Gandhi and the Conflict Transformation Turn in Peace Studies
摘要
The shift in the last three decades to exploiting the full potential of conflict has led to the popularisation of the term conflict transformation instead of conflict resolution. Not many know that Gandhi was one of the first to recognise the transformative potential of conflicts and employed that method in his Satyagraha campaigns. This allowed a relatively peaceful end to colonialism and the transfer of power. Galtung was one of the first persons to introduce it into the field of conflict. He introduced the notion of peacebuilding as early as 1975 and talked about going beyond conflict resolution to achieving integration. In his later writings, he used the Transcend forum to convey the message of transformation. The writings of Adam Curle, John Paul Lederach, Paulo Freire, and Diana Francis also seem to have a Gandhian resonance. All these scholars go beyond a rational problem-solving approach to embrace a less linear process-based approach accommodating local ethos and spiritual/moral elements into conflict transformation. They are also concerned with justice, mainly in asymmetric conflicts. This chapter seeks to emplace Gandhi as a critical exponent of conflict transformation by comparing his ideas with the above-mentioned scholars.