Bhabani Bhattacharya Biography

Indian novelist, born in Bhagalpur, educated in Patna and in London. He is strongly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Social realism, with a social purpose, marks Bhattacharya's work, showing its affinity with the work of Mulk Raj Anand. So Many Hungers (1947) deals with exploitation and greed set against the background of the Independence movement and the Bengal famine of the early 1940s. The ‘hungers’ of the title are seen through the eyes of Kajoli, a destitute village girl. In He Who Rides a Tiger (1952), a poor blacksmith, Kalo, is jailed for stealing a bunch of bananas and vows revenge on society. Posing as a holy brahmin who has had a miraculous vision, Kalo thrives on the fraud until he discovers that he cannot dismount the ‘tiger’, which he has created, without ruining himself. Other works of fiction include the novels Music for Mohini (1952), A Goddess Named Gold (1960), and A Dream in Hawaii (1978), and the short stories in Steel Hawk (1968).