Nationalism and the Nationalist Ideology in Burmese Days

Although nationalism, or anticolonial nationalism, which gained momentum after the First World War, especially within the borders of the major colonial states, may not seem to be directly central to George Orwell’s Burmese Days, it incorporates a profound impact on the development of the plot leading to Flory’s suicide at the end. Taking into account the political background of the period in which the novel was written and depicts—denominating a period of about ten years in between—this article addresses the basic tenets and prevailing features of nationalist ideology and its significant place in the novel and manifests the extensiveness and profundity of the way Burmese Days is interwoven with the ideology of nationalism.