(IN) Origin & History of Vegetarianism in India

[Guest guest]

Text of speech delivered by Vn.Shankar Narayan, President of Indian Vegan

Society and the Regional Coordinator for India, South & West Asia for the

International Vegetarian Union (IVU), UK, on Friday, the First of August,

2008 at 04.45 pm on the occasion of 38th IVU World Vegetarian Congress

(Centenary Congress) at the Festsaal, Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany.

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A Short Abstract: India is home to about 70% of world's vegetarians with a

history as old as the human civilization itself. Over thousands of years,

withering many storms, Indian vegetarians have sustained and flourished to

show the people outside a lifestyle which is more compassionate, healthy,

and in harmony with nature. In India, traditionally, a vegetarian diet is

considered to be very sober and having positive impact on our physical as

well as mental health. Therefore, even a traditional non-vegetarian is more

of a vegetarian than a non-vegetarian because on most of the days he is

dependent on a vegetarian diet and even on meat eating days, it is mostly a

vegetarian fare except for one or two side dishes.

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" I have nothing new to tell the world, Truth and Non-violence are as old as

mountains " Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest apostles of non-violence the

world has ever seen, had said once. I am here in front of you, one of the

most august gatherings the world has ever produced, today to speak about the

'Origin and History of Vegetarianism in India'. The truth about the history

of vegetarianism in India is always there for everyone to see though history

is subject to one's interpretations based on excavations and evidences

available and there are many such versions of it. Instead of attempting to

analyse and present before you all these versions, I concentrate my focus on

giving you the essence of vegetarianism in India which in itself represents

the essence of history of vegetarianism in India. Therefore, I am going to

present some truths which I believe are true based on the evidences I had

gathered from learned authorities on Indian way of living and reading of

some of the authoritative books and the interpretations I have arrived at

based on my own experiences.

Before going into the origin and history of vegetarianism in India, I need

to tell you, in the Indian context, what we mean by vegetarian and

non-vegetarian.

What do we mean by vegetarian in India?: According to some estimates, at

present, India is home to about 1160 million people out of which about 40%

(464 million) are vegetarians who do not eat meat at all. This makes about

70% of world's all vegetarians, by far the largest concentration of

vegetarians in any part of the world and the highest proportion of

vegetarians in any population. Therefore, India can be rightly called as the

home of vegetarians!

Indian vegetarians (sasyaahaari or shakhaahaari) are mostly

lacto-vegetarians (about 75% of all vegetarians, do not consume either meat

or eggs with no prohibition for milk and other dairy products) and the

remaining 25% of vegetarians are lacto-ovo-vegetarians (who do not eat meat

with no prohibition on eggs and dairy products) with a very small number

(may be a few thousands) as vegans (ahimsaahaari) who do not consume any

animal products at all. Vegetarianism in India is mainly guided by religion,

caste and traditional values which rule the roost.

Most vegetarians abstain from eating meat, fish or eggs. I said " most

vegetarians " because, in India vegetarianism is not a matter of choice. It

is a traditional way of living, inherited by birth with caste and religious

considerations. Being born a vegetarian, when eating out, one may tend to

eat meat occasionally due to social considerations and still call himself or

herself a vegetarian. Traditionally, some even consider eating fish is

vegetarian.

Indian Non-vegetarians (maamsaahaari), again, one of the largest in the

world, can be classified into two categories. First one, the traditional

non-vegetarians, are meat eaters by birth and are 'expected' to eat meat due

to the caste or religion they are born into or due to the nature of the job

they traditionally do. Though they are called non-vegetarians, they sustain

mostly on a vegetarian diet. They eat meat only on special occasions like

festivals, social gatherings, during a monetary windfall or some other

celebrations. They are very restrictive on the type of meat they eat and

the days on which they eat meat. Many, especially in coastal areas, restrict

their non-vegetarian food to fish only, some to fish and poultry, and some

others to fish, poultry and mutton. There are very few who eat beef and

other types of meat. One more feature of these non-vegetarians is that even

when they eat meat, their diet consists of mostly vegetarian fares and only

one or two side dishes are meat based. This type of non-vegetarians are

generally economically and socially backward and found mostly in rural areas

and some in urban areas also.

The second category of the non-vegetarians, coming either from traditional

non-vegetarian families or vegetarian families, are the ones living mostly

in cities and towns and eat meat regularly. They are generally affluent and

fancy eating meat for various reasons like health, social status and to

flaunt their accumulation of wealth. There are non-vegetarians who are so

because of influence of lifestyle followed in developed countries and with a

belief that eating meat is superior and makes them more acceptable and

intelligent.

There are some non-vegetarians who rarely eat meat for various reasons like

dislike or health but they identify themselves with non-vegetarians as they

are living with non-vegetarians and they are not averse to meat-eating.

With this understanding of vegetarianism in India, I would like to proceed

with the matters relating to the origin and the history or journey of

vegetarianism in India through the ages.

Origin of Vegetarianism in India: As we believe, when man was evolving, he

ate mostly a vegetarian diet with some occasional exceptions like insects or

worms which were caught and eaten raw. But when there was scarcity of his

natural food, he resorted to eating whatever he could get his hands on

including the flesh of animals which were dead or killed by him after

hunting down.

As man's thinking power increased, communities developed, population

expanded, the need for food too multiplied. During natural calamities like

flood, drought, etc., he had to starve and die. To combat this situation, he

started domesticating animals, using them for agriculture, transportation

and other activities, and eating them whenever need arose.

Along with the development in civilisation, savagery also increased and

those who were helpless and voiceless among both humans and non-human

animals were more and more exploited and killed to satiate human needs and

greed thus disturbing the balance of nature. But fortunately, there were

many serious attempts to bring back the humanity to sanity and restore

balance from time to time. As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavadgita " yadaa

yadaahi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bhaarata, abhyutthaanam adharmasya

tadaatmmaanam srujaamyaham " (whenever there is decline of dharma, Oh Arjuna,

I shall manifest Myself in order to restore balance), the history of India

is replete with many instances of correction and restoration of the balance

on earth by proclaiming the importance of living a life in harmony with

nature by the leaders of the time.

In the unknown history, the great Indian sages or rishis as they are called

in India, had laid a tradition of vegetarianism by living harmlessly to

attain salvation. They lived and advocated a life where one lives using

minimum resources and even the use of solar and wind energy. They propagated

a harmless, healthy and cruelty-free lifestyle and established the

importance of existence of all living beings and their inter-relations. With

their self-less and sane thinking, they established order in everyone's life

and community. They mainly subsisted on fruits, nuts and roots which were

not only pure vegetarian, but also they could be equated with the eating

habits of the current day raw-foodies, fruitarians or vegan-organic eaters.

Indian scriptures dating back to Vedic period (7000 BC-2500 BC) and earlier

are all replete with messages which propagate non-violent and saattvik (pure

or having good impact on body) food and lifestyle. As per our ancient

science of Ayurveda, the three qualities of universal energies are Sattva

(purity), Rajas (activity, passion, the process of change) and Tamas

(darkness, inertia). All these qualities exist in everyone in varying

proportions and the superiority of a person is reflected in what he thinks

and does. By managing our intake of foods that induce these qualities in

us, we can modify, regulate and control our thoughts, actions and

expressions. Just like by choosing the unadulterated gas we can improve and

lengthen the life of a car, by using our understanding in choosing our food

we can improve the quality of our lives.

Yoga (including asanas or postures and exercises), the technologies or

disciplines of asceticism and meditation which are thought to lead to

spiritual experiences and a profound understanding or insight into the

nature of existence, also prescribes a saattvik food.

A saattvik food is one which calms and purifies the mind enabling it to

function at its maximum potential. It nourishes the body and maintains it

in a peaceful state. A saattvik diet, thus, leads to true health, a peaceful

mind in control of a fit body, with a balanced flow of energy between them.

Saattvik food includes cereals, fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts,

sprouted seeds, whole grains and milk (taken from a cow, which is allowed to

have a natural birth, life and death including natural food, after

satiating the needs of milk of its calf). From this understanding, it can be

clearly said that a saattvik food is vegetarian food. It also closely

resembles the modern day organic, healthy vegan food except for milk,

included in saattvik food, which is also cruelty-free.

The following are some of the teachings in olden days on saattvik food and

cruelty-free lifestyle which have relevance even today:

" One is dearest to God who has no enemies among the living beings, who is

non-violent to all creatures " - Bhagavadgita.

" He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other

creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take birth " -

Mahabharata.

" One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's

own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma (justice). Yielding to

desire and acting differently, one becomes guilt of adharma

(injustice) " -Mahabharata.

" They who eat the flesh of animals who are desirous of life, are themselves

eaten. By abstaining from meat and showing compassion to all creatures one

becomes incapable of being molested by any creature, and acquires a long

life, perfect health, and happiness " - Mahabharata.

" Those who kill animals.. will be eaten by the same creatures they have

killed in this world " - Srimad Bhagavatam.

" One should treat animals such as deer, camels, asses, monkeys, mice,

snakes, birds and flies exactly like one's own son. How little difference

there actually is between children and these innocent animals " . - Srimad

Bhagavatam.

A cruel and wretched person who maintains his existence at the cost of

others' lives deserves to be killed for his own eternal well being,

otherwise he will go down by his own actions. " - Srimad Bhagavatam

" One who partakes of human flesh, the flesh of a horse or another animal and

deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O King, if such a fiend does

not desist by other means, then you should not hesitate to cut off his

head " - Rig Veda.

" You must not use your God-given body for killing God's creatures, whether

they are human, animal or whatever. " - Yajur Veda

" Those noble souls who practice meditation and other yogic ways, who are

ever careful about other beings, who protect all animals are the ones who

are actually serious about spiritual practices " - Atharva Veda.

" By not killing any living being, one becomes fit for salvation. " -

Manusmriti

" How can he practice true compassion who eats the flesh of an animal to

fatten his own flesh? " - Tirukural.

" The most violent weapon on earth is the table fork... To my mind, the life

of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be

unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. The

more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from

the cruelty of man.The greatness of a nation and its moral progress may be

seen by the way its animals are treated. " - Mahatma Gandhi.

All great Indian saints and seers like Kapila, Vyasa, Panini, Patanjali,

Shankaracharya, Chaitanya, etc., all Sufi saints of Islam and all the great

apostles of peace like Gautama Buddha, Bhagwan Mahavir, Guru Nanak and

Mahatma Gandhi who taught the lesson of non-violence, were all pure

vegetarians and were against the eating of flesh-food, because right

thinking and spiritual attainment are not possible with meat eating.

The origin of vegetarianism in India has often been linked to the cow

protectionism and veneration associated with Hindu culture. This

characteristic is believed by some to have originated in the pastoral Aryan

culture that populated the Indus Valley sometime after 2000 BC. The Aryans

brought with them the sacred Vedas and certain analysts point out that the

Vedas call for non-violence towards all bipeds and quadrupeds and eating

meat entails punishment. In some passages, the killing of a cow is even

equated with the killing of a human. However, other analyses of the Vedas

argue that while meat eating was quite rare, there was in fact no

restriction against it. Cows were venerated, but they were also commonly

used for sacrifice. If used for sacrifice, they could then be eaten, but

only under the supervision of a Brahmin priest. This sacrifice is thought to

have developed after 1000 BC, and it is in fact the influence of Jainism and

Buddhism that ultimately contributed to its demise. These new religions were

developed partially as a reaction against Brahminism, and condemned its

excessive use of animal sacrifice. This contributed to a slow transition

within Hinduism from occasional cattle sacrifice to a total ban on cow

slaughter and beef eating.

 

The development of Buddhism had revolved around the principles of attaining

salvation from worldly sufferings, universal brotherhood and more

importantly peace and non-violence. Jainism is a religion in which all

life is considered worthy of respect and this emphasizes this equality of

all life, advocating the protection of smallest creatures. Both these

religions were established almost about the same time between 600 BC and 500

BC.

In Sikhism, some sects like Namdharis promote vegetarianism and food served

at Gurudwaras is always vegetarian. Punjab state, which has 60% sikh

population at present is about 50% vegetarian. Guru Granth Sahib, the holy

book of Sikhs says " The world eats dead carcasses, living by neglect and

greed. Like a goblin, or a beast, they kill and eat the forbidden carcasses

of meat. "

Saints like Kabir, Tulsi Das, Mira Bai, Sant Tukaram, Basavanna, Akka

Mahadevi always followed, preached and encouraged vegetarianism to their

followers. And of recent, Mahatma Gandhi followed vegetarianism and stopped

drinking cows' milk citing the reason that cows used for milking were

cruelly treated. Among the current day spiritual leaders, Baba Ramdev and

Sri Sri Ravishankar are prominent who promote vegetarianism.

In spite of the wrath of the marauding invaders and their rule of India for

many centuries, in spite of foreign rule which saw many changes on the

landscape of India, in spite of abject poverty which often makes many people

die of starvation, in spite of globalisation which has exposed India to

foreign cultures, vegetarianism in India is, by and large, vibrant and very

strong and continues to show the rest of the world how one can flourish by

following only ethical means.

Since the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) was formed in 1908 at its

first Congress at Dresden, Germany, India has participated in and

contributed to the organised Worldwide Vegetarian Movement in many ways.

India has organised 5 of the 38 IVU World Vegetarian Congresses in 1957,

1967, 1977, 1993 and 2006 and the 11th International Vegan Festival in 2007.

Among the prominent members of IVU at present are The Vegetarian Society,

Delhi, The Vegetarian Society (Reverence for Life), Mumbai, The Indian

Vegetarian Congress, Chennai and The Indian Vegan Society. In addition,

India has sent regularly to serve on the IVU Council many famous

personalities like Rukmini Devi Arundel, J.N.Mankar, Surendra Mehta, Jashu

Shah, D.M.Popat, Dr. M.M.Bhangara, Diana Ratnagar and Hiren Kara. Even

before the establishment of the IVU, we had presence in world vegetarianism

with Mahatma Gandhi attending the International Vegetarian Congress and

serving on the board of the Vegetarian Society, England.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), the world's largest

animal rights organisation, which also promotes vegetarianism, has its roots

in India. Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA founder, visualised the formation of PeTA

while being in India in her early days. Maneka Gandhi, Member of Parliament

and former minister, who founded India's largest animal rights/welfare

organisation People for Animals (PfA) in 1992, is an ardent campaigner for

vegetarianism.

Thus, all Indian religions proclaim " Ahimsa Paramodharma " (Non-violence is

the greatest of all religions) and continue to inspire millions to follow

the path of vegetarianism. Ahimsa means non-violence, non-injury or

non-killing. In all Indian religions, whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism or

Jainism, Ahimsa is a paramount virtue.

Hindu Dharma teaches that all forms of life are manifestations of the

Supreme Self. We must not be indifferent to the sufferings of others. One

must consider all living beings in the image of one's own self and thus not

commit acts of violence in thought, word or deed against other living

creatures.

Anger and hatred cannot coexist with ahimsa. Anger blinds reason and leads

one to violence. Greed and possessiveness are two main causes of social

injustice and suffering and a practitioner of ahimsa should never hoard

wealth beyond needs. Compassion and austerity are essential elements of

ahimsa. The concept of Ahimsa extends to all living beings, and therefore,

protection of environment, natural habitats and vegetarianism are natural

derivatives of the concept of ahimsa.

Why Indian diet is predominantly Vegetarian? :

-All Indian religions and scriptures preach compassion and respect for all

lives.

-Ancient preachings suggest minimum use of resources for food and living

(ascetic living).

-Because of the geographical location also, a vegetarian diet is naturally

suitable for humans in India.

What is ahead?: In spite of so many favourable conditions for vegetarianism

in India, there are many challenges ahead. Vegetarianism is inextricably

linked with non-vegetarianism as everyone has a non-vegetarian element in

oneself and each one of us has to strive to improve the vegetarian element

in us.

With the surge in India's population, India has one of the largest

meat-eating population in the world now. India being the largest producer

of milk in the world, dairy industry, which considers our holy cows as only

milk producing machines, is thriving. Pressure on population exerted by

commercialisation and globalisation of lives is increasing to acquire

material wealth at the cost of morality and our highly held age-old values.

In utter ignorance, millions of innocent lives are tortured and killed every

day for the material benefits they are perceived to give for million others

but in fact millions of innocent people are suffering because of their

KARMA.

Therefore, I hereby give a clarion call to each awakened citizen,

irrespective of the nationality, creed or religion, to put aside whatever

differences we may have to awake further and join hands together to awaken

and educate every other person on earth so that we will have a true

vegetarian world laden with complete and sustainable peace where all

sentient beings can live happily and in harmony with nature by the time we

celebrate 200 years of IVU.

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