Kailash Satyarthi is a dreamer with a strong conviction about a better world. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s soul is deeply anchored in the power of compassion. He advocates the reinvention, redefinition and re-articulation of it as a transformative power and not as a weak emotion. His unassailable belief that liberty and dignity of human is the truth keeps the fire in him ignited and he doesn’t mind burning like a ‘diyasalai’ and illuminating the lives of the ones who are discriminated against and are suffering. Satyarthi’s life and work is an inspiration to the world and he documents snapshots of it in his new autobiography, aptly titled Diyasalai, that was recently launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival. In a conversation with t2oS, the social reformer talks about being a ‘diyasalai’ to many, why AI is dangerous and Compassionate Intelligence is the answer to it, and more.

Illuminating lives like ‘Diyasalai’

The name as well as the character of diyasalai, a matchstick, was close to my heart, and I have always been inspired by that. I was born and grew up in a humble family in Vidisha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh. We did not have electricity in our home at that time and so we used to light up a kerosene lantern every evening. To light up the kerosene lamp, a diyasalai was used. Diyasalai was the power, the source of light. Diyasalai looks very small, but it has a tremendous power; an ocean of energy and light. The only thing is how to ignite the world through it.

When I started my fight against child slavery, child labour and for the education of children, it was clear that education is light. So, if we have to ignite the spark of knowledge and education, then somebody has to burn, somebody has to sacrifice life, and that is diyasalai. It is very easy to preach but to live it, one has to be ready to sacrifice, and this should be the core characteristic of a leader. So, I felt that Diyasalai is the most appropriate word for my autobiography.

Thinking in Hindi-Urdu

Writing has been one of my passions from my childhood. In nibandh (essay) writing competitions in school I would get first prize, almost always, till my engineering career. I was in Hindi medium till 11th grade and before learning Hindi, I learnt Urdu. So, I can read Urdu a little bit even now as in my village there was a mosque near our temple, and a Qazi, who used to love me dearly, used to teach children Urdu there. He helped me learn the language. So, I used to think in Hindi and Urdu and, later on, I had to learn English. So, I always liked to write.

In fact, I got married to the girl I loved through my writing. I used to write in several magazines in Hindi and, sometimes, in English. Once I wrote a piece on ‘the concepts of rights, democracy and equality deeply rooted in our Indian subcontinent’s culture, which is not just related to any religion’. Its editor was Sumedhaji, my now wife, and though highly impressed, they all thought the writer must be someone mature and possibly in his 60s or 70s. I was 22-23 then and there was a lot of confusion and commotion relating to that article’s authorship. However, when she found out it was really me, we soon became friends. So, because of my writing, my love was successful.

‘My life is not my life’

I wrote the first version of my autobiography in a different form, that was about 12 years ago, before my Nobel Peace Prize. Because I was so deeply convinced that my life is not my life. It is very hard to find even the thin line between individuality and the collectivity; between person as well as the society. So, when I wrote that, I wrote the stories of the children who grew up with me and those I interacted with and helped.

From a writer to an activist

It was in 1981, when a person named Vasal Khan, who was enslaved at a brick kiln in Punjab, reached out to me. He was lured away from some village in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, like several others. His 15-year-old daughter, Sabo, was about to be sold to a brothel. It was beyond the parents’ imagination that something like this could happen. Nobody was working on child slavery, child bonded labour, child labour, trafficking of children at that time. These words and phrases were unheard of in the ’80s. There was no law, in fact, the UN Convention on Rights of the Child came in 1990.

So, at that time, I used to publish a magazine called Sangharsh Jari Rahega and it was an experiment at a time when human rights journalism was not yet thought of. My journal, a fortnightly, was solely devoted to those sections of society and individuals who were most abused, oppressed and suppressed. We worked pan-India and it was a one-man show. So, I was its chief editor, I was chief reporter and I was the seller of that magazine. I wanted people to be aware of the reality. That is something like the diyasalai. So, someone who had read one of the stories directed Vasal Khan to me. He expected some help from the government once the article was published. But I refused because when he was telling me all about Sabo, I thought what I would have done if she was my younger sister or my daughter? I told him I will go to rescue your daughter. So, I was a writer-turned-journalist-turned-activist, and hence started a worldwide movement against child slavery and it was the first documented activism of that time.

A compassionate soul

Compassion has gone so deep within me where I could feel the suffering of others as my own suffering. Without drowning in it or merging into it, compassion gives a compulsion, a drive and force to take action, to change that situation of suffering and problem solving. It is easy to say that truth always prevails but to live by believing in it is very difficult. I felt that human liberty is the truth. Dignity of human being is the truth. God sent us on earth with a purpose and sometimes that purpose turns into a dream. So, I always followed my dream; I am basically a dreamer.

‘Nobel Prize was just a comma in my life, not the full stop’

At the age of 70, I launched the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion. We are a very small fraternity of Nobel Peace laureates; 20-22 of them are alive and some are old. They always tell me Kailash, you can just give speeches and people will listen and write instead of doing real activism. And I always say that this Peace Prize was just a comma in my life, not the full stop.

Whatever is happening in the world and what (Donald) Trump is going to do, only God knows. What is needed now is compassion and compassion has to be reinvented, redefined, re-articulated as a transformative power not as a weak emotion. I always think about tomorrow. So, when you live with some dream and you have conviction then dream itself becomes the path, the light and the energy. Keep walking like that and nothing will happen. If there is an attack then one has to be smart enough to react. I have written about one or two incidents in my book where I had to act smartly or else I would have been a photo with a garland. We are here for a purpose.

I am worried about what is happening all over the world, including in Yemen, Gaza and Syria. We have worked for the children of Syria and I have been to Jordan and Syrian refugees camp. I don’t believe in borders. We have so many borders, so many walls between countries, and between human beings. It’s time to break those walls and use those bricks to bridge gaps amongst us. I keep saying that the answer lies in compassion but let us reinvigorate the power of compassion because the transformative power of compassion is the solution to global problems. That is the only thing which can bring a sense of moral responsibility and moral accountability to each other.

People have accused me of a lot of things. When we started rescuing children from the carpet industry in Mirzapur and Allahabad, among other places, we faced resistance. Young kids mainly from Bihar and also sometimes from Nepal who were enslaved there, had been bonded for years and many even died and when we campaigned that consumers should buy only those carpets which are guaranteed being free of child labour, child slavery, then they started saying that I am an agent of Pakistan. Pakistan was the biggest competitor of carpets and I was also working in Pakistan and used to go to the slums of Lahore. The first civil society initiative that took place in Pakistan was my initiative. Pakistani accused me of being an agent of RAW.

So, it was an interesting journey. In the beginning, people will ignore you, they will be in denial mode, but this is not a problem. After this, they will oppose you, they will try to eliminate you. So, attack is not always a physical attack. I have been physically attacked several times. They will defame you. I went through all that.

Inspirational souls

There have been a lot of people, global leaders who have inspired me and in the book I mention Lulu D’Silva. I met him in jail, I met him when he was a president of Brazil, I met him when he was not. He himself was a child labour and the issue was very close to his heart. In Latin America he is still one of the powerful leaders. Then there is Senator Tom Harkin. He said he was inspired by me but I would say I was inspired by him a lot. He has been a kind of a statesman to lead the fight politically. Then there’s Nelson Mandela whom I met during our global march in 1998 against child labour across 103 countries and we kicked off the Africa leg of the campaign from the Cape Town jail where he was imprisoned for 17 years.

Compassionate Intelligence over Artificial Intelligence

The world has never been so well informed, so fast and so connected but the world also has never been so broken and divided as it is today. The things that disturbed me 10 years ago sadly, still do and that’s the reason of starting Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion. This movement is aimed at building compassionate leadership in life to build the culture of problem solving.

One more thing that is worrisome is Artificial Intelligence and the algorithms that it is creating based on data. Billions and trillions of data are being processed and algorithms are being created mechanically. I want to point to a case of gender discrimination which is so common in our daily conversations. There have been reports that someone asked AI if women can be engaged in a certain work and it said no. The response was based on gender-biased data and some algorithms. So I am trying to counter this disaster of AI with Compassionate Intelligence. I am not against the use of AI for good work like in medical science but this is the time when we have to promote compassionate intelligence, meaning we have to mix the positive aspects of human emotions and responsibilities.