Skip to main content

The Futility of Revolution



One of the shortest but classical works of fiction on the futility of revolution is George Orwell’s Animal Farm [1945]. The animals on the farm revolt against the oppressive human master and seek to establish an egalitarian society where all animals are equal. The revolution is driven by very noble ideals which have the potential to create a paradise on the farm. But sooner than later, the ideals give way to venality and the new rulers among the animals become far worse than the erstwhile human master. The human master only exploited the animals for labour. Now the animal masters are utterly vicious. They enjoy the highest forms of luxury at the cost of the other animals which are treated as worse than slaves. There is not only inequality but also injustice, cruelty, violence, government’s surveillance on the citizens, and plain butchery.

It was the aftermath of the Russian Revolution that inspired Animal Farm. The Russian Revolution sought to replace the dictatorial Tsar with a people’s government founded on socialist ideals. What Russia got, however, was a government far more inhuman than the Tsarist one. Something very similar happened with the French Revolution too which began in the name of the noble ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Revolutions are too idealistic to be practical. That is why the great thinker and writer, Albert Camus, said that revolutions culminate inevitably in police or in folly. The kind of perfection quested after by revolutions is impossible in the human world. The humankind has not evolved yet to that level of sophistication (emotional, intellectual and spiritual) required to create such paradises on earth. The human is far too fallible for that. Too frail. Too guilt-ridden.

The human fallibility, frailty and guilt require gods. To fear and worship. To forgive and give a pat on the back. To take revenge on the enemies, whole races of them if possible.

It is not Ram Rajya that the bhakt quests after. It is Ram – with all his might and hate and vengeance. Let us build glorious temples for him. Let us sacrifice fellow beings for him.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.” That is how one of the ideals in the revolutionised Animal Farm of Orwell had metamorphosed under the new leaders.  

PS 1. This post is provoked by a Facebook visitor to my space who told me bluntly that I, being a non-Hindu, am “only an unwanted guest” in his country which was destined to become Ram Rajya under the present political leadership.

PS 2. Thank you Blogchatter for the following award.


 

Comments

  1. Brilliant. I really enjoyed this piece. It triggered another thought in my mind, something similar that I shall soon share. Sometimes I think we are all in a spiral, and there's no one better than the other. I am so sorry about the Facebook trolling. It's become some sort of culture. Congratulations for the award.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Sonia. Don't worry about the FB thing, I've got used to that sort of things. I look forward to your post on "something similar".

      Delete
  2. Hari OM
    Interesting you should use Animal Farm (and appropriately, I may add)... have you seen the news that in some of the [dis]United States, there is a move to ban books because they are perceived as having potential to 'misguide our youth'? (An article on this...) Driven by fear of the mighty word, requiring the censorship sword???

    Congrats on being recognised for your contribution at Blogchatter! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's rather odd that the US is seeking to ban books. They're supposed to be liberal, aren't they?

      Delete
  3. Interesting post. I don't think bhakts quest after Ram too. In fact i think they don't even know Ram because what they are doing is directly opposite to what Ram stood for. Facebook trolls are funny things. I have lost count how many times i have been called a Vampanthi (communist). Congratulations on winning top blogger award.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those who really know their god and religion won't indulge in hatred and violence.

      I take trolls in my stride, no problems. 😊

      Thanks.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Florentino’s Many Loves

Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The

Unromantic Men

Romance is a tenderness of the heart. That is disappearing even from the movies. Tenderness of heart is not a virtue anymore; it is a weakness. Who is an ideal man in today’s world? Shakespeare’s Romeo and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas would be considered as fools in today’s world in which the wealthiest individuals appear on elite lists, ‘strong’ leaders are hailed as nationalist heroes, and success is equated with anything other than traditional virtues. The protagonist of Colleen McCullough’s 1977 novel, The Thorn Birds [which sold more than 33 million copies], is torn between his idealism and his natural weaknesses as a human being. Ralph de Bricassart is a young Catholic priest who is sent on a kind of punishment-appointment to a remote rural area of Australia where the Cleary family arrives from New Zealand in 1921 to take care of the enormous estate of Mary Carson who is Paddy Cleary’s own sister. Meggy Cleary is the only daughter of Paddy and Fiona who have eight so

Yesterday

With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let

Octlantis

I was reading an essay on octopuses when friend John walked in. When he is bored of his usual activities – babysitting and gardening – he would come over. Politics was the favourite concern of our conversations. We discussed politics so earnestly that any observer might think that we were running the world through the politicians quite like the gods running it through their devotees. “Octopuses are quite queer creatures,” I said. The essay I was reading had got all my attention. Moreover, I was getting bored of politics which is irredeemable anyway. “They have too many brains and a lot of hearts.” “That’s queer indeed,” John agreed. “Each arm has a mind of its own. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are found in their arms. The arms can taste, touch, feel and act on their own without any input from the brain.” “They are quite like our politicians,” John observed. Everything is linked to politics in John’s mind. I was impressed with his analogy, however. “Perhaps, you’re r