FURNIVALL, J[ohn] S[ydenham] (1878–1960)

J[ohn] S[ydenham] Furnivall was a British colonial administrator of the Indian Civil Service who served in Burma in the early decades of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century tradition of the scholar-bureaucrat, he was not only known to be a co-compiler of a Burmese-English dictionary, but also, even more importantly, he coined the term “plural society.” He was deeply involved as an influential figure in colonial administration in the formulation of policy and its implementation, and on the issue of preparing colonized peoples for subsequent self-rule. He was acknowledged as an influential historian through his published scholarly works primarily on the history of the Netherlands East Indies or Netherlands India (present day Indonesia) and British Burma (present day Myanmar).