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Satish Kumar, (India/UK)
The two began their pilgrimage at Gandhi's grave in Bangalore, and ended it at John F. Kennedy's grave in Washington. By then they had walked more than 8000 miles, carrying no money and depending on the goodwill of the people they encountered. They had met with the leaders of all four nuclear nations, and had given each one a packet of “peace tea,” which had been given to them by women working in a tea factory. Tell the leaders, said the women, that “when you think you need to press the button, stop for a minute and have a fresh cup of tea.”
In 1973, Satish Kumar moved to England permanently, where he worked with the legendary E.F. Schumacher. He became the editor of Resurgence magazine, which has been called “the artistic and spiritual voice of the green movement,” a post he still holds. He is the founder of the Small School, a pioneering secondary school with a curriculum based on ecological and spiritual values, and he was also the founding Director of Programs at Schumacher College, a residential international center for the study of ecological and spiritual values. He is the author or editor of six books. Although he never went to school himself, he holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth.
Dr. Kumar espouses a unique blend of ecological sensitivity and spiritual awareness which he calls “reverential ecology.” He is considered a founder of “deep ecology,” which sees human beings not as lords of nature but as part of nature, interdependent with all other forms of life as part of a living whole. It specifically rejects the type of anthropocentric environmentalism that wants to conserve the environment mainly so that it can be exploited by humans.
Satish Kumar teaches, lectures and runs workshops internationally on reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. He lives in Hartland, Devon with his partner June Mitchell and their son, Mukti Kumar Mitchell.
Books by Satish Kumar
No Destination: An Autobiography (2004)
You are, Therefore I am: A Declaration of Dependence (2002)
Earth Pilgrim: Conversations with Satish Kumar (2010) The Buddha and the Terrorist (2006) Links About Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar and the Dancing Economy by Silver Donald Cameron |
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Born to a devout Jain family in Rajastan, India, in 1935, Satish Kumar became a Jain monk at the age of nine. At 18, influenced by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi about land reform and non-violent action, he became a disciple of Vinoba Bhave, who was in turn a celebrated disciple of Gandhi. At 27, inspired by Bertrand Russell's campaign of civil disobedience against nuclear weapons, he set out with a companion to walk to the capitals of the four then-existing nuclear powers – France, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States – in a “pilgrimage for peace.”
