Why this chapter matters for UPSC: "Peace" was Chapter 9 of NCERT's Political Theory. It was dropped in the rationalisation of 2023-24: the current book (Reprint 2026-27) ends with Chapter 8, Secularism. The ideas remain examinable: GS4 asks about peace, non-violence and the inner sources of conflict, and GS2 about terrorism, the UN and disarmament. This page follows the 2021-22 text and dates its examples. Several of NCERT's facts have since changed or were imprecise, and the page gives the current record beside NCERT's words: the Rwanda death toll, the UN human-rights body, the list of nuclear-weapon-free zones, and the state of arms-control treaties in 2026.

🧠 First Principles — Read This First

The consensus on peace is recent. Thinkers such as Nietzsche praised war; peace became a near-universal value only after the catastrophes of the twentieth century: Fascism, Nazism, two world wars, Partition, the atomic bombs, the nuclear arms race.

Peace is more than the absence of war. NCERT builds the definition in three steps: absence of war; absence of all violent conflict (riots, massacres, assassinations); and absence of structural violence, the harm done quietly by institutions that entrench inequalities of caste, class, gender, colonialism and race. A just and lasting peace requires a just and democratic society.

Peace is a process, not an end-state. It involves "an active pursuit of the moral and material resources needed to establish human welfare in the broadest sense". Violence, even for just ends, tends to spin out of control; pacifists and Gandhi offer non-violent resistance instead.

PART 1 — Quick Reference

The Chapter at a Glance (2021-22 text)

NCERT sectionCore idea
9.1 IntroductionPeace was not always valued (Nietzsche, Pareto); the twentieth century's horrors made it a cherished value
9.2 The meaning of peaceNot just absence of war or violent conflict; structural violence; peace as a process
9.3 Can violence ever promote peace?Violence spins out of control (Khmer Rouge, Algeria's FLN); pacifism; Gandhi's non-violence; Martin Luther King
9.4 Peace and the stateSovereign states pursue self-interest and can turn force on their own people; democratisation and civil liberties as the cure
9.5 Approaches to the pursuit of peaceThree approaches: balance of power among states; interdependence; a global community beyond states. The UN embodies all three
9.6 Contemporary challengesDominant powers, terrorism, genocide; signs of hope (demilitarised states, nuclear-weapon-free zones, the peace movement)

NCERT's Five Forms of Structural Violence

FormNCERT's examples
Caste hierarchyUntouchability (asprishya), outlawed by the Constitution; its scars remain
Class disparityMost of the labouring classes in developing countries confined to the informal sector; an underclass in developed countries too
PatriarchySelective abortion of female foetuses, denial of food and education to girls, child marriage, wife battering, dowry crimes, workplace harassment, rape, honour killing; India's child sex ratio (0-6) of 919 girls per 1,000 boys in Census 2011
ColonialismRare now in its direct form, but the Palestinian struggle and the lasting damage to former colonies show it has not vanished
Racism and communalismSlavery in the USA (until 1865), the slaughter of Jews in Nazi Germany, apartheid in South Africa; covert racism against immigrants; communalism as South Asia's counterpart

NCERT's Three Approaches to Peace

ApproachCore ideaExample NCERT gives
State-centricAccepts sovereign states and their competition; manages it by inter-state arrangements such as the balance of powerNineteenth-century European alliances that deterred aggressors
InterdependenceAccepts rivalry but stresses social and economic cooperation that tempers sovereigntyPost-war Europe, from economic integration to political unification
Global communityTreats the state system as a passing phase; a supra-national order and a global community of non-state actorsMultinational corporations, people's movements, globalisation

The United Nations embodies all three: the Security Council's five permanent members with the veto reflect the international hierarchy; the Economic and Social Council promotes cooperation; and the human-rights body shapes transnational norms. (NCERT names the Commission on Human Rights; the General Assembly replaced it with the Human Rights Council by resolution 60/251, adopted on 15 March 2006.)

What is peace? NCERT's three-step definition and structural violence (NCERT, ch. 9, 2021-22)Three steps joined by arrows. Step one: peace as the absence of war, simple but misleading, since Rwanda and Bosnia were not wars between countries yet destroyed peace. Step two: the absence of violent conflict of all kinds, war, riot, massacre, assassination. Step three: the absence of structural violence, the harm done by institutions that entrench inequality. Below, five boxes name the forms: caste hierarchy (untouchability); class disparity (informal labour, an underclass); patriarchy (a child sex ratio of 919 in Census 2011); colonialism (the Palestinian struggle); racism and communalism (slavery, the Holocaust, apartheid). A band at the bottom: peace is a process, not an end-state, the product of a just and democratic society.1. ABSENCE OF WARSimple but misleading: Rwanda andBosnia were not wars betweencountries, yet destroyed peace2. ABSENCE OF VIOLENTCONFLICTNo war, riot, massacre,assassination or physical attack:better, but not enough3. ABSENCE OF STRUCTURALVIOLENCENo harm from institutions thatentrench inequalities of caste,class and genderFIVE FORMS OF STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE (NCERT)CasteUntouchability,outlawed by theConstitution; itsscars remainClassMost labour in theinformal sector; anunderclass even inrich countriesPatriarchyFemale foeticide,dowry, honourkilling; child sexratio 919 (Census2011)ColonialismRare in direct form,but the Palestinianstruggle and lastingdamage to formercoloniesRacism,communalismUS slavery (to1865), theHolocaust,apartheid;communalism in SouthAsia"Peace is not an end-state, but a process involving an active pursuit of the moral and material resources needed toestablish human welfare in the broadest sense of the term"
Source: NCERT Class XI, Political Theory, ch. 9 (2021-22 edition; dropped from the 2023-24 rationalised book). Child sex ratio: Census of India 2011, final figure.

PART 2 — Concepts & Narrative

Why Peace Became a Value

Peace is a buzzword like democracy, justice and human rights, but the consensus is recent. The nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche glorified war, believing only conflict could advance civilisation; the Italian social theorist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) argued that people able and willing to use force made up the governing elites, whom he called "lions". Peace had champions too: it was central to the original teachings of almost all religions, and in modern times Gandhi was its leading advocate.

The modern preoccupation with peace came from the atrocities of the twentieth century: Fascism, Nazism, the world wars and, nearer home, Partition. Germany carpet-bombed London; Britain sent 1,000-bomber raids against German cities; the war ended with the United States dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. NCERT says at least 1,20,000 people died immediately and many more later from radiation, nearly 95 per cent of them civilians. The two cities' own estimates for deaths by the end of December 1945 are about 140,000 in Hiroshima and 73,884 in Nagasaki (with 74,909 injured).

The Cold War rivalry of the USA and USSR made nuclear weapons "the new currency of power". In the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, American spy planes found Soviet missiles in Cuba; the US blockaded the island and threatened action until the Soviet Union withdrew them, two weeks that brought humanity "perilously close to the brink of total destruction". Humanity has learnt to value peace after paying a huge price for its absence, and the threat of terrorism keeps it valuable. NCERT's R.K. Laxman cartoon makes the point that a leader who talks of employment, education, health and shelter "and not a word about the nuclear bomb" is mocked as being "from a backward nation".

The Meaning of Peace

Defining peace as the absence of war is simple but misleading, because war usually means armed conflict between countries, and what happened in Rwanda or Bosnia was not such a war yet destroyed peace. A better definition is the absence of violent conflict of all kinds: war, riot, massacre, assassination, physical attack. Even this is not enough, because violence is often rooted in the structure of society. Institutions that entrench inequalities of caste, class and gender injure people in subtle, invisible ways, and challenges to these hierarchies can breed conflict. This is structural violence (see the table above).

The psychological and material harm of violence creates grievances that last generations and can flare again, as with the violence of Partition in 1947. A just and lasting peace requires bringing out and removing these grievances through dialogue, which is why efforts between India and Pakistan have included more contact among people in all walks of life.

Eliminating violence. The Constitution of UNESCO (adopted in London on 16 November 1945) says: "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed". Compassion, meditation and modern therapies such as psychoanalysis can help. But because violence is also rooted in social structures, ending structural violence requires a just and democratic society, and peace, "the harmonious coexistence of contented people", is its product. Peace "can never be achieved once and for all. Peace is not an end-state, but a process".

Explainer

NCERT's Let's Think: three views of violence.

  • Gautam Buddha: "All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?"
  • Mahatma Gandhi: "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent".
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: "Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars—and the short peace more than the long... Let your work be a fight, let your peace be a victory".

Which do you agree with, and why?

Can Violence Ever Promote Peace?

It is often said that violence, though evil, may be a necessary prelude to peace: tyrants can be stopped only by force; liberation struggles may be justified even if they use some violence. But violence, however well meant, tends to "spin out of control, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction".

  • The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, born of Pol Pot's insurrection and claiming to liberate the peasantry, unleashed a reign of terror in 1975-79 that NCERT says caused about 1.7 million deaths, 21 per cent of the population.
  • The FLN (National Liberation Front) won Algeria's independence from France in 1962 by violent means, but its regime "soon degenerated into authoritarianism and triggered a backlash in the form of Islamic fundamentalism". Violence tends to become institutionalised in the political order it creates.

Pacifists treat peace as a supreme value and oppose violence even for just ends, while still recognising the need to fight oppression, through love and truth. NCERT's box defines pacifism as opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes, ranging from a preference for diplomacy to absolute rejection of force; principled pacifism holds all violence morally wrong, pragmatic pacifism holds that better ways usually exist; "doves" seek to avoid war, "hawks" do not.

Non-violence need not be passive. Civil disobedience has made dents in oppression; Gandhi's satyagraha appealed to the conscience of British rulers and, failing that, mobilised mass, open, non-violent breaking of unjust laws. Martin Luther King drew on Gandhi in the struggle against racial discrimination in the USA in the 1960s. NCERT's Let's Debate asks whether violence may sometimes be necessary, since Nazi Germany had to be overthrown by external military intervention.

Key Term

Gandhi on non-violence (NCERT box). The jibe "Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi" equates non-violence with helplessness. Gandhi rejected that reading and changed the idea of non-violence in two ways. First, it means not only refraining from physical harm but also from mental harm or loss of livelihood, and even from the thought of harming someone; and "causing" harm includes helping another to harm or benefiting from a harmful act: "I would be guilty of violence, if I helped someone in harming someone else or if I benefited from a harmful act." NCERT notes this is close to structural violence. Second, ahimsa has a positive meaning: conscious compassion and the active pursuit of well-being, with physical and mental restraint under the gravest provocation. It "has no room for cowardice or weakness"; Gandhi even said that if non-violence were inadequate for self-defence, violence would be better than passivity in its name. Some Gandhians would rephrase the saying as "Mazbooti ka naam Mahatma Gandhi".

Peace and the State

The division of the world into sovereign states is often seen as an obstacle to peace: each state protects its own interests and distinguishes between people, willing to injure others for its citizens. States also hold concentrated instruments of force, which may be turned on their own people to suppress dissent, most clearly under authoritarian regimes and military dictatorships (NCERT's example was Myanmar). The long-term remedy is to make the state accountable through democratisation and civil liberties, the route taken by post-apartheid South Africa. "The struggle for democracy and human rights is thus closely linked to the safeguarding of peace."

States also use violence abroad to capture territory and resources. In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, claiming it was an Iraqi province cut off by imperialism and accusing it of slant-drilling into Iraq's oil; a US-led coalition repulsed the invasion. Such conflict is always possible "in a global system devoid of an effective world government", and vested interests such as the armaments industry profit from war.

Approaches to Peace and Contemporary Challenges

NCERT's three approaches are set out in Part 1. The UN, which embodies all three, has achievements but has not prevented threats to peace: dominant states have asserted their sovereignty and even occupied foreign territory (NCERT cites the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq). Terrorism, partly a response to aggressive states, uses modern weapons ruthlessly, as in the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001; weapons of mass destruction in terrorist hands remain a frightening possibility. The global community has been a "mute spectator of genocide": in Rwanda in 1994, despite intelligence and media coverage, there was no international intervention, and the UN refused to authorise its peacekeeping operation to stop the killing. NCERT gives "nearly half a million Tutsis" killed; the UN's Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide now says "more than one million people are estimated to have perished".

Peace is not a lost cause. After the Second World War Japan and Costa Rica decided not to maintain military forces. Nuclear-weapon-free zones ban the use, development or deployment of nuclear weapons by treaty; NCERT lists six, covering Antarctica, Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Asia, Africa, the South Pacific and Mongolia. The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs today lists five treaty-based zones (the Treaties of Tlatelolco for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rarotonga for the South Pacific, Bangkok for South-East Asia, Pelindaba for Africa, and the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia) plus Mongolia's self-declared status recognised by General Assembly resolution 55/33S; NCERT's list omits Central Asia. The disintegration of the USSR in 1991 ended superpower nuclear rivalry. The peace movement, galvanised by the world wars, links workers, writers, scientists, teachers, journalists, priests and statesmen, allies with the women's and environmental movements, and has created the discipline of Peace Studies.

Explainer

Peace and security since NCERT's text (from the official records).

  • Responsibility to protect. After Rwanda and Bosnia, the 2005 World Summit (General Assembly resolution 60/1, 16 September 2005) agreed that each State has "the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" (para 138), and that the international community, through the UN, should use peaceful means and is "prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council ... on a case-by-case basis" if peaceful means are inadequate and national authorities are "manifestly failing" (para 139). It is not a general right of states to intervene.
  • India's nuclear doctrine (Cabinet Committee on Security, 4 January 2003): "a credible minimum deterrent"; "No First Use", with nuclear weapons "only ... used in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or on Indian forces anywhere"; retaliation "massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage", authorised only by the civilian political leadership through the Nuclear Command Authority; non-use against non-nuclear-weapon states, but "in the event of a major attack against India, or Indian forces anywhere, by biological or chemical weapons, India will retain the option of retaliating with nuclear weapons"; and "continued observance of the moratorium on nuclear tests".
  • Treaties in 2026. The UN Treaty Collection lists 188 signatories and 179 parties to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty; India has not signed it. New START between the USA and Russia was extended "through February 4, 2026" (US State Department). The Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines has 162 parties after withdrawals took effect for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (27 December 2025), Finland (10 January 2026) and Poland (20 February 2026).
  • India in UN peacekeeping. As of 28 February 2026 India had 4,278 uniformed personnel in UN missions (4,121 men, 157 women), behind only Rwanda (4,405) and Nepal (4,340) in the UN's table.
NCERT's three approaches to peace and how the UN embodies them (NCERT, ch. 9, 2021-22)Three columns, each an approach with its idea, an example and the UN organ that reflects it. State-centric: accept sovereign states and manage their competition through the balance of power, as in nineteenth-century European alliances; reflected in the Security Council, whose five permanent members hold a veto. Interdependence: social and economic cooperation tempers sovereignty, as in post-war Europe's move from economic integration to political unification; reflected in the Economic and Social Council. Global community: the state system is a passing phase; non-state actors and globalisation build a supra-national order; reflected in the UN human-rights body, which was the Commission on Human Rights and since 2006 the Human Rights Council.1. STATE-CENTRICAccepts sovereignty and competition;manages it by inter-statearrangements such as the balance ofpower2. INTERDEPENDENCEAccepts rivalry but stresses socialand economic cooperation thattempers sovereignty3. GLOBAL COMMUNITYThe state system is a passing phase;a supra-national order built bynon-state actorsExampleNineteenth-century Europeanalliances that deterred aggressorsExamplePost-war Europe: economicintegration to political unificationExampleMultinational corporations, people'smovements, globalisationSecurity CouncilFive permanent members with a veto:the international hierarchyEconomic and Social CouncilPromotes inter-state cooperation inseveral spheresHuman-rights bodyShapes transnational norms: theCommission on Human Rights, replacedin 2006 by the Human Rights CouncilThe United Nations "may be said to embody elements of all the three approaches"
Source: NCERT Class XI, Political Theory, ch. 9 (2021-22 edition; dropped from the 2023-24 rationalised book). Human Rights Council: UN General Assembly resolution 60/251, 15 March 2006.

NCERT's conclusion: the pursuit of peace is "a constant effort to create and sustain harmonious social relations conducive to human well-being and flourishing". Injustice and imperialism block the path, but removing them through indiscriminate violence is "both unethical and extremely risky". In an age of genocide, terrorism and total war, "the quest for peace must inform both the means and ends of political action."

PART 3 — UPSC Integration

UPSC Connect

Cross-paper relevance

  • GS4: peace within and without (the UNESCO line, Buddha's view of mind); Gandhi's active non-violence; the ethics of using force; strength, peace and security in international relations.
  • GS2: the UN's structure and failures (Rwanda); responsibility to protect; terrorism and the Security Council; India's nuclear doctrine and arms-control treaties; peacekeeping.
  • GS1: Partition violence; communalism as structural violence; the child sex ratio.
  • Essay: "Peace is a process, not an end-state", "Non-violence is the strength of the strong".

Applying the Chapter

Question themeWhat to use
Strength, peace and security in IRNCERT's three approaches; balance of power vs interdependence vs global community; the UN embodying all three
"It is not enough to talk about peace..."Peace as an active process; Gandhi's positive ahimsa; the peace movement
Peace within ourselvesUNESCO's "minds of men"; Buddha's view; but structural violence needs social change too
Terrorism and the UN9/11; Rwanda as failure; R2P (2005); Security Council action case by case
Should India sign the CTBT?India's 2003 doctrine (moratorium, NFU, CBW exception); 188 signatories, India not among them

Exam Strategy

For Prelims: know NCERT's three-step definition, the five forms of structural violence, the three approaches and the UN's three organs that reflect them, the UNESCO line and its date (16 November 1945), Pareto's "lions", the Khmer Rouge and FLN examples, Gandhi's two changes to non-violence, and the corrected facts: Human Rights Council (resolution 60/251, 15 March 2006), five treaty-based nuclear-weapon-free zones plus Mongolia, India's 2003 doctrine and its biological and chemical weapons exception, India outside the CTBT.

For Mains: NCERT's five exercises ask whether a peaceful world needs a change in how people think and whether that is enough, how the state can itself be a source of violence, whether peace needs freedom, equality and justice, whether violence can achieve just ends in the long run, and the differences between the major approaches to peace.

Avoid: defining peace only as the absence of war; reading Gandhi's non-violence as passive; stating NCERT's Rwanda figure as the official toll; describing R2P as a right of any state to intervene; listing "approaches to peace" other than NCERT's three when the question cites the chapter.

Practice Questions

Practice (UPSC-pattern, not past papers). Mains items 1 to 4 are NCERT's own exercises.

Prelims:

  1. Which of the following does NCERT treat as forms of structural violence?

    1. Caste hierarchy 2. Patriarchy 3. Colonialism 4. Racism and communalism
      (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 1, 2 and 3 only (c) 2, 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

  2. "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed" is from the Constitution of:
    (a) the United Nations Charter (b) UNESCO (c) the International Labour Organization (d) the League of Nations

  3. In NCERT's account, the United Nations Security Council, with permanent members holding a veto, reflects which approach to peace?
    (a) Global community (b) Interdependence (c) State-centric recognition of international hierarchy (d) Pacifism

  4. The UN Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council in:
    (a) 1993 (b) 2001 (c) 2006 (d) 2011

  5. Under India's nuclear doctrine (January 2003), India retains the option of nuclear retaliation against a major attack on India or its forces by:
    (a) conventional weapons only (b) biological or chemical weapons (c) cyber weapons (d) none; the doctrine is unconditional

  6. Which of the following regions is covered by a nuclear-weapon-free zone treaty listed by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs but missing from NCERT's list?
    (a) Africa (b) South Pacific (c) Central Asia (d) South-East Asia

Answers: 1 (d); 2 (b); 3 (c); 4 (c); 5 (b); 6 (c).

Mains:

  1. Do you think a change towards a peaceful world needs a change in the way people think? Can the mind promote peace, and is it enough to focus only on the human mind? (NCERT)
  2. A state must protect the lives and rights of its citizens, yet at times its own actions are a source of violence against some of them. Comment with examples. (NCERT)
  3. Use of violence does not achieve just ends in the long run. What do you think? (NCERT)
  4. Differentiate between the major approaches to the establishment of peace discussed in the chapter. (NCERT)
  5. "Non-violence has no room for cowardice or weakness." Explain Gandhi's positive conception of ahimsa and its relevance to conflict resolution today. (150 words)
  6. The international community was a "mute spectator" in Rwanda. How far has the responsibility to protect changed that? (250 words)

📦 Revision Capsule

Revision Capsule

Hard Facts

  • Dropped from NCERT's rationalised book in 2023-24 (current book ends at ch 8); this page follows the 2021-22 text
  • Nietzsche glorified war; Pareto (1848-1923): elites as "lions"
  • Hiroshima ~140,000 and Nagasaki 73,884 dead by end-1945 (city records); Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962
  • Definition: absence of war → of violent conflict → of structural violence (caste, class, patriarchy, colonialism, racism/communalism); CSR 919 (Census 2011)
  • UNESCO Constitution, 16-11-1945: "wars begin in the minds of men"
  • Khmer Rouge 1975-79 (~1.7 million, 21%, NCERT); FLN, Algeria 1962
  • Three approaches: state-centric (balance of power), interdependence (Europe), global community; UN embodies all three
  • Human Rights Council: A/RES/60/251, 15-3-2006; Rwanda 1994: "more than one million" (UN)
  • NWFZs (UNODA): Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok, Pelindaba, Central Asia + Mongolia (55/33S)
  • India's doctrine 4-1-2003: credible minimum deterrent, NFU, massive retaliation, CBW exception, test moratorium
  • R2P: A/RES/60/1, paras 138-139 (16-9-2005); CTBT 188 signatories, 179 parties, India not a signatory; New START extended through 4-2-2026; Ottawa 162 parties; India 4,278 peacekeepers (28-2-2026)

Core Concepts

  • Peace is a process, not an end-state
  • Structural violence: harm done by institutions of inequality
  • Violence tends to spin out of control and become institutionalised
  • Gandhi: non-violence includes thought and complicity, and is positive compassion
  • Democratisation and civil liberties tame the state's capacity for violence

Confused Pairs

  • Negative peace (absence of war) vs positive peace (absence of structural violence)
  • Principled vs pragmatic pacifism; dove vs hawk
  • Majboori (helplessness) vs mazbooti (strength) ka naam Mahatma Gandhi
  • Commission on Human Rights (to 2006) vs Human Rights Council (from 2006)
  • R2P (collective action through the Security Council, case by case) vs a "right to intervene"

PYQ Pattern

  • GS4 has asked about strength, peace and security as pillars of international relations, about acting on a belief in peace, and about peace within ourselves; GS2 about the Security Council and terrorism. NCERT's three approaches, its process view of peace and the UNESCO line answer each.

Sources