Geoffrey Ostergaard

Geoffrey Nielsen Ostergaard (25 July 1926 – 22 March 1990) was a British political scientist best known for his work on the connections between Gandhism and anarchism, on the British co-operative movement, and on syndicalism and workers' control. His books included The Gentle Anarchists: A Study of the Sarvodaya Movement for Non-Violent Revolution in India, coauthored with Melville Currell, and Nonviolent Revolution in India (1985), both dealing with the Sarvodaya movement. He spent the majority of his academic career at the University of Birmingham.

Early life Geoffrey Nielsen Ostergaard was born on 25 July 1926 near Huntingdon, the son of a Danish immigrant. He attended Huntingdon Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1950. Ostergaard became an anarchist while serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War after reading Herbert Read's Poetry and Anarchism.

Work and career Overview Ostergaard taught and conducted research at the University of Birmingham from 1953 until his death. Drawing on Gandhism, he argued that nonviolence offered a way to reconcile political principles with tactics and to envision of a society without organized coercion.

Early career Ostergaard pursued doctoral studies under G. D. H. Cole at Nuffield College, Oxford, completing a thesis entitled Public Ownership in Great Britain: A Study in the Development of Socialist Ideas in 1953.

Work on the Sarvodaya movement Ostergaard was a lifelong Gandhian. The bulk of the book is based on the findings from a survey of the movement's leaders, inquiring into their backgrounds, motivations, political beliefs and attitudes. Reviewing the book in the India Quarterly, Usha Mehta wrote that it evinced "the authors' deep understanding of Indian society and people and of their sympathy for the Sarvodaya movement." In his review for The Journal of Asian Studies, Anthony Parel described The Gentle Anarchists as "a most welcome addition to the literature of modern Indian politics in general and to Gandhian politics in particular". In a review in the Journal of Asian and African Studies, Frank F. Conlon questioned Ostergaard and Currell's methodology but identified the book as "an important first step" that would "reveal much about the condition of sarvodaya in contemporary India and ... stimulate further historical and sociological lines of enquiry."

The Gentle Anarchists was followed by Nonviolent Revolution in India (1985). Ostergaard argues for the superiority of Narayan's approach over Bhave's, though with significant caveats. Ostergaard also identifies the Sarvodaya movement as the only significant social movement motivated by the belief in nonviolent revolution. Looking to the movement's future, he argues the movement ought to adopt a more overtly anarchistic position including election boycotts and the construction of alternative political institutions from below. Reviewing the book in The Round Table, Antony Copley described the book as "scrupulously fair" and likely to "establish itself as amongst the most important books to appear on the extraordinary drama of Mrs Gandhi's India." In his review for Our Generation, Robert Graham wrote that "Ostergaard has provided a great service to all those interested in nonviolent social revolution by writing such a thorough and thoughtful analysis", but argued the book fails to provide sufficient background on Indian politics and political groupings.

Personal life Ostergaard married Eva Dryden in 1948.