The Theme of East-West Encounter:In the Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya

The novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya describe in varied ways and from different points of view, the clash of two cultures and two world views and delineate the contours of a changing society. Bhabani Bhattacharya is one of the most outstanding novelists in India. He is the winner of Sahitya Akademy Award in 1967 for his Shadow from Ladkh. He represents the period of great upheaval in political and social life in India. He emerges as the important novelist who presents men and women within the Indian socio cultural milieu. Bhattacharya's fiction is governed by his artistic impulses. He is deeply rooted in Indian tradition. The West appears in his novels sometimes as a character, sometimes as an attitude or a set of values. He is more seriously and consistently involved with the East-West theme. I have great pleasure in presenting this critical account on the theme of East-West Encounter in the novels of Bhattacharya. The present work is a modest attempt to study the theme of East-West Encounter. It seeks to make Bhattacharya's message and his mastery of fictional art known to a wide audience of readers.