Individually compose an interview/dialogue with a hypothetical witness of the conquest of Burma by the British. Such a witness could be the Queen, King, one of the consorts, a well-informed resident of the kingdom, or an historian who researched the period, etc. (be creative, think of a witness that was named in the novel, feel free to include a lesser known one). Please consult the assigned readings for the week to write open-ended questions about the arrival of the British (for example: questions about events, people, ideas; a good place to start is on a section, event, idea in which you are all interested). The questions should allow you compose answers that your witness might offer if they were responding to your questions. As already mentioned, one productive way to think about this exercise is that is that it is a dialogue between yourselves and the witness. Please ensure that your composition includes paragraph-long answers to your questions (see the example below). Meaning, your interview should not be similar to a survey, or census, consisting of many short questions and answers. An introductory paragraph on the biography of the author, as appearing in some published interviews with intellectuals, authors, etc. is not required. You may simply start your interview with your first question. Good luck and have fun with this assignment!
Consider the following example of an eyewitness account:
Valiani: In your essay on cities of the Indus Valley Civilization you discuss the role of planning, or at least a form of it, how was it important to these societies?
Kenoyer (a noted archeologist of South Asia): If you recall, the essay highlights how, first, there appears to be evidence of some kind of knowledge of the cleansing power of water. For example in rooms of residences, covered drains for waste water have been found. This was, from the perspective of some form of planning of the city, part of an extensive canal system which not only irrigated agriculture but also facilitated trade through river craft. This issue of planning bring us to the broader area of transportation and technology, which includes water vehicles of the kind I just mentioned, but also the use of bullock carts which might mean that this was the first ancient civilization to utilize the wheel for the purposes of economic/agricultural production. Returning to the planning of cities, it appears that they also possessed granaries, dockyards, warehouses, brick platforms and wells. In addition, evidence that some form of engineering of cities seemed to have existed because irrigation canals and walls, built to contain monsoon waters, appear to have been constructed with some knowledge of tides, waves and currents.
Valiani: If the cities were planned, who lived in them? Where cities just for the elite or did different groups live in the cities?
