Burmese Days by George Orwell - Book Report/Review Example

Burmese Days by George Orwell “Burmese Days” is one of the most remarkable works of twentieth century colonial era, which portrays the true features of imperialism, had been inflicted upon a large part of the Asian and African countries by different European powers in order to capture the wealth and strategic control of these poor and wretched regions on the one hand, and introduce and impose their social and cultural values in these areas on the other. Being the part of British forces in India, the writer George Orwell was the eye-witness of all the developments being made in the Burmese region of British India (present-day Myanmar), where the British had deployed their forces in order to subjugate the local population as well as utilize the wealth of resources of the area for the British cause. Orwell has very skillfully depicted the position of British officials and pointed out the miserable situation they underwent while dealing with the local people. The writer is of the opinion that the colonizers i.e. the occupiers had to take many unpleasant decisions just to impress the occupied local community and maintain their respect and prestige before the colonized. He is of the view that they existed insurmountable abeyance between the colonizers and the colonized, which could not be mitigated due to the large scale social, cultural and racial divergences. In addition, since the British forces had captured the land and reign of Burma in quite an illegal manner, it was impossible for the Burmese to surrender their rights as the real subjects of the country, having unabated right to rule their own country through local leadership and representation. It is therefore, they considered the British as occupiers and invaders, which had no interest in the welfare, progress and uplift of the Burmese people at any cost. Hence, the concrete wall of hatred and discrimination had been built between the British invaders and the Burmese subjects in the colonial Burma. Orwell was a sub-divisional British police officer in a Burmese town called Moulmein. The British had arrived in India as traders, but being gluttonous for capturing the resources of the prosperous Indian sub-continent, they got involved in the politics of the country. They made tricky plans, and purchased the loyalties of Indian courtiers and soldiers for their own purpose. Subsequently, they were successful in setting their foot, which resulted into the total collapse of the Mughal Empire, and the establishment of British rule in India. Being a young and an energetic young officer, he keenly observed the behavior of the local Burmese towards the English colonizers, who were ruling over their country for the last many decades. Being physically strong and tall, and having fair-complexion, advanced technology and latest armed equipments, the British looked highly commanding and impressive in comparison with the local people, who maintained very high opinion about the colonizers, and looked upon their colonizers with great envy taking them as the superior race. Consequently, there had been well-established a thick boundary between the colonizers and the colonized on the basis of race, ethnicity and nationality. The author has indicated towards the social, cultural, racial and sexual boundaries between the British colonizers and the subjugated colonized Burmese. And it was perhaps necessary for both the communities to perform and behave in such a way, which could strengthen these boundaries in one way or the other. Though the British invaders and upper stratum of the local Burmese participated in dissipation and merry-making jointly, but both the pretended distances from one another due to some political and administrative reasons. It was due to the fact that the British looked for keeping their hold on the local people by showing that they could not bring the Burmese closer to them, and there must have been a respectable distance between the British and the Burmese. In the same way, the Burmese politicians pretended their hatred against the British in the presence of the masses, so that the people could not declare them as traitors. It was not only the case with the general public, but also such cultured and refined persons like Dr. Veraswami were also preyed to the same circumstances, and was also the target of U Po Kyin’s hatred and abhorrence. Orwell found that the Burmese in general were against the British from the core of their heart. They passed insulting remarks and raised humiliating slogans on the colonizers in order to express their displeasure and anger against them. Orwell recalls how the Burmese cause the British officers fall in the field while playing football, which brought smile on the countenances of the Burmese. The young Burmese, particularly the young Buddhist priests, passed awkward comments on the British from the safe distance, which was really painful and intolerable for such a sensitive person like the author. The author felt extreme disgust and displeasure on such hypocritical attitude. His repugnance infuriated in such a high altitude that he many times thought of resigning from the Indian Imperial Police. The British and Burmese were different from one another not only in appearance and physical structure, but also both the two were pole apart in exposure, vision, taste and cultural values, which could be observed by analyzing the main characters of the book. For instance, having the British origin, Elizabeth could easily mingle with the members of opposite sex even had been living in Burma for the last many years, which was almost a taboo in the Indian culture of that era. In addition, a colonizer lady could never think of entering into friendship or love affair with a colonized man; on the contrary, the local colonized women envied the life of “mems” or foreign ladies, and wished either to marry the British officers, or at least winning their attention and company even for few moments. It is therefore, the local woman Ma Hla May happily accepted becoming Flory’s mistress, though she knew that Flory would never enter into marital-knot with her, and she could never obtain the status of the spouse of a ‘pakka sahib’ or Englishman at any cost. Ma Hla May played very condemnable part regarding aggravating the differences between Elizabeth and Flory by playing the false drama of romance with Flory in the presence of Elizabeth. Though Flory contained positive opinion regarding the Burmese culture, and served as the bridge between the British and the local community, yet he found it hard to preserve a seat for the local doctor Veraswami in the British club, membership of which was confined to the British citizens only. Since British club enjoyed the status of sitting place for the officials, which was used for discussions and planning in respect of administration of the occupied land. Consequently, the local community had been barred from obtaining citizenship of the club. The Burmese were well aware of their shortcomings and limitations and considered their culture and technology lagging far behind from the British people. It is therefore, Dr. Veraswami regards worst of the British technology better than the best of the Indian civilization. In addition, he looked for application of reforms in Burma, which infuriated U Po Kyin, who consequently caused the humiliation of Dr. Veraswami in a false allegation of instigating the prisoners and encouraging the Burmese raise a revolt against the British. It seriously cost his reputation for the time being, though it was redressed by Flory by playing the role of a sincere and true friend of Dr. Veraswami. The author displayed his disliking for the imperialism, and disclosed his feelings of sympathies for the Burmese. He tried his best to co-operate with the local people, but unfortunately, he was the direct target of the hatred of Burmese people. The author particularly laments on the sorry state of the Eurasians, including Elizabeth, Flory and others, who were disregarded by both the Asians and Europeans, as no one was ready to trust them and consider them as the part of their race and community. To conclude, the author has drawn out the actual traits of British imperialism during colonial era. He has also skillfully detected the views and nature of the colonized people, who considered the colonizers as cruel and ruthless community, which had challenged their freedom and basic human rights as well. He is of the view that the local people scared the might of the British officials, as they were quite unaware of the problems faced by the invaders. Thus, the preservation and upholding of their status was not an easy task for the British. On the contrary, imposition of their own rules was really a hard nut to crack for the colonizers, who had to pay a ransom amount of safeguarding their reputation while living thousands of miles away from their homes ruling over completely stranger nation. Finally, he declares the relations between the colonizers and the colonized as the suspicious ones, where no party was ready to trust the other. Rather, both the two remained at daggers drawn, and looked for the immediate downfall of the other. REFERENCE: Orwell, George. Burmese Days. Harper & Brothers1934 Read More