Burma Sahib

Author: Paul Theroux

Publisher: Mariner Books 2024

A British worker in the Indian Raj is known as a “pukka sahib”, or a true gentleman. He is likely employed as a supervisor in a lumber company, an overseer in a trading company, or a policeman in the British police force. He resides in an official bungalow, staffed by local workers. If he is not married to a British woman, he keeps local women as concubines.

He attends clubs exclusively reserved for pukka sahibs, visiting at least once a day to drink, play billiards, read newspapers, and, most often, to speak derisively with other pukka sahibs about the locals—people whose country they occupy. One of the most important rules of pukka sahibs is to avoid entanglement in ‘native’ quarrels. Treating a native as an equal is strictly against the pukka sahib code.

Eric Blair is one such pukka sahib. Like most others, he comes from a poor family in Britain, but with one key difference—he attended the prestigious Eton College in England. He was expected to attend Oxford or Cambridge after school but was forced by his father to go east in search of fortune. Before arriving in Burma, he was a true gentleman of a different kind, but he evolved into a pukka sahib to perform his duties as trained and to integrate into pukka sahib society. Eric Blair trained as a policeman in the British Indian Police in Burma.

The lowest police rank for a British officer in Burma was Assistant Superintendent of Police. Each police post had a Superintendent of Police, to whom these assistant superintendents reported. Many Burmese and Indian sub-inspectors worked under an assistant superintendent. Their duties included typical police work, such as capturing dacoits, murderers, rapists, and dowry killers among Indian immigrants.

The Burmese, mostly Buddhists, hated both pukka sahibs and Indian immigrants, who worshiped various gods. The Karens, a minority community, were mostly Christians and comprised much of the native workforce and the concubines. Eurasian women, the offspring of relationships between pukka sahibs and local women, were derogatorily called "chee-chees" or "yellow-bellies." They were despised by the locals and had little future in society, often ending up as prostitutes in houses maintained for pukka sahibs in the cities.

Blair struggled with his dual identities—the former true gentleman and the new pukka sahib. He believed that other pukka sahibs could sense that he was not truly one of them, no matter how hard he tried to assimilate. He wrestled with the duties expected of him and tried to read as much as possible, writing down observations he found unjust. He read novels by D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, and Rudyard Kipling.

As a sahib, he attended clubs and sang songs with other sahibs. His sub-inspectors performed most of the hard work, while he was responsible for charge-sheeting local criminals they captured. He visited chee-chees for "a bit of house your father" and carried "3 Merry Widows", just like other sahibs. Locals addressed him either as "Uncle" or "Thakin," both meaning "master."

This story is a biography of George Orwell, the famous author of “Animal Farm” and “1984”. (George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Blair.) I enjoyed reading this book—it opened my eyes to a history of Burma that was previously unknown to me. Since then, I have bought Orwell’s entire collection of books and essays for just $1.49 (~ 425 rupees) from the Kindle store and have started reading his first novel, “Burmese Days”. I have also picked up more Burmese history from "Historical Writings of Professor Sirima Kiribamune." (I am reading both books simultaneously.)

The following are some songs sung by pukka sahibs at their clubs.

(1) “Avalon” by Al Jolson  

I Found My Love In Avalon Beside The Bay

I Left My Love In Avalon And Sailed Away

I Dream Of Her And Avalon From Dusk 'Til Dawn

And So I Think I'll Travel On To Avalon

(2) “It had to be you—Wonderful you” by Al Jolson 

(3) “What I'll do when you are far away song” by Al Jolson

(4) "Bless `em all" by Vera Lynn

Bless 'em all,
Bless 'em all,
The long and the short and the tall,
Bless all the Sergeants and W.O. 1s,
Bless all the corporals and their blinkin’ sons,
'Cos we're sayin' goodbye to 'em all.
As back to their billets they crawl,
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all.

(5)  "Where did you get that hat" by Jos Sullivan

Where did you get that hat?

Where did you get that tile

Isn't it a nobby one and just the proper style.

I should like to have one just the same as that

Where e'er I go they shout: "Hello, where did you get that hat?

(6) “Bye bye blackbird” by Jerome H. Remick in 1922

No one here can love or understand me

Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me

(7) “Riding down from Bangor” 1871 by Louis Shreve Osborne

(8) “What’ll I do” written by Paul Whiteman

ඇල්. වී. ඒ. ද මැල් — දකුණු ආසියාතික පුරාවිද්‍යාවේ මහා කැණීම්කරුවා (L. V. A. de Mel — The great excavator of South Asian archaeology)

Author: Ishanka Malsiri 

Publisher: Vidharshana 2022

De Mel joined the Archaeological Department as a laborer in 1971. He passed the GCE O/L exam, and in those days, he could have obtained a better-paying job with those qualifications. He learned excavation methods from several archaeologists, particularly Siran Daraniyagala.

The following describes his experience when he first met Daraniyagala at the Kithulgala Belilena cave in 1978:

"Are you Mel?"
"Yes, sir, it’s me."

Instructions were given to get a tablespoon, a coconut spoon, and a pointed spoon.

He entered the excavation pit on Daraniyagala’s orders.

"Start digging now."

Mel began to sweat profusely at this command. It is not surprising that Mel, who had about eight years of experience but still lacked a formal understanding of excavations, was shocked.

He learned from Daraniyagala systematically and diligently for about three years. Daraniyagala, too, realized that Mel was a special student. In the process, Mel became an expert in soil layer analysis.

In 1988, Mel and Professor Catherine Raymond from Sorbonne University conducted an excavation in Anuradhapura—the capital of Sri Lanka for over 1,500 years, from approximately 500 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E.—specifically in the inner city. (Catherine is now a Professor of Art History and the Director of the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University.)

This site is known as the Anuradhapura Salgahawatta site (ASW 88). The following is how Mel described the process.

"There was a professor named Catherine at Sorbonne University in France. She and I conducted the ASW 88 excavation. Coningham wasn’t there at the time.  At the ASW 88 site, we discovered pottery shards with Brahmi script (a few letters) dating to 600–500 B.C.E. This finding was later published in a newspaper, sparking great controversy among historians and archaeologists. Some university scholars argued that the discovery was not credible, claiming that no Brahmi script had been found before 300 B.C.E., even in India.  Mr. Deraniyagala pointed out that certain Indian states do not permit excavations of ancient sites. He believes that early writing in India may date back to the 7th, 8th, or even 9th century B.C.E. However, the challenge is that excavation activities in those regions are restricted due to political and caste-related issues."  

(Mel worked with Robin Coningham during the second excavation of the Salgahawatta site from 1989 to 1992. Robin Coningham is now a professor at Durham University.)

Before the Samanalawewa Reservoir Project was initiated in the late 1980s, the government conducted both an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Archaeological Impact Assessment. Gill Juleff was part of the research team tasked with creating the Archaeological Impact Assessment Report. She held a degree in archaeochemistry.

During the assessment, the team discovered prehistoric remains of furnaces designed for smelting iron ore in a place called Mahathanna. The iron ore smelting furnaces in Mahathanna were strategically built to face the strong winds blowing from the windward side of the mountain range opposite the site. The smelting process could only be successfully carried out when the southwest monsoon winds, which peak in July, reached their maximum strength.

At Gill Juleff’s request, Mel meticulously reconstructed the historic furnace and successfully replicated the ancient Sinhalese iron smelting process.

This picture of the furnace was obtained from the Wilpattu House, 

maintained by Barr-Kumar Kulasingha.

In 1996, Gill Juleff published a paper titled "An Ancient Wind-Powered Iron Smelting Technology in Sri Lanka" in Nature. The following is the paper’s description from Nature:

“I report the discovery and excavation at Samanalawewa, Sri Lanka, of a previously unknown furnace type. The furnaces are all situated on the western margins of hills and ridges, where they are exposed to the strong monsoon winds. Field trials using replica furnaces confirm that this furnace type uses a wind-based air-supply principle that is distinct from either forced or natural draught, and show also that it is capable of producing high-carbon steel. This technology sustained a major industry in this area during the first millennium AD, and may have contributed to South Asia's early pre-eminence in steel production.”

Juleff jokingly teased Mel, saying, "What a lazy bunch you are—you just sit there and let the wind melt iron ore for you!"

Over the course of his career, Mel has excavated an estimated 20,000 soil layers. No other excavator with such extensive experience has ever emerged in the archaeological history of this country. That is why Mel is regarded as an unparalleled excavator. He is, without a doubt, the "Ishwar of Asian Archaeology."  These are the sentiments of his admirer, Ishanka Malsiri.

This book is written in Sinhala. If you can read Sinhala, it is a marvelous biography of a great excavator. I believe all Sri Lankans should read this book.