Bihar government begins renovation of George Orwell's house in Motihari

Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell, was born in Bihar while his father RW Blair was working for the British govt as an opium agent.

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Bihar government begins renovation of George Orwell's house in Motihari

The house in Motihari where acclaimed British author George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903, will be developed as a museum in his honour.

After procrastinating for many years, the Bihar government has finally begun the renovation of the house in Motihari where the acclaimed British novelist George Orwell was born more than a century ago.

The state's Art and Culture Minister Vinay Bihari on Thursday launched the beautification work of the dilapidated house where the author of the classics Animal Farm and 1984 was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903.

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After leaving the place neglected for decades, the government now wants to develop an Orwell Museum of international standards to attract tourists from around the world, especially from Britain. It will cost the state exchequer a sum of Rs 59.50 lakh to develop the place as Orwell memorial without damaging the original house where one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century was born. The 2.48-acre campus of the memorial will have a park, proper lighting, a cafeteria and other amenities for the visitors.

George Orwell
George Orwell

"Renovation work will be completed in about five months," said Bihari. "The state government is committed to building the memorial and conserve the place in memory of the great author."

Asserting that Orwell was British but his heart remained Indian, the minister said that the government would allocate more funds to develop his memorial of international standards.

The building construction department of the state government, which is executing the project, is also building a Satyagrah Park adjacent to Orwell memorial to commemorate the launch of Satyagrah movement by Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran in 1917.

Vinay Bihari
Bihar Art and Culture Minister Vinay Bihari launches the beautification work at Orwells house.

Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under his pen name of George Orwell, was born while his father R.W. Blair was working for the British government as an opium agent in the rank of sub-deputy collector at Motihari. The Blairs lived in a tiny house on a sprawling campus where four huge warehouses of the government were also located.

The Blairs returned to England barely a year after his birth but the house where his parents lived survived till Orwell's centenary in 2003 when it was rediscovered by his admirers.

But it was not until the then chief minister Nitish Kumar took a personal interest in the project five years ago that the state government took any concrete step to build the Orwell memorial. Peeved at the flagrant neglect of the place, he asked the state government officials to chalk out a comprehensive plan to take over the place as a protected monument and renovate it as a big tourist attraction.

The government subsequently acquired the land around it under the Bihar Ancient Monument (Protection) Act, 1976. In 2004-05 the then Indian High Commissioner to UK, L.M. Singhvi wanted to develop Orwell's birthplace on the lines of Stratfordupon-Avon and Yasnaya Polyana, birthplaces of William Shakespeare and Leo Tolstoy in England and Russia respectively. But he passed away before the dream could be realised.