Attitudes, Behavior, and Contradiction: Galtung's ABC Conflict Triangle and the Institutionalization of Structural Violence in BJP Minority Legislations (2014-2024)

Abstract

Johan Galtung's ABC conflict triangle is a core concept in Peace and Conflict Studies. This triangle comprises of Attitudes (A), Behavior (B), and Contradiction (C), and it has been applied in this paper to the decade-long Hindu nationalist governance in India between 2014 and 2024. This particular framework by Galtung's framework maintains that conflict is driven by the dynamic interaction of hostile attitudes between parties, conflict behaviors through which those attitudes are enacted, and an underlying structural contradiction whose persistence regenerates both attitudes and behaviors regardless of surface-level de-escalation. Drawing on Galtung's foundational formulations and on subsequent applications in conflict studies scholarship, this paper argues that all three vertices of the ABC triangle are simultaneously effective in the relationship between the State of India under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime and the Muslim minority population, specifically during 2014-2024. It argues that the Attitudes are maintained through the Hindutva ideology and the political discourse that precedes this ideology, whereas the Behavior is the manifestation of a documented pattern of administrative demolition, legislative discrimination, and communal violence. Similarly, the primary Contradiction (C) is depicted by the structural incompatibility between ethnic majoritarian sovereignty and the constitutional guarantee of secularism and equal rights for all citizens. The core argument of this paper is therefore that the ABC Conflict Triangle framework of Galtun not only explains the pattern of structural violence in the said decade, but also addresses systemic causes explaining why the interventions in the behavior have been insufficient in bringing positive peace in India. With qualitative documentary analysis as its methodology, empirical evidence is drawn from Supreme Court proceedings, human rights documentation, political discourse analysis, and democratic erosion data.