India Proves George Orwell Right
Global
Research, June 27, 2017
38
When
George Orwell published his famous
novel “1984” in 1949, he wouldn’t have imagined how his fiction will be turned
into a reality in the country of his birth only three decades later.
Orwell
was born on June 25, 1903 in British India in the state of Bihar. His father
was a civil servant posted with the Opium Department.
“1984” is about an imaginary
totalitarian regime where any voice of dissent could be stifled and the society
is expected to be homogeneous with no alternative thoughts ever allowed to
exist.
Big Brother is a fictional character in
Orwell’s novel, 1984 (credits to the owner of the photo)
The year 1984 marked the beginning of
an era of majoritarian democracy in India when Sikh minority came under
surveillance and constant attack. This all started with some genuine political
demands of the Sikhs and Punjab. Not only these demands were ignored by the so
called secularist Congress government in New Delhi, but the Sikhs were
systematically targeted to attract the votes of the Hindu majority. The
peaceful agitation of the Sikhs for some religious concessions and political
rights was allowed to go out of hand.
This is not to defend the Sikh
extremists who indulged in violence against Hindus in Punjab. But the overall
response of the Indian state to the Sikh demands was very brutal. During
Orwell’s birthday month of June in 1984, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs in
Amritsar was invaded by the army to deal with handful of fanatics who had
stockpiled arms inside the place of worship. The press censorship was imposed
and any voice of dissent was crushed with an iron fist. Under these
circumstances, the Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh body guards for which the entire Sikh
community was punished across India by violent mobs led by the Congress party
supporters.
The state sponsored repression of Sikhs
paid dividends to the Congress that won the national general elections with a
heavy majority in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s murder. Her son Rajiv Gandhi rode to power by using the
slogan of national unity and justifying the anti Sikh carnage by saying that
when a big tree falls earth around it shakes a bit. Thus, a ground was laid for
keeping minorities under boots to enjoy the fruits of governance.
In 2002, the Muslims were targeted by
using similar techniques in Gujarat by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP). The current Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat back then was
complicit in the anti Muslim pogrom that followed the burning of a train
carrying Hindu pilgrims. Over 50 people had died in the incident that was
blamed on the Islamic extremists. Like Rajiv Gandhi, Modi also justified the
violence against Muslims by using action verses opposite reaction theory of
Newton. Not surprisingly he also won the election that followed the massacre
with a thumping majority.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
(Source: NDTV.com)
Today under Modi, the whole of India
has turned into an Orwellian state where all minority communities, especially
Muslims, Christians, Dalits or the so called untouchables and tribals are being
targeted both by the state agencies and vigilantes. So much so, any voice of
dissent is aggressively curbed by using anti sedition laws. This has
contributed to the expansion of embedded media and a virtual silence of the
critics.
There is a feeling that an undeclared
emergency has been now been clamped all over India that witnessed an official
emergency in 1975 under Indira Gandhi. Ironically the emergency and press
censorship was imposed on the birth anniversary of George Orwell after Indira
Gandhi’s election was set aside by the courts. Modi at that time had gone into
hiding to avoid getting arrested like other opposition leaders, whereas today
his opponents also have to suffer for speaking their mind.
While Orwell is being remembered
everywhere for encouraging critical thinking that is necessary for the progress
of our society, the political leadership in the country of his birth is soon
exactly the opposite. As Modi is trying to remind people of the emergency of
1975, the Bihar government has come under criticism for the encroachment of
Orwell’s birth place that was declared museum. All we need to do is to keep his
legacy alive by telling the truth and making those in power accountable by
exposing their lip service.
Gurpreet Singh is a Canada- based journalist
who publishes Radical Desi- a monthly magazine that covers alternative
politics.
Featured
image: Countercurrents
The
original source of this article is Countercurrents
Copyright ©
Gurpreet Singh, Countercurrents, 2017
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