In "Shooting an Elephant," Orwell's attitude to the Buddhist priests is uniformly negative. As a colonial policeman in Burma, he admits to being hated by those he polices, as he comments in the opening line:
"I was hated by large numbers of people."
As such, the local population snatches whatever opportunity it can to express its hatred of Orwell and other colonial figures. Of these, Orwell says that the young Buddhist priests are the worst and that they stand on corners and "jeer at Europeans."
As a result, Orwell's attitude towards the priests is one of intense hatred. He imagines a revenge scenario, for example, in which he drives his bayonet into their "guts." It is important to note, however, that Orwell believes these feelings to be the "normal by-products of imperialism." This is because this system exploits and oppresses the imperialist as much as the native population, as his experience of shooting the elephant demonstrates.
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