Shooting an Elephant

Also known as Crown Rule or Direct Rule and founded in 1858, the British Raj refers to the ruling power of the British in India and Pakistan until their independence in 1947.

Southern Indian people (mainly the Telugu) who emigrated to Burma under the British Empire. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the term “Coringhee coolie” refers to the unskilled workers in Burma. At the end of the essay, the narrator makes known his relief that the elephant killed such a man as it gave him the right to kill the elephant, saving him from explaining his real reasoning for carrying out the act. Orwell’s gratitude for the man’s death further diminishes the value of the lives of the natives. It brings readers back to who the narrator is: a British officer carrying out the will of an imperial power. No matter how much he professes his rage and disgust, he is one of them in the end.

A type of Burmese knife or sword. Also spelled dha, Orwell writes that the “Burmans were bringing dahs and baskets” (155) as an offering at the foot of the elephant after it was shot and before it was stripped of its flesh.