A train groans to a halt at Motihari railway station. At the station, a wide-eyed bookseller showcases books – ranging from Munshi Premchand to Chetan Bhagat, but no George Orwell – and periodicals. An unexpected question is thrown at him: is he aware of the birthplace of Orwell? The interviewer has to be ambitious to expect a “yes” from the hawker. Suddenly, the camera zooms in on a blithe college student who is confronted with the same query. The answer is a nonchalant “no”.
This satirical opening scene, which sets the tone for the documentary Orwell..!… but
why?, prods viewers into asking a forgotten question: about Motihari’s Orwell
connection.
This crude reality of unknowing the otherwise known was perhaps first reported by a
Sunday Times British journalist, Ian Jack, who visited Motihari in 1983 to write a report, titled In search of a Jaarj Arwil, on Orwell’s birthplace. To avoid any confusion over Orwell’s name with the residents of Motihari, Ian Jack settled on using “Jaarj Arwil”.
He bemusedly wrote, “Its (Motihari’s) citizens have never heard of Big Brother. They
attribute no literary significance to new year (1984).” His over-the-top reporting pointed
out the ignorance of Motiharians about one of their more famous sons.
The showcasing of extreme generalisation is something that is mirthfully lapped up by
journalism and film-making alike, in this case the unawareness of people about Orwell.
However the director of the film, Bishawjeet Mookherjee, treads this generalisation path carefully and concedes that most people have a “vague idea about Orwell”.
Purposively named, Orwell..!… but why? revolves around the life of Eric Arthur Blair — who wrote ageless, prescient novels like Animal Farm, Nineteen-Eighty-Four and
Burmese Days under his pen name George Orwell. It focuses on his birth at opium
quarters, then the Blairs’ bungalows, in Motihari town of East Champaran district, Bihar, where his father Richard W. Blair was in charge of the warehouse in British India.
The 23-minute film, in showing the run-down residence, wants to stress the importance of preserving the site and kindling students’ interest.
Orwell..!… but why? laments the crumbling state of the erstwhile opium premises. Since the birth of Orwell on June 25, 1903, the Blair residence has served as lodgings for
officials and hostels for students. And an earthquake in 1934 further battered the house.
Now it consists of two rooms, a guest-room and one courtyard with a well. Though the
floor is intact, the ceiling needs repair, says the chairman of the George Orwell
commemorative committee, Debapriya Mookherjee. Funds from the arts and culture
ministry of Bihar have, to some extent, helped preserve the area, including a brick wall
to protect it from encroachment. Nonetheless getting funds and mobilising people for
preservation was not easy. The latest confrontation was in early 2013 when Orwell found himself pitted against Gandhi. Some local politicians wanted to build a Satyagraha Park for Gandhi which, if implemented, would have encroached on Orwell’s site. The project was duly scrapped by the state government.
Against this background, the producer of the documentary, Rotary Motihari Lake Town, gives reasons for the funding. “We are funding it to ward off misconceptions of people who have not read Orwell. The film will enlighten people by stating that a world-famous British writer, born in Motihari, was staunchly opposed to colonialism, and his literary contribution is unparalleled,” says Debapriya.
When asked what led to the making of the documentary, the director, Bishwajeet
Mookherjee, contends, “Unfortunately, a major part of the population is unaware of the
fact that a great personality of the 20th century was born in their native place. People
who have some idea that a British author was born here simply tend to ask, ‘Why should we promote an Angrez in a place like Motihari which is known for its contribution in the Indian freedom struggle?’”
Another impetus for the documentary was Orwell’s anti-imperialist words in his novels
Burmese Days and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The task of straitjacketing Orwell in ideological polemics – anarchism, socialism or anti-totalitarianism – rests with a literary critic.
However, the common theme in his 16-year of literary career was his abomination of
colonial repression and the imperialism he first witnessed as a policeman in Burma,
then a British colony. “If we read his columns for Tribune and other publications, it becomes clear that his was an anti-colonial mind, which lends credence to the fact that we should revive his legacy in Motihari,” argues Bishwajeet.
The documentary also tries to explore various facets of Orwell as soldier, journalist,
writer, poet and literary critic. Keeping in view his literary significance today, the film
interviews literary connoisseurs, friends, government secretaries and officials. The most important among them is the interview Jay Dubashi who was Orwell’s friend in London and met him two days before his death on January 21, 1950. Bytes from family can throw light on “the intimate Eric Blair” and his peripatetic life, overwhelmed by worse than “lower-upper-middle-class” existence.
The benefits which will accrue to the town by preserving Orwell’s cradle site are
enormous, predicts Bishwajeet. The town, which witnessed Gandhi’s first satyagraha
over opium cultivation in 1917, has a Gandhi memorial and museum, and a Buddhist
stupa – reported to be the tallest in the world – was excavated in 1997 in Kesariya,
around 50 km from Motihari. The trinity of Gandhi, Buddha and Orwell can help us attract international and national tourists and register a strong international presence on the tourist map, provided our efforts to preserve the Blairs’ residence fructify through this film, says the director.
On being asked about the relevance of Orwell in the 21st century, Bishwajeet observes,
“There are some legends whose appeal transcends borders, and Orwell was one of
them. His dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted in 1949 that super-state
structures are imminent. They will snoop on individuals, and he foresaw that the state
will intrude into our privacy rights; eg, NSA surveillance. Moreover, phrases and words he coined – ‘Big Brother’, ‘newspeak’ and ‘doublespeak’ – have become an integral part of today’s parlance, particularly in reportage.”
The documentary began shooting in September 2013 and covered Pune, Kesariya and
Motihari. It was launched on January 21, the 64th death anniversary of the ahead-of-the-curve writer.
Socially International 