Imperialism and Hypocrisy Theme Analysis

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.