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

by J.S. Furnivall

Book by Furnivall, J. S.

Genres: History

588 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

John Sydenham Furnivall was a British colonial public servant and academic. After winning a scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1896, he obtained his degree in natural science from Cambridge University in 1899. He served with the Indian Civil Service in Burma from 1901 to 1923, and was also an honorary research fellow at the University of Rangoon. He studied colonial administration at Leiden University in the Netherlands 1933-35, and in 1936 he was appointed Lecturer in Burmese Language, History and Law at Cambridge University, which position he held until 1941. He is credited with coining the concept of the "plural society" and was an influential historian of Southeast Asia, particularly the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) and British Burma.