Postcolonial Identity, Alienation, and the Search for Selfhood in the Novels of Arun Joshi

Abstract

This paper explores the enduring psychological and epistemic fractures of the postcolonial condition through a critical analysis of Arun Joshi’s seminal novels: The Foreigner (1968), The Strange Case of Billy Biswas (1971), and The Apprentice (1974). While post-independence Indian literature frequently celebrated national liberation, Joshi focused on the unhealed internal displacement of the westernized, urban elite who remained marooned between conflicting Western ideologies and traditional Indian philosophies. Operating beyond conventional socio-political commentary, this study investigates how Joshi frames the postcolonial crisis as an ontological and spiritual dilemma. Structurally, the paper evaluates three distinct axes of this condition: transnational displacement and fractured identity in The Foreigner, the radical rejection of Western modernity in pursuit of indigenous authenticity in The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, and the psychological and institutional corruption born of colonial mimicry in The Apprentice. To unpack these narratives, the study deploys a composite postcolonial framework drawing upon Homi Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity and mimicry, Frantz Fanon’s socio-diagnostics of colonial psychopathology, and Edward Said’s critique of epistemic imperialism. Additionally, it illuminates how Joshi synthesizes Western existentialism (Sartre, Camus, Kierkegaard) with classical Indian metaphysics, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, to map his protagonists' descent into alienation and their subsequent search for ethical redemption. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that Joshi’s novels transcend mere regional narratives, offering a profound, universal inquiry into the possibility of reclaiming an authentic, self-conscious identity amidst the pervasive ruins of colonial modernity.