History Literature / BurmeseDays

Once upon a time in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting 1926]], in the stifling, lonely, tropical backwaters of British-controlled Burma, intrigue is slowly brewing. In the small rural outpost of Kyauktada, the corrupt native magistrate U Po Kyin has shifted his predatory mind into high gear, plotting against the Indian Dr Veraswami, the community doctor and surgeon. News has it that the local European Club, heretofore exclusive to Europeans in their unassailable bigoted logic, is finally opening membership to nonwhites and natives, and Dr Veraswami stands a good chance of being elected due to his close friendship with the very white, very English timber merchant, John Flory. To that end, U Po Kyin begins a covert smear campaign to devastate the good doctor's reputation, chiefly by accusing Dr Veraswami of sedition and disloyalty to the Empire, as well as by getting in between his and Flory's friendship.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Katha, the Upper Burmese town where Eric Blair was last posted, serves as the primary inspiration for Kyauktada, but Katha itself appears to have been much more progressive (at the time of the author's service there, the local European Club had already admitted several natives, Indians and Burmese alike, including the native-Burmese town chief; in fact Blair was the only Englishman of any significance there).

* AmbitionIsEvil: U Po Kyin. His rise to power is laid out in detail in the very first chapter, which functions as an entire EstablishingCharacterMoment for him. In childhood he felt terrified and awed by the militant British presence arriving in Burma; this convinces him that the only way he'll succeed in colonial society is to become a leech upon the ruling dispensation, and he quickly learns to take advantage of loopholes built into the power structure. At the age of 20 he hustles enough money via blackmail to buy his way into a civil service posting. By the time of the novel, he is 56 years old, and awaiting his biggest ambition yet--to be elected to Kyauktada's European Club, as its first native member.

* AuthorTract: Imperialism is ''bad''--even for the imperialists, because whatever genuine sympathies any white Englishman might have for the natives by necessity has to be repressed or subordinated to the vast, moneymaking and power-hungry imperial machine.
* AuthorityInNameOnly: Rather played with. On the one hand, the narrator frequently makes it clear that the British Empire is the ultimate source of despotism in places like Burma, and so even native civil servants like Dr Veraswami and native magistrates like U Po Kyin can only do so much--but on the other hand, what little spelled-out authority U Po Kyin has to work with, he uses--and abuses--for all it's worth, even to the point of manipulating ''pukka sahibs'' and other Europeans considered higher in status than him (the ultimate example of this of course is [[spoiler:ruining Flory's life, although Flory himself doesn't hold any high office in the Empire]]). Indeed a large part of why the Empire even functions is because millions of native collaborators loyally keep it running, as Dr Veraswami unironically points out.

* BoomerangBigot: Both Flory and Dr Veraswami. Flory has a fairly dim view of the British and of their purpose in India, invariably scoffing at their hypocritical "civilising mission" towards the natives. He often takes the native side in debates with Dr Veraswami, who in his turn believes the backwards image of Indian (and Burmese, and general Oriental) culture/s as seen through racist, British imperial lenses.

* EvilColonialist: The British ''pukka sahibs'', of course. They're greedy, racist, abusive to their servants and brutal at putting down local riots ... It's not like it was unexpected in a novel like this.

* FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence: Most of the British here are a least a bit racist (and often much more than a little racist) against all the Asians present: native Burmese, Indians, even [[HalfBreedDiscrimination half-European]] children born of wedlock. Ellis is just the most stridently oppressed by these Asians' very existence but the Club's other Europeans will make no secret of their own disdain, such as with Elizabeth Lackersteen and her aunt, with whom the racism combines with a general classist snobbery with which they disdain even lower-class Englishmen back home.

* HateSink: Ellis is perhaps the nadir of Kyauktada's generally prejudiced British colonial community. Even when he isn't spewing racist tirades his general attitude is viciously disagreeable and spiteful, even mudslinging at white Englishwomen like Elizabeth and thriving at any opportunity to spread or dwell on malicious gossip in general.

* HolidayInCambodia: Burma, in this case, is presented as a tropical hellhole, at least for the more prejudiced European/English colonialists who can't stomach local climate, culture, and customs. Flory at least is more appreciative.

* LastNameBasis: Most of the Englishmen are referred to, in the narrative and by each other, only by their surnames: Flory (though once he introduces himself as John), Macgregor, Westfield, Ellis, Maxwell, and Verrall, though one scene that involves a petition gives them each initials. The Lackersteens are an exception because there's three of them (not to mention Elizabeth's late parents, as detailed in her backstory), and so Elizabeth's uncle is sometimes referred to by his first name, Tom. Even his wife, her aunt, is never given a first name.

* MaliciousSlander: How U Po Kyin decides to destroy Dr Veraswami's local reputation--by alleging that the latter has seditious, anticolonial/anti-British leanings. Not to mention the ''Burmese Patriot'''s libellous accusation of Macgregor as leaving {{Asian Babymama}}s in his previous postings[[note]]though whether it is actually based in fact is left unstated--although since it was written by Hla Pe, assistant to local clerk Ba Sein, and whom U Po Kyin quite approves of, it appears being factual was never an issue here anyways[[/note]].

* SocialClimber: Elizabeth's personality is this for all it's worth. Everything she ever considers good (or in her terms, "lovely") is tied to the English aristocracy or in general the upper classes: ponies, dog shows, hunting and shooting, officer husbands, etc. etc., and everything she considers bad (or to use her terms, "beastly") has to do with the poor (and with foreigners), like her squalid couple of years in Paris prior to Burma. Blame her two terms in a very expensive and exclusive girls' school where her late--and financially incompetent--parents put her before they went insolvent.

* WhiteMansBurden: Subverted, as the Englishmen depicted aren't even trying to pretend to civilise the natives. At least Flory tries calling them out on that, at least in his discussions with Dr Veraswami.

* CruelTwistEnding: After Flory saves the European Club from a Burmese lynch mob he becomes a hero to the other Europeans; his reputation among the other Europeans is at it's apex, they're receptive to letting Dr Veraswami into the club due to his own bravery against the riot and his friendship with Flory, and Elizabeth sees Flory as her heroic savoir again. [[spoiler: Then Ma Hla May humiliate Flory in church in front of the other Europeans, Elizabeth hates him again and would rather be a spinster than marry Flory, and Flory takes his own life in despair.]]
* LastSecondWordSwap: Ellis at one point almost says out loud that Macgregor's proposal to allow natives into the Club is "absolute balls", but with Mrs Lackersteen in the room, he at least shows a tiny bit of restraint and changes it to "absolutely uncalled for".

* WomanScorned: Ma Hla May, Flory's mistress of two years for whom he payed all expenses (she actually considered herself to be his unofficial wife) before him meeting Elizabeth, telling her he wants nothing to do with her, and [[GetOut throwing her out of his house]]. Then she repeatedly {{blackmail}}s him and conspires with U Po Kyin to ruin his reputation.

* WomanScorned: Ma Hla May, Flory's mistress of two years for whom he payed all expenses (she actually considered herself to be his unofficial wife) before him meeting Elizabeth, telling her he was wants nothing to do with her, and [[GetOut throwing her out of his house]]. Then she repeatedly {{blackmail}}s him and conspires with U Po Kyin to ruin his reputation.

* HopeSpot

* TheChessmaster: U Po Kyin.
* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster N-bomb]]: The viciously racist Ellis never fails to spit out "nigger" in his every other sentence. Or is it twice per sentence?
** [[LampshadeHanging Even lampshaded]] by Flory, who recounts to Dr Veraswami in the third chapter that Ellis was spouting "dirty nigger" again, ''as usual''.
** On a less openly racist note, the censored "b———s" (likely "buggers") recurs quite a bit, as do milder things like "bloody". Of course a lot of swearing's expected for a bunch of cynical English bigots working and drinking out in the arsehole of their own empire.

* CurseCutShort: Ellis at one point almost says out loud that Macgregor's proposal to allow natives into the Club is "absolute balls", but …
** LastSecondWordSwap: … with Mrs Lackersteen in the room, he at least shows a tiny bit of restraint and changes it to "absolutely uncalled for".

* JadedWashout: Flory. To say that fifteen years in Burma have been unkind to him is a gross understatement.
** GoingNative: He eventually comes to accept and even appreciate parts of the local culture though—something that does ''not'' sit well with his classically haughty and racist compatriots, as evidenced by Elizabeth, for example, who can't grasp how Flory can see the beauty in local dances and cosmetic alterations (e.g., neck-elongation by wearing multiple chokers, or the Chinese practice of foot-binding, even if it's already going out of style even then).

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Based on Orwell's experiences as Eric Blair, colonial policeman, in RealLife colonial Burma.

** Speaking of the Indian Dr Veraswami, see BollywoodNerd below.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sub_burmese_jumbo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A still from a 2011 Off-Broadway stage version.]]

-->''"[[{{Epigraph}} This desert inaccessible]]''
-->''[[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Under the shade of melancholy boughs.]]"''
-->— ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''