Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Strange Case of Billy Biswas is the second novel by Indian author Arun Joshi, published in 1972. The story again explores the themes of self-existentialism, alienation, morality, and individual freedom. The protagonist of the novel is Billy Biswas and his case is strange because he does not fit into the accepted norm of the 'civilized' society Billy finds himself motivated enough to rebel and break its shackles to join a world that is far removed from the everyday reality of his former world. He leaves the modern civilized world to enjoy the nascent lifestyle of tribals in the jungle. He is dragged by the mysterious world of the tribal society. The effort to bring Billy back to civilization by arresting him only leads to his tragic end. It is a metaphoric novel depicting a so-called civilized world with its hollowness against the uncivilized tribal world with its simplicity.
Characters of The Strange Case of Billy Biswas:
Billy Biswas (Bimal Biswas) is the main character of the novel. He belongs to a rich Indian Bengali family. His grandfather was the Prime Minister of a famous Princely State in Orissa. After Indian independence, his father became the ambassador to a European country and after that, he became a judge of the Supreme Court of India. Billy’s childhood was spent in Delhi. Since his childhood, he has been a lonely person with a brilliant mind and an obsessive attraction toward nature and a primitive lifestyle. He fails to connect with the modern, evolving, materialistic world and prefers to delve more into the primitive ways of living. At the age of 15, his father sends him to study in America. His father wishes him to become an engineer. However, Billy declines engineering and prefers studying Anthropology which satiates his desire to know more about primitive lifestyles. He deeply studies and researches tribal attitudes and customs. Gradually, his attraction towards primitive ways continues to increase. He suffers hallucinations and begins to develop a split personality in which he sees himself as a lonely primitive man living in an alien world. Romi Sahai (Romesh Sahai) is the narrator of the story. He is a close friend of Billy whom he met in Harlem, America. Romi shares a room with Billy in America. After returning to India, Romi becomes a Collector in Indian Administrative Services. He continues his friendship with Billy who becomes a professor of Anthropology at Delhi University. Romi tries to help Billy in every way possible. Tuula Lindgren is a 30-year-old Swedish woman who came to America for advanced training in psychiatric social work. She comes in contact with Billy and becomes his close friend. She recognizes the split personality of Billy and tries to help him against the hallucinations he suffers. She says that although every human being faces these alienating feelings and hallucinations in a very mild form, Billy feels them quite strongly. She advises him to suppress such feelings of alienation. Meena Chatterjee is a beautiful and sophisticated modern Indian girl whose father is a retired civil servant. Billy marries her but finds that Meena is much more materialistic than he could bear. While Meena truly loves Billy and tries to understand him, she fails to cope with his obsessive attraction to tribal ways of living. Rima Kaul is a young girl who praises Billy’s work in Anthropology. Billy gets attracted to her because he feels that Rima could understand him better than Meena. However, Billy realizes that Rima is sympathetic towards him yet, she can’t understand him. He begins feeling that his affair with Rima is corrupting his soul. He breaks off with her and suddenly disappears. After leaving the civilized modern society, Billy begins living in the tribal region of Stpura forests where he marries Bilasia, a tribal girl. Dhunia is a tribal man of the same tribal community where Billy lives. Billy helped Dhunia in curing his ill grandson. Situ is Romi’s wife who suffers from a chronic migraine. Billy uses tribal medicines to cure her.
Summary of The Strange Case of Billy Biswas:
Billy Biswas was a brilliant but eccentric person since his childhood. He experiences strange hallucinations since childhood that continue to gain strength as he grows old. At the age of fourteen, he went to Bhubaneswar and visited Konark. Along with his uncle’s chauffeur, he went to the tribal people. The chauffeur wanted to enjoy life, but Billy sat there and saw the tribe dance, drink, sing, and make love. Billy felt a strange familiarity with those tribal people. He felt that only tribal peoples had the answer to his questions. His father was a reputed judge of the Supreme Court of India. He had been an ambassador of a European country before. Billy’s grandfather had been a successful courtier of the princely state of Orissa. Billy’s father wishes similar social and materialistic success for his son and hence sends him to the U.S. to study and become an Engineer.
Billy comes to Harlem, America to study but instead of opting for Engineering, he opts to study anthropology. He deeply studies tribal attitudes and customs. In America, he meets Romi who came for education. Romi becomes Billy’s close friend and roommate. One day, Romi and Billy visit a music party with their friends and during the party, Billy suddenly begins beating the bongo drums. He plays a pair of bongo drums at a feverish pitch for nearly a quarter of an hour. Through his music, Romi and others feel the fascinating pull that holds everyone by its absolute vitality. It awakens latent primitive urges in the audience. Romi notices that Billy became the center of attraction for the whole party, he remains aloof and alienated as if he was alone. Billy informs him that he often has hallucinations. Romi introduces Billy to a Swedish woman named Tuula Lindgren who came to the U.S. for advanced training in psychiatric social work. Tuula is a Swedish girl yet her values are centered on the vitalizing force of their life which brings her close to Billy. She is strongly interested in India. She observes the spiritual degeneration in society objectively and knows how to encounter this utter confusion. Billy tries to come out of alienation by participating in life with Tuula and Romi. When Billy tells her about his hallucinations, she says that a great primitive force is disturbing Billy’s psyche. She says that though everyone suffers such hallucinations mildly, Billy is experiencing it at a much stronger level. Tuula advises Billy and Romi to suppress those feelings and hallucinations.
After the death of his father, Romi returns to India and becomes a Collector in Indian Administrative services. Billy too returns and becomes a professor of Anthropology at Delhi University. His family arranges his marriage with Meena Chatterjee, the sophisticated, educated, and very beautiful daughter of a retired civil servant. Meena is a beautiful woman with a caring and joyous attitude. She tries to become a dutiful loyal wife but her temperament doesn’t match with Billy’s. While Meena loves the modern materialistic life of Delhi, Billy doesn‟t find the phony, consumerism-ridden world of Delhi much different from the American materialistic society. Billy does not enjoy his role and finds it difficult to get used to the workings of his job and place. He begins going on undeclared trips and vacations to the mountains and jungles. He undertakes numerous expeditions for investigations among primitive communities in hills and forests. Despite Meena’s efforts, their marriage deteriorates. Meanwhile, Billy meets a young woman Reema Kaul who is interested in Billy’s work. Reema is highly impressed by Billy’s knowledge of anthropology. They develop an affair. Billy feels that he could get that feeling of togetherness from Reema that he couldn’t attain with Meena. However, soon he realizes that while Reema is sympathetic towards him, she doesn’t understand his inner feelings. He feels cheated and he feels that he is also cheating. This inner guilt forces him to break up his relationship with Reema.
Romi meets Billy nearly after three years and finds that Billy has completely changed. He is no more, as optimistic and energetic as he used to be as if he is suffering immensely.
Meena contacts Romi and asks for his help in resolving the issues of her marital life with Billy. However, before Romi can talk to Billy, he decides to go away and disappear. He leaves the world of civilized men and reaches the world where he is not culturally uprooted and socially self-estranged. Soon after the disappearance of Billy, an enormous search is launched by the police. But they can not discover Billy and in the end, declares that he is killed by a tiger. But Romi, who is posted as a Collector in a district of Central India, has not given up hopes of tracing him back. He continues to search for Billy.
After ten years, Romi goes on a tour of interior villages destroyed by a terrible drought. During his tour, he sees a strange man in lion-cloth and when he approaches him, Romi realizes that he is none other than Billy himself. Billy tells him about his life after his disappearance. He says that he needed to search for the true purpose of his life that he had found in the valleys of the Satpura mountains with the tribal people. He is, now, living by the side of a white cliff called Chandtola which is according to him the place of some supernatural forces. He seemed to be in secret communication with the forces of nature and knew the course of events to come.
Romi talks about Billy with other people in the area. An old man named Dhunia informs him that Billy lives with his wife Bilasaia at the foot of a nearby mountain. He says that Billy has magical powers and he helps people by curing them against various diseases. Dhunia informs how Billy cured his grandson when he was about to die. Romi meets Billy again and tells him about his wife Situ who has been suffering a chronic migraines for some time. Billy visits Romi’s wife and uses some indigenous medicines to cure her. He asks Romi not to tell anyone his whereabouts. However, Romi’s wife Situ insists that Romi must tell who was the person who cured her. Romi tells her about Billy and how he found him after ten years. Situ fails to keep the secret. She shares the information about Billy with Meena. When Meena comes to know that Billy is still alive, she again tries to bring him back. Billy’s father insists the police send a search team and bring Billy back.
However, Billy doesn’t cooperate and the local tribal people take a stand with him against the police. In that confusion, a police constable fires a shot at a tribal man but that tribal man is Bill who dies.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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