Detachment, Rebel And Search For Self Identity A True Buddhist Journey In Arun Joshi's The Strange Case For Billy Biswas

The Strange Case of Billy Biswas by Arun Joshi is a story about the hero’s conflicts of mechanical codes of conducts in urban civilization and a search for peaceful life and self-identity. It is an aesthetic presentation of the sterility of contemporary mechanical urban world as opposite to the peaceful Bhil tribal world. Born and brought up in an upper middle-class, the protagonist has a disgust and unwilling attitude to live in an artificially toned culture. He has strong desire and attraction for the world of tribal beauty and their culture. It is his shift from the mechanical realities to the natural and meaningful reality. The protagonist depicts a true Buddhist journey from the in-depth realization of the sources of suffering to the meaningful search of the self-identity in the company of true nature. It is his journey from the endless sufferings to the intended self-search. It is the journey from protagonist’s realization, detachment, rebel to the self-search, a drift from restless to tranquillity. Modernity and tradition are starkly visible as two different worlds in this novel.