Oriental v/s Occidental of Outlook Life and Human Society in the Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya

Abstract

Realism is one of the most remarkable features of Bhabani Bhattacharya’s fiction. He conveys socio-political reality of the contemporary Indian society. His novels give expression to the Indian sensibility towards the pressing problems of the then Indian society. His novels show a passionate awareness of life in India--the social awakening and protest, the utter poverty of peasants, the Indian freedom struggle and its various dimensions, the tragedy of partition of the country, the social and political transitions, the mental as well as the physical agony of the poor peasants and labour class people of the then Indian society, especially that of Bengal and other adjoining states. Bhattacharya, like other contemporary Indian novelist, believes in a deep exploration of social and political realities of then Indian societies. He is of the view that an artist should inevitably be concerned with truth and reality: He has rightly commented, “the creative writer’s final business is to reveal the truth. He reveals it, unlike the philosopher, in no cold statements of dogma but only in terms of life, rendered through the devices of dramatization. And how could the truth help being partisan”. Thus, through his novels, Bhattacharya has portrayed a faithful and realistic picture of various aspects the Indian way of life and its society. His portrayal of the life and society is never a photographic one nor a journalistic record. It is more truly a sensitive rendering of social, political and economic life of the Indian people. Freedom, hunger, poverty, disease, tradition, modernity, social evils, political tensions and pretensions, changing social values, crisis of morality and degeneration of social moral values and East-West relations and tensions are the major themes of his novels. In this paper my intention is to provide the predicament of oriental v/s occidental approach of life and human society in the works of Bhabani Bhattacharya.

Key Words: Realism, Socio-political, Contemporary Indian Society, Indian Sensibility, Peasants, Partition, Exploration, Rendering, Pretentions, Social Awakening and Protest.