John Sydenham Furnivall

John Sydenham Furnivall (often cited as JS Furnivall or J.S. Furnivall) was a British-born
colonial public servant and writer in Burma. He is attributed with coining the concept of plural
society and had a noted career as an influential historian of Southeast Asia, particularly of Dutch
East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and British Burma.[1]Throughout his career, he published
several books, including the influential Colonial Policy and Practice and wrote for more than 20
major journals, although his work is now criticised as being Eurocentric and biased in favour of
continued colonialism.[2]

Biography
Furnivall was born on 14 February 1878 in Great Bentley, Essex in England. For secondary
schooling, he attended the Royal Medical Benevolent College (now Epsom College). He won a
scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1896. Four years later, in 1899, he obtained
a degree in natural science.[3]
In 1901, he joined the Indian Civil Service. He arrived in Burma on 16 December 1902 and took
up the appointment of Assistant Commissioner and Settlement Officer. That same year, he wed
Margaret Ma Nyunt, a Burmese and native of Taungoo.[4] They had two daughters together, and
remained married until her death in 1920.[1]
In 1906, he founded the Burma Research Society, along with other Burmese scholars. Four years
later, in 1910, the Society began publishing the Journal of the Burma Research Society.[4] He was
made Deputy Commissioner in 1915 and Commissioner of Land Settlement and Records in
1920. He retired from the ICS in 1923. During his career, he advocated education for native
Burmese, to prepare them for self-rule.[2] In 1924, he founded the Burma Book Club and in 1928,
the Burma Education Extension Association. Furnivall returned to England in 1931 to retire.
From 1933 to 1935, he studied colonial administration at Leiden University.[4] Following his
retirement to Britain, Furnivall became Lecturer in Burmese Language, History and Law at
Cambridge University (1936-1941). In 1940, together with C W Dunn, Furnivall published a
Burmese-English Dictionary.
In 1942, he wrote Reconstruction in Burma for the newly independent Government of Burma.
Despite his retirement, Furnivall returned to Burma in 1948, after he was appointed National
Planning Adviser by U Nu's administration.[4] That year, he also published his most well-known
and influential book, Colonial Practice and Policy at the request of the British government, and
argued that colonial policies had destroyed the social structure of Burma.[2] He was awarded the
degree of D. Litt by Rangoon University in 1957. He remained in Burma until his expulsion in
1960, by Ne Win's new government, along with many other expatriates.

He died on 7 July 1960 at Cambridge, before he could accept an offer by Rangoon University to
teach there.[4] His Times obituary was published on 12 July 1960.

Political thought
In the 19th century the sequence for preparing colonised people for independence was to create
the appropriate free-market institutions, in the belief that economic development, welfare and
democracy, and thus true autonomy, would follow. Furnivall argued that, contrary to this, the
sequence began with autonomy leading to social welfare leading to development. Furnivall's
argument began with a model of the dysfunctional plural societies that often resulted from
western colonial rule in the third world; arguing that economic development depends upon the
prior achievement of welfare; and that only if affected peoples themselves had autonomy to
develop their own criteria of welfare, would they be able to develop economically.
In his Colonial Policy and Practice, Furnivall postulated that there are three principles of
economic progress:
The first principle is "survival of the cheapest":

Everyone would pay twopence rather than threepence for the

The second principle is the desire of gain:

Everyone ordinarily wants threepence instead of twopence....a

The third principle is that progress is conditional on the observance of certain social
obligations:

The two basic principles of economic progress are supplement

Books
Published works by J S Furnivall include:

An Introduction to the Political Economy of Burma (Rangoon: Burma Book

Club, 1931);

Christianity and Buddhism in Burma: an address to the Rangoon Diocesan

Council, August, 1929 (Rangoon: Peoples Literature Committee and House,
1930);

An introduction to the history of Netherlands India, 1602-1836 (Rangoon :

Published for the University of Rangoon by Burma Book Club, 1933);

Wealth in Burma (1937);

Netherlands India : a study of plural economy (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1939);

The fashioning of Leviathan (Rangoon: Zabu Meitswe Pitaka Press, 1939) originally published in (1939) 29 Journal of the Burma Research Society 1138;

Progress and welfare in Southeast Asia: a comparison of colonial policy and

practice (New York: Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1941);

Problems of education in Southeast Asia (New York: International Secretariat,

Institute of Pacific Relations, 1942);

Educational Progress in South East Asia (1943);

Memorandum on reconstruction problems in Burma (New York: International

Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1944);

The tropical Far East (London: Oxford University Press, 1945);

Experiment in Independence (1947);

Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of Burma and Netherlands

India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948/ New York: New York
University Press, 1948);

The Government of Modern Burma (New York: International Secretariat,

Institute of Pacific Relations, 1958);

An introduction to the political economy of Burma (Rangoon: Peoples'

Literature Committee and House, 1957) 3rd ed;

The Government of Modern Burma (2d ed. with an appreciation by FN Trager

and a supplement on the Ne Win administration by JS Thompson), (New York:
Institute of Pacific Relations, 1960);

Studies in the Economic and Social Development of the Netherlands East

Indies. I. An Introductory Survey, 1815-1930;

Studies in the Economic and Social Development of the Netherlands East

Indies. IIb. An Introduction to the History of Netherlands India, 1602-1836;

Studies in the Economic and Social Development of the Netherlands East

Indies. III. State and Private Money Making;

Studies in the Economic and Social Development of the Netherlands East

Indies. IIIc. State Pawnshops in Netherlands India;

Studies in the Economic and Social Development of the Netherlands East

Indies. IVd. Fisheries in Netherlands India.

For an assessment of Furnivalls impact on the study of Burma, see R H. Taylor, An

undeveloped state: the study of modern Burma's politics (Melbourne: Monash University's
Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Working Paper No 28, 1983).

See also

The World of Books

Ganda Lawka