IN Shooting an Elephant George Orwell writes about how a person loses his own freedom most of all while practising imperialism. In this story an English police officer posted in Burma is the symbol of imperial power. He receives news of an elephant on a rampage in the village. He initially sets out with a pistol, but on finding out that an Indian coolie has been trampled to death by the beast he instructs an orderly to fetch an elephant rifle. By the time he gets to the paddy fields, accompanied by two thousand locals, the elephant is calmly grazing shoots.

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