Empire Podcast Episode 302: Orwell - The Anti-Imperialist in India & Burma (Part 1)

Hosts: William Dalrymple & Anita Anand | Original Airdate: October 28, 2025

Overview

In this first episode of a four-part miniseries, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand dive deep into the early life of George Orwell (born Eric Blair), exploring his formative experiences in British India and imperial Burma. They discuss how these years shaped Orwell’s anti-imperialist perspective, how they influenced his later literary work, and reflect on his enduring relevance and complicated legacy. The conversation interweaves personal history, family dynamics, the colonial system, and Orwell's gradual ideological transformation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Orwell’s Relevance and Prescience

• Opening Reflections ([01:05]–[02:28])
  • The hosts remark on Orwell’s uncanny ability to write ahead of his time, with his visions in "Animal Farm" and "1984" remaining urgent and recognizable today.
  • Anita Anand compares Orwell’s dystopian prophecies to current phenomena, especially in the age of AI and fabricated news:

    "We are living in a situation where AI can put out news coverage which is completely conflicting and often confected from what was put out the day before and entire swathes of the world will buy it because it's there, it's on screen, it looks official." [02:28]

  • The hosts cite biographer D.J. Taylor:

    "At the heart of Orwell's worldview, it might be said, lies modern man's struggle to come to terms with the absence of God and the need for secular morality..." [03:22]

2. Orwell’s Enduring Cultural Impact

• [04:32]–[05:27]
  • Orwell’s influence on language and thought—terms like "Thought Police," "Big Brother," "Room 101," and "Newspeak" have entered common discourse.
  • William Dalrymple highlights how "Orwellian" has become shorthand for dystopian, authoritarian fears and notes the resurgence of interest in "1984" after Trump’s inauguration.

3. Series Structure and Episode Breakdown

• [05:30]–[07:00]
  • The miniseries will trace:
    1. Orwell & anti-imperialism (today’s focus)
    2. Orwell in the Spanish Civil War
    3. His critique of totalitarian communism ("Animal Farm," "1984")
    4. A nuanced look at his flaws and personal life, supported by Anna Funder's work

4. Orwell’s Colonial Upbringing & Family Background

• [07:22]–[12:15]
  • Born Eric Blair in Bihar, India, into a declining colonial family: lost wealth, lingering status, and complex racial dynamics.
  • Father, Richard Walmsley Blair, was an ineffectual imperial bureaucrat in the opium department; mother, Ida, a strong political influence—feminist, possible Burmese ancestry.
  • Dalrymple references Amitav Ghosh on the violence of the opium regime in Bihar:

    "[The] violence of the particular regime which ruled Bihar in order to grow opium industrially for sale to China... has made Bihar as backward and as violent as it is today." [08:12]

5. Early Education & Social Outsider Status

• [12:52]–[15:41]
  • Brought to England as a toddler, raised apart from India.
  • Pushed academically by his mother; wins scholarships to Wellington and then Eton as a King's Scholar, despite coming from a less privileged background.
  • Memories of exclusion and class difference at Eton, later described by Orwell in "Such, Such Were the Joys":

    "It was a continuous triumph of the strong over the weak. Virtue consisted in winning... making them suffer pain, making them look foolish, getting the better of them in every way." [15:41]

6. Joining the Burmese Imperial Police

• [17:42]–[19:11]
  • Lacking the requisite connections for elite civil service, Orwell joined the lower-ranked Burmese police, a puzzling choice given his academic promise.
  • Notably, he sported what would later be recognized as a "Hitler moustache"—a fashionable choice at the time but ironic in hindsight.

7. Burma in the 1920s: Setting & Society

• [19:11]–[21:34]
  • Rangoon/Burma described as a cosmopolitan, booming colony; hub for migrants and commerce.
  • Underlying social unrest as native Burmese saw economic opportunities siphoned off by waves of foreign labor.
  • Anita Anand:

    "All of that is happening also in the 1920s, and he's there for that as well." [20:25]

8. Life as a Colonial Officer, Going Native & Growing Dissent

• [21:34]–[23:14]
  • Orwell was an outsider among British peers, preferred local company, learned Burmese and Hindustani, attended a Karen church, even tattooed his knuckles as locals did.
  • Dalrymple on Emma Larkin’s assessment:

    "As a policeman in Burma, Orwell saw the underbelly of the empire... the scarred and screaming Burmese in their prison cells." [22:45]

  • Orwell’s own words:

    "...to live silent, alone, consoling oneself in secret, sterile words." [23:11]

9. Colonial Burma as a Totalitarian State

• [26:08]–[27:22]
  • William Dalrymple quotes "Burmese Days" to show Orwell’s early realization:

    "It is a world in which every word and every thought is censored, every friendship can hardly exist, where every white man is a cog in the wheels of despotism..." [26:08]

10. Complexity of Sympathy, Self-Hatred & the Seeds of Dissent

• [27:22]–[31:19]
  • Anita Anand discusses the psychological toll on Orwell, caught between hating his imperial role and feeling alienated by those he sympathizes with.
  • Multiple, conflicting emotions—sympathy for Burmese, anger at their hostility, and deep loneliness:

    "...all for the Burmese and all against the British as a normal byproduct of imperialism." [28:44]

11. Orwell’s Self-Mythologizing and the "Shooting an Elephant" Essay

• [28:56]–[33:33]
  • Dalrymple: Orwell’s later essays, like "Shooting an Elephant," may project a more radical anti-imperialist clarity backward into his younger self.
  • Orwell’s own retrospect:

    "At that time I'd already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing. And the sooner I got chucked up, my job got out of it the better...it was a job that you see the dirty work of empire at close quarters." [30:23]

  • On the act of violence:

    "When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys." [31:56]

  • Dalrymple notes the complication:

    "...with another [part of my mind], I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into the Buddhist priest's guts." [30:46]

12. Empire, Masculinity, & Moral Compromise

• [33:33]–[36:02]
  • Orwell’s time included sexual exploitation typical of colonial officers: brothels, relationships with local women, something referenced and further substantiated by Anna Funder’s research.
  • Feelings of guilt and disgust compounded his moral crisis.

13. Return to England and Birth of ‘George Orwell’

• [36:02]–[38:17]
  • After five years abroad and shaken by harsh lessons, Orwell returns to England, leaves the imperial service, and decides to pursue writing.
  • Leaves behind "Eric" (the family legacy and colonial identity) and becomes "George Orwell."

14. Burmese Days & the Fruits of Experience

• [38:17]–[41:47]
  • "Burmese Days" (1934) draws heavily on Orwell’s own conflicted experiences:

    "...he's trapped within a bigger system that is undermining the better parts of his character." [39:05]

  • The story of John Florey (the protagonist) is clearly autobiographical—cultural sympathy undermined by the rot of empire, descent to despair, suicide.
  • Themes: systemic injustice, how power corrupts even the well-intentioned.

15. Orwell’s Legacy in Burma & Rereading His Canon

• [40:56]–[41:47]
  • Local Burmese interpret "Animal Farm" and "1984" as parables about their own society, not just Soviet totalitarianism:

    "...there's a joke that Orwell wrote not one novel about Burma, but three as well as Burmese Days. Animal Farm and 1984 are part of the same trilogy." [41:30]

  • Both hosts note how Western and post-colonial readings of Orwell differ, underlining the universality and adaptability of his critique.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Anita Anand ([02:28]):
  “1984 talks about rewriting history on the trot and it changing one day to the next…we are living in a situation where AI can put out news coverage…entire swathes of the world will buy it because it's there, it's on screen, it looks official.”
• William Dalrymple ([05:19]):
  "After the American election, when Trump was inaugurated, the sales of his novel 1984 went up by 900% in one week."
• On Eton ([15:41]):
  “Virtue consisted in winning. It consisted in being stronger, bigger, handsomer, richer, more popular, more elegant, more unscrupulous than other people…”
• Orwell on colonial service ([26:08]):
  "You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward… but you are not free to think for yourself."
• "Shooting an Elephant" ([31:56]):
  “When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys.”
• On self-mythologizing ([30:23]):
  "At that time I'd already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing. And the sooner I got chucked up, my job got out of it the better."

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Orwell’s modern relevance and dystopian legacy: [01:05]–[05:27]
• Orwell’s family and upbringing in India and England: [07:22]–[15:41]
• Joining the Burmese Police and experience of colonial society: [17:42]–[23:14]
• Daily life and psychological tension in Burma: [23:14]–[27:22]
• "Shooting an Elephant" and wrestling with empire: [28:56]–[33:33]
• Return to England, reinvention as George Orwell, and first major works: [36:02]–[38:17]
• Orwell’s continuing resonance in Burma and globally: [40:56]–[41:47]

Final Thoughts & Teasers

• This episode sets up the next in the series—Orwell’s encounter with the Spanish Civil War and the evolution of his political ideas.
• The hosts emphasize Orwell’s capacity for self-doubt, his deployment of personal failure and discomfort into art, and the persistent questions about his legacy.

This episode is vital listening for anyone interested in how personal experience feeds literature, the psychology of empire, and the continuing relevance of Orwell’s warning voice.