Orwell’s ‘1984’ Big Brother echoes in India & abroad

George Orwell whose year-long birth centenary celebrations have been marked with an extended run of the stage play “1984” in a dramatic version of his prophetic novel of the same name in London has a double connection with India. It is known to many that he was born in Bihar just over 100 years ago in June, 1913 . What may surprise them is that his distant thunder reverberates through numerous emerging polities from Africa to Middle East and the sub-continent including India . And not just Asia and Africa, major Western democracies too are using thought control tactics to gag whistle blowers like Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Government by an all-powerful Big Brother based on a single track thought process or ideology, the central theme of Orwell’s “1984”, is the order of the day in many lands. Be it of communist variety, or Islamist brand raging through Asia, or of Hindutva ideology in India since this year’s elections. In the Orwellian projection, global power bloc Oceana under Big Brother scores a big hit off the Malabar coast in the Indian waters against Eurasia , providing the “Proles” or ordinary people with fodder for jingoistic celebrations. In the same vein two-minute Hate rallies in front of two-way TV screens are held where the faithful shout their anger at Big Brother’s opponents, brilliantly enacted by stage stars at The Playhouse theatre in London. Turning the formula on its head, Indian election rallies witnessed hysteria in adulation of Big Brother Narendra Modi, successfully catapulting him into the pole position of the nation’s Prime Minister. As in Orwell’s work, Big Brother government is run by an “Inner Party” along with an “Outer Party”; so is Modi government run by hardcore RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) the inner party, along with BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) the outer party. Like the Newspeak language of “1984”, Hindutva-speak is the language of India’s new government. Since assumption of power Prime Minister Modi seems to have dispensed with the well established tradition of ruling party stalwarts and ministers meeting opposition members and journalists over cups of tea in the Central Hall of Parliament for off the record banter. All information is increasingly channelled through rather faceless bureaucrats attached to PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) . On select occasions , he communicates his thoughts and policies through his high representative, finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley like O’Brien of “!984.” Old style exchange of views is being replaced with Hindutva newspeak. Across the sea in the Arab world the Big Brother has assumed Sunni, Shia and other sectarian identities , some openly militaristic, others religiously authoritarian with varying intensity. Yet others have assumed ultra jihadist identity, leaving no room at all for minority dissent. Suppression, conversion and expulsion of minorities has become the norm in large parts of this world ruled by potentates with priests or mullahs in their tow. All this is accompanied by cultural suppression of diverse kinds. Some ultra religious leaders have virtually confined women to life within the four walls of home; others have asked them not to laugh or smile in public. Song and dance are taboo in these mono-culture theocracies. The restrictions, of course, have not gone unchallenged. Opposition has been open and instant . Thousands of women in places like Istanbul went laughing and smiling on twitter in open defiance of high advice, an echo of the “1984” protagonist Julia’s declaration of sex and love as a “political act” in defiance of the Big Brother regime. Julia while embracing Winston, her partner in thought crime, fires another salvo at Big Brother by closing her eyes for a moment and telling Winston : “I have just killed Big Brother.” “Do it again” replies overjoyed Winston. Yara Hanna as Julia and Sam Crane as Winston execute this central dialogue and theme of Orwell’s work with a brilliant flourish. The torture which Julia and Winston suffer later is life shattering but not before they have lit the flame of soul stirring avowal of human spirit. An everlasting example of derring-do against the Big Brother in his various avatars world over and in times past, present and future. Directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, it is a thrilling production which brings the Orwellian nightmare vividly alive. A co-pproduction of three groups -- Headlong, the Almeida and the Nottingham Playhouse – brought to London’s West End, it transmutes Orwell’s dystopia into a chilling reality. Its message was as relevant when the novel was published 60 years ago in 1944 as in our immediate world today with the probability of remaining alive through 2050 and beyond. And for India it is a matter of realisation and inspiration that governing party members like Nitish Kumar in Bihar state and local admirers and businessmen like Debapriya Mookerjee have come together to convert the dilapidated bungalow in Motihari town where Eric Arthur Blair (pen name George Orwell) was born into an Orwell museum and library. Help has been promised by authorities at the George Orwell Archive at University College London where the writer’s son, Richard Blair, is an executive committee member of the archive. The timing and significance of the museum initiative derives from the fact that it comes from thinkers opposed to the rising Big Brother Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. ......................................................................................................................................................................