By Zahra Gardezi
ERIC Arthur Blair — who wrote under the pen name George Orwell — is an undeniably relevant author, even today. Orwell’s social commentary and witty, sometimes caustic, remarks launched him into sight of not only those disillusioned by the counter-narrative, but also to a larger audience hungry for his tales. Joining the discussion with Navid Shahzad and Mohammed Hanif was Orwell’s adopted son, Richard Blair, in the session ‘Life With my Father, George Orwell.’ Blair recalled Orwell’s much-quoted saying, “freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”, and the freedom to say that which is right. During the days of the Spanish Civil War, the British intelligensia and Orwell travelled to Spain: the intelligensia group came back with a blank report, and Orwell came back with a narrative, which he published as Homage to Catalonia.
Orwell’s aim as an “old-fashioned socialist”, recalled Blair, was to expose that “the government is lying to [the listener]”. The Spanish government seemed to have suffered from selective amnesia regarding the Civil War, and by that quotient Orwell stood as the victor.
Shahzad related this selective amnesia to East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh as remembered by Pakistanis now. Hanif recalled the narrative of Partition: trains from Amritsar carrying corpses sent over to Pakistan, and commented that we often ‘forget’ that the same was the case from Lahore to Amritsar. Shahzad brought to light the question bound to arise next: “How much reporting is by people who were actually on the spot?” Hanif also questioned the reality of reporting: “We could argue what war is, how it is, but has anyone seen this war?” According to him, journalists often wait until someone tells them what happened to analyse and report it.
It is equally important to remember that one must be careful about what he or she remembers, said Blair. One such problem arose in constructing the political introduction to Orwell’s notable work Animal Farm, in which criticising the left could have had consequences. The political, satirical novella was also initially problematic to publicise: renowned British-American essayist, author and publisher T.S. Eliot refused to publish Animal Farm because of its Russian links.
Shahzad recalled that throughout her schooling, Orwell had been considered as a dark writer, which was not the complete picture. Orwell had a peculiar sense of humour that featured in his works. One such seemingly simple essay of his is ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’. Orwell’s works — especially one of his most famous novels, 1984, remain pertinent today, for their intellectual honesty and social commentary.
