Swami Agnivesh

Swami Agnivesh, winner of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) 2004, looks like a sadhu, talks like a politician and, most importantly, voices the cause of India’s underprivileged millions. He abandoned a promising career as a professor of law and management in Calcutta for a life of activism. Later, he gave up a coveted ministerial position with the Government of Haryana to work for the oppressed. Now seventy-six years old, Swami Agnivesh has inspired many young minds to strive towards making the world a better place to live in. In 1994, he was appointed the chairperson of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. He is better known across the globe for his crusade against bonded labour, and is founder-chairperson of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front. He has led numerous initiatives to foster peace and interfaith harmony in Kashmir during the worst periods of violence. In 2010, Swami Agnivesh was appointed by the Government of India as the mediator between the government and the Maoist leadership. The Sarva Dharma Sansad or All Faiths Parliament established by him in India in 2007 is the first interfaith movement that includes both women and men leaders. Currently, he is on the board of directors of the first-ever intergovernmental, interreligious, intercultural, international Centre for Dialogue – KAICIID – based in Vienna.