Social Injustice In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

Quora defines social injustice as "the elimination of various human rights from a broad variance of unfair treatment that creates negative outcomes for a minority, aggregate, or underserved population." It has been said that George Orwell loved to look for people and organizations to wage verbal war with, that he had a tendency to blow small issues out of proportion, but is that what he is doing in his piece Shooting An Elephant? Orwell grew up in India and knew firsthand the struggles the Indian people went through. Few people outside of India knew or cared what went on there. To Britain, India was nothing more than an untapped resource to bleed dry, and a people to extort (or to "convert" depending on whose side you believe). Orwell

While some natives genuinely did convert to Christianity, some did so in name only, and many more refused. For centuries the people of India (modern day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) kept themselves divided into different regions based on religion (as Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims did not tend to get along well) but were all forced together under British rule. Great Britain 's official religion was Christianity, and they wanted their territories to be the same. The people of India were not thrilled by this, as their religions were deeply intertwined with their way of life. Orwell tells his readers about the many thousands of Buddhist priests who lived in this settlement, and of their especially intense hatred for the British. Orwell talks of their constant jeering, and subtle acts of rebellion. He tells his readers many times of how he agreed with their sentiment, that he believed the British had no business governing India. However, he does mention that he "thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest 's guts. So while he knew how these people were wronged, he still resented them for making his life