The Predicament of Indian Woman in Arun Joshi’s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas

Abstract

Arun Joshi with five published novels to his credit occupies a significant place in the history of Indian English Literature. He rose to prominence as a novelist with the publication of his first novel ‘The Foreigner’ in 1968. In his novels he has artistically depicted the themes of rootlessness, social and racial tensions and prejudices, the conflict between tradition and materialism, faith and reason, search for one’s self and painful experience of exile and alienation. ‘The Strange Case of Billy Biswas’ presents the predicament of Meena Biswas as a by-product of her husband’s quest for self. Marital discord, husband’s disappearance and death, and last but not least the responsibility of looking after her aged father-in-law & male child make her life a tale of untold miseries and excruciating experiences. Being an Indian woman, she patiently and ungrudgingly bears her misfortunes with no deviation from the established standards of Indian society.