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Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2 "BURMESE DAYS** - (1934) "Imperialism never unifies but always separates man from man" - Dayid Kubal - "Outside the Whale" -57- Imperialism is the logical extension of colonialism on the political front as Capitalism is on the economic front. Eterpetuation of capitalism on the socio-economic scene of the colonies was the strategy of European and Pacific-Rim Colonial nations. The Channel and the Navy made the life of the English slvimbered and somnolent in their colonies - the off-shoots of which turned out to be Victorian snobbery and Edwardian jingoism. The application of Adam Smithian economics on the non-vibrant economic fronts in South Asian and South East Asian countries made the colonialists self-complacent. Hong.jQoqg, on the way to **one nation two economies" strategy of the Chinese by 1999, is the last bastion of Smithian economics in a British colony. Burma, where Ne-Win ruled with iron hand for a quari:er century paving the way for the 1988 turmoil, was a British colony till 1946. Burma was part of British India till 1936. Orwell's journey to the Bxiddhist - hallowed soil of Burma, to become perpetuator of Britain's imperialism, , turned out counter­ productive. This journey became a journey of repentance on a spiritual plane, betv;ixfcand between the joumies of rebellion and redemption to Paris and SpainyrespKOCtively. Orwell's experiences in Burma lingered in his psyche even after two decades of his adieu to the Burmese soil. In a review, dated F^ruary 1946, of the "Story of Burma" by Tennyson Jesse Orwell brings out the tenor of her book as'benevolent imperial ism'post-dating Kipling. O^'^^Hare view -58- focusses the economic exploitation of Burma by the English and their social misbehaviour. The author of "Burmese Days** introduces his own book to her and says :- •*I dare say it is unfair in some ways and inaccurate in some details but much of it is simply reporting of what I have seen.** (Collected Essays - Journalism and Letters - Vol: IV - P.142I. The exceptional "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth** orientation of Orwell comes in when he rubs the fur of his own cat backwards*. Bernard Crick compares Orwell to a loyal and vociferous football sympathizer who hurls complaints, sarcasm and abuse at his own long-suffering team to better thei1^performance. His own grand-mother *s social exclusiveness in Burma is limelighted as typical of the British attitude. He says: **My granctaother lived 40 years in Buirma and at the end could not speak a word of Burmese - typical of the ordinary Englishwomtan's attitude." (Ibid). Orwell*s critical acumen, the singular national personality trait of the Germans, comes out in f loun^xtig coloures in the treatment of friends and foes alike• Orwell was very heavy on Hitler and Stalin,*the evil blot and blip in human history'^respectively- He was equally dead against the hijmiliations meted out to the Axis war prisoners. In his matured political wisdom he cautioned the Allies ...A -59- against the symbolic Berlin Wall in ffi^e^ uncritically labelled last testament^ "Nineteen Eighty^Four*^ when he had caricatured then prevalent tendency of the super powers in dividing the world into zones of influence. Orwell's departed restless soul might be getting the peace that pa^seth understanding with the historical demolition of Berlin Wall, and the stamping out of Stalinist Communism from the Eastern Block countries. Orwell subscribed to the historically borne out fact that the humiliation hurled upon the Germans in 1919 had given rise to Hitler. In the essay entitled "Revenge is Sour", the spiritual insight and depth of conceptual clarity of Orwell come, obt '-^tt in the making of 'democratic Socialism ** Oh'^''^'writes:- "But what this scene, and miach else that I saw in Germany, brought home to me was that the whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish day-dream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge." Revenge is an act which you went to cotrmit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of iit^sotence is removed, the desire evaporates also."(pEJLi Vol: IV P:21 .Pen: 84). The philosophy adumbrated in "Revenge is Sour" is the ethical framework of the political idea of 'democratic Socialism*. According to Alan Sandison, Orwell's hatred of imperialism is rooted in the belief that "the true ../- -60- corruption of imperialism, in fact, is that it denies the possibility of reliance on one *3 own good faith", The isolation that comes from moral cowardice as in the case of John Flory, aristocratic arrogance rooted in native hunting as shown by Verral, obsequious official existence of Dr. Verraswami and l^o-Kyn getting rid of professional enemies with Machi#vellUin finesse.become the natural adjuncts of colonial culture, Orwell's journies through the malaria Infested alluvial plains of Burma is the silhouette of ?Ru£wtase Days** The extensive paddy fields on either side of the river Irravady and the mighty teeks like the glorious oaks of German forest assume the proportions of literary personfications, The technique of pathetic fallacy is exploited to its full in his first naturalistic novel. Incidentally, the teak trees of Burmese forests which are being grounded and the wilting glorious oak trees of German forests are more than environmental concerns, "Burmese Days*,as a novel^is of the period of the literary apprenticeship of Orvell. It is a naturalistic novel as per the literary blue print of Orwell, Orwell was to recount later:- ••I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similies, and also full of purple ...A -61- passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their sound. And in fact ray first completed novel,"Burmese Days",which I wrote when I was 30, but projected much earlier is rather that kind of book". ('Why I Write* - Collected Essays Letters and Journalism. P:.25 Vol. 1). The metaphors of apocalyptic destruction recurrent in Orwell make their first appearance in "Burmese Days" as Alan Sandison points out. In evolving the concept of 'democratic Socialism* which eschews manipulatory tactics in personal lives and propounds cultural assimilation on the social front, "Burmese Days* is Ort<ell*s second step­ ping stone: 'Down and Out* being the first. ; "Bunnese Days", *a darkly pessimifitiVnovel' as David Kdbal christens it, is relieved of its pessimism by the balming touch of nature. Picturesque description of nature is the forte of Orwell, His early writings are littered with the purple passages of descriptions. Dorothy Hare merges in the ripe hop fields of Kent and exudes the aura of Hardy's tragic heroines, especially of Tess. Gordon and Rosemary seek nature for their amorous explorations from the conroercialism of London. Her pregnancy which turns out to be instrunnental for Gordon's decision to keep his own asphidistra, is a legacy of nature. Bowling's return to Lower Binfield is indicative of Orwell's ...A -62- espousal of the philosophy of Pantheism, The in­ corruptible nature and man's capacity to pollute it is the back drop of "Animal Farm". Nature provides the escape route to Winston and Julia from the terror, cruelties and pessimism. Winston and Juliajgoing out^ to their open 'hide-out* from the stiffling and brutalised loveless cellars of the Ministry of Love^ is as efficacious as the instrument of •comic relief* in a Shakespearean tragedy. The voice of the thrush when Winston and Julia make love to each other, its flappy disappearance when Winston fails in his first attempt of love and Julians encouraging pat, 'Nevdr mind dear, the whole afternoon is there are Edwardian nature slots. Throughout his writings^George Orwell emphasises the cathartic effect of nature upon man. According to Alan Sandison^ *the law of operating inside nature * is a fundamental percept for Orwell; the one on which is dependent his whole notion of the free personality. The nature of Orwell is similar to that of the Ere-Romantics. Combining both mind and sense he lookes upon nature as the theatre of empirical observation and a place where the divinity of scripture and the individual self operate. Nature is a sort of moral gold standard where the spiritual life of man and the currency of 'personal self* are tested. The ramifications of 'natxiire * concept in Orwell is brought out by Sandison by clubbing together Wigan, the slums of London and Paris and the revolutionary Bordello -63- in Barcelona. As Sandison concludes,"operating within nature is the means whereby the individual achieves the realisation and fulfillment of personal self". Orwell's literary effort of driving out the land­ scapes of Burma from his consciousness which had assximed the proportions of a nightmare because of long mental associationj^was a Biblical Jonah like act. Jonah,the Prophet, slept in the cushioned incubator of the whale only for three days. Orwell carried the haunting imagery of Burma first read in Kipling for nearly five years (1922-27) like his emotional Mth Charles Dickens who tcb imaginatively heard the disturbing sounds of David Copperfield and Uriah Heep in his London wanderings. Literary creation is similar to the Biblical \j|iale's act of swallowing and vomiting out. The 'prophet', Orwell uses the religious associations of Jonah and *lhale in a secular context to write of an artist's aesthetic distance from political currents and social undercurrents with special reference to Henry Miller in the title-piece, ••Inside the Whale". David Rubal's meaningofully titled critical book^'*Outside the Whale|^ is about the political ^^stance of Orvell.
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