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Elizabeth Lackersteen
Dr. Veraswami, a short, chubby man with glasses, is an Indian doctor and jail superintendent in Kyauktada, Burma. Though a colonized subject, Dr. Veraswami is an enthusiastic supporter of the British Empire; his support often leads him to quarrel, in friendly fashion, with his friend John Flory, a British timber merchant with anti-imperial opinions. After the colonial government begins pressuring Burma’s all-white European Clubs to accept a token non-white member, Subdivisional Magistrate U Po Kyin starts a slander campaign against Dr. Veraswami to supplant him as the obvious choice for election to the European Club. After Flory’s death by suicide—which Dr. Veraswami works to have declared a firearm accident to protect his friend’s reputation—Dr. Veraswami has no European supporters, and U Po Kyin succeeds in ruining him. Dr. Veraswami is demoted and transferred to a worse position with lower pay.
Dr. Veraswami Quotes in Burmese Days
The Burmese Days quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Veraswami or refer to Dr. Veraswami. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
“But Flory will desert his friend quickly enough when the trouble begins. These people have no feeling of loyalty towards a native.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
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.
Chapter 3
Quotes
“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.”
Chapter 6
Quotes
With Indians there must be no loyalty, no real friendship. […] What shall it profit a man if he save his own soul and lose the whole world?
Chapter 12
Quotes
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!
Chapter 13
Quotes
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.
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Dr. Veraswami Quotes in Burmese Days
The Burmese Days quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Veraswami or refer to Dr. Veraswami. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
“But Flory will desert his friend quickly enough when the trouble begins. These people have no feeling of loyalty towards a native.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
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.
Chapter 3
Quotes
“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.”
Chapter 6
Quotes
With Indians there must be no loyalty, no real friendship. […] What shall it profit a man if he save his own soul and lose the whole world?
Chapter 12
Quotes
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!
Chapter 13
Quotes
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.
