Magazine 2014
International Peer-Reviewed Journal
RESEARCH HORIZONS, VOL. 4 JULY 2014
DETACHMENT TO INVOLVEMENT -
A PSYCHOLOGICAL ODYSSEY OF ARUN JOSHI’S “THE FOREIGNER”
Renuka Devi Jena
ABSTRACT
Arun Joshi winner of Sahitya Akademi Award is a novelist who concentrates on the existential dilemma
of modern man. He exhibits great psychological insight and brilliant understanding of the psychological
workings of his protagonists. Sindi Oberio the protagonist of ‘The Foreigner’ experiences identity crisis,
sense of alienation, detachment and intense psychological trauma due to his self imposed philosophy
of detachment. He experiences a strange sense of rootlessness, foreignness where ever he goes. He
wishes to achieve equipoise through non-attachment in vain. It is his delusion that he can live uninvolved
and unaffected, he has a misguided reverence for ‘detachment’ which he has developed over the years
more or less as a defense mechanism to avert all possible encroachment on his closely guarded
aloofness. Later he is compelled to redefine his earlier views on detachment as ‘right action’ instead of
as ‘non action’. Arun Joshi’s skill lies in subtly merging this with the Bhagavat Gita’s version of detachment
as motive free disinterested involvement in the duties of life by bringing out the psychological conflicts
which are innate and natural processes of the mind, which occurs when individuals perceive their
thoughts, views, attitudes, goals and interests contradicted by other individuals or social groups. Arun
Joshi does not bother about giving elaborate details of social setting because he is preoccupied in
studying Man more as a victim of his own inner environment rather than of the external material or moral
climate, His characters are more concerned with their own highly sensitized world of sense and sensibility.
Joshi concentrates on the more elusive world of inner thoughts, doubts, desires and dreams within the
frame work of their novels.
Keywords : Alienation, detachment, rootlessness, identity crisis, foreignness, psychological conflicts,
existentialism.
Arun Joshi emerged as an impor-tant Indo-English novelist with the publication of his very first novel,
The Foreigner. He has greatly enriched Indian English fiction with five remarkably distinguished novels,
The Foreigner, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, The Apprentice, The Last Labyrinth, The City and the
River and a collection of short stories. His fictional world revolves around existential characters, constantly
pursued by the inner voice of conflict, identity crisis and existential dilemma. He exhibits great
psychological insight and brilliant understanding of the psychological workings of his protagonists.
Arun Joshi’s prime concern in The Foreigner is with the gradual evolution of Sindi Oberoi, the protagonist
of the novel from a negative philosophy of detachment to its posi-tive aspect. His skill lies in subtly
merging this with the Bhagavat Gita’s version of detachment as motive free disinterested involvement
in the duties of life by bringing out the psychological conflicts which are innate and natural processes
of the mind, which occurs when individuals perceive their thoughts, views, attitudes, goals and interests
contradicted by other individuals or social groups.
Sindi Oberio is Kenya born Indian of mixed parentage, born to an English mother and a Kenyan Indian
father and when they die he is brought up in Kenya by his uncle. Lack of familial ties leaves his childhood
days under the veil of emotional aridity and this sense of rootlessness dogs his footsteps even when he
goes first to England and later to America to pursue his studies. He experiences rootlessness and a
feeling of foreignness wherever he goes, to Kenya, London, Boston or India. Sindi Oberio’s quest for
being for lacking a sense of belonging makes him a detached individual. Though he receives the love
of many women like Anny, Kathy and June he fights shy of getting involved with any of them for love
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RESEARCH HORIZONS, VOL. 4 JULY 2014
was equated by him with selfishness, attachment and possession. His objection to marriage is rooted
not so much in his defiance of accepted social norms as in his fear of its destructive possessiveness.
To him each human self is a solitary cell and nothing least of marriage can ever help individuals to step
out of that cell of loneliness. This is the reason for his refusing to marry June though he is genuinely
fond of her and is aware of her willingness to becoming his partner in life. He feels the need for love but
holds back from extending love to others because of his peculiar fear psychosis. His orphaned condition,
his lack of familial ties, his acute sense of rootlessness, his feeling like an alien in every country he
visits are all responsible for this quirk in his personality. Added to all this he has a misguided reverence
for ‘detachment’ which he has developed over the years more or less as a defense mechanism to avert
all possible encroachment. The immense effect of his psychological conflict is implicit in his statement,
“
Twenty –five years largely wasted in search of peace”.(Joshi,22) Sindi’s loves his American girl friend
June Blyth but refuses to marry her as he wants to remain detached. Baffled by his emotional reticence
June tells him, “There is something strange about you, you know. Something distant I’d guess that
when people are with you they don’t feel like they are with a human being.”(Bala,22) Sindi’s conflict
between attachment and detachment is confusing and difficult to comprehend. He remained detached
from his earlier girlfriends Kathy and Anna but he was in love with June. He is really fond of June and
she cares for him and is keen on getting married to him. However, Sindi’s existential conflict of being
true to himself and his philosophy of detachment prevented him from getting married to her. He was
obsessed with finding solutions to his inner conflict. He wants to be detached but at the same time
involves himself in worldly pleasures, as pointed by Shanmuga, “All the while mouthing philosophies
of detachment and non-involvement Sindi is a pleasure-seeker like the Epicureans as is evident from
his reveling and developing illicit relations with Anna, Kathy, Judy, Christine and June.”(Joshi,207)
Sindi’s refuses to marry because he is afraid of possessing or of being possessed. The conflict of the
‘
self’ verses society makes him alienated and lonely. Sigmund Freud in his analyses of the Id, Ego and
Superego discusses, the psychological conflict of self with environment, it makes one alienated because
of identity crisis. The psychological conflict of individuals has been a subject of intellectual discourses
of psychologists, sociologists and literary writers. Camus, Kafka, Sartre and other existential writers
have extensively dealt with the theme of self-identity and identity crisis. Arun Joshi has also focused on
this crisis from psychological and sociological point of view. Sindi Oberoi is a perennial outsider, an
uprooted young man, he has no roots. As he defines himself , “An uprooted young man living in the
latter half of the twentieth century who had become detached from everything except myself. “(Joshi,35)
What we find in Arun Joshi’s novels is therefore a subterranean undercurrent of existential thought that
leaves a distinctive colouring on each one of his novels without submerging their essential differences
from one another either in subject or in style. Writers like Camus have rightly suggested that ‘un
involvement’ is neither possible nor normally right, for man as a social being, can find abiding happiness
only in ‘solidarity’ or sincere involvement is cause undertaken in a selfless spirit for the promotion of
the welfare of society in general. After the terrible consequences of his non-involvement in America, he
moves to India and starts working for Kemka, Babu’s father. Gradually self-realization dawns on him
especially after his interactions with Babu’s sister Shiela. Sindi finally understands that performance of
one’s duties without any desire is in fact detachment. In India he works for Kemka and later after the
collapse of Kemka’s business his decision to take up the responsibility of the firm to save the workers
from being terminated reflects Sindi’s realization of the theory of detachment, which is actually
involvement and right action. Abraham observes that, “Sindi’s theory of detachment howsoever removed
from it may be from Indian version, is Indian all the same, the value is Upanisadic and a modified
version of that of the Bhagavat Gita, as the effect is similar.”(Abraham,36)
In the beginning Sindi depended on his own philosophy of non-involvement for hap-piness, which
results in the death of his best friend Babu and and his girlfriend June. But he slowly learns that real
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detachment from men and matters comes when one performs one’s duty sincerely without any desire
for the result, as laid down in The Gita. Sindi Oberoi learns the hard way that ‘foreignness’ is more a
state of mind than an alienness caused by the accident of birth in any particular country. We find in
Sindi’s redefinition of his earlier views on detachment as ‘right action’ instead of as ‘non action’, an
artistic verification of this creed. Sindi himself has a vague glimmering that the crux of his despondency
lay in his own incapacity to reach out to people and establish satisfying emotional rapport with them
and hence his statement, “my foreignness lay within me and I could not leave myself behind wherever
I went”(Joshi,62). Arun Joshi’s philosophy is evident in the serious comments on life and its meaning
made by the various characters in the novel. The following remark of Sindi offers not a time worn cliché
on life but a justifiable jibe against the Kemkas of the world to whom successful financial management
even if it involved the hoodwinking of law meant the be all and end all of existence, “Life is not a
business account, losses of which can be written off against the gains. Once your soul goes bankrupt
no amount of plundering can enrich it again.”(148)
Sindi’s loneliness is accentuated by the fact that he is surrounded by people who are lonely too, who,
in the words of Arun Joshi, “Have suddenly realized that life had left them by the wayside”.(65)The sad
refrain of Sindi’s life, “Somebody had begotten me without purpose and so far I had lived without
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purpose” is played on a lower key in the lives of other important characters in the novel. Sheila is
shown as content to watch the drama of life from the wings as she lacks the courage to be a participant
in it. Her father is shown as too obsessed with material success to have any time for the finer values of
life. Babu Kemka’s self pity and puerile emotional needs and Mrs. Blyth’s awareness of the emptiness
of her life are similarly highlighted by Arun Joshi to underscore the fact of Sindi’s loneliness being a
part of his human heritage. In the explanation he offers to June as to why he cannot marry her Sindi
draws pointed attention to people’s pathetic attempt to find in marriage a panacea for their loneliness.
“
We are both alone, both you and I. That is the problem. And our aloneness must be resolved from
within. You can’t send two persons through a ceremony and expect their aloneness will disappear”.(143)
The original stand of Sindi that love is a liability, a weakening of the emotional armor that leaves one
vulnerable to hurts and exploitation undergoes an interesting transformation towards the end of the
novel when he is made to realize that genuine concern for others and willingness to be involved in
responsibilities so as to safeguard their interests are the only avenues that can lead one to the sanctuary
of inner peace. Sindi’s visit to India is used by Arun Joshi to emphasize the importance of the existential
principal of man’s obligation to create a meaning for himself. When existing meanings are not acceptable
to him, the first step towards that is to have a clear cut view about one’s own priorities. Sindi, staggered
by the realization that as a drifter who belongs to no specific country or culture, he had no guide lines
whatsoever on which to formulate his world view, wishes he too can be like Mr.Kemka whose religion
and upbringing have given him an easy to follow value system and hence his statement to him, “You
had a clear cut system of morality, a caste system that laid down all you had to do. You had a God; you
had roots in the soil you lived upon. Look at me. I have no roots. I have no system of morality”.(147)
Sindi’s enlightenment of the new philosophy of detachment transform him into a very positive person
as observed by Malshette, “The prime concern of the novelist is with the gradual evolution of Sindi
Oberoi from a negative philosophy of detachment to its positive aspect.”(Malshette,2)Sindi was initially
not at all interested in Kemka’s business. He was steadfastly following his own philosophy of detachment.
He was afraid to be attached to anybody or anything but he changes his philosophy after his interaction
with a worker of Kemka. Joshi cleverly builds up the evolution of Sindi’s character from detachment to
attachment. Existentialism is not about only negative thoughts and frustrations, it has a positive side
also. However, towards the end of the novel Sindi Oberio manages to get an opportunity to find the real
meaning in life. His meeting with Muthu, an illiterate worker in India proves fruitful. He helps Sindi by
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RESEARCH HORIZONS, VOL. 4 JULY 2014
advocating the true meaning of detachment stating that ‘sometimes detachment lies in actually getting
involved’(Joshi,184). Sindi understands the true meaning of detachment and accepts to take charge
of Kemka industry and work hard to save it from ruin. Nevertheless, he thinks that, ‘the fruit of it was
really not my concern’.(Joshi,184)
Sindi’s defense wall of non – involvement was the result of his upbringing, his Americanized attitude.
He had cultivated an indifferent attitude to escape from his psychological turmoil of rootlessness. He
had moved from one country to another but had actually found no answers to his quest for meaning in
life. In India, an extremely poor worker of Kemka, Muthu provides with the answer to his detachment,
escapist mind of mind. Muthu instills in Sindi the philosophy of karma as stated in the Bhagvad Gita.
Lord Krishna preaches that to achieve enlightenment one must perform one’s duties. One cannot
escape from one’s responsibilities as Muthu replies to Sindi’s non involvement stance,
“
But it is not involvement, sir,’ he said, ‘Sometimes detachment lies in actually getting involved.’ He
spoke quietly but his voice was firm with conviction….. a line of reasoning that led to the inevitable
conclusion that for me, detachment consisted in getting involved with the world.”(Joshi,193)
Sindi cannot be detached he is compelled to get involved. In India Sindi Oberio actually understands
the true meaning of his escapism, of his defense mechanism. He realizes that non attachment is in fact
attachment, a development of positive attitude to end the sufferings of others. “Now I had begun to see
the fallacy in it. Detachments consisted of right action and not escape from it. The gods had set a
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heavy price to teach me just that.” Sindi works tirelessly to revive Mr. Kemka’s business irrespective of
the consequences. Sindi finds a different path to escape from his sense of rootlessness and a sense of
foreignness. He works with dedication and commitment to revive Mr. Kemka business, to save it from
ruin for the benefit of the workers. His perseverance leads him to find meaning in life. In The Foreigner
Arun Joshi resorts to the Indian Vedanta philosophy, the teachings of Bhagwad Gita to illustrate Sindi’s
quest for meaning in life, to solve Sindi’s crisis of rootlessness. Sindi is shown as a very strong character
that gradually moves from the negativity of detachment to its positive aspects. Thus the philosophy of
escapism is handled by Arun Joshi, as aptly observed by Gadhavi,
“Arun Joshi’s treatment of escapism from various fields like: from the common human relationship,
from one’s lovers, friend and more than anything else, the dissection of modern escapism in the light
of Shri Madbhagvagita, gives us altogether a new vision of the society. With an example of one person,
he satirizes the entire modern society, because the prevalence of escapism in modern world is firmer
than any other way of life. With the help of these devices of novel writing, Arun Joshi establishes one
thing very firmly and that is if one is not responsible enough to answer the inner voice of self; then he
cannot refuge this escapist soul. On the contrary, he will remain The Foreigner wherever he goes.”
(
Gadhavi, 54)
References
Joshi, Arun. “The Foreigner.” New Delhi, Orient, 1993
Gadhavi, Pranindan. Thematic Preocupations in Arun Joshi’s “The Foreigner” in “Research Expo
International Multi disciplincy Research Journal 2.3 (2012) Print.
Renuka Devi Jena : Associate Professor, Dept. of English, B. M. Ruia College, Mumbai
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