There are countless religions in our world today; Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and more. These religions are all so different, yet bear the same mindset behind them: to be a better person. People strive to come to peace with themselves and others by practicing and worshiping certain deities. While the overall mentality of these religions are equivocal, the details become astoundingly diverse. For example, Buddhism’s core belief system goes off the approach of knowing suffering will happen in the world and coming to peace with it through meditation. Only then can the power of enlightenment bring worshipers to eternal peace. Unfortunately, in Burma during the 1920s suffering was anything but depleted. In this Buddhist based country, an imperialist force had taken over: Britain. However, in the midst of pandemonium, one man broke away from the imperialist outlook and saw the world for how it truly was. This is why George Orwell’s literary perspective was substantially influenced by the conditions he witnessed during his services in the Indian Imperial Police Force.
It’s important to analyze the history of Burma and why the Indian Imperial Police Force had to be involved. Burma was institutionalized as a country in 11th century, ruled by King Anawratha. After Anawratha was deceased, his inheritor, Kyanzitta. Kyanzitta, was a pious Buddhist who influenced the country in a religious standpoint significantly (CFoB). Although their religious mandate was resilient in this time, their government was not so fortunate (CFoB). The monarchy Burma had created in the 11th century had never been stable and had broken into multiple states numerous times (CFoB). From 1824 to 1886, Burma and Britain fought war after war; Britain startin...
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At least every Asian country with a Buddhist community has experience some sort of civil war, foreign invasion, or systematic poverty and tyranny. During the Khmer Rouge era, Buddhism was nearly destroyed. Monks were tortured, killed and forced into lay life. Buddhist temples were destroyed and used as a prison area. After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge, Buddhism remained repressed within Cambodia. Some Buddhist monks or leaders responded with forms of social engagement. That being said, Maha Ghosananda is one the monks who played a key role in rebuilding Buddhism in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. His work, Dhammayietras was the first program to set up for peace and non-violence in Cambodia. The Dhammayietras consisted of peace walks through war-torn, landmine-infested regions. This non-violence and social action is considered to be “engaged Buddhism.” The idea of “engaged Buddhism” places an emphasis on the need for compassion for compassionate action is rooted in the Buddhist practice. Ghosananda activism rebuilt Buddhism in Cambodia by teaching peace through example. T...
Orwell (1936) began his narrative complaining of the animosity of the local population, but quickly moved to his own hatred of his position as a representative of the British imperial government. Though secretly sympathetic to the locals and their resentment of European intrusion into their country, he could not openly express or act upon that sentiment, and thus experienced the same derision as his countrymen. Recognizing the superior military capability of their occupiers, the Burmans limited their expression of this resentment to “safe” actions, from a plausibly accidental missed call in the course of a sporting event to insults and sneers on the public streets. (Orwell, 1936)
The Angelo-Burmese wars, fought from 1825 to 1885, played a large role in the history of Burma. These conflicts lead to the creation of Burma as a province of British India and would be the start of a long period of British control. After a loss to the British in the Third Angelo-Burmese war, the local people began to engage in guerrilla warfare. They would form small groups sporadically attack the British in the attempt to weaken and push them out of the country. As a result of the local’s actions, the British officials began to carry out mass executions and public punishments of accused
"Orwell, George (Pseud. Of Eric Arthur Blair)." Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. London: Continuum, 2006. Credo Reference. Web. 3 December 2013.
“Burmese Days” is set in 1920s Burma under British colonialism. It focuses on the imperialism of the British and its effects on the relationships between the British, the British and Indians, and between the Indians themselves. So negative is the portrayal by Orwell of imperialism that it can be seen as a novel without hope in terms of altering the imperialistic structure of the British rule in Burma. No character- British or Burmese- appears to be capable of escaping the destructive trap of imperialism. Orwell points out clearly his negative attitude on European politics at his times, for in his youth he was very much in favour of the Marxist ideology and so is the protagonist of the novel “Burmese Days”, John Flory. The novel concentrates on the town of Kyauktada in Upper Burma. Kyauktada is described as hot and sultry. It is a small town of about four thousand people. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Burmese, but there are also a hundred Indians, two Eurasians, sixty Chinese, and Seven Europeans. Nevertheless, as in all imperialistic societies the small group of Europeans suppresses the great majority of the native people, who seem to accept perfectly the superiority of the white people. Orwell criticizes this feeling of inferiority the Europeans give the Burmans and especially the Eurasians, because for their existence the Europeans are even responsible. Although he seems very much in favour of the so-called inferior people, the novel gives a certain impression of the Asian character to the reader, which is not very likeable. The Asian people are described – and not only by the characters o...
who is haunted by war-time in Burma and seeks to have Buddhist ritual performed for the soul
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and de-facto leader of Myanmar’s civilian government, has long been hailed as a protector of human rights in her native country. It has thus, been incredibly surprising to witness her reaction to the recent forced exodus of nearly half a million minority Rohingya from within her regional borders. Despite being championed as the great savior of her country, she failed to condemn the atrocities for nearly a month; and, when she did finally speak up against the human rights abuses, she refused to address the United Nations accusations of ethnic cleansing. The Rohingya have been stateless since Myanmar’s 1974 Constitution and 1982 Citizenship Act excluded the minority Muslim group as a ‘national race’ . In The Origins of Totalitarianism , Hannah Arendt explores the idea that the interests of the nation state infringe upon the Universal Rights of Man. The
The nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is currently under the rule of a ruthless totalitarian regime, guilty of numerous human rights violations and target of intense international criticism. Located in Southeast Asia, on the western border of Thailand and Laos, it has been under military rule since World War II. Burma is mired in socioeconomic crisis stemming from the rule of the military junta, and the citizens are suffering. The environment of Burma is being destroyed, the people are treated inhumanely, and the country is notorious for its contribution to global narcotics. The paragraphs below detail the current situations facing the country, why they came about, and the parties that are to blame for sending the country on a dangerous downward spiral. First, however, it is important to understand Burma’s political history.
My Struggle for Freedom and Survival in Burma. New York: Free Press, 2009. Print. The.
I will briefly discuss a harsh part of their history called the 8888 uprising where thousands of people were killed for peacefully protesting. . I will also connect the Burma situation with history in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement, when Martin Luther King preached equality by using the freedom to assemble. Although the Civil Rights Movement was more motivated by racism, Dr. King still preached for equality and the ability of the people to fight for what they want. My goal in this paper is to prove that the people in Burma do have a right to peacefully protest for what they want without any penalties. The First Amendment, Freedom of Assembly.
This rhetoric, centered around various abstractions and elaborations of political vision, is calculated to distract from the decidedly non-democratic Burmese political reality. What has actually been happening is that the country’s top military leader – Senior General Than Shwe – has strengthened his control over both the army and the administrative structure. Ever since the arrest of four members of the former military dictator General Ne Win’s famil...
My research on the Rohingya Muslim experience in Myanmar shows that this pattern of persecution goes back to 1948 – the year when the country achieved independence from their British colonizers.
For decades Burma has experienced political unrest that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) (South & Jolliffe, 2015). The precise number of IDPs from this area is unknown. There are conflicting reports that range between 400,000 to 700,000 (UNHCR, 2015a, IDMC, 2015a). Refugees from Burma have been
A military junta has been in power in Myanmar since the coup d’état in 1962, which overthrew the government and opened the ‘Burmese road to Soci...
Before we proceed about the reasons or causes that brought to this ethnic issue and how the human security respond to this issue, let we introduce who is Rohingya first. According to (Chan, 2005), “The people who call themselves Rohingyas are the Muslims of Mayu Frontier area, present-day Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships of Arakan (Rakhine) State, an isolated province in the western part of the country across Naaf River as boundary from Bangladesh. They were indeed the direct descendants of immigrants from the Chittagong District of East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh), who had migrated into Arakan after the province was ceded to British India under the terms of the Treaty of Yandabo, an event that concluded the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826)”. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority population living mainly in the state of Arakan, in Burma that has not being accepted by their own country which is Myanmar. This is because, according to the Myanmar’s government, the Royingya ethnic is not their citizens but they are belongs to Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the Bangladesh’s government do not recognize them as well. So, starting from this rejection, the issue has persisted Rohingya up to this moment, with no solution yet.