PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Circle, a community driven literary imitative, arranged its 53rd monthly study circle here on Friday, drawing literary enthusiasts, students, academics and thinkers to explore the core themes of the classic novel by George Orwell, 1984. The session was arranged with an objective to promote the cause of intellectual discourse and dialogue among youth.

The event was organised in collaboration with the department of English, Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology (SUIT), under the banner of ‘Beyond the Pages’.

Panelists shared their insights with audience followed by a question-answer session.

The session centered on a lively and timely debate of George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel.

The keynote speaker, Dr Mohammad Shakilur Rahman, a noted research scholar, delivered an in-depth analysis that explored core themes of authoritarianism, surveillance, psychological manipulation, distortion of truth and the perils of totalitarianism.

Panelists said that 1984, the novel, depicts a nightmarish society under the omnipresent eye of ‘Big Brother’ where history is rewritten, language is weaponised through ‘newspeak’, contradictory beliefs are held simultaneously via ‘doublethink’ and independent thought is branded as ‘thought crime’.

They examined how George Orwell’s warnings about the manipulation of information and erosion of privacy, and control of narrative remained strikingly relevant today, particularly in an era dominated by digital surveillance, AI-driven monitoring, algorithmic bias data harvesting by governments and corporations, the spread of discrimination, and the rise of ‘post-truth’ politics.

The discussion highlighted parallels between Orwell’s fictional ministry of truth and modern phenomena such as echo chambers on social media, predictive analytics influencing behaviour, facial recognition technologies, and the strategic deployment of ‘alternative facts’ in polarised media environments.

The participants also debated whether contemporary tools of control – far more sophisticated than anything imagined in 1949 – could enable forms of digital authoritarianism, underscoring the novel’s call for vigilance in safeguarding individual liberty, critical and objective truth amid information overload.

Haris Karim, chief of Peshawar Circle, said his organisation would continue encouraging young graduates to explore books and ideas to provoke critical reflection, and build vibrant community in the provincial metropolis dedicated to a meaningful dialogue among the youth.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2026