Profile of Swamiji

Swami Agnivesh founded the Arya Sabha party that worked in the forefront of struggles by farmers, laborers, teachers, and students in India. Swami Agnivesh led a successful movement of wheat growers for the enhancement of the price of their produce. He spearheaded the movement towards liberation of bonded labour in the stone quarries and brick kilns of India thus setting up the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front) which later influenced similar initiatives in Pakistan and Nepal. He worked with rural youth in the Northern Indian State of Haryana and led a movement against alcoholism. Swami Agnivesh has been testifying before the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He was later Chairperson of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery from 1994 to 2004. A movement led by him is strongly voicing its opinion against child labour. He led a marathon march protesting against all forms of suppression and oppression of women. He challenged the denial of Harijans' (Untouchables) entry into Hindu temples, and led a march against the socio-economic exploitation of 150 million of these downtrodden people of India. Swami Agnivesh has conducted extensive lecture tours throughout India, creating self-confidence and awareness among the most vulnerable sections of Indian Society. He questions the Western model of growth and development, leading to consumerism, avoidable stress, and ecological destruction' of the Third World in general, and India in particular. Swami Agnivesh played a leading role in the first Hindu Faith Leaders Caucus on HIV organized in Bangalore at the Art of Living Foundation in June 2008.
http://www.swamiagnivesh.com/