Aspects of Western Existential Philosophy and Indian Scriptures as Manifested in the Novels of Arun Joshi

Literature and Philosophy, though being different disciplines, have influenced each other for time immemorial. Indian English literature, especially fiction has gained much attention at world level at the present day. With the emergence of the writers like Anita Desai and Arun Joshi on the field at post-independence era, Indian English Novel took a new turn. A new dimension of philosophical and psychological delineation of the inner happening of the human mind which can be considered as existential is added to it. The present paper aims at finding the aspects of Western existential philosophy and Indian scriptures in the novels of Arun Joshi. Arun Joshi is one such writer who has tried to display the existential problems of the modern man. Joshi presents the blend of both Western and Indian philosophical traditions in his novels and finds ultimate solutions for the complex problems of life in the Karma philosophy of the Gita which provides an affirmative realization of the true ‘self’ and the purpose of life. Existentialism as a philosophical movement emerged in the mid-19th and 20th century in the western philosophy. This philosophy treats man as an existent rather than man as thinking subject. The prominent base of it is in the famous dictum “Existence precedes essence” given by Sartre. Joshi’s The Foreigner, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas and The Apprentice represent three ways of redemption as preached in the Bhagvadgita: the Karmayoga, the Jnanayoga and the Bhaktiyoga respectively.