He is credited with coining the concept of the plural society and had a noted career as an influential historian of Southeast Asia, particularly of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and British Burma.
That same year, he wed Margaret Ma Nyunt, a Burmese and native of Taungoo.
[4] Following his retirement to Britain, Furnivall became Lecturer in Burmese Language, History and Law at Cambridge University (1936-1941).
Although he was now retired, Furnivall returned to Burma in 1948, after he was appointed National Planning Adviser by U Nu's administration.
He died on 7 July 1960 at Cambridge, before he could accept an offer by Rangoon University to teach there.
In the 19th century it was believed that the correct sequence for preparing colonised people for independence was to first create the appropriate free-market institutions, in the belief that economic development, welfare and democracy, and thus true autonomy, would follow.
Furnivall argued that the reverse was true: that it was necessary to begin with autonomy and that social welfare and development would follow.