1984 - George Orwell - as relevant now as ever

         

1984 - George Orwell - as relevant now as ever

After reading my review of Ayn Rand's novel Anthem, one of my friends suggested reading George Orwell's writings. He was of the opinion that the concept of authoritarian collectivism had been dealt with more exhaustively in 1984 and Animal Farm, two of Orwell's masterpieces.

In terms of size, both books are quite small and easy to read. But when we think of the impact, they certainly exert a huge influence on the reader's mind. There are some who would say that the novel 1984 was one of the reasons for Soviet-model totalitarian communism not taking root in parts of Europe. So popular was the novel that it certainly, along with other similar writings, contributed to anti-authoritarian thinking in those days in Europe and the USA.

1984 was written in the late 1940s after World War II, when the world was slowly trying to limp back to normalcy and conditions were quite fluid. Many pundits feared a takeover of the world by totalitarian regimes, including George Orwell himself. He had played a very active part in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). After that, everything Orwell wrote was against totalitarianism, either directly or indirectly. 1984 was one book which he wrote directly on the fiercely evil nature of totalitarian collectivism and, surprisingly, that resonates with the times even today, more than seventy years later.

The success of any fiction or non-fiction book depends on the influence it makes on the reader's mind. For me, this work of fiction seemed so real that the scariness and fear that engulfed me since I started reading this book was present throughout. What I felt was a tinge of emotions: extreme sadness, negativity, a sense of vulnerability as a human, and a lot of pessimistic thoughts. Though most of what he predicted did not come true exactly, the threat of reaching that stage is still relevant today. The levels of technological advancement made now can easily make governments resort to the surveillance of citizens. Already, with the use of smartphones, citizens are exposed to all kinds of monitoring these days.

We can write separately about every one of the characters in the book, like the protagonist Winston Smith, his lover Julia, the imaginary Goldstein, Big Brother, and the villain O'Brien. The characterization is so effectively made by the author that we identify with the characters so completely that we feel as if we travel with them through their travails from the first page to the last.

After reading this book, I went through many articles written on it. Most of the reviews and write-ups are very recent, even though it has been more than seventy years since 1984 was published. These essays refer to this book as a kind of sequel to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We and Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. But Ayn Rand's lesser-known work Anthem doesn't find a mention anywhere, surprisingly. In my opinion, Anthem is also a kind of dystopian fiction like 1984. It was written by Rand in the late 1930s; she had almost first-hand experience of collectivism in the Soviet Union in her early days before her escape to the US.

The book 1984 deals with left-wing authoritarian dictatorship and centralized collectivism. In the present juncture, the Communist ideology is on the back foot all over the world and we are witnessing the emergence of right-wing forces in many parts. And with the advancement of science and technology, it has been made possible for governments to monitor all activities of its citizens and employ surveillance to curb free speech and thoughts. In India too, the threat is looming large under the Modi-Shah dispensation. Incidentally, this combine does not have democratic credentials on matters political or otherwise. So Indians too may have to face the threat of what the citizens of Oceania had in the novel. All similarities point to a situation like individual worship, defending acts of government using lies as propaganda, and controlling and weakening all institutions to make them toe the line. Changing history to suit their needs and charging dissenters by imposing treason laws against them—along with hunting down intellectuals who write against them—do remind us of McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s.

We can go on writing on this wonderful work of fiction which is very much relevant even today, many decades since it was written. To conclude, we may say that this book was not written essentially for anti-communist propaganda, as many would like us to believe. Rather, George Orwell would have liked to give a warning about the dangers of a collectivist authoritarian society under the aegis of either leftist or rightist governments. A must-read for all who are politically inclined.