Animal Farm and the Utopian India

India's journey from Nehru’s vision of an independent, secular, and just state to becoming the self-proclaimed Vishwaguru is an apple-to-apple comparison to the storyline of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Just as the farm’s initial ideals crumbled into disillusionment and chaos, India’s rise has come with inner turmoil and a hollowing of its core values, raising questions about the promises once made.

The phrase "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" from George Orwell's Animal Farm presents an eerie reminder of how powerful people hijack revolutionary ideals. Jawaharlal Nehru's vision for India, which placed a strong emphasis on socialism, secularism, and diversity, takes into consideration this idea. Reflecting the early enthusiasm of the animal revolution on the farm, Nehru imagined a country in which every person had equal rights and possibilities.

Animal Farm opens with the animals working united to overthrow Mr. Jones, their authoritarian human master, and set up an egalitarian utopia. This reflects Nehru's vision of India as a free country aiming for an equal society that promotes social justice. But as the pigs, especially Napoleon, rise to power, they transform into the very dictators they once stood against, distorting the equality mantra for their benefits.

The actions and statements of political leaders who say they speak for the people in general in India reflect the country's move toward authoritarianism. More recent governments have damaged Nehru's inclusive ideal. For example, Indira Gandhi, Nehru's own daughter, significantly deviated from democratic ideals when she imposed the Emergency. Since the BJP's narrative often characterizes opponents as "anti-national", the current political environment under Narendra Modi has even more divided the nation and suppressed criticism, the addition to India’s misery lies in the alike politicians and opposition thus every other politician shows to be different and patriotic but they turn out to be ones who seek luxury for themselves rather than saving people’s life from misery.

The animals discover that the pigs have become indistinguishable from their former owners as Animal Farm transforms into turmoil. This is in line with the current situation in India, where laws like "One Nation, One Election" and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) seem intended to promote unity yet frequently promote Hindu nationalism. Modi, who positions himself as a man of the people, uses the notion of a common leader, like the pigs, posing as if it were for the benefit of all. The similar position could be drawn when Napoleon in the novel set up the revolution against the humans, in the similar manner PM Modi is doing what he once criticised, for instance, previously as a CM, he had remarked about inflation, high taxes, currency depreciation, weak youth building yet in his reign he has become what he despised of. Thus, apart from these failures, the successful attempt to polarize people has created the abhorring society making it hollow within itself with policies that adversely effect vulnerable communities being brought into life under this façade.

We must recognize how the media shapes the public's views. Propaganda is how the pigs in Animal Farm manipulate the story. In a similar vein, the BJP uses "godi media" to spread a narrative that backs its objectives and frequently characterizes criticism as being anti-national. The purpose of this information manipulation is to keep the party in power while suppressing opponents.

India's electoral bond policy, which permits private contributions to political parties, raises questions over accountability and transparency. This approach is comparable to how the pigs use the farm's resources to strengthen their hold on authority and place their own objectives ahead of those of the other animals. In the book, Boxer represents the middle class, which endures the most of these policies as increased prices for goods and service. Boxer, the novel's middle-class representative, bears the burden of these policies as a consequence of the growing Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other indirect taxes. Like Boxer's sad destiny, this "killing" of the middle class symbolizes the harsh realities experienced by people who attempt to support the nation but find themselves in an endless cycle due to monetary hardship.

A major issue of both Animal Farm and modern-day India is the conversion of the utopian vision into an unequal reality. Although the animals aspired for a better, tyrannical-free existence, they became victims of the very systems of power that they were trying to overthrow. The dream of a society without barriers in India has become a fight for survival against oppressive regulations due to political agendas that favor some groups over others, complicating the country's progress toward equality.

In both stories, the early optimism for equality is replaced with a harsh reality in which the dominant class uses ideology manipulation to hold onto power. India's residents and farm animals are facing similar challenges in their pursuit of full equality, underscoring the persistent challenges in both fiction and reality.

Rayyan Rashid is pursuing English from Jamia Millia Islamia

Edited by- Nausheen Ali Nizami