 crisis originated from within and got spread all around him. Sindi s very birth was the cause of his rootlessness. His parentage and early life made him a perfect foreigner, a man who does not like to belong anywhere. His birth offered him roots in three countries and he was perplexed: And what country had I represented? Kenya or England or India (TF 43). Roots in these countries made him feel that he did not belong to any country and was therefore rootless. Sindi became a rootless alien who existed only because he was not dead. He became an uprooted young man full of despair, detachment and indifference. Sindi s indifference became a part of his personality wherever he went. Engrossed in himself, Sindi could not love anybody unconditionally, be it Anna, Kathy, Judy, Christine, or June. Moreover, he escaped from involvement under the pretext of detachment. As a result, each affair ended in failure. He left Anna, the moment he met a woman named Kathy. After a few weeks of intense sexual experience, Kathy too parted for good, as she had to go back to her husband. These incidents left a scar on his mind and he learnt to practise a kind of indifference and non-involvement. Sindi s relationship with these women exposed the pangs of human conditions and the depth of pain that relationships could arouse. It is his meeting with June Blyth that dragged him out of his loneliness. Tapan Kumar Ghosh s comment on 84

14 June s character in his book Arun Joshi s Fiction makes the situation more credible: June is a memorable creation of Arun Joshi. She is the first of a group of humane, sympathetic and sacrificial women who play a key role in the lives of heroes, and catalyze their progress towards self realization. June is aware of the inanity, pretentions and play acting of the people around her (48). In the beginning, June was the right companion for Sindi, for she had an extraordinary power to lure others and to cure them of their pains. Her selfless concern for others was highly appreciated by him: June was one of those rare persons who have a capacity to forget themselves in somebody s troubles (TF 97). This rare degree of empathy and the capacity to forget herself in the misery of others differentiates her from him and the rest of the other characters. With June he experiences a novel stage of love and affection. But Sindi tries to restrain himself from getting closely involved with June. To quote his own words: Everywhere I turned I saw involvement. How long could I stay here! The pain of earlier years had taught me wisdom but I don t know if I could depend upon it. The commitment had already been made the moment I had seen June at the dance (TF 63). June often invited Sindi for many trips to various places, but he had no choice but to go along 85

15 with her. What made matters worse was the fact that nearly every time they met, June told him that she loved him. The arrival of Babu, the Indian friend of Sindi in U.S.A, was a turning point in the love affair of Sindi and June. Sindi s refusal to marry June draws her automatically to Babu. In his article The Dialectics of Enchanted Sensibility in Arun Joshi s The Foreigne, K.V Surendran aptly analyzes the situation: Shocked by Sindi s indifference and infected with materialistic entropy which renders her incapable of overcoming her aloneness, June in desperation turns to Babu Khemka, son of a rich industrialist from India who appears to be a contrast to the cold and reserved Sindi (100). When Sindi watched June getting attached to Babu, he pretended to be indifferent and detached, and closed his eyes at their intimacy. He knew very well that a gesture of love for him could bring her back to him. Sindi willingly gave up June to Babu. It was obvious that Sindi had lost June. According to Sindi, Babu had given her all she needed. She could be of use to him and he loved her with a dog-like devotion. Babu informs Sindi of his intention to marry June. Meanwhile Babu became mentally exhausted as a result of being unable to make any headway in his studies. He found it difficult to cope 86

16 with the situation. Sindi concludes that June offered to marry Babu since she got displeased with him. Paradoxically enough, the relationship between June and Babu became strained. One day, on being asked where she had been, June told Babu that she had been with Sindi that evening. Startled and embittered by June s words, Babu rushed out blindly in his car and on the way, in a fit of mental imbalance, his car hit an overpass and rolled into a ditch and he died instantly. On hearing the news, Sindi rushed to the spot and he couldn t help feeling that he had lost a friend. Babu s death was an immense blow to him. Sindi s sense of loneliness and shock can t be better expressed than in the following words: I felt like a desert or like a vast field of naked oaks in winter time. I felt more alone and naked in the world than I had ever felt before (TF 149). Following the death of Babu, Sindi decides to go to New Delhi. Meanwhile Sindi gets a letter from June according to which it is informed that she is carrying the child of Babu. Later, one day Sindi goes to June s house and receives the shocking news that June had died two days back while undergoing an abortion. To Sindi it was a shock beyond endurance. It can be concluded that if June hadn t died, Sindi would surely have married her. Various bitter experiences taught Sindi 87

17 that detachment was a major hurdle in the path of smooth life. Sindi s identity crisis is crystal clear in his own words: For the first time I became aware of the despair that had so long enveloped my being like a fish is surrounded by water. And, like a fish, I had always been unaware of it. I saw myself as I had always been. An uprooted young man living in the latter half of the twentieth century who had become detached from everything except himself. from others, June s death finally broke my attachment to myself. It was here that my hope lay. (TF 164) Sindi felt intense remorse and repentance over his role in pushing June and Babu to death. Arun Joshi, a great psychological novelist, withdraws from outer reality and delves deep into the inner recesses of human heart. The identity crisis of Billy, the protagonist in The Strange Case of Billy Biswas is different from and deeper than that of Sindi. Despite his conventional roots, high social status and a secure job, Billy feels estranged from the upper crust of Indian society and craves for the primordial. He is a man with extra ordinary obsessions (TSCBB 7). 88

18 Billy s journey to unlimited freedom is rendered more complex and he is very much part of a sophisticated social structure, a system which is modern and advanced in every sense. 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 of natural kinships, societal affiliations and civil obligations. Though Billy becomes a consolidated, alienated and mystifying character, once he is removed from public eye, the alienation attached to Billy s character is the result of a new way of looking at life. It is possible to look at The Strange Case of Billy Biswas more as an allegory of the realization of one s true self and the attainment of one s goals. The need to live an authentic life is often theoretically admitted, but it needs an uncommon conviction and commitment to respond positively to it. A sensitive soul like Billy is attuned to its call, the irrepressible call of a great force, urkraft [ ] a primitive force (TSCBB 18) which makes him abandon his conventional identity. Billy s case cannot be equated with the rootlessness and alienation of the Western heroes: The society from which he runs is spiritually empty; the society he chooses for himself is not corrupted by the forces of civilization like law, intelligence, judgement and the so called pretensions (Meity 18). Though born into an aristocratic family, Billy 89

19 dislikes organized life and this aggravates his problem of identity instead of resolving it. He feels a sudden interest in his own identity. Who was I? Where had I come from? Where was I going? (TSCBB 89). Billy was sent to America to study engineering. But his opting for anthropology while his father has no inkling of it is proof enough of his quest for his identity. Billy once said: All I want to do in life is to visit the places they describe, meet the people who live there, find out about the aboriginals of the world (TSCBB 12). Billy attempts to escape the call of primitivism by getting married to Meena, a sophisticated and beautiful girl. His failure to maintain good relationships with his wife led him into the arms of Rima Kaul, only to understand that neither Rima s body nor her sentiments could help him realize his identity and give him an inner joy and satisfaction. He became aware of their affair which was adulterous and corrupt: It gradually dawned on me that a tremendous corrupting force was working on me. 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. Here, you swine, if you haven t the guts to break away from this filth, 90

20 well then, I am going to wallow in it until it makes you sick. (TSCBB 135) Billy s uncontrollable obsession with the simplicity of the primitive world forced him to leave his wife, his only child and his aged parents for good. When we read The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, we are reminded of Saul Bellow s famous novel, Henderson, the Rain Kin published in Henderson, an intense and vital millionaire deserts his Connecticut home for the tribal world of Africa in quest of wisdom to satisfy his incessant inner cry, I want, I want. In Joshi s novel, the hero suffers from a primordial urge to go to the primitive world of tribals away from civilization. Visions and hallucinations replace Saul Bellow s inner cry. Arun Joshi s innovation lies in the fact that he regards the primeval tribal world as a source of freedom for Billy, and civilization is blind, and ultimately traps Billy. Joshi makes his protagonist Billy hear the drumbeats of his own spirit. The first call of his primordial nature he hears as a boy, while on a visit to Bhubaneswar at the age of fourteen, on the threshold of adolescence proves to be a turning point in his love. The touch of oldness, antiquity in the town of Bhubaneswar and its 91

21 associations inspire the young Billy to make a search for identity. Billy, persuaded by his uncle s driver to go to the village of tribals, notes: First a great shock of erotic energy passed through me although, mind you, there was nothing particularly erotic about the whole business except once when a boy and a girl, their arms around each other, loitered past me giggling and tumbled into the bush beyond. The shock of erotic energy was followed by the same feeling of unreality or, as I said, a reality sharper than any I had ever known. It was a bit like having taken a dose of a hallucinatory drug. (TSCBB 91) A look at Billy s psychograph can be had from his letters written to Tuula Lindgren, his Swedish girl friend. The first that appears was written a year after his return to India and the last nearly six months before his disappearance into the Maikala forest. Certain excerpts from the letters are worth citing. The first one is expressive of him as an outsider in the civilized world. When I return from an 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 (TSCBB 69). He writes: 92

22 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 or snuggling against each other or holding whisky glasses in their furred paws. (TSCBB 69) The magnitude of his hatred for the elite class can be seen in his use of the imagery of dogs with large teeth and furred paws. Billy condemns in the most powerful language the heinous attitude of the people towards making money: I sometimes wonder whether civilization is anything more than making and spending of money. What else does the civilized man do? [...] What need would there be of psychiatrists, research foundations, learned societies, great scholars, scientists, ministerial advisers, ambassadors, generals, had the world not initially been hung on this peg of money. (TSCBB 69-70) In yet another letter, he writes about a strange woman who keeps haunting him causing in him a fearful disturbance, the full meaning of which he has yet to understand (TSCBB 70).The fifth letter is the manifestation of Billy s soul searching and agonizing quest for identity. 93

23 Who am I? Who are my parents? My wife? My child? At times I look at them, sitting at the dinner table and for a passing moment I cannot decide who they are or what accident of creation has brought us together (TSCBB 70). These letters not only show what is going on in Billy s mind but also support his disappearance into the primitive world without his having to verbalize such vulnerable thoughts even in private conversation (Srinath, Crisis of Identity 39). A person with extra ordinary perceptions and a rare sensibility to primeval forces is bound to be a misfit and failure in the phoney and materialistic upper class society to which he returns from America and for which he develops an aversion from the beginning. There is a certain vagueness about the nature of his goal especially at the early stage. With his other concerns and obsessions and disagreement with prevalent social values, even his marriage to Meena turns out to be a failure. Billy himself finds it difficult to specify where precisely his marriage went wrong. He can only say that it was just ill-conceived, ill-fated (TSCBB 133). There was a basic mental incompatibility between the two with very divergent world views. Billy recalls: It might have been saved if Meena had possessed a rare degree of empathy or even a sufficient idea of human suffering. These, I am afraid, she did not have. Her upbringing, her ambitions, twenty years of contact with a phony society all had 94

24 ensured that she should not have it (TSCBB 133). It pained Billy to see that whatever he said was distorted in the mirrors of her mid. We are led to assume that Billy s withdrawal from the world is in the nature of a reflex action, i.e. he withdraws in order to preserve himself from the mediocrity around him which had also begun to make inroads into his character. In retrospect we feel that Billy in a way was driven out by the superficiality of civilization into a world which he found more fascinating and meaningful. Billy s exit from the civilized world courting the company of Bilasia who symbolizes for him the very essence of primitive culture is a turning point in his life. It is right to say: that exit reminds one in a minor way, of Siddhartha s renunciation of wife and child in search of enlightenment. To Billy it is a movement from darkness to light (Srinath, The Fiction of Arun Joshi 122). The dark jungle holds forth for him the promise of a primordial force that can sustain and nourish him. Billy readily responds to the call of the primitive and finally undergoes a new transformation whereby, he is received into the solidarity of the tribals in the forest with whom he had only very limited acquaintance. Though Billy withdraws from the humdrum world, he doesn t withdraw from the world of love and pain or from the world of sensuality and sensitiveness and this he finds in 95

25 abundance in the Saal forests among the aboriginals and in his relationship with Bilasia who reflects the primitive force which Tuula had long ago sensed in him. Bilasia is presented as a contrast to all that Meena stood for and as the embodiment of Billy s dreams about a life outside the phony society. In the context of the narrative, and the development of the theme, Bilasia acquires a pivotal significance, almost that of a primitive goddess. Thus once physically and emotionally severed from the inherited structures and social bonds, Billy partakes of more forceful realities represented mainly through Bilasia and Dhunia, of whose mahaprasad (intimate friend) Billy eventually becomes. If the civilized world regarded him a rebel and an outlaw, the tribal world looks upon him as their friend. Billy turns out to be some kind of healer and magician to these tribals. Billy discloses his identity to his friend, Romi, and adds that there is no underlying motive to return to the civilized world. It is unfortunate that Billy s later visit to Romi s place to cure his wife Situ of her illness determines the further development of the story. Things get beyond his control, when through Romi s wife, the secret of Billy s reappearance is shared with Billy s father and wife who are determined to get him back to normal life. There is a search again for Billy, now more vehemently than ever, and that ends tragically in the 96

26 death of Billy when a havildar shoots him. The death of Billy is highly symbolic too, suggesting the incapacity of mundane world to move beyond peripheral level. Thus Billy had to pay a heavy price in the course of his search for identity. Billy cannot identify himself with the society of which he is a product. As his roots are laid elsewhere, he decides to quit the civilized abode. By leading a rich and meaningful life as a primitive, Billy has achieved spiritual tranquility. The Strange Case proves that there is a little of Billy in all of us, a desire to get away from it all, do something reckless or surrender to some extra-ordinary obsession (Iyengar, Indo- Anglian Fiction 748). Through The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, Arun Joshi satirizes the unsupportable suffocation caused by the modern materialistic society. After the death of Billy, although a late realization, it is assumed that Billy was one of the numerous man-gods of the primitive pantheon for whom the civilized world had no equivalent. Even at a psychological level, Billy finds his route. Billy s flight to the jungle, just as it is with Eugene O Neill s Brutus Jones of The Emperor Jones or Yank of The Hairy Ape, is a progressive rejection of the trappings of a super-imposed civilization. Both Billy and Jones are reduced to loin clothes, a commonplace symbol of discovering the core- 97

27 self. Both pay for their discovery no less dearly than with their very lives. Arun Joshi s third novel The Apprentice, like his first two novels, portrays the identity crisis and the agonizing predicament of his protagonist Ratan Rathor. He is at his wit s end in a world fraught with chaos, corruption, hypocrisy and absurdity. Just like Sindi and Billy he is also an existential character who is alienated from his own self as well as his surroundings. As Tapan Kumar Ghosh observes: Crisis in the soul of an individual, who is entangled in the mess of contemporary life with its confusion of values and moral anarchy, and his untiring quest for a remedy lies at the core of Arun Joshi s exploration of human reality in The Apprentice (Arun Joshi s Fiction 90). In The Apprentice, the life of Ratan Rathor who was torn between two ways of the world is portrayed. His father, a freedom fighter, lived a simple life dedicating it to the betterment of his country. In contrast to this was his mother for whom money was the most important in life. V. Gopal Reddy in his article, The Apprentice, an Existential Study aptly comments: It is a story of a young man who, out of sheer exhaustion of joblessness and privation, is forced to shed the honesty and the old world and morality of his father to become an apprentice to the corrupt civilization (223). Ratan did not care for his father s values or for the martyrs who had sacrificed their 98

28 lives. He had observed that their values and principles were easily forgotten by the people. Ratan was ready to give up his honesty to become an apprentice in the corrupt society. In spite of his initial hesitation, he managed to thrive on corruption. For, he was the child of double inheritance. The labyrinth in Ratan s life occurred in his middle age when he became over-ambitious and started to throw away the principles of human kindness and love. He forgets all about his friends who are inferior to him in education, in polish, in even intelligence (TA 26). Ratan becomes a fake, a corrupt official and finally an exhausted man. His inside seems to be hollow and moth-eaten. He loses his personality and identity. In order to ensure the confirmation with regard to his job, Ratan decides to marry the niece of his superintendent. He becomes a modern man in the full sense of the term, cunning, deceptive, selfish and easy going. Though he scales new heights in life through corrupt practices, he is far from achieving satisfaction. The higher he rises, the more unscrupulous, fraudulent and hypocritical he becomes. The more money I accumulated, the more I was dissatisfied and the more I was determined to enjoy life. And all the time I thought of death (TA 85). 99

29 100 During the years of the Indo-Chinese conflict, a sad chapter in recent Indian history was incorporated. Ratan accepts a bribe to clear a defective stock of weapons. His betrayal of his country is poignantly exemplified by the suicide of the Brigadier, Ratan s childhood friend, who, having received the malfunctioning war materials on the front, had deserted his post. Ratan s confession would have saved the Brigadier from court-martial, but the protagonist s hesitation proves fatal. It is in this context that Ratan is forced to undergo a deep crisis of conscience and adopt a humble way of life. Ratan was leading a life purely in superficial plane indulging himself in the vices and tricks of the spiritually uprooted but scientifically and technologically advanced civilization. According to Rashmi Gaur and Shivani Vastsa, All the values have become subjugated to money. The contemporary man has lost all his sense of values and norms (55). A simple youth, Ratan, with high degree of sense of values, character and morality, is transformed by the contemporary value deficient society into a cunning nefarious and unscrupulous man. It is a naked truth that humanistic values in the ancient time have gradually degraded and vanished from the society. Ratan himself confesses that he has become a master faker (27), in Money s Kingdom (TA 73).

30 101 Arun Joshi through the speech of Ratan illustrates the degenerate, valueless and corrupt modern society: A bribe could get you a bed in a hospital, a place to burn your dead. Doctors had a fee to give false certificates, magistrates for false judgments. For a sum of money politicians changed sides. For a larger sum they declared wars. Bribery was accepted by factory inspectors, bank agents and college professors, by nurses, priests and chartered accountants; by all those who acted in the public interest. Men took the bribes to facilitate the seduction of their wives; women for seduction of other women. (TA 109) The mad rush of modern man to amass more and more money has resulted in the selfish nature of man with no means for human values, ideals and morals. Man has become self-centered, looking after his own interests rather than that of the whole society. The Gherao, one of the short stories from The Survivor written by Arun Joshi, delineates the money-minded nature of the principal s son and daughter-in-law who attach more importance to wealth than to human relationship. The principal says: I have a son, but he does not answer my letters. My daughter-in-law says, she does not even want to see my face again. And

31 102 all because I did not give them the ten thousand rupees which is all that I have (Survivor 27). The blind pursuit of wealth by contemporary man has alienated him from the authentic self and moved him away from the wealth of humanistic values. Modern man seeking sexual gratification outside marriage clearly points towards the moral deterioration of humanity. Ratan starts visiting prostitutes and stared at the women. Openly. Willfully (TA 74). Arun Joshi has dealt at length in his novels with the problem of identity crisis. Ratan s life is the story of succumbing to the temptations under the threat of insecurity, anxiety and restlessness. His was the case of a man who had lost his identity in becoming one with the process of career and business and knew that: I was a nobody. A NOBODY. Deep down I was convinced that I had lost significance: As an official; as a citizen; as a man. How could then my actions have significance? What significance was there in steering a boat that had no destination or watering a tree that would never bear fruit (TA 70). Though Ratan does not feel at home in society, he does not abandon it as Billy Biswas had done. Interestingly, he embodies the world of material

32 103 values which his predecessors Sindi Oberoi and Billy Biswas had rejected. He is neither a rebel nor a dissident, but he is a victim. After feeling alienated from society, he adapts himself to the ways of the world. At every stage he puts up an initial resistance only to discover the futility of his endeavours. In a mood of confusion he asks himself: What was right? What was wrong? No one seemed to know Or may be they knew, but when it came to practice no one seemed sure whether what was right was practicable (TA 61). Himmat Singh, also known as Sheikh, a don of the underworld, who has a huge stock of substandard war material in Bombay bribes Ratan and grabs the contract. The cunning Himmat Singh acquires all evidences. Ratan attempts to lull his conscience with the false hope that the war will not be waged at all. But the war breaks out and many soldiers are killed; the Brigadier stands to be court-martialled. Ratan is taken into custody and he has to find out somebody as a scapegoat. Ratan tries to exonerate himself and accuses others of being guilty. O.P Bhatnagar s observation deserves to be noted here. In Ratan, Arun Joshi has presented a brilliant Pascalian image of self-deception and self-love in which he holds himself innocent and runs to accuse others for his misdeeds (Arun Joshi: A Study of His Fiction 39). In his attempt to

33 104 justify himself at least to alleviate his guilt, Ratan gives a long list of people who take bribes. The war between India and China breaks out and huge casualty and damage are inflicted upon India. The Brigadier on his return from the battlefront has a nervous breakdown. The Brigadier has deserted his post owning moral responsibility for the supply of defective war materials which had been approved of by none other than Ratan. It is a strange irony of fate that the same Ratan becomes responsible for Brigadier s death. Shocked and shaken by this tragedy, Ratan resolves to take revenge upon the Sheikh. To his utter disbelief, he learns from him that he alone has not been responsible for the deal; the Secretary and the Minister have also been party to it. Ratan has been made a scapegoat because; he is only a puppet in the hands of big guns. The sheikh makes a shocking and candid observation of Ratan s character: You are bogus, Ratan Rathor, he drawled in a voice that had begun to go out again. Bogus, From top to bottom. Your work, your religion, your friendships, your honour, nothing but a pile of dung. Nothing, he said, but poses a bundle of shams (TA 131). Ratan s morality is so completely eroded that he cannot bring himself to confess his crime to the authorities. Sheikh s bitter criticism

34 105 about the nature and character of Ratan makes him think that his life is a total waste. After a serious reflection, while sitting alone, Ratan said to himself: Ratan Rathor, you are not a good man. And, Ratan Rathor, killing this fellow is not going to make you a good man. So you might as well not waste your time (TA 136).This thought was an eye opener to Ratan s future course of life. Himmat Singh advises Ratan: Try to put yourself to use, Ratan Rathor. It might be too late. You have been too long the slave. But give it a try. One lost nothing (TA 141). With an intense sense of guilt feeling and remorse Ratan tells his listener: So, you see, my friend, here I am, a man without honour; a man without shame. Perhaps a man of our times. But there I go again. When we are pleased with ourselves we are in advance of our times, pioneers of the age. When not pleased we are men of our times as though a criminal is any the less a criminal for being chained twenty others. (TA 141) Ratan tells his listener further that he is also playing the role of an apprentice: Consider me an apprentice and you will perhaps understand. Each morning before I go to work, I come here. I sit on the steps of the temple and while they pray I wipe the shoes of the congregation. Then,

35 106 when they are gone I stand in the doorway (TA 142). But Ratan never enters the temple. He is not concerned with what is going on there. He tells himself: Be good. Be decent. Be of use. Then I beg forgiveness. Of a large host: my father, my mother, the Brigadier, the unknown dead of the war, of those whom I harmed, with deliberation and with cunning, of all those who have been the victims of my cleverness, those whom I could have helped and did not (TA 143). At last Ratan has decided to devote some of his precious time to the service of the public. Thus the novel ends on a positive note. Ratan tells: I am learning to be of use. I know it is late in the day. But one must try and not lose heart, not yield, at any cost, to despair (TA 143).The novel comes to an end with some excellent confidence- building words from Ratan: There is hope as long as there are young men willing to learn from the follies of their elders. Willing to learn and ready to sacrifice. Willing to pay the price (TA 144).These words serve as a message and a guideline to the young boy s future course of action. In short Ratan has been able to find a solution to his problem of identity crisis.

36 107 It goes to the credit of Joshi, that Som Bhaskar in The Last Labyrinth, like his other westernized protagonists belonging to the upper-crust of society, is as firmly rooted in an authentic Indian context as the characters of Raja Rao and R.K Narayan. The novel holds up a mirror to a certain section of the present-day Indian society with its cynicism, hedonism, loss of faith, confusion of values and anxieties. The Last Labyrinth brings out Som Bhaskar s route from the labyrinth of a modern society to the light of a primitive mountain god. Som apparently led a happy life with an educated and trustworthy wife, two children and an expanding business. He was acquainted with the western way of life, its pursuit for sophistication and materialism. Yet he knew that money was a dirt, a whore, so were houses, carts, carpets (TLL 11). He suffered from an indefinable hunger that disrupted the harmony of his life. In the midst of wealth and sophistication, he felt a void within which led to his identity crisis. As Som sat with Aftab and Anuradha in the Haveli, he was reminded of the insignificance of his existence: If someone, man or god, had watched my life, from a great height, would I have appeared to him like an ant threading through a maze, knocking about, against one wall, then another? (TLL 53) The sad songs of Azizun taught Som the fact that all the struggles to climb the ladder of

37 108 success were futile. Only a simple life led with faith, matters in the long run. Som Bhaskar, a modern anti-hero is groping for a remedy for his afflicted and unbalanced soul. He is consumed by hunger of the body and hunger of the spirit (TLL 11). He spends nights of insomnia, with his wife sleeping by his side. Like his wife if he possessed the inner poise of the spirit, he could derive consolation from his prayer to God. But as he is a non-believer, that is out of question: If I believed in God I could pray, may be run a rosary through my fingers. But that s out (TLL 10). Apart from orchestras of discontent (TLL 12), he is plagued by a sense of void and of emptiness within him. Corroded by this overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction, Som tries to appease his inner hunger by the possession of a business enterprise and a beautiful woman named Anuradha. But nothing brings serenity and peace to his mind. He shares his problem with his friend and physician Dr. K, You know, for many years now, I have had this awful feeling that I wanted something. But the sad thing was, it didn t make the slightest difference when I managed to get what I had wanted. My hunger was just as bad as ever (TLL 189).

38 109 Som s flits from one woman to another, from one business adventure to another make him all the more dissatisfied. His womanizing and boozing to shut up his voices in his incurable voids have not settled anything. His troubles get multiplied by an awareness of the irrelevance of life. Life becomes a complicated affair, a labyrinth within the labyrinth (TLL 27).For him everything is in a haze. He loses his bearings and is afflicted with a sense of dislocation. He tells Anuradha: I am dislocated. My mind is out of focus. There is something sitting right in front of me and I cannot see it. Why am I here? Why do I come here? (TLL 107). These words of Som bear ample proof to his identity crisis. In The Last Labyrinth Arun Joshi explores Som Bhaskar s mind which is perplexed by the questions about life, existence and reality. The contradictory impulses of intellect and intuition, doubt and faith scepticism and blind submission pull him in opposite directions with the result that he suffers from the crisis of consciousness. His every experience and relationship much to his dismay, deepens his sense of inadequacy and he continues to wander through the maze of existence. The mysterious voices that he hears and the strange visions he sees make him gloomy and insomniac. Sleeping pills, tranquillizers and hot baths fail to sooth his tortured mind and his fried nerves. His psyche is affected deep down by his heredity. His mother s blind faith in Krishna and his