Satish Kumar

Early life Kumar was born in Sri Dungargarh, Rajasthan, India. At the age of 9, he left his family and became a Jain monk. At 18, after reading a book by Mahatma Gandhi, he ran away from the mendicant order, to become a student of Vinoba Bhave, an eminent disciple of Gandhi and his nonviolence and land reform ideas.

Peace walk Inspired by Bertrand Russell's civil disobedience against the atomic bomb, in June 1962 Kumar and his friend E. P. Menon decided to dedicate themselves to undertaking a peace 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. The journey is chronicled in Kumar's book No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim.

Professional career

Editor Between 1973 and 2016, Kumar was editor of Resurgence & Ecologist (combining the former Resurgence magazine, which had been described as the artistic and spiritual flagship of the green movement, with The Ecologist). He contributed an essay to The Society for Curious Thought entitled "Focus on Food". He has also been a contributor to the BBC's "Thought for the Day" strand on the Today programme, and also appeared on Desert Island Discs. Kumar was interviewed by Richard Dawkins in his 'Slaves to Superstition' episode of the documentary The 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.

Schumacher College Kumar is a founder of Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies.The college was based on the Dartington Hall estate near Totnes, Devon, England, and offered ecology-centred degree programmes, short courses and horticultural programmes from 1991 until 2024. It was attended by students from all over the world. It closed on that site in 2024 and in July 2025, Dartington Hall Trust announced that the Satish Kumar Foundation had negotiated rights to the college name and its intellectual property assets. , the reborn college has not yet found a site. In 2023 Satish Kumar and Schumacher College were awarded the Bicentenary Medal by the RSA for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of design in industry and society.

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

We Are One Kumar was one of the contributors to the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009. 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.

Family life Satish Kumar is the father of two children, a girl and a boy, by his wife in India. Kumar, a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award, settled in England in 1973. He lives a simple life in Hartland, Devon, with his partner June Mitchell and their two children.

Politics

Prior to the 2015 UK general election, he was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.

Books No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim (2014) , Green Books, You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence (2002), Green Books, Images of Earth and Spirit: A Resurgence anthology Edited by John Lane and Satish Kumar (2003), Green Books, The Intimate and the Ultimate Vinoba Bhave, Edited by Satish Kumar (2004), Green Books, The Buddha and the Terrorist: The Story of Angulimala (2006), Algonquin Books, Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life (2008), Green Books/Finch Publishing, Earth Pilgrim Satish Kumar in conversation with Echann Deravy and Maya Kumar Mitchell (2009), Green Books, Soul, Soil, Society: a New Trinity for our Time (2013), Leaping Hare Press, Elegant Simplicity: the Art of Living Well (2019), New Society Publishers, Pilgrimage for Peace: the Long Walk from India to Washington (2021), Green Books, Peace is Possible - Selected Works (2026), Bloomsbury,