Satish Kumar, self-declared ‘earth-pilgrim’, was born in Rajasthan in 1936. At the age of nine he left home to enter a Jain monastery. At the age of eighteen he was so inspired by reading the works of Mahatma Gandhi that he left the monastery in order to became a passionate advocate for non-violent social justice and land reform.
At the age of 26 he embarked on a ‘pilgrimage of peace’, walking from India to the four capitals of the (then) nuclear world – Moscow, Paris, London and Washington DC. Not only was that a remarkable feat in itself – some 8000 miles. Equally extraordinary was the fact that he and his companion travelled without money; like the Buddha two millennia earlier they were supported every step of the way by people who gave them food and shelter.
At the end of Satish’s great walk he came to settle Devon where he now lives and where he has raised a family – in a place appropriately called Hartland. There he founded the Resurgence Trust and, for the next forty years or so, edited Resurgence, the UK’s longest-standing environmental magazine, a source of inspiration for those seeking to live more sustainably, in harmony with nature.
Satish also founded the Small School, where children could be taught a balanced, practical curriculum (including how to be silent) and, at the other end of the educational spectrum, Schumacher College in Dartington, an institute dedicated to researching and teaching ecological responses to our contemporary economic and environmental malaise.
Sakish has also written books – a dozen of them, including Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life (2008), Soul, Soil, Society: A New Trinity for our Time (2013), Elegant Simplicity: The Art of Living Well (2019) and the brilliantly entitled You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence (2002)
A decade ago he walked from the source of the Thames to Oxford where a three-day conference was held to mark the 50th birthday of the Resurgence Trust. And he returned to Oxford last week at the age of 90 for a Resurgence conference at Wadham College. It was thought-provoking, uplifting, inspiring, good natured. Just like the man himself.
We felt privileged to attend.