George Orwell’s second novel, Burmese Days, one of his first major works tells the fictional story of John Flory, set in the waning days of colonialism in Burma. One of the pinnacle novels on colonialism, Orwell critiques the various forms of colonialism, the militaristic, economic and cultural imperialism he saw during his time in Burma in his book. While all three forms of imperialism are exhibited in this book, economic imperialism seems to be the root of it all.
Orwell begins his novel with a brief view of the militaristic imperialism of Great Britain. A young U Po Kin views the columns of British soldiers marching into Mandalay. U Po Kin’s first memory is the British invasion and “In his childish way he had grasped that his own people were no match for this race of giants” (p.5-6). Much like the takeover of Burma, Orwell’s description of the “battle” for Burma reads very briefly. The Burmese had no match for Britain’s advanced guns and navy and thus, the British merely marched in and “flexed” their muscle instead of having a real battle.” From a geopolitical aspect, the British do not have many of the necessary resources to live self sufficiently and need to siphon off from poor, but resource rich lands. Flory questions Dr. Veraswami, “Do you suppose my firm, for instance, could get its timber contracts if the country weren’t in the hands of the British?” (p.40). Here Orwell speaks through his character of John Flory to get to the heart of imperialism, money. Orwell paints Flory as anti-British and even he acknowledges that were it not for money that even he would leave, despite the fact that he seems to enjoy Burmese culture even more than the local European (and even English) culture
Perhaps Orwell’s most pressing critique is that of the cultural imperialism of Britain, the so called “white man’s burden” used to justify the British occupation of Burma and many other colonies. This ties back to the economic imperialism, showing how the economic imperialism eventually leads to cultural imperialism. The vehemently pro-British Dr. Veraswami extols the great work that modernization has brought to Burma, a hospital, a police station and a school. However, eventually as John sees it, the forests, pagodas and monasteries will be replaced with “villa after villa” playing the same gramophone.
In addition the local European community, while not necessarily suppressing the local culture, tends to ignore and privately think of it as disgusting. Orwell uses Dr. Veraswami as the shining example of the British successfully making an indigenous citizen detest their own society while claiming the superiority of European culture.
The ultimate goal of the main non-English characters in Burmese Days is to get accepted into another’s culture. U Po Kin, while scheming and greedy views rubbing elbows with men to be some honor few will ever experience. Dr. Veraswami also appears enamored with the thought of being accepted into the European community, the pride of his life is not his medical, but his friendship with a white man. In contrast, Flory is disgusted with his local white community and yearns to have someone with whom he can share Burmese culture. Like the other forms of imperialism, everything comes back to the economic imperialism; should the civilizing society not pay enough, Flory fears that the British would just chuck it away, leaving them with a muddling of the two cultures. Flory says it best when he stated “booze is the cement of the empire,” the white population sticks together, not because they like each other, but because it is beneficial. An endless supply of alcohol is necessary to forget the lie that they are there to uplift their black brethren, not rob them blind.
In the end, it was the need for precious resources to feed the industrial revolution that led to most colonies, such as the one in Burmese Days. Analyzing Britain’s imperialism from a geopolitical standpoint one can easily see the necessity for this great empire. As a smaller island, Britain lacked the natural resources to keep the machinery of industrialization and her empire at the top of the world. As seen in Burmese Days, the belief in the “white man’s burden” was used to ease the minds of those imperialists in the colonies. The relative distance from the heart of the empire necessitated an indirect rule through a small community of British who helped modernize the country. As the most anti-British character in the book, even Flory admits he is there only for the money, and as history has shown us once the colonies became too expensive after World War II (and before) they were dropped, leaving chaos to ensue.
