Jason Ryoo

INTL 3111
Professor Arnold
6 December 2018

Old and Modern Colonialism

Colonialism is a word that refers to the practice of one group having control of another

group often in inhumane ways. Even though many people today may not remember, colonialism

has been dominating the world for last few hundred years. While there were few positive effects,

countless number of countries in Asia and Africa lost their culture under European control and

had to accept second class citizen status. Many people who opposed European control had to

suffer with repression and monitored closely from European governments to prevent situation of

starting the rebellion with local support. In Burma, locals were treated as second class citizens

and barred from serving office and faced many discriminations even though they were living in

the area for generations. Colonialism seemed to disappear after World War II ended and most

countries in Asia and Africa gained independence; however, colonialism started to reappear in a

new form that people may not realize that they are in control by governments or other groups

with political powers. While “Shooting an Elephant” describes the old colonialism with people

physically in control of others and racist and imperialistic view of author as a colonizer, “The

Circle” describes the new type of colonialism that uses advanced technology to control people in

a way that general public is harder to realize the danger of sharing their private information to

anyone, which resulted in a less people opposing more technology in daily lives.

“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay by George Orwell, who served as a police officer in

Burma while Burma was still a British colony. It primarily focuses on why Orwell himself does
not like colonialism and how he was almost forced to kill the elephant because of pressure from

local Burmans even though he did not think elephant was a danger. According to Orwell, locals

complained elephant destroying the market and killing one man and expected Orwell to shoot the

elephant. He explains that he did not think elephant is a harm to people and felt guilty about

shooting it but was forced to do it when locals all watched him in a “yellow face”, which is a

word Orwell picked to express his superiorness for being a European. While elephant’s owner

was upset, the owner could not anything because he was an Indian. This gives readers general

idea about what was colonialist society like before World War II. Britain and other European

powers did not like Burmans serving as government official, because they wanted to eliminate

the chance that local officials supporting rebellion. Instead, British government brought British

officials to serve as colonial government officials, and Orwell was one of British people to serve

as a police officer. In addition, colonial government brought people to fill offices could not be

filled with British from neighboring India, as India was also a British colony. No Burmans

serving as government officials was part of repression – more Burman serving office, more risk

of rebellion. In addition, Indians in Burma were also not treated equally. Orwell says that

elephant’s owner could not do anything even though his elephant was killed just because he was

Indian. At the same time, locals hated them for serving as an official instead of themselves

(Kawanami). When Burma gained independence and British government left without taking any

action in 1948, many Indians who were left in Burma faced even more discrimination and

developed into Rohingya crisis today.

In addition, while Orwell says he does not like colonialism, Orwell views locals and

Indians from a colonialist view. He mentions that “yellow faces” stared at him, waiting for him

to kill the elephant. “Yellow faces” shows his racist view with theory that he is the “master race”
compared to locals. While it is possible that he just described his status in majority-Burman

society, this shows his typical European perspective that British themselves are more superior

and civilized than Burmans. In addition, he says that “coolie” was killed because coolie’s death

justified his killing of elephant. “coolie” is a word describing unskilled workers with low pay in

a racist way as it almost exclusively refereed to workers from India and China (Pillay 29). Using

offensive words without any kind of consideration of racism shows Orwell’s imperialistic and

racist thoughts. In addition, Orwell values “coolie” even less than elephant, as he says that he

does not wanted to kill the elephant multiple times. British government thought they can control

local Burmans in a they want to “civilize” them – but they did not have full control of

information coming in, unlike The Circle (Melia). His view of local Burmans and Indian workers

show the limits of European colonizers’ vision from perspective of colonized people, as Orwell

still views local Burmans as uncivilized people. Even though Orwell attempts to show readers

his anti-colonialist view, his description of local Burmans and use of offensive words proves that

Orwell was a colonialist.

While “Shooting an Elephant” shows the old colonialist society, “The Circle” is a

dystopian novel by Dave Eggers that describes the new colonialist society with advanced

technology that makes daily lives easier but allows governments and other people with power to

control flows of information to control public opinion. Story starts with Mae, who works at a

utility company, being offered a dream job at technology company called The Circle. While

experience at The Circle seemed to be a reward initially, it turns to a society similar to colony at

the end. With few executives at The Circle having access to information of every single person

on Earth and every activity monitored with technology, it is more colonialist than “Shooting an

Elephant”. With SeeChange cameras allowing everyone to see what every single person doing
and company storing information of every single person on Earth, company executive Bailey and

Stenton are comparable to British colonizers in early 20th century. Like British colonizers,

Stenton attempt to repress people who oppose The Circle. For example, congressman who

opposed The Circle’s monopoly and supported breakup of The Circle was accused of her

computer containing immoral content. While British colonizers could not fully brainwash local

Burmans as most Burmans hated British, The Circle is able to completely brainwash people to

like The Circle’s control with the advanced technology that makes daily lives easier and

comfortable initially but losing privacy and freedom of speech at the end.

Unlike local Burmans in “Shooting an Elephant”, colonized people in both within and

outside The Circle do not raise questions about balance of power and privacy nor hate the

colonizers in The Circle. Instead, people enjoy technologies and conveniences The Circle

brought to their lives and are not aware of The Circle’s power. For example, even though Mae

seemed to follow Ty’s attempt to break up The Circle, she notifies the company at the end about

his plan. While British colonizers failed to completely brainwash Burmans that Britain is more

civilized and advanced society, The Circle is successful at educating people about The Circle

being superior than anyone else with a motto “Privacy is Theft”. Anyone who attempt to keep

personal information are considered committing crimes, like few senators who refused to use

The Circle’s SeeChange camera to allow people to view their daily life. As a result, almost no

The Circle employee and users if The Circle oppose the company storing private information and

video data with the exception of Ty, one of Three Wise Men..

Although colonialism in “Shooting an Elephant” is a traditional colonialism with

European country controlling one Asian country as a colony and “The Circle” is a story of few

people in The Circle controlling the world with the advanced technology that allows to monitor
everyone, both stories give readers how every single member of society will be owned by few

people with political power if one particular group has complete control of the society without

any limitations. Colonialism would be helpful to both colonizer and colonized group if both sides

benefits; however, historically only colonizers benefited with colonies with nature and labor

resources Asia and Africa had, with many violations of human rights during the process. “The

Circle” also shows the same problem, as only group with ability to control information is free

founders of the company which often refereed as “Three Wise Men”. One of “Three Wise Men”,

Stenton, uses this benefit for his own to eliminate potential enemy, Senator Williamson for trying

to break up The Circle. With almost everyone in the US using Google daily, “The Circle” and

“Shooting an Elephant” warn the society the dangers of going back to colonial society if

someone uses the data in a way that Stenton uses. Ultimately, colonialism was never a good idea

to the society. And when colonizers could not source laborers for free in colonies anymore as

human rights became important in late 20th century, cost for maintaining colonies became too

high compared to benefit coming from colonies, which is one of the reasons why European

countries do not own many colonies compared to the early 20th century.
 Works Cited

Kawanami, Hiroko. “Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma.” Southeast

Asian Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, Dec. 2012, pp. 520–522. EBSCOhost,

librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a

9h&AN=84558451&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Melia, Paul. “Imperial Orwell.” Atlantis (0210-6124), vol. 37, no. 2, Dec. 2015, pp. 11–25.

EBSCOhost,

librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a

9h&AN=111875840&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Pillay, Kathryn. “‘The Coolies Here’: Exploring the Construction of an Indian ‘Race’ in South

Africa.” Journal of Global South Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, Spring 2017, pp. 22–49.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/gss.2017.0003.