George Orwell museum to come up in Bihar

Patna : George Orwell's birth place at Motihari in Bihar's East Champaran district will soon be turned into a full-fledged museum.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Orwell's birth place, the decrepit two-room house on the old opium campus would be preserved for tourists.

The Bihar government had earlier decided to declare the house as a 'Protected Site'.

Kumar said he has asked the arts and culture department officials to prepare a restoration and development project of the seven-acre campus of the opium warehouse where Eric Arthur Blair, popularly known as George Orwell, was born in 1903.

His father Richard W Blair worked for the opium department during the British rule.

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Orwell was taken to England by his mother Ida when he was one-year-old, after which he went on to pen one of last century's best dystopian novels '1984' and 'Animal Farm'.

"The house is in a dilapidated condition. The state government's priority is to protect the building and other development works would follow later," Art and Culture Department officials said.

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A detailed report about the history of the house, its present condition and land records had been sought from the district administration.

A team of experts would be sent to Motihari to assess the situation from an archaeological point of view, they said.

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The department would initiate the process of declaring Orwell's house a protected site in accordance with the provisions of Bihar Ancient Monument (Protection) Act of 1976.