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There is a common misconception in the west that all the Hindus in India are vegetarian. Various sources suggest that less than half are lacto-vegetarian (plant food plus cow milk products).
There have long been Lacto-Vegetarian Societies in India, and IVU was represented by them for 50 years up to 2006 (right: Jayantilal Mankar, the first IVU Regional Secretary for India in 1957). The approach of these groups was traditionally to work within the Hindu and other smaller veg communities, offering valuable support to existing lacto-vegetarians and encouraging other Hindus to join them. However, while It is difficult to get figures, there is no evidence that the proportion of lacto-vegetarians actually increased at all during that time.
On the contrary there are indications that the proportion of lacto-vegetarians is declining as young people in India are becoming increasingly westernized, turning away from their traditional religious diets, and turning towards the rapidly increasing number of western fast food/junk food outlets.
With at least one-third of the population still not eating meat those fast food businesses have had to adapt, so they do provide a lot more lacto-vegetarian food than we see from them in the west. But 30% of population of India is under 14 and the average life expectancy is only 66 (stats from CIA), so how long before the next generation brings huge changes in its wake?
Add to that about 150 million Muslims in India, along with many other minorities who are not likely to be attracted to what is mostly seen as a ‘Hindu diet’.
It is becoming clear that the only way to reach out to all those westernized young people is to use westernized, and secular, arguments. And that increasingly means veganism.
The Indian Vegetarian Congress, founded in 1959 and for most of its existence a very traditional lacto-vegetarian organization, now states as one of its objectives: “The IVC will spread awareness of the benefits of soy beans and endeavour to distribute soy milk whenever possible.” – and they have recently gone even further by co-opting Shankar Narayan, founder and President of the Indian Vegan Society (IVS) onto their board.
Just four years ago this would have been hard to imagine, but things have been changing fast. Last year The Telegraph of India newspaper finally caught up with what is happening and ran a story about the increase in veganism: ‘The temple priest was surprised. It's not often that devotees refuse the curd-based prasad - but here was Ritika Ramesh turning it down. "I thought of the documentary on Indian dairy farms that I had seen, and my resolve doubled," says Ramesh, a 25-year-old assistant film director in Mumbai. Ramesh is a vegan.’ (full story: www.telegraphindia.com/1100627/jsp/7days/story_12615629.jsp )
Bangalore has its own local vegan society and a vegan animal rights group, perhaps not surprising in a city with so many western computer companies.
Last October IVU supported a Vegetarian Congress in Bangalore – completely vegan of course as it was organised by Shankar Narayan and IVS. One of the older speakers told us that in his youth his community used milk products very sparingly, but today he is alarmed at the huge quantities being consumed by his fellow Hindus. The dairy industry is now just as industrialized and commercialized as everywhere else, and they use the same persuasive advertising. (right: a musical interlude in Bangalore, the program carried a reprint of my blog on ‘Vegetarian equals Vegan’.)
For a cow to produce milk it must of course become pregnant every year, and the male 50% of the offspring are slaughtered in vast numbers as they are of no use to the industry – and all of this in ‘the land of the sacred cow’, and in the name of ‘Ahimsa’ – non-violence – or ‘not consuming the products of slaughter’.
Shankar Narayan also became the IVU Regional Coordinator for India and SW Asia in 2006. His predecessor was Jashu Shah who held the role for 20 years, and his last great work was as the key organizer of the 2006 IVU World Vegetarian Congress in Goa, India. I took the photo on the right of Jashu handing over to Shankar in Goa. This was the first event of any significance, possibly the first event of any kind, in the extraordinarily long and illustrious history of India, where all the food was completely vegan. And the standard of that food was extremely high (lower photo).
A year later Shankar organized the first International Vegan Festival to be held in India, and by the congress in Bangalore last October we were able to meet with a substantial group of vegan activists, and what Shankar calls ‘vegan sympathizers’ from all over India.
It has become increasingly clear that this is the only way for the veg*n movement to make progress in India, but funds are desperately short. IVU in India needs help from vegans in the west – most things are a lot cheaper in India (but wages are even lower) so any donation will go a lot further there.
We have set up a fund in remembrance of Jashu Shah, who is sadly no longer with us, to promote vegetarianism in India – and this will be administered by Shankar so it will only promote what many now call ‘pure vegetarianism’ – plant food only – i.e. vegan. Please help by going to: www.ivu.org/swasia/jashu-shah-fund.html (or contact us via the website at www.ivu.org )
Below, Shankar speaking on ‘Indian Vegan’ at the Middle East Veg Congress in Dubai, December 2010:
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According to "Food Habits of a Nation" survey ( http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/08/14/stories/2006081403771200.htm ) of The Hindu newspaper, 40% of India is vegetarian (31% lacto and 9% lacto-ovo). With India's population surpassing 1200 million, about 480 million people do not eat meat.
thanks for the link Shankar, the survey was from 2006 when the population would have been a little less than it is now.
It shows more older veg*ns than younger, and more religious than non-religious. It would be interesting to see how much has changed in the last 4 years.