Two Paths, One Destination: A Comparative Study of Estrangement and Resolution in Ruskin Bond and Arun Joshi

This paper offers a comparative analysis of the theme of estrangement in the select works of two towering figures of Indian English literature—Ruskin Bond and Arun Joshi. Despite sharing biographical parallels of parental loss and rootlessness, their fiction presents markedly different treatments of alienation and its resolution. Through a psycho-philosophical lens drawing on Freudian psychoanalysis and existential philosophy, this study examines how Bond's protagonists experience social and emotional alienation resolved through connection with nature, friendship, and chosen family, while Joshi's characters grapple with philosophical and spiritual estrangement resolved through a return to Indian philosophical traditions, particularly the Bhagavad Gita. The paper argues that Bond and Joshi represent two complementary poles of the Indian English response to modern alienation—horizontal integration with the world versus vertical transcendence beyond it—ultimately arriving at the same destination: meaning, creativity, and affirmation of life despite suffering.