How to make peace? Get angry

Today, I am going to talk about anger.

Anger.

When I was 11, seeing some of my friends
leaving the school

because their parents could not
afford textbooks

made me angry.

When I was 27, hearing the plight
of a desperate slave father

whose daughter was about
to be sold to a brothel

made me angry.

At the age of 50, lying on the street,

in a pool of blood,

along with my own son,

made me anrgy.

Dear friends, for centuries,

we were taught anger is bad.

Our parents, teachers, priests--

everybody taught us how to control
and surpress our anger.

But I ask why?

Why can't we convert our anger
for the larger good of the society?

Why can't we use our anger
to challenge and change

the evils of the world?

That I tried to do.

Friends, most of the brightest ideas
came to my mind

out of anger.

Like when I was 35 and sat
in a locked up, tiny prison.

The whole night, I was angry.

But it has given the birth
of a new idea.

But I will come to that later on.

Let me begin with the story
of how I got a name for myself.

I had been a big admirer of Mahatma Gandhi
since my childhood.

Gandhi has fought and lead
India's freedom movement.

But more importantly, he has taught us

how to treat the most vulnerable sections,

the most deprived people
with dignity and respect.

And so, when India was celebrating
Mahatma Gandhi's birth centenary

in 1969, at that time I was 15,

an idea came to my mind.

Why can't we celebrate it differently?

I knew, perhaps many of you
might be knowing,

that in India, a large number of people
are born in the lowest segment of caste.

And they are treated as untouchables.

These are the people --

forget about allowing them to go
to the temples

they cannot even go into the houses
and shops of high caste people.

So I was very impressed with the leaders
of my town

who were speaking very highly against
the caste system and untouchability

and talking of Gandhian ideals.

So inspired by that, I thought that
let us set an example

inviting these people to eat food
cooked and served

by the untouchable community.

I went to some low-caste,
so-called untouchable people,

tried to convince them.

But it was unthinkable for them.

They told me, "No, no. It's impossible.
It never happens."

I said, "Look at these leaders.
They're so great.

They're against untouchability.
They will come.

If nobody comes, we will set an example."

These people thought that I am too naive.

Finally, they were convinced.

My friends and I took our bicycles

and invited political leaders.

And I was so thrilled, rather, empowered

to see that each one of them
agreed to come.

I thought, "This is a great idea.
We can set an example.

We can bring about change in the society."

The day had come.

All these untouchables, three women
and two men,

they agreed to come.

I could recall that they had used
the best of their clothes,

they bought new utensils,

rather, they had taken bathes
hundreds of times

because it was unthinkable for them to do,

it was the moment of change.

They gathered, food was cooked.

It was 7 o'clock.

By 8 o'clock, we kept on waiting, because
it's not very uncommon

that the leaders become late,

for an hour or so.

So after 8 o'clock, we took our bicycles
and went to these leaders' homes,

just to remind them.

One of the leader's wives told me,
"Sorry, he is having some headache,

perhaps he cannot come."

I went to another leader and his wife
told me, "Okay, you go,

he will definitely join."

So I thought that the dinner
will take place,

though not at that large scale.

I went back to the venue, which was
a newly-built Mahatma Gandhi park.

It was 10 o'clock.

None of the leaders showed up.

That made me angry.

I was standing, leaning against
Mahatma Gandhi's statue.

I was emotionally drained,
rather, exhausted.

Then, I sat down where
the food was lying.

I kept my emotions hold (?),

but then, when I took the first bite,

I broke down in tears.

And suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.

And it was the healing, motherly touch
of an untouchable woman.

And she told me, "Kailash, why are you crying?

You have done your bit.

You have eaten the food cooked by untouchables,

which has never happened in our memory."

She said, "You won today."

And my friends, she was right.

I came back home, a little after midnight,

shocked to see that several high-caste
elderly people were sitting in my courtyard.

I saw my mother and elderly women were crying

and they were pleading to these elderly people

because they had threatened to out-caste
my whole family.

And you know, out-casting the family
is the biggest social punishment

one can think of.

Somehow they agreed to punish only me.

The punishment was the purification,

that means I had to go 600 miles
away from my hometown

to River Ganges to take a holy dip.

And after that, I should organize a feast

for priests, 101 priests, wash their feet,
and drink that water.

It was total nonsense, and I refused
to accept that punishment.

How did they punish me?

I was barred from entering
into my own kitchen

and my own dining room,

my utensils were separated.

But the night when I was angry,

they wanted to out-caste me.

But I decided to out-caste
the entire caste system.

(Applause)

And that was possible because
the beginning would have been

to change the family name, or surname,

because in India, most of the
family names are caste names.

So I decided to drop my name.

And then, later on, I gave
a new name to myself: Satyarthi,

that means, "seeker of truth."

(Applause)

And that was the beginning of my
transformative anger.

Friends, maybe one of you can tell me,

what was I doing before becoming
a child's rights activist?

Does anybody know?

No.

I was an engineer, an electrical engineer.

And then I learned how the energy
of burning fire, coal,

the nuclear blast inside the chambers,

raging river currents,

fire vents (?)

could be converted into the light
and lives of millions.

I also learned how the most uncontrollable
form of energy

could be harnessed for good
and making society better.

So, I'll come back to the story
when I was caught into the prison:

I was very happy freeing a dozen children
from slavery,

handing them over to their parents.

I cannot explain my joy when I free a child

and I was so happy.

But when I was waiting for my train
to come back to my hometown, Delhi,

I saw that dozens of children were arriving,

they were being trafficked by someone,

I stopped them, those people,

I complained to the police.

So the policeman, instead of helping me,

they threw me in this small, tiny shell
like an animal.

And that was the night of anger

when one of the brightest ideas was born.

I thought that if I keep on freeing 10 children,

then 50 more will join.

That's not (?)

And I believed in the power of consumers,

and let me tell you that this was
the first time

when a campaign was launched by me
or anywhere in the world,

to educate and sensitize the consumers

to create a demand a demand for
child-labor free rugs.

In Europe and America, we have been successful.

And it has resulted in the fall in child-labor
in South Asian countries

by 80 percent.

(Applause)

Not only that, this first-ever
consumer's power, or consumer's campaign

has grown in other countries
and other industries,

maybe chocolate, maybe apples,
it has gone beyond.

My anger at the age of 11,

when I realized that how important
education is for every child,

I got an idea to collect used books
and help the poorest children.

I created a book bank at the age of 11.

But I did not stop,

later on, I co-founded the world's
single largest civil society campaign

for education that is the
Global Campaign for Education.

That has helped in changing
the whole thinking towards education

from the charity-mode to the human rights-mode.

And that is concretely held (?) the reduction
of out-of-school children

by half in the last 15 years.

(Applause)

My anger at the age of 27,

to free that girl who was about
to be sold to a brothel,

has given me an idea to go
for a new strategy

of raid and reduce,

freeing children from slavery.

And I am so lucky and proud to say
that it is not one or 10 or 20,

but my collegues and me
have been able to

physically liberate 83,000 child slaves

and hand them back to their
families and mothers.

(Applause)

I knew that we need global policies,

we organized the worldwide marches
against child labor

and that has also resulted in
a new international convention

to protect the children who are in worst forms.

And the concrete result was that
the number of child labors globally

has gone down by one third in the last 15 years.

(Applause)

So, in each case,

it was anger -- it began from anger,

turned into an idea,

and action.

So anger, what next?

Idea, and..

Audience: action

Kailash: Action

Anger, Idea and Action,

which I tried to do.

Anger is a power,

anger is an energy and the law of nature
is that energy

cannot be created and can never be vanished,

can never be destroyed.

So why can't the energy of anger
be translated and harnessed

to create and better and more beautiful world?

A just and equitable world.

Anger is within each one of you,

and I will share a secret
for a few seconds:

if we are confined in the narrow shells
of egos,

and the circles of selfishness,

than the anger will turn out to be
hatred, violence, revenge, destruction.

But if we are able to break the circles,

than the same anger could turn into
a great power.

We can break the circles by using
out inherent compassion

and connect with the world
through this compasison

to make the world better.

That same anger could be transformed into it.

So dear friends, sisters and brothers,

again, as a Nobel Laureate,

I am urging you to become angry.

I am urging you to become angry.

And the angriest among us is the one
who can transform his anger

into idea and action.

Thank you so much.

(Applause)

Chris Anderson: For many years, you've been
an inspiration to others.

Who or what inspires you and why?

Kailash Satyarthi: Good question,

Chris let me tell you, and that is the truth,

each time when I free a child,

the child that has lost all his hope
that he will ever come back to his mother,

the first smile of freedom,

and the mother who has lost all the hope
that the son or daughter

can ever come back and sit in her lap,

they become so emotional

and the first tear of joy rolls down
on her cheek,

I see the glimpse of God in it,
this is my biggest inspiration.

And I am so lucky that not once,
as I said before,

but thousands of times,

I have been able to witness my God

in the faces of those children

and they are my biggest inspirations.

(Applause)