1984

 

Source.

This was the first book I purchased from my first salary almost 15 years ago, so this is a re-read for me. While the book remains the same, I and the world have changed drastically. It is the best and worst book to read in this time.

1984 is a dark, depressing novel about a dystopian world where everything and everyone is controlled by the state ( Big brother is watching). Orwell creates a terrifying world where the food is bland, everything is in short supply, the country is always at war, relationships are non existent, and the sex is without pleasure. This is a state which tell everyone what to do, who to speak to, what to eat, how to behave, who to sing praise to, and what the "truth" is. e.g. 2 + 2 = 5. Does this ring a bell? Such has been the book's influence that many words from it such as newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Big Brother and Room 101 have entered the English language. 

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There are only a handful of characters in the novel. Winston, a middle aged rebel who hates the party to the core. Julia, the beautiful, young woman who understands what the party wants but is disinterested in the details of their lies. O' Brien, a high - ranking party official who Winston suspects is a part of an underground group. 

It is a prophetic book, to say the least. Written in 1948, it was Orwell's reaction to what he experienced and saw in the world around him at this period. This book will take you to the depths of how terrible things can get, when power is so absolute that you might not even be able to control the space inside your head. I could not help but notice regrettably how many of the things he has written about have come true. Sample this:

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon. The heretic, the enemy of society, will always be there, so that he can be defeated and humiliated over again.

In our country, this dreaded vision is already here. The machinery manufactures and stamps down one enemy after the other - students, farmers, the minority community, the common man, anyone raising questions, "toolkit" creators and so on. Central agencies and archaic, draconian laws are harnessed to charge dissenters to send out a message - stay in line, or else... And anyone expressing solidarity is branded an urban naxal or anti - national. 

George Orwell.

There is another thing in the novel called "the two minute hate", where basically everyone gathers at one place and expresses their mad rage against the current "enemy" of the state. In our country we have the "24 - hour hate". The media is in such a pathetic state that they have sold their souls to the devil. There are many news channels who are virtually the mouthpieces for the government's propaganda and exist for the sole purpose of singing paeans to the supreme leader. Their complete effort is to divert attention from real issues plaguing the country and keep manufacturing conspiracy theories, while flashing inane updates as breaking news, and attacking anyone who dares to speak out. 

I can go on but don't want to spoil the thrill of discovering the world created in 1984.

Who should read this book? Anyone willing to comprehend what living in a totalitarian regime might be like. Anyone willing to sacrifice anything to ensure this does not happen. Anyone who is willing to be a "lunatic, a minority of one" for the truth.

When they try to infiltrate your mind, poison your heart and inflame pointless nonexistent passions, recognize it. Be cold, rational and base your conclusions on data, not feelings. Do not be swayed by the filth that has pervaded our life and times. Think.

A fun fact. George Orwell was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bihar. Little would he have known that this book which he wrote in 1948 would come to describe, in large parts, India - a so called democracy, in 2021.