The Colonial Era: Anti-colonialism and
Liberation
The novel Animal Farm opens with a secret meeting in Manor Farm.
Major, the aged White boar on the farm, delivers a speech in that
meeting. He denounces human rule and heralds a future with a free and
independent animal kingdom. This opening can be described as a
burgeoning moment of the anti-colonial spirit. Major is the mastermind
and father of this anti-colonial activity. His lecture is like many
South Asian nationalist lectures during the 20thcentury anti-British movements.11For example, Indian nationalist
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah or Bangladeshi
nationalist leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered
revolutionary lectures to stand up against British and Pakistani
colonial rules. See, Md Shamsuddoha, “The Speech of Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 7th March 1971: A Historical Analysis,”Journal of Social and Political Sciences 3, no. 1 (2020); Bal
Ram Nanda, Road to Pakistan: The Life and Times of Mohammad Ali
Jinnah , (Routledge India, 2013); and Mahatma Gandhi and Mohandas
Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997). Major’s lecture also reminds us of Tagore’s
portrayal of Sandip as an anti-colonial leader in The Home and the
World . Sandip delivers a charismatic speech in Suksar, Bengal, to
organise people against the British division of Bengal. Tagore depicts
Sandip’s words with divine sparks of fire that intoxicate the people and
prepare them to dedicate themselves to the country’s cause.22Rabindranath
Tagore, The Home and the World , trans., Surendranath Tagore
(London: Macmillan, 1957).
As the novel shows, Major depicts Mr Jones as a reckless, cruel and
unlawful master with a group of lazy and irresponsible workers. This
master ignores animals’ rights and has subjugated them, although animals
as the citizens of England. To Major, man is free and domineering, and
the latter is fettered and slaves. Men are enjoying their life, but
animals are dying every day within misery and deprivation. Again, men
enjoy their life, not with the fruit of their labour. They live on
animals’ production and take away animals’ riches, rights and even kids
from them. However, for that wealth, men are not even grateful. Instead,
when finding animals sick and weak, men either flog and drown them in
the ponds, take them to the slaughterers, or make them the other
animals’ food.
Major also evaluates men’s concept of animal life as a cycle of birth,
work, and death. He rejects men’s concept as a cultural politics and
contends that this cycle is a human construction, not natural,
universal, and unchanging. Men advocate this animal life philosophy only
to legitimise their rule over animals as a natural mandate. They have
imposed this structure on the animals that reproduce the same order
generations after generations without thinking for a second time.
Major further interrogates men’s idea of a world order where both men
and animals share a common interest and work for each other
interactively. Men look after animals and tend them. Animals, in their
turn, help them in producing goods and with their products. However,
Major dismisses this concept as fake and cheating. Instead, he argues
that men are the only animal on the earth who only work for their
interests and benefits. Their cooperative work premises are men’s
strategies to enjoy the master’s status on earth.
Consequently, Major emphasises animals’ awakening towards their
self-knowledge. To Major, animals have their land, and the land has
riches. Again, animals have the moral and intellectual capacity to make
the best use of their riches. However, as they are ignorant about who
they are and what their powers are, animals life means arduous work and
misery. Thus, he encourages the animals to know the difference between
men and animals and the essence of animal identity. Men are two-legged
with two arms which they use for mischief. By contrast, animals are
four-legged, and those with two legs have two wings. The wings look like
hands, but they are not for mischief but aviation. Again, men wear
clothes, live in houses, use money, drink alcohol, gamble, and trade in
the market. However, animals are unlike them. Animals go naked. They do
not stay in houses. They do not use money or do business, as they are
the producers of goods. They eat some natural foods, drink from ponds,
and do not need any cooked and processed food and drinks. Animals also
possess an inherent physical strength and a mental propensity to
accomplish their works.
Therefore, Major forbids animals to do what men do: ‘No animal must ever
live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol,
or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of
Man are evil’.33George Orwell. Animal Farm . New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1946) 2014, 7. Kindle edition. Further
citation to this work given in the text. He inspires them to be aware
of their essence and develop a separate and authentic identity. One
seminal feature of this identity is friendship, fraternity, and
equality. All animals are friends and brothers: ‘Weak or strong, clever
or simple, we are all brothers.’44Ibid,. 7. Whoever they are,
they will never be parochial, domineering and terrorise fellow animals.
Major then emotionally charge the animals, advocating revolution as the
path of self-actualisation. If animals can stand up against Mr Jones and
dismount him from power, they will be owners of their land and
independent: ‘Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the
scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished
forever.’55Ibid,.5. He also presents the ‘Beasts of England’ as
a divinely gifted childhood song in front of the animals and explains
that the dream of the animal kingdom is an age-old spirit that his
predecessors bore and transmitted to him. Finally, he presents himself
as an old predecessor who is executing his moral duties by passing
through the dream and message of rebellion through the tuneful song.
Major’s speech sparks a ‘wildest excitement66Orwell,Animal Farm , 9. in the animals. All animals respond to his
appeal. A desire for new land colours their imagination, and they
promise to turn their leader’s dream true. Specifically, Major’s speech
significantly impacts Snowball and Napoleon. Their old worldview is
changed, and they begin anti-men activities. Suitably, an anti-colonial
animal party emerges in Manor Farm. Snowball and Napoleon become the
late Major’s torchbearers. Snowball is a vivacious planner and an
excellent orator. By contrast, Napoleon manifests the features of a
grave thinker and a man of action. Squealer joins them as a mediator
between the leaders and the rest of the animals.
This trio first organises Major’s unwritten directives into a national
culture named Animalism. The imperial rule generally blocks the growth
of the native and national culture. The rulers replace the colonised
cultures with their own and directly or indirectly liquidate the
essential cultural elements. This cultural replacement is a colonial
safeguard that removes the possibility of cultural resistance.77Cabral,
“National Liberation and Culture,” 53-55. For this reason, at the
beginning of most anti-colonial movements, the nationalist leaders
prepared their cultural system based on their languages, traditions, and
histories. They aim to awaken the nation to self-consciousness and build
a foundation for the future society. That is why a national culture is
not just a bundle of traditions and norms. It signifies a people’s
efforts and actions in their thought and practical spheres to create
them and sustain their existence.’88Fanon, The Wretched ,
187-188.
Animalism presents animals’ efforts to create a national culture.
Snowball and Napoleon work to make animals aware of their new identity.
They arrange secret meetings and simplify the clauses of Animalism for
ordinary animals. They explain who animals are, their life purpose, why
Mr Jones is not their master, how a ribbon symbolises slavery, or why
freedom is more valuable than anything. Although the pigs’ explanation
appears complicated to some animals and some remains doubtful about the
change of masters, most animals declare their unwavering devotion
towards them. They become well-versed in the clauses and aspire to
maintain an authentic animal culture.
A significant feature of the pigs’ forming national culture is their
keenness for education and training. Education has been a rare
opportunity for animals during Mr Jones’ days. Only Major has been the
lucky animals who received education and became enlightened. Moreover,
modern education is a valuable medium to learn the colonisers’ language,
literature, logical reasoning, and science. It will help the colonisers
to acquire subjecthood and speak back to their rulers. Hence, Snowball
and Napoleon collect Mr Jones’ children spelling books ‘thrown on the
rubbish heap.’99Orwell, Animal Farm , 15. They also study
Mr Jones books on science, vocational training, and warfare. The pigs
become experts in reading, writing, blacksmithing, carpentering, and
defensive war strategies in no time. They become teachers to all
animals.
Eventually, the animals fight with Mr Jones and his men. Despite men’s
threats, lashing the whips, beating, or shooting the guns, they jointly
attack them. They are bruised, bleed and shot, but they do not stop.
Even men become surprised at animals’ ferocity: ‘They had never seen
animals behave like this before.’1010Ibid,.13. They find animals’
‘sudden uprising’1111Ibid,.13. , something incredible and
frightening that they cannot control and subdue. Thus, men leave the
farm, and animals become victorious.
Orwell describes animals’ independence as a ‘glorious thing.’1212Ibid,.14.
He shows that animals express their joy of being independent through
hilarious reactions. At first, animals feel bewildered. They cannot
believe their luck. Then, from the little hilltop, they ‘gazed round
them in the clear morning light. Yes, it was theirs—everything that
they could see was theirs!’1313Ibid,.14. This sense of ownership
and belonging makes animals
gamboll[ed] around and round, they hurled themselves into the air in
great leaps of excitement. They rolled in the dew, they cropped
mouthfuls of sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of the black earth
and snuffed its rich scent.’1414Ibid,.14.
They find their farm something new that they have never seen and watch
everything with a new outlook of rights. The joy of freedom swells the
animal’s heart with pride and contentment that manifest on the eve of
being independent across post-colonial nations.