Doublethink!

Orwell manages to puncture the mystique of the colonial whites by depicting them off-duty, which is perfectly aligned with the reader’s assumption that once again, this book is going to be a great critique of imperialism (it is George Orwell after all). Orwell’s antipathy toward imperialism manifests itself rather bizarrely in his veiled disdain for Burmese nationalism, whom he paints as effectively terrorists, dacoits and puppet peasants firmly in the thrall of U Po Kyin who wishes to fulfil his desire to become even more of a “parasite” upon the British by becoming part of them, by inclusion into the Club. Burmese nationalism is then characterized as friable; the riot is easily broken up. Even the editor of the Burmese Patriot who was at the center of it all wasn’t spared- he evidently abandoned his hunger strike after a feeble six hours. At the end of it all we are left with the distinct impression that U Po Kyin, ironically, poses more of a challenge to British rule by wanting to become an agent himself and continuing his shenanigans. His cupidity is more likely to reshape colonial society by playing into the corruption that it is predicated on (Orwell has already glossed on the myopia of the British- no British officer would ever believe anything against his own men). After all, “absorbed in intrigue”, isn’t U Po Kyin “practically invulnerable”, being “too fine a judge of men”? Flory’s epithets come to mind: he praises the “absolute savages” that Elizabeth perceives, calling them “highly civilized”, even more so than them. Indeed, U Po Kyin is more vile, more ingratiatingly clever, and ultimately more imperialist than say Maxwell or Flory. Lynnette posits that desire is recycled into banality and it is this precise banality that U Po Kyin idealizes, living under the aegis of deception of the Empire on all fronts.