1984 Ninteen Eighty Four

One of India's most cherished figures, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1914) was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, painter, educationist and thinker, the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He modernised Bengali literature, moving it away from its rigid classical form and strict linguistic structure. Known for works such as Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World,) his novels, short stories and verse are considered part of the greatest of world literature, famous for their exploration of the political and the personal. He also wrote the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana and of Bangladesh, Amar Shonar Bangla.Winston works under the Ministry of Truth as an editor and his job is to revolutionise history by rewriting records, altering photographs, managing the ‘unpersons’ and discarding original documents in a ‘memory hole’. Winston soon develops a keen interest in the real history of the world and starts writing a secret journal criticising the Party and Big Brother.He crosses paths with Julia, who shares his contempt towards the Party, and they begin their apparently secret love affair by meeting in blue-collar neighbourhoods that do not have tele screens. Believing that they are escaping the Thought Police’s radar, both join the Brotherhood, an underground society that intends to rage war against the Party but they are unaware that Big Brother is always watching. With plot twists that are breath-taking this book does not shy away from questioning the modern world which explains why throughout its publication history, the book has either been banned or challenged as subversive and claimed to be ideologically corrupting.