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Satish Kumar, a beloved elder of the green movement, has been setting the global agenda for change for the last 60 years. Greatly inspired by E.F. Schumacher, author of the iconic Small is Beautiful, Satish started the Schumacher Society in the UK and the experimental Small School in Hartland, Devon. He founded the Schumacher College and has been its Programme Director since. After 43 years of editing and steering the Resurgence magazine (Britains longest-serving editor), the publication, described as the artistic and spiritual flagship of the green movement, Satish stepped down as its editor soon after his 80th birthday. He is the author of several books, the most notable one being No Destination, which is the story of his 8,000-mile walk from New Delhi to Washington to plead for nuclear disarmament.

Satish Kumar is the innovative, imaginative and ever expansive global Gandhian, pacifist, author, farmer, editor, educator and activist, mentor to millions in the green-humanitarian movement. Described as one of Indias most illustrious sons, recipient of several world accolades, he travels the world, speaking, teaching and inspiring. He turns 81 this month.

Over the years, I have come to understand that all my actions ought to be driven by a sense of service. You know that quote from Rabindranth Tagore? He said, I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. I am in the service of the earth and her forests, rivers, animals and people. Young or old is only an idea. As long as my health permits, I wish to serve until my last breath. Through service I connect with people, animals and nature. Life is nothing but connectivity which is another word for relationship. E.M. Forster famously said, only connect which means that in order to be a good earth citizen, thats all we need to do.

Schumacher offered me the post of the editor of Resurgence magazine in 1973. At that time I was only visiting the UK and was planning to return to India to work with the Gandhian movement. Schumacher said, You will make an excellent editor of Resurgence. I answered, But I want to return to India. Schumacher asked, Why? I replied, I am a Gandhian and I wish to work for the Gandhian movement. Schumacher said, But Satish, there are many Gandhians in India, we need one in England. Make Resurgence a Gandhian magazine, both have the same values. Ecological reverence, social justice, spiritual values, simple living, local industry and political action, are what Resurgence stands for. Schumachers argument was very persuasive and in 1973, I became editor of Resurgence. I am delighted to say that over the years, Resurgence has carried articles from the wisest, brightest, most iconoclastic thinkers from every part of the globe. Of particular interest to me is to link East and West, Gandhi and other global public intellectuals.

My biggest challenge is to interpret Gandhi for our times. It is not necessary to go back to Gandhi, we have to transport him to our time. For me sarvodaya (the upliftment of all) is much more inclusive than any political ideal. Capitalism and the free market benefit the 'few' at the expense of the 'many' and particularly at the expense of nature. Socialism or communism also puts humans above nature. Socialism is utilitarian the greatest good of the greatest number. But sarvodaya does not put humans above nature. Sarvodaya is the well-being and upliftment of all living entities humans, animals, forests and oceans. Capitalism and socialism are both anthropocentric. Sarvodaya is bio-centric or life-centric and much more relevant today when life-giving air, water, forests and land are being sucked away from us by commerce. For far too long has Nature been sacrificed at the altar of growth. Sarvodaya promotes elegant simplicity, frugality, sustainability, respect for bio-diversity and nature conservation. This dimension of Gandhi has been at the centre of Resurgence and my lifes work.

Schumacher College is a new model of radical and cutting-edge education which encourages one to critically engage with ecology, economics, livelihood, political action and sustainable living. Our work is to inspire, challenge and question ourselves as co-inhabitants of the world, to ask the questions we all struggle to find answers to and to find sound knowledge, intuition and wonder in our search for solutions. This is a place for personal transformation and collective action. We describe this as a holistic approach to learning, practising the education of head, heart and hands, bridging the gap between theory and practice, knowledge and experience. Schumacher College is now a respected college that attracts some of the worlds most well-known thinkers, philosophers, writers, scientists, activists and artistes and students of all ages and from every corner of the globe.

Look at what the realists and pragmatists 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 the realistic leaders of 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. Instead, we need to learn from nature. Nature is realistic; man is the only being who is not. Who else goes to bed hungry? Not snakes or tigers or any other animal. Nature does not need 'realistic' Tescos or Monsantos to feed itself. Our system of 'realistic' business leadership has totally failed. We need more idealism in the world. And yes, the poor are never the problem. It is the rich who are making a mess of the world in pursuit of greater and greater wealth, causing pollution, resource depletion and climate change.

Disenfranchisement or feelings of powerlessness are the casualties of globalisation because globalisation benefits only the global players big companies, multinational corporations. Globalisation concentrates wealth in fewer and fewer hands. This is why the top 1% own more than 50% of global wealth. So, fundamentalism is, to some extent, the result of the failure of the neoliberal market economy. The pursuit of power and wealth by any means, corrupt or otherwise, has been the agenda of politicians during the past 50 years. So, we need to return to a decentralised human scale, humble, modest and sustainable form of economics and politics. The more people are empowered, the less extremism there will be.

It is time for the environmental movement to embrace the cause of animal rights. The green movement is rightly concerned about global warming and climate change, loss of biodiversity, clear-cutting of rainforests, pollution of our rivers and oceans and the explosion of human population. But one important dimension is missing from our environmental agenda and that is attention to the cruel plight of animals used for food, entertainment and experiments as much as those lost to us by poaching and forest depletion. Animals are part and parcel of the environment, so I call upon all environmental activists and organisations to remedy this and embrace the cause of animal rights as an integral and important part of the environment movement. We need to add the rights of animals to the welfare of animals. This fundamental dignity of life and equality of rights is an essential foundation upon which the environmental movement has to be built.

My guiding mantra is Soil, Soul, Society. The nurturing of the first two will automatically give rise to the happy third. I have spoken and written about this extensively.

India has a soul that is philosophically so large that it is unfathomable to many cultures. So, it pains me to see narrow sectarian thinking, keeping India in the dark ages, causing strife and dissent, and in the process ignoring the real issues that concern the county. I ask Indians to exercise their own independent judgement to focus on what really matters. I also ask Indians to lead the world in ahimsa (non-violence) and kindness, through embracing all that is culturally and socially noble.

Satish Kumar will be teaching Gandhi and Globalisation at Navdanya Farm, Dehradun, between October 29 and November 2, 2017.

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Sarvodaya, the solution to the ills of capitalism and socialism - The Hindu