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Last edited September 26, 2025

Template:Infobox scientist Joan Valerie Bondurant (December 18, 1918 – September 12, 2006) was an American political scientist and former spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.[1] She is best known as the author of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (1958), a book on Gandhian political philosophy.

Early life and intelligence work

Bondurant was born on 16 December 1918 in Great Bend, Kansas.[1][2] She was gifted in the piano, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in music.[1]

When World War II broke out, she learned Japanese, and was sent to work for the OSS in India, arriving in New Delhi in May, 1944.[3]Template:Rp

Scholarly career and later life

While in India, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and became interested in his nonviolent approach to politics. Returning to the US, Bondurant obtained a doctoral degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley (1952).[4] She then published Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (1958), a widely reviewed and influential book on Gandhian politics.[5][6][7]

Later, she took a job teaching at University of the Pacific.[1]

Her collection of personal and research papers was given to the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation of River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester in 2012 and was opened to researchers in 2015.[8]

Selected works

  • Conquest of violence: the Gandhian philosophy of conflict{{#if:Bondurant|, Bondurant}. Princeton University Press(1988). ISBN 9780691022819
    • Conquest of violence: the Gandhian philosophy of conflict{{#if:Bondurant|, Bondurant}. Princeton University Press(1958)
  • The Indian experience with democratic elections{{#if:Fisher|, Fisher}. University of California(1956)
  • Indian approaches to a socialist society{{#if:Fisher|, Fisher}. Institute of International Studies, University of California(1956)
  • Sketches of India, with forty-one photographic illustrations{{#if:Bondurant|, Bondurant}. Craft Press(1946)

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Joan Bondurant -- spy, authority on Gandhi [obituary]. San Francisco Chronicle(21 September 2006). Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  2. Joan V Bondurant (1918 - 2006), AncientFaces. AncientFaces. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  3. Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS{{#if:McIntosh|, McIntosh}. Naval Institute Press(1998). ISBN 9781557505989
  4. Gandhian satyagraha and political theory: an interpretation{{#if:Bondurant|, Bondurant}. Thesis (Ph.D. in Political Science)--University of California, Berkeley)(1952)
  5. Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]. International Affairs({Template:Date).
  6. Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]. Foreign Affairs({Template:Year).
  7. Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science({Template:Date).
  8. Papers of World War II spy, friend of Mahatma Gandhi now fully available to the public - NewsCenter(2015-12-31). Retrieved 2016-07-08.

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