Nationality British Children 2 daughters Role Writer | Other names JS Furnivall Name John Furnivall | |
Full Name John Sydenham Furnivall Occupation Civil servant and Southeast Asian scholar Spouse Margaret Ma Nyunt (m. 1902) Books Colonial policy and practice, Netherlands India Education Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Epsom College, University of Cambridge, Leiden University | ||
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.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.
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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.
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. They had two daughters together, and remained married until her death in 1920.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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":
The second principle “is the desire of gain”:
The third principle is “that progress is conditional on the observance of certain social obligations”:
Books
Published works by J S Furnivall include:
For an assessment of Furnivall’s 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).