Satish Kumar
Kumar in 2008
Born	(1936-08-09)9 August 1936 (age 89) Sri Dungargarh,Rajputana Agency,British India[1] (present dayRajasthan,India)
Known for	Founder,Schumacher College &The Small School, Editor Emeritus ofResurgence & Ecologist
Movement	Nuclear disarmament; Environmental sustainability
Board member of	RSPCA[2]
Partner	June Mitchell
Children	Mukti Kumar Mitchell, Maya Kumar Mitchell
Awards	Honorary Doctorate in Education,Plymouth University; Honorary Doctorate in Literature,University of Lancaster; Honorary Doctorate in Law, University of Exeter;Jamnalal Bajaj International Award[2]

Satish Kumar (born 9 August 1936)^[1] is anIndian British activist and speaker. He has been aJain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate and pacifist.^[3]Now living in England, Kumar is founder and Director of Programmes of theSchumacher College international center for ecological studies, and is Editor Emeritus ofResurgence & Ecologist magazine. His most notable accomplishment is the completion, together with a companion, E. P. Menon, of apeace walk of over 8,000 miles in June 1962 for two and a half years, fromNew Delhi toMoscow,Paris,London, andWashington, D.C., the capitals of the world's earliest nuclear-armed countries.^[4][5] He insists that reverence for nature should be at the heart of every political and social debate.

Defending criticism that his goals are unrealistic, he has said,

Look at whatrealists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me "unrealistic" to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept.^[6]

Kumar was born inSri Dungargarh,Rajasthan, India. At the age of 9, he left his family and became a Jain monk.^[7] At 18, after reading a book byMahatma Gandhi, he ran away from themendicant order, to become a student ofVinoba Bhave, an eminent disciple of Gandhi and hisnonviolence andland reform ideas.^[8]

Inspired byBertrand Russell'scivil disobedience against theatomic bomb, in June 1962 Kumar and his friend E. P. Menon decided to dedicate themselves to undertaking apeace walk from India to the four capitals of the nuclear world, Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington D.C., and decided to carry no money on their trip. They called it a 'Pilgrimage for peace' and it took two and a half years.^[4]

Bhave gave the young men two 'gifts'. One was to bepenniless 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. Leaving Pakistan via theKhyber Pass, they continued throughAfghanistan,Iran,Armenia,Georgia, and theCaucasus Mountains, reaching Moscow, then Paris, London, and Washington, D.C. Travelling on 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 they met two women outside a tea factory. After explaining what they were doing one of the women gave them four packets of tea, 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 for it. They eventually delivered 'peace tea' to the leaders of four of thenuclear powers.^[9] The journey is chronicled in Kumar's bookNo Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim.^[10]

Between 1973 and 2016, Kumar was editor ofResurgence & Ecologist (combining the formerResurgence magazine, which had been described as the artistic and spiritual flagship of the green movement, withThe Ecologist). He contributed an essay toThe Society for Curious Thought entitled "Focus on Food".^[11] He has also been a contributor to theBBC's "Thought for the Day" strand on theToday programme, and also appeared onDesert Island Discs. Kumar was interviewed byRichard Dawkins in his 'Slaves to Superstition' episode of the documentaryThe Enemies of Reason, investigating the prevalence of unscientific beliefs in modern society. He also made a film,Earth Pilgrim, for BBC2's Natural History Series.

Kumar co-wrote theWorld Peace Prayer^[12] withMother Teresa (adapted from themes in theUpanishads). The prayer was first used publicly in July 1981 during an interfaith gathering at St James's Church, Piccadilly, London.^[13] In a later statement (2022), Satish Kumar confirmed that he launched the prayer jointly with Mother Teresa at this occasion.^[14]

Kumar was one of the contributors to the book,We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.^[15] The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying both its diversity and the threats it faces. It contains a collection of statements from tribal people, photographs, and essays from international authors, campaigners, politicians, philosophers, poets, artists, journalists, anthropologists, environmentalists and photojournalists. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization,Survival International.^[16]

Satish Kumar is the father of two children, a girl^[17] and a boy, by his wife in India.^{[citation needed]} Kumar, a recipient of theJamnalal Bajaj International Award,^[18] settled in England in 1973. He lives asimple life inHartland, Devon, with his partner June Mitchell and their two children.^[19]

Prior to the2015 UK general election, he was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of theGreen Party'sCaroline Lucas.^[20]

• No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim (2014) [2004] [1978], Green Books,ISBN 978-0-85784261-9
• You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence (2002), Green Books,ISBN 978-1-90399818-2
• Images of Earth and Spirit: A Resurgence anthology Edited by John Lane and Satish Kumar (2003), Green Books,ISBN 978-1-90399829-8
• The Intimate and the Ultimate Vinoba Bhave, Edited by Satish Kumar (2004), Green Books,ISBN 978-1-90399839-7
• The Buddha and the Terrorist: The Story ofAngulimala (2006), Algonquin Books,ISBN 978-1-56512520-9
• Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life (2008), Green Books/Finch Publishing,ISBN 978-1-87645194-3
• Earth Pilgrim Satish Kumar in conversation with Echann Deravy and Maya Kumar Mitchell (2009), Green Books,ISBN 978-1-90032257-7
• Soul, Soil, Society: a New Trinity for our Time (2013), Leaping Hare Press,ISBN 978-1-78240044-8
• Elegant Simplicity: the Art of Living Well (2019), New Society Publishers,ISBN 978-0-86571910-1
• Pilgrimage for Peace: the Long Walk from India to Washington (2021), Green Books,ISBN 978-0-85784529-0

• Biography, Resurgence website
• Interview, In Context.
• Satish Kumar'spresentation, Royal Institute of British Architects International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change.
• The E F Schumacher Centenary LectureArchived 20 April 2016 at theWayback Machine, Temenos Academy, 13 September 2011.

• 1936 births
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