india author m 1- a-nan - University of Wollongong

PANDIA, MAHENDRA N. "Relevance of Bhattacharya's Fiction" The Indian PEN 50.10-
12 (1989): 6-10.
Sociological accuracy contributes social realistic impulse to the author's work. Notes
Bhattacharya's sensitivity to humankind's mistreatment of their fellow human beings.
RAMACHANDRA, P. “The Short Stories of Bhabani Bhattacharya” The Literary
Endeavour 6.1-4 (1985): 68-82.
Takes issue with Dorothy Blair Shimer over the status of the short stories. Bhattacharya
creates spontaneously and destroys unsatisfactory work. The 15 stories available show a
range of human experiences and “puncture... pomposities with a good-humoured sympathy”.
The occasional exaggerated situation is part of comic caricature and there is psychological
insight into character.
RAO, A.V. KRISHNA.”Shadow from Ladakh: A Critical Viewpoint” The Literary
Endeavour 1.2 (1979): 77-80.
Distinguishes Bhattachaya’s naturalism from Anand, Abbas, Premchand and Tagore. The
Chinese invasion takes him away from Gandhian values into modern Realpolitik. In a framing
drama of tradition versus modernity, economic determinism is the primary force for change.
RAO, B. SYAMALA. Bhabani Bhattacharya Madras: Blackie & Son, 1988, 167 pp.
RAO, B. SYAMALA. "Dr. Bhabani Bhattacharya as a Novelist" Triveni 40.1 (1971):35-40.
Assesses Bhattacharya's writing as entirely socially purposeful. Focuses on the
themes of poverty and hunger and their effect on human degradation. Seeks to confirm him as
a social realist in the style of Mulk Raj Anand.
SARMA, S. KRISHNA & RANGAN, V. "What is in Dream — A Critical Appraisal of
Bhabhabi Bhattacharya's A Dream in Hawaii" The Literary Endeavour 1.3 (1980): 85-96.
The book fails to advance Bhattacharya's art, although it canvasses the themes of
East-West encounter, the sickness of modern society and the the search for the self.
Persuaded to renunciation by a beloved student Devjani, Prof Neeloy turns ascetic and is
persuaded to teach vedanta in Hawaii by a Fulbright scholar Stella. Exploited and
compromised by academics there, he returns to India, leaving a circle of characters variously
affected: Jennifer, a rich widow finds solace; the opportunistic Dr Swift assumes a fake
orientalism; Walt, Stella's estranged husband, loses some of his scepticism and hedonism;
Devjani has developed her intellect and accepted physicality and sex in the West. Devjani's
character is complex but not clearly delineated and her final confirmtion of Neeloy as
Yogananda is not altogether convincing. Neeloy is also a person of dualities, an ordinary
person pushed into a role that he both fails in and fulfils, but his growth occurs only in the final
moments of the novel and there is no fabric of irony as there is in Narayan's The Guide
(though the article cites several ironic reversals). Bhattacharya loads the dice against western
decadence but fails to create a basis for a serious vedantic alternative.
SHARMA, K.K. "Bhabani Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers! An Affirmative Vision of Life"
in SHARMA, K.K. ed. Indo-English Literature: a Collection of Critical Essays, Ghaziabad:
Vimal Prakashan, 1977: 201-14.