Orwell pictured in a passport photo during his Burma years

A colleague, Roger Beadon, recalled ( in a 1969 recording for the BBC ) that Orwell was fast to learn the language and that before he left Burma, " was able to speak fluently with Burmese priests in ' very high-flown Burmese.

'" Orwell wrote later that he felt guilty about his role in the work of empire and he " began to look more closely at his own country and saw that England also had its oppressed ..." Orwell made changes to his appearance in Burma that remained for the rest of his life.

In Burma, he struck out at a Burmese boy who while " fooling around " with his friends had " accidentally bumped into him " at a station, with the result that Orwell " fell heavily " down some stairs.

After giving up his post as a policeman in Burma to become a writer, Orwell moved to rooms in Portobello Road, London at the end of 1927.

* Finding Orwell in Burma

* George Orwell returns from Burma.

The essay describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma.

With a strong interest in the lives of the working class, Orwell — born in India to a middle-class family, but brought up in Britain — held the post of Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927.

Peter Davison, the editor of Orwell's Complete Works, includes an interview with George Stuart, a contemporary of Orwell in Burma, who said that Orwell was transferred to Kathar as punishment for shooting an elephant.

* Domestic elephants: While working as a police officer for the British colonial government in Burma in 1926, George Orwell was forced to deal with an incident in which a domestic elephant went " musth " and killed a man by stepping on him.

Orwell spent five years from 1922 to 1927 as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police force in Burma ( now Myanmar ).

Orwell served in a number of locations in Burma ; having spent a year of police training in Mandalay and Maymyo, his postings included Myaungmya, Twante, Syriam, Insein-( north of Rangoon, site of the colony's most secure prison, and now present-day Burma's most notorious jail ),-Moulmein and Kathar.

Jeffrey Meyers, in a 1975 guide to Orwell's work, wrote of the E. M. Forster connection that, " Burmese Days was strongly influenced by A Passage to India, which was published in 1924 when Orwell was serving in Burma.

* Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma.

Shooting an Elephant is a possibly autobiographical account by George Orwell in which he describes how an elephant in Burma had an attack of musth and went on to kill an Indian, leading the story's narrator to shoot it.

Set in Burma, where Orwell ( under his real name of Eric Arthur Blair ) had served in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927, it describes the execution of a criminal.

British settlers now began to settle in large numbers in Burma, intermixing with the local Burmans ( Bamar ) and other local ethnic groups, and the Eurasian community grew larger, some say larger than the Anglo-Indian community in India ( see ' Finding George Orwell ' by Emma Larkin ).

Finding George Orwell in Burma

On the way they tried to discover all they could about Burma, and they were disturbed to find that Michael Symes's book had not presented an altogether true picture.

When Captain John Gibault of Salem had visited Burma in 1793 his ship, the Astra, had been promptly commandeered and taken by her captors up the Irrawaddy River.

Before he could return to Burma, Field Marshal Slim had to rally the defeated remnants of a discouraged army and unite them with fresh recruits.

In the pariah castes, Tibet had untouchables known as Ra-gyap-pa, just like Eta-Hinin of Japan, Para-gyoon of Burma, and Baekjeong of Korea.

The story about Wally being shot down over Burma was based in part on that of Irving's biological father ( whom he never met ), who had been shot down over Burma and survived.

Lord and Lady Mountbatten had two daughters: Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma ( born on 14 February 1924 ), sometime lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and Lady Pamela Carmen Louise ( Hicks ) ( born on 19 April 1929 ), who accompanied them to India in 1947-48 and was also sometime lady-in-waiting to the Queen.

Since Mountbatten had no sons, when he was created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma of Romsey in the County of Southampton on 27 August 1946 and then Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey in the County of Southampton on 28 October 1947, the Letters Patent were drafted such that in the event he left no sons or issue in the male line, the titles could pass to his daughters, in order of seniority of birth, and to their heirs male respectively.

He liked women and had many girlfriends I think in Burma.

He had his second majorly successful venture with the British firm Burma Corporation, again producing silver, lead and Zinc in large quantities at the Namtu Bawdwin Mine, where he caught malaria in 1907.

By July 1942, the British and Indian forces in Burma had completed their fighting retreat back into India, and Alexander, having yet again been mentioned in despatches for his Burma service, was recalled to the United Kingdom.

When the Japanese carried their attack through Burma ( now Myanmar ) to the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government, faced by this new military threat, decided to make some overtures to India, as Nehru had originally desired.

At the time of the last official census in Burma, 31 March 1983, the population was 35, 442, 972., this was estimated by the CIA World Factbook to have increased to 54, 584, 650 ; however, many other estimates put this much higher, at around 60 million: China's People Daily reported that Burma had a census in 2007, and at the end of 2009 has 59. 2 million people, and growing at 2 % annually, with exception for Cyclone Nargis in 2008, and Britain-based human rights agencies place the population as high as 70 million.

Burma also had a wealth of natural and labor resources.

In 2009, Chinese authorities seized over 40 million tablets that had been illegally trafficked from Burma.

The current state of the Burmese economy has also had a significant impact on the demographics of Burma, as economic hardship results in extreme delays of marriage and family building.

Jan. 1988: Burma Railways Corporation had 149 Alsthom diesel electric locomotives, 63 Krupp's diesel hydraulic locomotives, 5 Hitachi diesel hydraulic locomotives, 45 Kawasaki diesel hydraulic locomotives, for a total of 262.

On Thursday, May 17, 2012, the White House Press Office announced that President Barack Obama had nominated Derek Mitchell to the U. S. Senate for confirmation to serve as U. S. Ambassador to Burma.

" While in Burma, he acquired a moustache similar to those worn by officers of the British regiments stationed there.

When one of the Peugeot racers remained in the United States during World War I and parts could not be acquired from France for the 1914 season, owner Bob Burma had it serviced in the shop of Harry Miller by a young mechanic named Fred Offenhauser.

Yangon Airways developed a dubious reputation when reports surfaced that it was owned by the United Wa State Army ( a separatist militia involved in the Internal conflict in Burma ) and as such actively involved in drug trafficking, which prompted the US Government to have sanctions placed on the airline under the Kingpin Act on 13 November 2008.

Lord and Lady Mountbatten with Muhammad Ali JinnahNotwithstanding the self-promotion of his own part in Indian independence — notably in the television series The Life and Times of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten of Burma, produced by his son-in-law Lord Brabourne and Dominique Lapierre, and Larry Collins's Freedom at Midnight ( of which he was the main quoted source ) — his record is seen as very mixed ; one common view is that he hastened the independence process unduly and recklessly, foreseeing vast disruption and loss of life and not wanting this to occur on the British watch, but thereby actually causing it to occur, especially in Punjab and Bengal.

The tactics of guerrilla warfare were used successfully in the 20th century by — among others — the Soviet partisans and the Polish Home Army and the OSS in Burma in World War II ; Mao Zedong and the People's Liberation Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War.

It has developed increasingly close ties with other ASEAN members — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and Vietnam — whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings.

It has developed increasingly close ties with other ASEAN members — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and Vietnam — whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings.

* Burma ( also Myanmar — part of British India until 1937 )

On 2 March 1974 — twelve years after his coup — he disbanded the Revolutionary Council and proclaimed the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

The Shans, who came down with the Mongols, stayed and quickly came to dominate much of northern to eastern arc of Burma — from northwestern Sagaing Division to Kachin Hills to the present day Shan Hills.

Except for a few occasional rebellions and an external war — Burma defeated Siam's attempt to take Lan Na and Martaban in 1662 – 64 — the kingdom was largely at peace for the rest of the 17th century.

By 1759, King Alaungpaya's Konbaung forces had reunited all of Burma ( and Manipur ), extinguished the Mon-led Hanthawaddy dynasty once and for all, and driven out the European powers who provided arms to Hanthawaddy — the French from Thanlyin and the English from Negrais.

The first years of Burmese independence were marked by successive insurgencies by the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe, the White Flag Communists led by Thakin Than Tun, the Yèbaw Hpyu ( White-band PVO ) led by Bo La Yaung, a member of the Thirty Comrades, army rebels calling themselves the Revolutionary Burma Army ( RBA ) led by Communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Yè Htut — all three of them members of the Thirty Comrades, Arakanese Muslims or the Mujahid, and the Karen National Union ( KNU ).

He served as adviser to the India Planning Commission, as well as to the governments of Zambia and Burma — an experience that led to his much-read essay on " Buddhist Economics.

The term " chamber of deputies " — although it was used as the name of the lower house of parliament in Burma, a former British colony — is not widely used by English-speaking countries, the more popular equivalent being " House of Representatives ".

The entire Chin Hills came under the authority of Burmese kingdoms between 1555 and 1559 when King Bayinnaung of Toungoo Dynasty conquered all of Upper Burma and its surrounding regions — stretching from the eastern and northern Shan states to the western Chin Hills and Manipur.

While both attacks failed, Marcus helped plan and execute a makeshift winding road through the difficult mountains to Jerusalem — known as the " Burma Road " ( named after the road built by 200, 000 Chinese laborers during the Second Sino-Japanese War that later served the Allies to transport goods from Burma to China during World War II ).