1. “Shooting an Elephant”
By George Orwell
Historical Background & Context

2. Setting: “Shooting an Elephant”
Colonial Period
Burma, Province of India
British Colony
1936

3. Historical Overview: Burma
British government took advantage of Burma’s instability
Colonized in 1866
Burmese protests in 1920s -- Buddhist monks & Students’ Union at Rangoon University
January 1947—granted independence from Great Britain

4. British Empire—1920s
India Burma

5. Civil Disobedience: The Struggle for Indian Independence

6. Gandhi: The Movie

7. Gandhi: Indian Congress
Creation of Indian Congress--1919
Legislative body with limited control over Indian affairs
Indian Nationalist—Mohandas Gandhi—”father of India”—became congressional leader

8. Gandhi: Protest Used fasting as a form of protest—repeatedly
Principles of Satyagraha: nonviolence and civil disobedience
Assassinated by a Hindi radical enroute to a prayer meeting in 1948 (age 78)

9. Oppression of the Indian People: 1919
Britain passed the Rowlatt Act
Stripped Indian protestors of civil liberties
Eliminated right to trial by a jury
British soldiers killed hundreds of nationalist agitators

10. Gandhi’s Response Gandhi pushed for Indian independence
Promoted nonviolent protest methods
Influenced future movements

11. George Orwell 1903-1950 Best Known Writing Novels Nonfiction
1934 – Burmese Days
1935 – A Clergyman's Daughter
1936 – Keep the Aspidistra Flying
1939 – Coming Up for Air
1945 – Animal Farm
1949 – Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nonfiction
1933 – Down and Out in Paris and London
1937 – The Road to Wigan Pier
1938 – Homage to Catalonia

12. Orwell’s Moral Dilemma
Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police
Stationed in Burma—1922
Orwell's moral conflict stemmed from
his position as the despised Imperialist
in a colonized country

13. Moral Conflict
"I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically - and secretly, of course - I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.”

14. Burmese Reaction
Despite his support for the Burmese, Orwell endured their overwhelming bitterness and hatred because of his British heritage: “The sneering faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me . . got badly on my nerves."

15. Orwell’s Guilt and Reaction
Orwell sums up his feelings of guilt, coupled with his reaction against being hated: "All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible."

16. Orwell’s Emotional Response
Although part of him saw the British Raj as tyrannical, “With another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts."

17. Orwell’s Rationalization
Orwell rationalized his rage saying, "Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism."
Orwell realized that tyrannical imperialism works against both the imperialists and the natives.

18. Elephants: Timber Harvest
Myanmar timber elephants and trainers (of Mandalay division ( Bombay Burma Timber Company)
Bombay Burma is the company which started the extraction of Myanmar forest products in large scale in the time of British
rule.

19. Timber Elephants
Timber elephants at work
Harvesting teakwood