The Purpose of the Study : Romen Basu is a man of concerns.

He writers neither to entertain the reader nor for his own pastime pleasure. He writes with a cause. Having been attached to the world organization (the U.N.O) he must have developed a feeling of fraternity towards the world-family. Hence, he feels greatly pained to see any kind of oppression, exploitation or the injustice done anywhere to mankind. The social issues such as the family disintergration, the caste discrimination, struggle between the haves and havenots, oppression of the ruled by the rules, of the wealer by the stronger, of the innocent by the crafty criminals, of the minority by the organized majority and even the peace-spoiling disputes of the national and international scale have been of equal concern to him. He has dealt with the problem of family disintergration in his very first novel A House Full of People Which is based on the story of his own family. The problems of the ethic bias and the cast discrimination have been presented in his novels Your Life to Live, The Tamarind Tree, and Portrait on the Roof . Exploitation of one man by other man has ever been a concern of many writers. Basu has also felt equally concerned at it. Such exploitation has been being done on many accounts. Hence, it has had many forms and faces. In a caste-based society like the one we have in our own country, the people belonging to the lower castes or social strata can be seen often victimized by the upper castes or classes. They are put to victimization in all ways possible socially, politically and economically. They picture of such discriminatory practices Basu presents in his novels outcast, Blackstone, and The Street corner Boys. Not only he does present the social evils, he tries to visualize the plausible remedies against them too. Well, all these issues have already been studied and analyzed by the researchers. My study will review them from a newer angle. At the same time it will also attempt to study the authors unexplored issues. In hi post-ninety novels, he deals with the problem of terrorism in the country and elsewhere. He present it in his My Own Withness, Torn Apart and A Siren. Also he presents the problem of the landless tribals of Gujrat in his This Land is Ours an the menace of drug trafficking, which is devouring our youth, he deals with in his A Dreach of Faith. Since these issues have not yet been deeply studied, my stury is going to be its own kind of a novel attempt at surveying the untrodden regions of Romen BAsus literary creations.

A Synopsis
Of the Proposed Study for the Degree of Ph.D Title : Romen Basu : A Study Of His Concerns with Special Refrence to His Post-Ninety Novels. The Present State of the Study of his Works : Right since Romen Basu wrote his first novel, his writings have been drawing attention and invoking interest in the readers for their study and assessment. Most of his novels and shortstories collections have been studied and analyzed by the reads, either in the journals or in newspapers. A couple of

full length these have also came into light. The first major work in Basus fiction, titled Romen Basu: His Vision and His Art was done by P.Somnath, which was published by the Sterling Publishers, New Delhi in 1995. Another work has been done by Ms G.R.Malliga titled as Quest for Harmony in Romen Basus Novels. It also got published by the Abhinav Publisher, New Delhi in 1988. The third one titled as Humanism in the writngs of Romesn Basu is reportedly in the process of printing and is likely to be released soon. A part from these three full length works, score of critical reviews and write ups have also come into light. S.Krishna reviewed his The Tamarind Tree which appeared in The Hindu (27 April, 1976). Preme Pandurangan has studied his Candles and Roses in Hidu (3May, 1979). O.P . Sharma has attempted to analyze thr trans-cultural panorama in his Portrait on the Roof (The Tribune, 25 Oct., 1980); while Veena Singh has trie d to study the Reality and Revolution in his short-stories collection Rustling of Many Winds in the Indian Book chronicle (May-July, 1987). His Outcast has been reviewed by Meera Bose in the Literary Criterion (22.1 -1987). This novels has been also examined by three more readers. Shankuntala Narsimhan has reviewed it in the Indain Express (5 April, 1987), and Anand Raj Singh has done it in The Pioneer (May 10,1987). S.Ravindranathans review of the same work has appeared in the Journal of Life, Arts and literature (3.1, July, 1992 ). Pramila Lewis has examined the Blackstone in The Patriot (4 March, 1990); while S.Ravindranathan has presented a comparative analysis of Blackstone and Outcast in the Journal of life, and Art and Literature (3.1, July, 1992). Pramila Lewis has examined the Blackstone in the The Patriot (4 March, 19 90); While S. Ravindranathan has presented a comparative analysis of Blackstone and Outcast in the Journal of life, Art and Literature (3 .1 July, 1992). Basus The Street Corner Boys has been analyzed by Neena Arora in the Indian Book chronicle (Vol.XIX, june-1994). His another novel Sands of Time and the short -stories collection Rustling of Many Winds have been reviewed by a former professor and diploment Mr. S. Gupta in the same journal (Vol. XVI-July, 1991). His Blackstone has been further examined comparatively with K.A.Abbas The Naxalites by Prof. H.S.Chandalia in the Indian Writing in English (ed. By Rajul Bhargava, 2002 ). His recent novels, hopefully, must have reached into the hands of the readers for their critical examination and analysis. One legitimately, the analysis will soon appear before our eyes. A Broad Outline of The Work : The study will be pursued along the following chapter-wide line. CHAPTER-1 : Introduction to the Write and His Works : An Economics graduate, Master in Business Administration, an ex-diplomat and bureaucrat by profession, Roman Basu was born in 1923 in an aristocratic Bengali Calcutta family. His grandfather Joginder Nath Basu was a renowed poet and the family was rooted deep in the native culture and traditions. Romen did his Graduation from Calcutta, the course of the charter Seceraty from London and the Masters Couses in Business Administration from the U.S.A. Soon after finishing his education, he joined the Government of India Service in England as the Assistant Secretary to the then Indian High Commissioner V.K. Krishan Menon. In 1948, he joined the U.N.O and served the Organization for some 35 years in various capacities. He served as the Chief of the Office of Under Secretary General for DTCD, as Presiding Officer of the Staff Council, as the secretary of the Board of Trestees of United Nations International School, as UNDP Assista nt Resident Representative in Libya and also on the Economic commission for Asia and the Far East. For his asministrative acumen, he had been being assigned important plans and project even his retirement from the U.N.O Chief among them being the Lumbini Project in Nepal. He is presently settled down New York, U.S.A. One wonders how a man of diplomatic mission could develop a flair and manage so spare for writing from a light, busy service routine. Yes, where there is a which, there is a way. Basu would spare no moment unused to feed the flame of his writing interest. Frankly confessing to a research, he reacts to the query My writing career began

literally on the drawing board. Whenever I could snatch five minutes time in trains, subways, buses and most of all during air travel, I opened the writing pad. The first result of my effort was a manuscript of the novel. A House Full of People (1968). Since then Basu did turn never to look back and has written as many as 17 novels, 3 short stories collections and 9 volumes of poetry. The titles are: Novels : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. A House Full of People (1968) Your Life to Live (1972) A Gift of Love (1974) The Tamarind Tree (1975) Candles and Roses (1978) Portrait on the Roof (1980) Sands of Time (1985) Outcast (1986) House Before Dawn (1988) Blackstone (1989) The Street Corner Boys (1992) My Own Witness (1993) In Science Torn Apart (1997) This Land is Ours (2000) Breach of Faith (2002) A Siren (2005)

Short Stories Collections 1. 2. 3. Canvas and the Brush (1971) Rustling of Many Winds (1982) Reflections (1989)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Poetry Collections : Wings at distance (1998) Gliding on Silent Waters in the Wind (1996) Big Little World (2004) Exhalations (2006) The Unquiet Waves The Surrendered Self Conmitted Foot-Print A Mysterious Wind

Romen Basu was born in a house where alls accustomed, ceremonious (Yeats), in an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family that was rooted deep like a laurel in the conventional customs and tradition s handed down from the ancestors. Not that the family was a host of orthobox and inwardly blind people. His grandfather Joginder Nath Basu had been endowed with Kabi Bhushan. Several of his his uncles had distinguished themselves as doctors, Solicitors, professors, barristers; and his father was a businessman. Bengal had already withnessed the light of Raja Ram Mohan Roys Renaissance enlightenment. People at large had well known the importance of education and

modernity in the outlook towards the world and the world affairs. Romen was born brought up at a time of transition, where there was a kind of cultural crisscrossing between the orthodox and the modern, between the hardcore condervative and the liberal. He had duel impact of the family grooming on his personality. This impact is seen as his love for modernity on the one hand, and his adherence to the astablished customes and traditions on the other hand. His job at the U.N.O. perhaps granted him still more liberal outlook, turning him into a world citizen. Chapter-2 : (A) His concern at the family Disintegration : The institution of family (a joint family in our context) is the institution most loved and cherished by Romen Basu. He can in no case pluck himself away from it. Speaking to a research, he eulogizes the institution as-Friendship does not give security. Relation do not give that security which the family does. As you cry with the family, you share the joys and sorrows with the family and that joy I can understand because I live everyday with it. It is most beautiful experience that has happened to me. Not that Roman cannot see the flaws in the institutional family. He can and he does. Yet, the gains are mote and losses are less. This, he clearly established in his novel A House Full of People, Which is based on the story of his own family. His family is so divers in tastes and interests. The members are so incongruous at cares, at rights and responsibilities, and at burdens and blessings. It is a horde of 65 odd people. Basu deals in depth with this enviable variety of people in the novel. The traditional family system has a socially accepted conventional code about its functioning.. Barring exceptions, the code has been rigorously followed even form the ancient times. As per the dictates of the code, the responsibility of steering the family lies in the senior most male member of the family. He has not only to reckon with the needs and requirements of each member but also see that everybody gets what he/she needs. It is he who has to attend to all the household chores, to maintain discipline and preserve the prestige of the family. He sees to the education of the children, selects matrimonial matches for the youngsters, arranges for the their marriages; and also sees to the comforts for the old. In short, he must keep the family intact, even through he might be required to make personal sacrifices during the course. It is never so easy to keep a mega-size family like that of Basus intact, where the number is so vast, the tastes an interests of the members so varied, gaps in their ages big, and the female assemblage is form culturally and temperamentally diverse sources. This is what we see in his nove l A House Full of People. Basus hypothesis is that the individualistic bearing of the family by the head of it, and a carefree and careless attitude towards the family matters of other members is one reason behind the emergence of first the rifts, and then the split of the family. By the time Basus first novel A House Full of People appeared, Bengal, and for that matter even the whole country had started breathing the air of modernity, when barriers of caste and the distinctions on the communal had begun to totter. A gap in thoughts and attitudes of the old and young would often lead first to the lighter skirmishes and then the parting quarrels. One important field of this attitudinal difference would be the selections of the prospective brides for the boys and grooms for the girls. The older generations would be adamant to do relationship within the caste, to ensure well the financial status and cultural background of the family wherein they were to marry their wards. For, it was there that they saw the family honor safe. But the hapless youth, especially the boys, would be for the partner of their own Chitra. Here two things are noteworthy. One, Basu is never in favour of a rebellious revolt from the either side, especially form the young against the old in such matters. That is why, after the initial opposition, even the elders side, especially from the young against the old in such matters. That is why, after the initial opposition, even the elders compromise with the young and accept what they have done, even through coolly. Secondly, he is in favour of advocate it at the cost of the family disintegration. That is why he does not show his heroes break away from the family, even when one has married into another caste, religion or nationality. We can for example, considered the case of Ashoke in Your Life to Live, who marries Zarina of another caste in America. They come back to india and certainly their marriage is not a welcome step for the conservative family. But rather than choosing

the path of protest, he convincingly makes Zarina adopt the family culture. Hence, they are soon accepted and assimilated into the family. In yet another two novels of his, Basu not only justifies but strengthens his cosmopolitan outlook. Gradually and gradually, this outlook does gain not onl y a ground, it meets with the bigger sanction of the society too. In his A gift of Look, th hero, sukumol; Ghose undertakes a hot -chase from india to London adnd back to India, eastablish relations with the fallen women of different castes and religions, and family marries Kajoli, the daughter of the servent. His marriage with Kajoli, and the immoral deeds he had been dong befor that, were certainly against the family honour and the established conventions of it. Yer, the family tolerates him. In the The Tamarind Tree, Biren, a low caste youth and an engineer by profession, loves an upper caste Brahmin girl Mohamaya. They want to unite into a wedlock, through they also feel the class distinctions a kind of impediment in their marriage, as their were unlikely to approve of their decision. Birens family, through is of low caste but has a sound economic status. On the other hand, Mohamayas family belongs to an upper caste financially week. The consciousness of caste and the differences in economics status make both the families hesitate to accord sanction to the couples decisions. But the after the initial reservations, they finally yield and accept their childerms choices. Similarly, in the Portrait on the Roof too, the status cons ciousness and their rigid adherence to religion and caste in the marriage matters, prove to be a barrier, through a temporary one, in the union of independence loving youth, that does not bother so much about religion and the caste superiority. The protagonist Dilip in the novel loves Teresa, an Italian girl when they first meet in London. He comes back to india and lives an unsettled life there. But his love for Teresa drives him back from India to Vienna, where they unite into a wedlock. Bholanath, the head of Dilips family feels worried at the inter-religion love marriage by the son. He takes all measures to keep it a secret in spite of his being certain that there was no place for a foreign girl in his family and they were not about to give up Dilip. He would think of a way out. We see thus in several of Basus novels that the conservative attitude and the established traditions about marri age matters certainly do cause a concern in the familiars when such tradition are broken by someone in the family. Yet, after the primary protest and disapproval, finally they compromise with the circumstances emerged, in order to keep the family, intact. Romen Basu has well tried to delineats the causes that can threaten to the unity of the family, and also he has presented a plausible remedy for keeping it intact. The remedy he present is the remedy of broadening the narrower outlook into the cosmopolitan one; especially of those whose responsibility it is to run the family. At the same time, the young should try to win the favour of the elders for their cause than to injure their hearts by showing an open defiance and disrespect to them. In that case neither side will feel ignored and defied by the other, and will keep united sharing the mutual concerns. (B) His Burden of the Backward :

Gloom throwing my heart out of gear/I sleep in despair/ remembering those roofless, says Basu feeling for the poor in his poem Winter Snow. Basu feels concerned to think of poverty and the poor. He is deadly against the human suffering, either for the caste bias or for economic disparity. He seems determined to give a shake to all that separates one class from another rather than filling the gulf between them. That is what he attempts at in his novel Outcaste. Sambal, the protagonist in the novel is a member of the lower caste. He is obliged to witness his father being thrashed by the Zamindars (upper caste people), his sin being to step into the Kali temple. The entry to the temple was forbidden to the people of his class in those days, since they were no better than the worms or pigs. The defilers of the holy place, the polluters of the home of the goddess. Sambal resents to it and it order to average the injustice done to his father, he joins the Communist party so that he can firmly stand against the oppressors. He tries to awaken and unite the people of his class against the upper class oppressors. But his efforts turn into a fiasco. He meets yet another setback. He greatly loves a young girl, Putki. He wishes to marry her.

However, he is forced to relinquish Putki in favour of his cause . Putki commits suicide, and Sambals hopes to marry her get crushed for ever. Nor could he avenge the oppressors who leave no stone unturned to beat, harass and to humiliate the people of his caste. Another novel of Romen Basu dealing with the problem of class victimization is the Blackstone . Kalapathor (blackstone), the principal character after whose name the novel has been titled, is a young man belonging to Santhal tribe. He is a victim of feudal atrocities and represents the class suppressed by the landlords, money-lenders, and police (the administrative). He sees hopes to average the wrongs done to him as well as a better life for his tribesmen in joining the Naxalite Movement. He joins it and becomes an active member of the group. Often the debates and discussions are held at the party meetings. Many of the leaders, Kalapathor, Kalapathor, on an occasion, acts in this fashion too. Ofcourse, few hold a liberal view too. Romen Basu shows a significiant shift in the treatment of the remedy to the problem. His characters look quite grown up there. The meek, desperate, humble and passive appeal of the suffered in the Outcast changes into an open revolt and active relation in the Blackstone. An awareness is noticed even among the women too, as they look in the novel aggressive and demanding. Romen Basu is attracted to the problem of the social imbalances in his yet another novel. The Street Corner Boys. Here, it should be observed that he has tried to show an avolutionary growth in the status and awakening of the lower classes, through it may be a step by step gradual growth. The inwardly bleak humble and meek suffering class of the Outcast turns into a hostile, aggressive and awakened rebels. By the time Basu ends his The Street Corner Boys, the people of the oppressing classes can be seen with a kind of u nderstanding and sympathetic outlook towards the poor and their lot. The younger ones of the upper caste can be having mingled and assimilated themselves into the last century. Upper the impact of the Gandhian philosophy of social equality and peoples united fight against the British, the roots of casteism got considerably shaken. The principal characters in the novel are some boys, chief among them being Tarun and Ghoun, coming from a contrative social background. Ghonu comes from a backward class, while Tarun an aristocrative family. Tarun associates himself with Ghonu against the mild reservations of the parents and the family. Pradipta, a member of a royal family too firmly stands with Ghonu. They fight united against the English. Freedom is gotten, and Ghonu alias Ghanshyam Shah becomes a minister. Yet, their friendship is broken not in the least. Feeling for the poor, with other young men they join a political organization, give up their posts and offices, and vow to work for the poor and the deprived of Calcutta. Thus Basu does not only concerned at the social unequality, exploitation of one class by another, he even wants to see it had; through not through bloodshed or an extreme measure. He is the member of the world fraternity and a devotee to the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence (he preaches it in his novel My Own Witness). He therefore recommends the approach of mutual understanding, love and sympathy between the people of different classes and communities. Chapter-3 : His Concern towards the Issues at Large: The horizon of Romen Basus concerns widens with the widening of his literary horizon. We see that in his writings, he was concerned at the crises at family level. In his latter works, the area of concerns got extended from family level to the level of the society at lrge. In his recent novels, he extends it still further, focusing his attention to the problems that have been causing concern in the international community. In his My Own Witness (1993), he gravely studies the problem of terrorism that was there in the province of Punjab during the eighties of the last century. He attempts well to find out the causes behind terrorism. He also tries to find out how greatly the State that inflicted wounds on the holy shrine, and what had been the attitude of the rulers towards the problem. Basu sees just one remedy against the problem of kind. The remedy he proposes is that the people should follow and adhere to the Gandhian principal of non-violence, where they can sit together, can discuss the nature of problem, can understand each other and adopt a liberal attitude in its solution. He makes Onkar, the hero of the novel, his mouth-piece for preaching the Gandhian way of non-violence.

In his yet another novel Torn Apart (1997), Basu deals with the similar problem in Kashmir. Sayid Ahmed, the protagonist in the novel is a journalist by profession. He is dragged into the whirlpool of Kashmiri politics by the highhandedness of the police and the army. He is pushed deeper and deeper into the struggle, witnessing the miseries of the common man. Basu examines the past, the present and the future of Kashmir within the context of military, Kashmiri youths rejection of the compromise pol itics, the remedial measures taken by the centre and their irrelevance for the Islamic fundamentals. Sayid Ahmed continues to search for a just, equitable solution that would satisfy all quarters. Finding none, he leads to the ultimate sacrifice of his life. The underlying message of the novel is that all segments must strive a compromises for lasting peace and a just solution to the problem. In his This Land is Ours (2000), Romen Basu directs his attention to the plight of the tribals of Gujarat that have been rendered landless and homeless due to the constructions of the Narmada Dam, Worse still, the increase in the present height of the dam s in the cards of the government. In the plan is given a concrete shape, it will not only dislocate hundreds of thousands of homeless tribals, who for generations have lived by the river having no right to ownership of the land, but also destroy their communitarian way of life. Both, the state government and the central government are apathetic towards their rehabilitation. Lata, the protagonist and her followers take up the challenge by launching a non-violent resistance movement for forcing the state not to raise the height of the dam so that the further damage to their homes can be contained. Romen Basu thus speaks out the cause of the voiceless adivasis who have no one to speak for the them. Drug trafficking is the menace threatening every country and every place. The rash youth are allured by the traffickers by offering them money and the luxuries of life. Quite misled, the youth gets trapped in to the mire. Once fallen into it, they can hardly ever escape away from it. Sometimes, even the children are trapped into the net. Romen Basus Breach of Faith deals with the very problem. Teo children, a boy called Mithu (the protagonist in the novel) and his friend Munni are orphans. They grew up through begging in the Delhi railway station. In course of time, Mithu is forced to escape away to Mumbai, as he is thearened with his life by a drug dealer called Ratnalar unless Mithu sold drugs for him. But his escape is by no means the end of his misery. By the twist of fate, he is friven to sell drugs in Mumbai too, sliding to further not only gives her shelter but also accepts her as the daughterin-law under the mistaken belief that the girl is a Brahmin. She accidently runs into Mithu in Mumbai. Jealous of Munnis good lot, Mithu discloses her reality to her in laws. She is driven out of the family, re joins Mithu and falls into drug-dealing and degradations. Their lives end up in tragedy as Munni suffering for long, dies a lonesome death and Mithu is indefinitely put behind the bars, the god-fathers not bothering for his release. The humanistic vision of the great lover of peace transcends beyond Indian when he undertakes an international problem to deal with in his novel. A Siren (2005). The problem he deals with in the novel is the age-old dispute between Iseral and Palestine that has been causing pain and unrest not only in the people of the nations engaged, but also in the world community at large. Romen Basus studies the problem in depth and feels the needs for a lasting peace. The peace in the region can be established only by finding a compromise solution to the dispute. This theme he carries through two principals characters- Fatima, a Palestinian lady and Emanuel, and Israeli jew. They belong to the countries that are sworn enemies to each other. They belong to the countries that are sworn enemies to each other. Yet, they feel and know the importance of peace. They countinue to search for a plausible solution so that the long desired peace can be restored. Unfortunately, they lose their lives in the progress before their efforts get rewarded with success. The Preliminay work Done on the Line : All the Novels under consideration have been studied and the reference to be used have been marked. Also, M.Phil thesis on some of the works is under prepration. The secondary sources are yet to be explored so as to be analyzed in the light of the present study and to be finally incorporated wherever necessary.

The Proposed Research Design and the Tools to be Used : The form or design of the study will go in accordance with the chapter wise scheme presented under the head Board Outline of the Work. So the primary and secondary sources along with the excerpts from the interviews with the author will serves as the tools of the study. Chapter 4: His Art and Technique- While studying the art and technique used by Romen Basu, the following approach will be undertaken. First of all, an attempt will be made to define the terms the novel and the narrative with the categorical classification. Also it will be seem that what category Basus novels/fiction fits into. It will be examined whether they are in dramatic (dialogue) form or pure narrative, if narratives, who is the narrator- the another himself or a character. Further, the structural aspects of his plots will be examined with special reference to the movement of time (whether the action/events have been presented in a chronological order, or the time moves backwards with forwards simultaneously). The constitutions of plots will also be examined with reference to the logical order., whether the events/actions are causally connected or they have been presented in order as they happened. Next, the study of the character will also be attempted at. The character will be analyzed of they are flat/static sort or they round dynamic character. If they are dynamic/round, growing up during the action, to what extent they grow. The writers point of view in his various works also be examined. Chapter 5: Conclusion In this chapter, all the major points dealt with extensively in the foregoing chapters will be re-examined and reviewed so as to confirm and consolidate the hypothesis formed; finally, concluding it with the presentation of the merits of Basus writings and Basu himself as a writer.