COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN ARUN JOSHI’S OFF THE TRACK NOVEL THE STRANGE CASE OF BILLY BISWAS

Cognitive dissonance is a behavioral disorder in which a person has in his conscious mind two conflicting beliefs and values and has mental discomfort due to such conflicting thoughts making him irritable and unhappy. The person affected with cognitive dissonance rationalizes his wrong attitudes as right. The smokers who got knowledge that chances of smokers dying due to lung cancer are high and still cannot give up smoking tell the friends and relatives that Fidel Castro is heavy smoker but he is 70 + and still going strong. Indian politicians observe caste system and also say they have faith in secularism.