While living in Burma, Orwell took a much closer interest in the local culture than most of his colleagues, and refused to adopt the aloof demeanour – known as “ pukka” – habitually assumed by British colonialists toward the people they ruled. Orwell during police training in Rangoon (back row, third from left) After attending Eton on a scholarship, Orwell’s family decided that, rather than go to university (his grades were poor, and he would have had to win a scholarship as they couldn’t afford the fees), he would join the Imperial Police and go to Asia. His father worked in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service, and his ancestors belonged to the English nobility – though by Orwell’s time the family were no longer rich. Orwell was born in Motihari, British India, in 1903, but grew up in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. George Orwell – or Eric Arthur Blair, as he was actually called – has a much longer and deeper connection with Burma, where he lived for five years. It often comes as a surprise, therefore, to learn that Kipling only spent three days in the country, as we’ve discussed on this blog before.

Think of Burma and you’ll probably think of Rudyard Kipling – whose association with the country has become almost legendary. Sunset over Mawlamyine, where Orwell was posted for a year in 1926

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