Wide Angle - Animal Farm

No this is not about zoology like last time. It is about a short but impelling book that in a few pages (around 100) redefines the meaning of revolution, power, leadership and corruption. The book is called Animal Farm written by George Orwell – it is available in all bookstores for around Rs. 100 and I recommend it as a must read. Now to the review:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." – Lord Acton

What has been the view of history on most of the revolutions started with a very noble idea that energized and unified a downtrodden populace but ended up in a totalitarian regime? Remember the transitions in history when power was transferred by upheaval and an uprooting of a current regime. Most of these went the way of being eventually centered on one person and ended up as dictatorships. This is the central premise of the book. The book was published in 1945 and is loosely based on the Soviet Union and its ways back then (When Stalin was in charge) – this was after 25 odd years of the October revolution that had brought the Communists to power and Stalin now had a vice-like grip on the nation. At the same time, the world had started to become disillusioned about the promises of the Soviet state since it had now become more of a personality cult and was hardly resembling of the idealistic society that had been once promised. The book reflects that disillusionment and was also ahead of its time because a clutch of nations in Asia and Africa became free post WW2 and there were great helmsmen around them who promised Utopia – most of them ended up as despotic misrules.

Back to the book, it starts with a farm called “Manor Farm” in England where Mr. Jones runs with an iron hand and the animals are starved, overworked, beaten and generally miserable. There is a revolutionary undercurrent in them stirred by the pigs that are the most intelligent of the lot and tend to take decisions for them. The leadership of this so called movement is with a poet-pig called Major who is old but idealistic and writes many inspiring words for the animals that inspire them towards an equal and free society. There are two smart young pigs under him – Snowball and Napolean who carry his words and are the real leaders of the animals. One day Major dies but leaves behind an inspiring song called “Beasts of England”. All animals know it by heart and sing it in private. Life is intolerable and one night it becomes even worse when the animals are underfed for two days and the men start beating them. All of a sudden, the animals revolt and kick the human beings out of the farm.

The animals then anoint the two pigs as their leaders and draw up a plan of an idealistic farm where everyone is equal, human beings are the enemies, no animal kills another, food is equally shared, there is time for leisure, old animals can retire and go to a pastoral space reserved for them etc. They write down seven commandments for themselves. Snowball is the more energetic and idealistic amongst them who takes a lot of “initiatives” for the good of the animals. Napolean is the quieter but sturdier of them and tends to debunk all that Snowball does. Napolean usurps power from Snowball one day and becomes the undisputed leader of Animal Farm (the animals have renamed it as that after the revolution).

The story then goes on to describe the degeneration that starts to happen as Napolean further tightens his grip on Animal Farm by breaking one commandment after another and becoming more human like in his behavior. The pigs become the ruling class and do no work but “think” all day and the lives of the animals are back to where they started from. All the while, they are kept happy under the illusion that even if life is hard, it is “their” farm that they are on and there is no other place like this anywhere. The book ends very poignantly with a scene where the oppressed animals are looking through the window of Napolean’s residence where he is having a party with the neighboring farm human beings after having struck a big deal and they cannot make out the difference between the humans and the pigs’ faces.

There are a few excellent characters in the book that you will always find in a despotic set up – the silent worker who tends to work harder and put in more effort not bothering about what goes on – this is a horse called Boxer who works the hardest on the farm and his motto is “I will work Harder”. Then there is Squealer who is the right hand of Napolean and transmits his messages to the animals, there is Benjamin the old donkey who has seen a lot in his life and is extremely cynical, his only response to the revolution when it happens is “Donkeys live a long time”. There is also the flock of sheep who only keep repeating “Four legs good, two legs bad” and Napolean always uses them to drown out his opponents’ speeches or just for propaganda.

It is an excellent, short book and with a lot lessons. What do we learn here – human nature is corruptible and concentrating too much power in someone else’s hands and trusting him completely is not very advisable. On the other side, as a leader one should always guard against becoming too smug, too self-righteous and avoid getting into the feeling of “It should happen because I THINK SO”. The slippery path to despotism begins from here and you can easily go from a “emulation-worthy” leader to being a “feared” leader. Finally, beware of anything that sounds too noble and being attributable to a single person because it invariably ends up being a personality cult – the person becomes the idea and the organization and all creativity ends.