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Orwell birthplace now an `animal farm`: The Deccan Herald
Motihari(Bihar), June 24: Three years ago, English teacher B M Rai had no idea that the house he stayed in was the birthplace of one of the greatest political satirists of the 20th century.
Motihari(Bihar), June 24: Three years ago, English teacher B M Rai had no idea that the house he stayed in was the birthplace of one of the greatest political satirists of the 20th century.
Rai was confused when two British journalists showed up in this remote town and asked him about George Orwell. “I have heard about Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw. Who is George Orwell?” he asked. And he repeated the poser when this correspondent paid Orwell’s house a visit on Monday.
That this house was actually the birthplace of Eric Arthur Blair who later came to be known as George Orwell was confirmed only after painstaking research by the two British journalists who arrived here in June 2000. As literary circles across the globe prepare to celebrate the birth centenary of George Orwell on June 25, this dusty and dingy town of north Bihar, oblivious that a great man had been born in their midst, has allowed what was once his home to deteriorate into a real animal farm.
A muddy road littered with animal excreta leads one to the compound of the house where the writer of Animal Farm was born. Pigs (allegorical characters in his famous novel), dogs, goats and cows crowd the compound. Not a stone records his memory. Only the “animal farm”. The creator of such masterpieces as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four was born here to Richard Walmesley Blair and Ida Mabel Limouzin on June 25, 1903. His father was a sub-deputy opium agent in this town of the then Bengal province. Indian farmers were forced to grow opium and indigo by their British masters since it provided an enormous source of revenue to the Empire. However, the young Eric lived in Motihari only for a year before moving to England in 1904 with his mother and sister.
One of three colonial brick bungalows with mud tiled roofs overlooking an open field, the Blairs’ home still stands after weathering a terrible earthquake in 1934. Giant weeds and muddy potholes, which serve as resting places for wandering pigs, cover the area.
The huge opium and indigo warehouse, turned into a cowshed after the British left, is now inhabited by servants. The entire 10-acre plot has been taken over by a government school and the bungalows provide accommodation for teachers and other staff. Hardly anyone in Motihari has heard of George Orwell. Even district administrative officials were ignorant till the visit of the British journalists who determined that the house was indeed Orwell’s using two photographs the writer had preserved from childhood.
“The District Magistrate was interested in constructing some memorial, but our hands are tied since the place is under the control of the school and so a clearance from from the Education Department has to be obtained,” said an official in the Motihari DM’s office. He said his boss is busy with nominations for elections to the Legislative Council.
Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegoric satire of the Russian Revolution, in a very real way mirrors the political scenario in Bihar. Politicians recently plundered the state in a multi-crore fodder scam. In the novel, the animals on Mr Jones’s farm, led by pigs, revolt against their human masters. After winning, the pigs are corrupted by power and a new tyranny is established under Napoleon, one of the revolutionary pigs.
Rai was confused when two British journalists showed up in this remote town and asked him about George Orwell. “I have heard about Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw. Who is George Orwell?” he asked. And he repeated the poser when this correspondent paid Orwell’s house a visit on Monday.
That this house was actually the birthplace of Eric Arthur Blair who later came to be known as George Orwell was confirmed only after painstaking research by the two British journalists who arrived here in June 2000. As literary circles across the globe prepare to celebrate the birth centenary of George Orwell on June 25, this dusty and dingy town of north Bihar, oblivious that a great man had been born in their midst, has allowed what was once his home to deteriorate into a real animal farm.
A muddy road littered with animal excreta leads one to the compound of the house where the writer of Animal Farm was born. Pigs (allegorical characters in his famous novel), dogs, goats and cows crowd the compound. Not a stone records his memory. Only the “animal farm”. The creator of such masterpieces as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four was born here to Richard Walmesley Blair and Ida Mabel Limouzin on June 25, 1903. His father was a sub-deputy opium agent in this town of the then Bengal province. Indian farmers were forced to grow opium and indigo by their British masters since it provided an enormous source of revenue to the Empire. However, the young Eric lived in Motihari only for a year before moving to England in 1904 with his mother and sister.
One of three colonial brick bungalows with mud tiled roofs overlooking an open field, the Blairs’ home still stands after weathering a terrible earthquake in 1934. Giant weeds and muddy potholes, which serve as resting places for wandering pigs, cover the area.
The huge opium and indigo warehouse, turned into a cowshed after the British left, is now inhabited by servants. The entire 10-acre plot has been taken over by a government school and the bungalows provide accommodation for teachers and other staff. Hardly anyone in Motihari has heard of George Orwell. Even district administrative officials were ignorant till the visit of the British journalists who determined that the house was indeed Orwell’s using two photographs the writer had preserved from childhood.
“The District Magistrate was interested in constructing some memorial, but our hands are tied since the place is under the control of the school and so a clearance from from the Education Department has to be obtained,” said an official in the Motihari DM’s office. He said his boss is busy with nominations for elections to the Legislative Council.
Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegoric satire of the Russian Revolution, in a very real way mirrors the political scenario in Bihar. Politicians recently plundered the state in a multi-crore fodder scam. In the novel, the animals on Mr Jones’s farm, led by pigs, revolt against their human masters. After winning, the pigs are corrupted by power and a new tyranny is established under Napoleon, one of the revolutionary pigs.