This paper entitled, Existentialism and Crisis of Consciousness in Arun Joshi’s, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas tries to venture the existential vision of modern man. Existentialism is a modern philosophical idea, which lays stress on the importance of human existence. It says that everyone is responsible for the results of everyone’s action. The existential problem is so crucial and pervasive, that it threatens every sphere of one’s life. Existentialism implies assertion of life. The Strange Case of Billy Biswas develops the theme of man’s feeling of anxiety and alienation in the present century. The novel offers an interesting contrast between the contemporary civilized life and the unsophisticated primitive life. The protagonist Billy is critical of modern life that has ravaged human Spirit and deprived man of his humanity and admires the simplicity and warmth of primitive life. The title of the novel, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas itself points out the case of Billy. The problem with the protagonist, Billy is that of identity Crisis and crisis of consciousness. The hero’s alienation and identity problems are the search for meaning in life. This search leads Billy to discard civilized society.

drudgery, dogmas, paws, hostile, hallucinations