Word: sahibs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...major's answer sets the underlying mood of Briton Norman Lewis' knowledgeable novel about one sahib's last stand in the Far East. Framing his reply as "what others are saying," Major Chai says: "The white man by his teaching created a demand for justice, and as soon as the demand was existing, removed this product from the market...
Aubrey Menen is a half-Irish, half-Hindu satirist who likes nothing better than to undo the mental shoelaces of the English. In The Prevalence of Witches, he spoofed the pukka sahib set in India. In The Backward Bride, he showed a good Sicilian lad in the process of being poisoned by the toxic doctrines of an Oxford freethinker. In his latest novel, Author Menen grafts his wit on another culture, lets his English hero bloom like a quirky Renaissance prince...
...Meaning master. The term, like sahib in India, was once generally used to describe Burma's British overlords. When the British left, almost every self-respecting Burman promptly assumed the title for himself...
...Orwell's days as a British constable in Burma. Orwell had been called out to shoot a tame elephant gone rogue. He did not really want to shoot the beast, but behind him stood a crowd of Burmans ready to jeer if the white man faltered. Since "a sahib has got to act like a sahib," Orwell pumped his bullets in the animal's hide, reflecting "that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom he destroys . . . For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress...