The impact of Gandhi on the development of Johan Galtung's peace research

Abstract

Johan Galtung is often referred to as the ‘father of modern peace research’. His writings, especially his work on structural violence, which is now one of the concepts underpinning the discipline, are very reminiscent of some of Gandhi's key doctrines. This may be coincidental or there may be a causal link. While Galtung freely acknowledges the strong influence of Gandhi on his thought, others seem to downplay or miss the Gandhian connection. In comparing the writings of the two in peace‐related areas and by examining Galtung's references to Gandhi, it becomes clear that there is a strong causal Gandhian underpinning to Galtung's peace research. As modern peace research is not understandable without Galtung's contribution, so Galtung's work is not fully understandable without a knowledge of Gandhi's influence to his thought.

Notes

Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Reflections on the History and Status of Peace Research’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, 5, 2 (1981), p. 98; and Peter Lawler, A Question of Values: Johan Galtung's Peace Research (Boulder: Lynne Reinner, 1995), p. 13.

* Thomas Weber, Politics Programme, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia. Fax: +61‐3‐9479‐1997. Email: ⟨[email protected]⟩. I would like to thank Peter Lawler, who shared his collection of Galtung's unpublished Gandhi‐related material with me, and Johan Galtung for answering some important questions. Needless to say, they may not necessarily agree with my interpretations of this material.

David P. Barash, Introduction to Peace Studies (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1991), p. 8.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 28.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 78.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 235.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 79.

Ghanshyam Pardesi, ‘Editor’s Introduction', in Ghanshyam Pardesi (ed.), Contemporary Peace Research (Brighton: Harvester, 1982), pp. 1–29.

John Macquarrie, The Concept of Peace (London: SCM, 1973), pp. 30, 32–33, 38.

Galtung, ‘Twenty‐Five Years of Peace Research: Ten Challenges and Some Responses’, Journal of Peace Research, 22,2 (1985), p. 156.

Johan Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’, Journal of Peace Research, 6,3 (1969), pp. 167–191; and Johan Galtung, ‘A Structural Theory of Imperialism’, Journal of Peace Research, 8,2 (1971), pp. 81–118.

See for example Barash, Introduction to Peace Studies, pp. 7–11.

See Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’.

Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means, (London: Sage, 1996) p. 67.

Galtung, ‘Twenty‐Five Years of Peace Research’, p. 145.

Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’, p. 169.

Johan Galtung, ‘Introduction’, in Johan Galtung, Essays in Peace Research, Volume 1: Peace: Research– Education–Action (Copenhagen: Ejlers, 1975), p. 24.

Galtung, ‘Twenty‐Five Years of Peace Research’, p. 145.

For example in Johan Galtung, ‘Pacifism from a Sociological Point of View’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 3,1 (1959), pp. 67–84.

Pekka Korhonen, The Geometry of Power: Johan Galtung's Conception of Power (Tampere, Finland: Tampere Peace Research Institute, 1990), p. 106.

Galtung, ‘Introduction’, p. 22. See also Galtung, ‘Twenty‐Five Years of Peace Research’, p. 145; and Lawler, A Question of Values, pp. 81–82.

Galtung, ‘Introduction’, pp. 23–24.

Galtung, ‘Introduction’, p. 24.

Johan Galtung, ‘Gandhian Themes’, in Ingemund Gullvåg and Jon Wetlesen (eds), In Sceptical Wonder: Inquiries into the Philosophy of Arne Naess on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1982), p. 225. See also Johan Galtung, ‘Gandhi and Conflictology’, Papers: A Collection of Works Previously Available Only in Manuscript or Very Limited Circulation Mimeographed or Photocopied Editions, Volume 5: Papers in English 1968–1972 (Oslo: PRIO, 1971), p. 142; and Johan Galtung, The Way Is the Goal: Gandhi Today (Ahmedabad, India: Gujarat Vidyapith Peace Research Centre, 1992), p. 73.

Kenneth E. Boulding, ‘Twelve Friendly Quarrels with Johan Galtung’, Journal of Peace Research, 14, 1 (1977), pp. 75–86.

See for example Kjell Eide, ‘Note on Galtung’s Concept of ‘Violence’', Journal of Peace Research, 18,1 (1971), p. 71. In its kindest formulation, the contention here is that Galtung wants to include every social problem under the rubric of peace research, thus diluting its focus.

Hans‐Henrik Holm, ‘Johan Galtung and the Science of Human Fulfilment: From Petal‐Picking to Mega Research’, in Nils Petter Gleditch, Odvar Leine, Hans‐Henrik Holm, Tord Høvik, Arne Martin Klausen, Erik Rudeng and Håkan Wiberg (eds), Johan Galtung: A Bibliography of His Scholarly and Popular Writings 1951–1980 (Oslo: PRIO, 1980), p. 32.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 79.

Lawler, A Question of Values, p. 87.

Johan Galtung, ‘Cultural Violence’, Journal of Peace Research, 27,3 (1990), pp. 291–305.

See Lawler, A Question of Values, pp. 191–222; Johan Galtung, Buddhism: A Quest for Unity and Peace (Honolulu: Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple, 1988), p. vii; and Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda, Choose Peace: A Dialogue between Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda (London: Pluto, 1995), p. ix.

Galtung, Buddhism, p. viii.

Galtung and Ikeda, Choose Peace, p. 7.

Galtung and Ikeda, Choose Peace, p. 19.

Galtung and Ikeda, Choose Peace, pp. 64–65.

Korhonen's The Geometry of Power appears to be the only publication that looks systematically at Gandhi's influence on the young Galtung, especially on his conception of power. Even this book claims that by the late 1950s Galtung was ‘slowly starting to drift away from Gandhi’ (p. 37), although the references to him do not necessarily seem to confirm this.

See Georg Sørensen, ‘Utopianism in Peace Research: The Gandhian Heritage’, Journal of Peace Research, 29,2 (1992), pp. 135–144.

Ted Herman, ‘Adding Gandhi to Galtung for Peace Work’, Peace, Environment and Education, 5,4 (1994), pp. 23–27.

Personal communication, 30 January 1998.

Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. v; and Johan Galtung, 60 Speeches on War and Peace (Oslo: PRIO, 1990), p. 158.

Korhonen, The Geometry of Power, p. 6.

Johan Galtung, and Arne Næss, Gandhis Politiske Etikk (Oslo: Tanum, 1955).

Korhonen notes that although it is a joint book by Galtung and Næss, ‘seen in the light of the course of [Galtung’s] later development he might as well have written the book himself'. Korhonen, The Geometry of Power, p. 7.

Korhonen, The Geometry of Power, p. 10.

Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. vii.

Galtung, 60 Speeches on War and Peace, p. 280. See also Johan Galtung, ‘Introduction’, in Johan Galtung, Essays in Peace Research, Volume 5: Peace Problems: Some Case Studies (Copenhagen: Ejlers, 1975), pp. 23–24; and Lawler, A Question of Values, pp. 144–146.

‘Speech on “Ashram Vows” at Y.M.C.A., Madras’, Indian Review (February 1916).

M. K. Gandhi, Ashram Observances in Action (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan, 1955), p. 58.

Galtung, ‘Gandhi and Conflictology’, p. 124; and Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. 57. Gandhi himself often said things like ‘the essence of nonviolence technique is that it seeks to liquidate antagonisms but not the antagonists themselves’. See ‘Talk with Agatha Harrison’, Harijan (29 April 1939).

Galtung, ‘Gandhi and Conflictology’, pp. 133–134; and Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. 68.

Johan Galtung, ‘Gandhian Themes’, in Gullvåg and Wetlesen (eds), In Sceptical Wonder, p. 225.

Arne Næss, Gandhi and Group Conflict: An Exploration of Satyagraha (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1974).

Næss, Gandhi and Group Conflict, p. 10.

Krishnalal Shridharani, War without Violence: The Sociology of Gandhi's Satyagraha (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939).

Joan V. Bondurant, Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958).

Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. ix.

Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. x.

Galtung, ‘A Gandhian Theory of Conflict’, p. 104.

Johan Galtung, ‘A Gandhian Theory of Conflict’, in David Selbourne (ed.), In Theory and in Practice: Essays on the Politics of Jayaprakash Narayan (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 97.

Galtung, ‘A Gandhian Theory of Conflict’, p. 97.

Galtung, ‘A Gandhian Theory of Conflict’, p. 98.

Johan Galtung, ‘Gandhi’s Views on the Political and Ethical Preconditions of a Nonviolent Fighter’, in Pran Chopra (ed.), The Sage in Revolt: A Remembrance (New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 1972), p. 212.

Galtung, The Way Is the Goal, p. 62.

Galtung, ‘A Gandhian Theory of Conflict’, p. 110; and see also Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilisation (London and Oslo: Sage and PRIO, 1996), p. 116.

Korhonen, The Geometry of Power, p. 110.

See Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961).

Johan Galtung, Nonviolence and Israel/Palestine (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 20–21.

‘Notes’, Young India (19 March 1925).

See Thomas Weber, ‘Gandhian Philosophy, Conflict Resolution Theory and Practical Approaches to Negotiation’, Journal of Peace Research, 38,4 (2001), pp. 493–513.

See Thomas Weber, ‘‘The Marchers Simply Walked Forward until Struck Down’: Nonviolent Suffering and Conversion’, Peace and Change, 18,3 (1993), pp. 267–289.

‘Cow Protection’, Young India (4 August 1920).

Joan V. Bondurant, The Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Violence, rev. edn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 228.

‘Notes’, Young India (18 September 1924).

‘Talk to Inmates of Satyagraha Ashram, Vykom’, Young India (19 March 1925).

Gandhi, quoted in Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973), p. 709.

‘Speech at Birmingham Meeting’, Young India (5 November 1931).

‘Vykom’, Young India (4 June 1925).

M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1928), p. 32.

‘Vykom Satyagraha’, Young India (19 February 1925).

William Robert Miller, Nonviolence: A Christian Interpretation (New York: Association Press, 1964), p. 313.

Galtung, Nonviolence and Israel/Palestine, pp. 20–21.

Galtung, Nonviolence and Israel/Palestine, p. 25.

Nils Petter Gleditsch et al., ‘The Structure of Galtungism’, in Gleditsch et al. (eds), Johan Galtung: A Bibliography of his scholarly and popular writings, 1951–80 (Oslo: PRIO, 1980), p. 79.

Johan Galtung, Bibliography: 1951–1990 (Oslo: PRIO, 1990).

Gandhi named the aim of his life as the achievement of moksha, a liberation of the self, and claimed that his life, including his ‘ventures in the political field are directed to this same end’. See M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan, 1940), p. xiv.

See Thomas Weber, ‘Nonviolence Is Who? Gene Sharp and Gandhi’, Peace and Change, 28,2 (2003), pp. 250–270.

During a 1997 conversation I had with Arne Næss, he explained that in a philosophical book he had written in the mid‐1960s on applied semantics he was trying to put forward a Gandhian method of communication and argument. When I looked at the book, I noticed that there was no reference to Gandhi in it at all. Næss commented that if he had made Gandhi more explicit the book would not have been taken as seriously.

Galtung, ‘Gandhian Themes’, p. 234.

Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means, p. 116.

Johan Galtung, Johan Uten Land: På fredsveien gjennom verden (Oslo: Aschehoug, 2000), p. 89.