Suggested Reading Time: 10 days
Category: Fiction

One of the most important issues that dominates the intellectual space of the world today is the transforming role of a nation state. If we carefully have a look around us, we would come to realize that we are increasingly under surveillance, we are being watched constantly, we can be racked any moment by our mobile phones, we are can be pin pointed to in a matter of seconds. All information we held sacred is for all to see, by simply breaking into our email accounts. States have increasingly the power to dominate our choices, the way we live and above all, they have undisputed access into our lives. This increasing dominance leads to ‘nation states’ being referred to as totalitarian in nature.

Well, this is the world we live in today. But ‘1984’, the world created by George Orwell, was something he predicted in 1940s, through this book. He envisages a totalitarian state in this book, juxtaposing the book in the year 1984, and illustrates in the book what would happen if we dictated to by the government totally. In a way, the book when written was futuristic, but now assumes a great significance, because in the world of today, we live in such societies.

The book is written in fairly simple style of prose, so should not be that hard to read. And the content of the book is such that we should definitely have quite a few interesting take on this book from you guys.

Quotes from the Book:
1. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
2. Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.”