ABP Ideas of India: Kailash Satyarthi Shares Why He Abandoned His Brahmin Surname

Kailash Satyarthi, while participating in ABP News' Ideas of India Summit 2022, narrated the story of his childhood, when he gave up his surname.

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ABP Ideas of India: Kailash Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding work for backward and malnourished children. He has been living amongst children for the past several years and has spent his life working for them. But Satyarthi was not his surname always, he discarded his surname and added Satyarthi to his name. Now Kailash Satyarthi has responded to this at ABP News' Ideas of India Summit 2022. 

He was born in a Brahmin family
When Kailash Satyarthi was asked the reason behind giving up his surname, he said, "I was born into a Brahmin family. Where my parents and brothers believed in untouchability. This is 60 years ago, the conditions were severely bad then. Now it does not make much difference but earlier it did. I was impressed with Gandhiji against untouchability. When I was 15 years old, I heard some leaders make some big points It came to my mind that a feast should be held in which our Dalit mothers and sisters, who are called 'Mahatarani', would cook. I invited all the leaders who used to give speeches on Gandhiji's thoughts at that feast. But not a single person attended the feast. I was sad and I started crying. Just then, a mother whom people treated as an untouchable placed her hand on my back and said, "Son, eat food, you have done what no one had even ever thought of." 

Spent days like an untouchable inside the house for many years.
Kailash Satyarthi further said, "When I reached home, the pandit and relatives were sitting there. I was told that I would have to go to Haridwar and arrange a feast for 101 Brahmins and would have to get a tonsure (mundan). Let the family out of the caste. Then I got angry and said I wouldn't do anything. In the end, it was decided that this boy should be given a separate room and he would remain like an untouchable. I stayed in that room for many years, my mother used to cry when she used to give food in that room from outside. But I also firmly made my mind stronger and thought that I myself should do away with this caste, untouchability, communalism from my life. The first step was to change my name and adopt a new surname. After that, I changed my name to Satyarthi.