Burmese Days represents British imperialism as a fundamentally hypocritical project based on “the lie” that the British intend to “uplift [their] poor black brothers instead of to rob them.” Set in colonial Burma (now Myanmar), which was a colony of the British Empire from 1886 to 1948, the novel suggests that British colonizers consciously or subconsciously know that their true purpose in Burma is to exploit Burmese people economically—yet to preserve their sense of moral uprightness, they “justify” their exploitative presence in Burma by pretending that they, white Britons, are civilizing supposedly more barbaric non-white peoples through colonial rule.
In Burmese Days, the British colonizers’ take out their suppressed knowledge of their own hypocrisy, exploitative behavior, and lack of true moral justification on the people they colonize, constantly fantasizing about extrajudicial violence against colonized people to enforce respect for whiteness and Britishness. These fantasies, when enacted, lead to acts of “beastliness” against colonized Burmese people that ultimately prompts anti-British rioting. After a corrupt Burmese official, U Po Kyin, foments a small anti-British rebellion so that he himself can put down the rebellion and curry favor with the British, the area’s acting Divisional Forest Officer, a young man named Maxwell, shoots to death an arrested rebel who tries run away, an unjustified killing of a man who was not a genuine threat. After the rebel’s family kills Maxwell in retaliation, a manager for a British company in Burma named Ellis—infuriated that Burmese men have killed a white man—assaults and ultimately blinds a Burmese high-schooler because he believes the high-schooler was laughing at him. The blinding of the school-boy leads, in turn, to a riot. These escalating acts of violence illustrate how the British Empire’s claims to “uplift” colonized peoples are indeed a “lie”—and how British colonizers’ suppressed knowledge of their own hypocrisy and immorality leads them to abuse colonized peoples.
Imperialism and Hypocrisy ThemeTracker
Imperialism and Hypocrisy Quotes in Burmese Days
“But Flory will desert his friend quickly enough when the trouble begins. These people have no feeling of loyalty towards a native.”
Any hint of friendly feeling towards an Oriental seemed to him a horrible perversity. He was an intelligent man and an able servant of his firm, but he was one of those Englishmen—common, unfortunately—who should never be allowed to set foot in the East.
“Why, of course, the lie that we’re here to uplift our poor black brothers instead of to rob them. I suppose it’s a natural lie enough. But it corrupts us, it corrupts us in ways you can’t imagine. There’s an everlasting sense of being a sneak and a liar that torments us and drives us to justify ourselves night and day. It’s at the bottom of half our beastliness to the natives.”
“You’ve got to be a pukka sahib or die, in this country. In fifteen years I’ve never talked honestly to anyone except you.”
There was, he saw clearly, only one way out. To find someone who would share his life in Burma—but really share it, share his inner, secret life, carry away from Burma the same memories as he carried. Someone who would love Burma as he loved it and hate it as he hated it. Who would help him live with nothing hidden, nothing unexpressed. Someone who understood him: a friend, that was what it came down to.
A friend. Or a wife?
The European Club, that remote, mysterious temple, that holy of holies far harder of entry than Nirvana! Po Kyin, the naked gutter-boy of Mandalay, the thieving clerk and obscure official, would enter that sacred place, call Europeans ‘old chap,’ drink whisky and soda and knock white balls to and fro on the green table!
She had brought back to him the air of England—dear England, where thought is free and one is not condemned forever to dance the danse du pukka sahib for the edification of the lower races.
“Order the police to open fire at once!” shouted Mr. Macgregor from the other side. “You have my authority.”
“And tell them to aim low! No firing over their heads. Shoot to kill. In the guts for choice!”