What experiences inspired George Orwell’s essay “A Hanging”?

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George Orwell, c. 1940 — George Orwell Known best for his powerful anti-utopian novels *Animal Farm* (1945) and *Nineteen Eighty-four* (1949), English author George Orwell came to be regarded as a prophetic voice in 20th-century literature.

George Orwell’s essay "A Hanging" was inspired by his time serving as an assistant district superintendent in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (now Myanmar).

Orwell joined the imperial service in 1922, following a family tradition. However, his experiences in Burma led him to realize that the local population was being ruled against their will, which caused him to feel deep shame regarding his role as a colonial officer. Through this essay, he sought to recount his observations of the "dirty work of Empire at close quarters," illustrating the dehumanizing effects that imperialism had on both the colonizer and the colonized.1