Tag Archives: Burma

A novelist in Burma when it was a colony of Britain

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AT PRESENT I AM revising and editing my latest book, which is about travelling in India and will be called “Road To Heaven – A passage through India “. While writing the text I came across a quote by the author George Orwell. I am incorporating this in my forthcoming book. The words come from Orwell’s novel “Burmese Days”, which I decided to read.

The novel is set in a small town in Burma while the country was still part of British India. The author provides the reader with an exciting story that is also a jaundice view of the behaviour of the British, the Burmese, and the Chinese living in colonial Burma.

The story’s hero is Mr Flory, who loves Burma but finds it difficult to get on with the few repellent sounding Brits with whom he has to socialise at the town’s ‘whites’ only club.

“Burmese Days” contains many ingredients that make for a good story: romance, unrequited love, intrigues, treachery, rebellion, adventure, and good evocation of ‘atmosphere’. Based on his own experiences in Burma, it is also Orwell’s criticism of the British colonial system. Published in 1934 while the British still controlled Burma, it must have been frowned upon by many British readers when it was published.

I enjoyed the book, and found it difficult to put down.

From Myanmar to the garden of Eden in Kolkata.

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THERE IS A MAJOR cricket stadium in Kolkata called Eden Gardens. This world renowned sporting venue is adjacent to a far less well-known park: Eden Gardens Park. Established in about 1842, its fame was eclipsed by the opening of the cricket stadium in 1864. The stadium is named after the park.

 

Lord Auckland, the governor-general of India from 1836-1842, had ordered the construction of this pleasure ground. The garden was named after his sisters, Emily and Fanny Eden.

 

For a modest entry fee (20 rupees per person) one can enter the park, which contains a bandstand, flower beds, a rather rundown Japanese garden, a lake, a café, and a surprising feature that I will describe shortly. When we visited the park on a Saturday afternoon,  there was a discotheque operating in the bandstand.  The volume of music coming from the bandstand was excessive and unbearable. A local division of the Kolkata Police Special Department were having a party. Despite the racket, we strolled through the park to the attraction, which makes the park quite distinctive: a pagoda from Burma (Myanmar).

 The wooden pagoda, which is in need of a little repairing,  stands almost surrounded by the lake. The British brought it in pieces from Prome in Burma in 1854 at the end of the second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-1853), and reconstructed it in the park in 1856. Burmese workers put it together in the park.

 

Prome is known as ‘Pyay’ in Burmese. Regarding the period when the pagoda was removed to Calcutta,  Wikipedia related:

“Called Prome by the British … the city became part of British territory after the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1853. The town was taken by the British in 1825 during the Battle of Prome and again in 1852, on both occasions with hardly any opposition”. In 1862, the city was almost completely destroyed by fire. So, in a way, it was lucky that the wooden pagoda was saved from this conflagration.

 

The pagoda is an example of Tazoungs (idol house) architecture. It is surrounded by Burmese stone carvings. The pagoda used to contain a Buddha effigy,  but this is no longer to be seen.

 

Kolkata is full of surprises. The Burmese pagoda is just one of them. I am glad we put up with the background noise in the park because I would have been disappointed not to view this unusual souvenir from Burma.