Intro : Though Deendayal Upadhyaya and George Orwell did not meet together in their lifetime, the rationale of their masterpieces, Integral Humanism and Animal Farm, were more or less similar, to liberate the world from the ideological shackles of Communism.
The world climate has undergone a change without the knowledge of diabolical designs of Marxism and Communism. Strange are the ways of destiny when two great stalwarts like Deendayal Upadhyaya and George Orwell though were born in the first part of 20th century and were given to free, frank and fearless thinking, could not meet in their lifetime.
George Orwell was born in Motihari (Bihar) and when he was three years old, he went back to England. His father was in British Imperial services. In 1920, Orwell came back to join Imperial services in Burma. To his great shock, he found that the Imperial forces were torturing the natives which he could not brook. He returned to England and did some odd work in book shops but at the back of his mind it was very much the thought of denouncing imperialism as he tasted Bharat’s river water as he had tasted Bharat’s river water for three years as an innocent child. In 1936, he joined the Spanish Civil War on behalf of the British Government only to know the terrible designs resorted to by Communist forces. Forthwith, he came out and said “Every line of serious writing that I write will be against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism”. Before long, he came out with world’s one of the most talked about books Animal farm, which is in the form of a fairy tale. The British publishers were averse to publishing it even though they flaunt that they are lovers of freedom of thought and writing. At long last, pressure was brought on the British government and the book saw the light of day. This book exposed Stalinism (Communism) in its darkest form. The British Government did not want to displease Stalin soon after the II World War. The people took a fancy to one of its popular observations – “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” as it came to be repeated everywhere. Animal farm was followed by 1984 which displayed “Big Brother is Watching You”. This again was the total denouncement of Communism which had pervaded the world and Bharat in particular. Orwell was out and out for Bharateeya thought, philosophy and culture, and that was one of the reasons why he stands in comparison with Deendayal Upadhyaya who was one of the greatest exponents of very broad-based humanism which he called Integral Humanism. In fact, it exposed bottomless Marxism, economically and otherwise.
He saw the gullible people and the intellectuals of Bharat were getting cheated by the Marxist philosophy which was alien to human welfare. Even though the intellectuals who knew that they were being misguided yet they had no courage to rise in revolt against Marxism because the then Government was hand-in-glove with Russia, the home of Marxism. They were interested in comforts and the perks that they were getting from time to time by not denouncing or rather
by accepting meekly Communist ideals. Deendayal Upadhyaya exposed all this through his tiny book Integral Humanism. What he wanted to bring home to the intellectuals was that they should stop being servile to much less important thought and philosophy than Bharat’s ancient and ennobling philosophy which believed in Vasudhaiv Kutumbham (World is a family). There was no exploitation of any type in this philosophy and it was sheer love and humanity all through. He was pained to see that the intellectuals had belittled their own rich cultural heritage.
Let us put in practice the message of Deendayal Upadhyaya—Love, Compassion and Selfless service to humanity as explained by him in his world-famous book Integral Humanism. If Sri Deendayal Upadhyaya and George Orwell were to come together and exchange their thoughts and ideals, the world would have been a much better place to live in.
S S Karkhanis (The writer is HOD (English) Retd., in Badruka College of Commerce & Arts, Hyderabad)
