A Quick Background

No, I’m not referring to George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel about a country whose citizens are being oppressed by a totalitarian government.  Yes, I’m being facetious.

There are some very eerie similarities between what occurred in Orwell’s Oceanian province, Airstrip One, and the continual oppression and denial of justice that culminated in the government lead Sikh massacre that same year – 1984 – in India, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest democracy.” But I’ll save that for another blog.

There are even more eerie similarities in the shared nature of oppression and struggle for human rights in more “civilized” nations like the United States, France, England, and Canada to name a few. This oppression comes in the form of the creation of – in the words of Edward Said, author of Orientalism – “the other.”

The easy way out is to give you a quick overview of my two cents and leave you a list of links to some great books, articles, and organizations which have compiled some excellent resources on the subject. But I’ve never done things the easy way. Besides, my aim is not to simply disburse information that has already been compiled. It is to attempt to come to an understanding and start developing characters for my story.

In addition to providing you with list of resources that I found invaluable during the course of my research, I will be attempting to provide you with my understanding of the background and the universal lessons we can draw from it. And fairly in-depth information from the countless sources I have voraciously scoured through. Initially I attempted to cover all of this in one post, but 4000 words later, I realized I cannot possibly cover everything I need to in one post. So this will be a series, which I will try to update regularly.