Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar is an indian jain monk, current editor of Resurgence, founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies and of The Small School.
He was born in Bikaner in 1936 and became a monk at the age of 9. At 18, following an inner voice, he ran away from the mendicant order, to become a disciple of Vinoba Bhave who was an eminent disciple of Gandhi and his nonviolence and land reform ideas.
Inspired in 1962 by Bertrand Russell's civil disobedience against the atomic bomb, a few years later Kumar and a companion decided to dedicate themselves to undertaking a peace walk from India to the four corners of the nuclear world Moscow, Paris, London and the USA. They called it 'Pilgrimage for peace'. They began their walk in Bangalore. There, Vinoba Bhave gave the young men two gifts. One was to be penniless wherever they walked. The other was to be vegetarian. They first travelled through Pakistan, where they met great kindness from a country with a huge historic conflict and antipathy towards India. They continued through Armenia, Georgia, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Khyber Pass. They visited Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington, D.C.. Travelling by foot and carrying no money, Kumar and his companion would stay with anyone who offered them food or shelter. While on their way to Moscow the met two women outside a tea factory. After explaining what they were doing one of the women gave them four tea bags, one to be delivered to each of the leaders of the four nuclear powers and to also deliver a message, “when you think you need to press the button, stop for a minute and have a fresh cup of tea”. This further inspired their journey and became in part the reason. They eventually delivered 'peace tea' to the leaders of 4 of the nuclear powers. The journey is chronicled in Satish's book, No Destination.
Other books by Satish Kumar:
- You Are Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence"
Satish Kumar settled in England in 1973 and lives in Hartland Devon, where he continues to have an impact on the lives of many.