VEGANISM IN INDIA
by Dr Nandita Shah
Dr Nandita Shah was speaking recently the Asia for Animals Conference on the topic close to her heart, veganism. We invited Dr Shah to write for the Abolitionist, in a country that reveres vegetarianism, but what about vegan?
 India is a society with many vegetarians, but the concept of veganism is very new here. The vegetarian culture is slowly disintegrating as people’s purchasing power – and meat consumption – increases. The concept of veganism appears to be too radical and anti-traditional. People use Lord Krishna’s devotion to milk and butter to justify their own consumption, not realizing that in Krishna’s time, there was no refrigeration and, as the calves were fed first, people’s milk intake was rather low. Today an average of 25% of the food budget is spent on milk and milk products.
Several animal rights activists are vegans or aspiring vegans, and India has several organisations working to spread the veganism message. Here is an account of a few.
Manish Jain, Indian Vegan
Manish comes from the Jain community, a community whose highest principle is ahimsa. Jains are traditionally strict vegetarians and though their religion describes milk and milk products as undesirable today they are some of the highest consumers of dairy products.
With his wife Neena, Manish’s personal journey into Veganism started 6 years ago through their Canadian vegan friend, Marc Gabriel.
Manish’s search for the truth led him to make a film on the manufacture of silk. He then prepared teaching materials to explain the concepts of veganism. He studied various dairy units and on realizing the cruelties involved, he and his wife immediately decided to drop dairy as well as other animal products from their lives.
Manish Jain founded the first Indian ve gan website - www.indianvegan.com to spread information on veganism. The website also has a section called ‘meet vegans’ where vegans can put up information about themselves and a personal message.
Manish and Neena promote veganism through exhibitions in their home city of Indore and throughout India and by distributing CDs and leaflets on relevant issues. For over 3 years Manish has maintained the Indian Vegan website. “Now we are really enjoying a life full of compassion,” says Manish.
Shankar Narayan, Indian Vegan Society
 Shankar Narayan, the founder of the Indian Vegan Society, explains his conversion to veganism. After reading Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, “ My Experiments with Truth” in 1989, he gradually followed in his footsteps in practicing a cruelty-free lifestyle. He later realized that this lifestyle could be called ‘vegan’.
To arrest the new trends towards meat eating which he saw in the Indian corporate world, and to bring a sense of pride among vegetarians, he started a vegetarian association in 1993. Realizing that in order to do justice to the spirit of vegetarianism, i.e. ahimsa, one has to go vegan, he started the Indian Vegan Society (http://indianvegansociety.org) in 2004. The Indian Vegan Society endeavors to educate the public on veganism and to bring together vegans, giving them an identity and voice. Through literature for distribution, various talks and school programs Shankar has helped many make compassionate changes in their diets.
The Indian Vegan Society is hosting the 11th International Vegan Festival from Sep.30 to Oct.6, 2007 at Murdeshwar, Karnataka, India. Details and latest updates about the Festival are available at ivu.org/veganfest/index.html
Shankar has many more ambitious plans to spread veganism in India.
Anuradha Sahwney, PETA India
 Anuradha, the Chief Functionary of PETA India, helps to take PETA’s non-violent message to India. Many people who do not even know the meaning of the word “vegan” learn about veganism on the PETA India website at http://www.petaindia.com/feat/veg.asp. From demos promoting soya milk to stalls at various events PETA India has been doing their part in spreading the vegan and animal rights message.
PETA India investigators have been visiting dairy farms across India documenting the exploitation of the cows for milk. Their leaflets on the dairy industry, leather industry and chickens are helping to spread the awareness about the cruelty that goes into making our food.
In 2005, on World Vegan Day PETA India persuaded McDonald's in Bangalore to offer a vegan meal to all its patrons after explaining to its employees the cruelty that McDonald’s represented! The idea has caught on, and since then other animal rights and welfare groups have asked several restaurants in India to observe Meatouts.
Aviram and Yorit Rozin - Sadhana Forest Vegan Ecological Community
In 2002 Yorit and Aviram Rozin (aviram@auroville.org.in) left family and careers in Israel to settle in Auroville, an international township comprised of many intentional communities. They were motivated primarily by their commitment to spiritual growth, non-violence and the environment.
They have shared their practice of veganism with hundreds of people by starting the Sadhana Forest community, which aims to transform 70 acres of severely eroded land into the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest – without the use of animal compost, and whilst living in harmony with nature. They created an educational space where complete immersion in a vegan, sustainable lifestyle could be the main teacher.
In 3 years, 850 volunteers have lived and worked at Sadhana Forest, staying for an average time of 1 month – almost 70,000 vegan meals have been served. Because the number of volunteers keeps increasing, Yorit and Aviram hope to raise funds to build a new dining hall in order to increase their capacity further.
Sadhana Forest provides free accommodation to its volunteers in order to touch the lives of as many people as possible. Yorit and Aviram ask volunteers stay a minimum of two weeks to encourage a strong sense of community, and lasting feeling of accomplishment, as well as to offer the direct experience of the positive effects of a vegan diet. Many volunteers have turned vegan after their experience here, even some die-hard carnivores!
The project encourages visitors to reassess their way of living in an integral way – looking not only at the food system. All structures in Sadhana Forest are built from natural materials sourced from the local environment. The sustainable infrastructure, which can accommodate 80 volunteers at a time, includes a solar electrical system, dry composting toilets, and a grey water system.
Sadhana Forest has other ideas pending. After July 2007, a vegan outreach van will travel around the region, sharing food and recipes. Later, an Ecological Park and Training Centre will be constructed and later run by local youth, with the guidance of Sadhana Forest volunteers. Youth will plan and build solar cookers, experiment with vegan recipes, build geodesic domes and other structures from natural and recycled local materials.
What the Volunteers Say…
“It’s great to see a little haven of veganism in India” – Ruth, East Africa
“Veganism requires collaboration and community… that’s the conclusion I have come to. I find it amazing that vegans have made a home here.” – Anthony, USA
“I haven’t felt this healthy in many months” – Kamal, Canada
“An opportunity to live a life I never got a chance to live before”. – AnindyaDas, Kolkata
“I know whoever visits this place will be transformed into an altogether different person, kind to every creature.” – Dinesh, India
“One of the best ways to promote veganism” – Manish, India
“First time but so good vegan food!” – Marco, France
Contact information - Aviram Rozin, Sadhana Forest, Auroville 605 101. INDIA
Tel: +91 413 2677682 Email: aviram@auroville.org.in
Dr Nandita Shah – SHARAN and Vegan Health Workshops
Nandita, a medical doctor and a practicing homeopath embraced veganism in 1985. Having been a lacto ovo vegetarian till then, she was already sensitive to the cruelty and suffering of animals, so when she found out about the egg and dairy industry she was ready to turn vegan.
Nandita’s transformation in her clinical practice began when she read in a Vegetarian Times issue about the relation between high protein diets and osteoporosis. Till then she did not think of human beings as being anatomically predominantly herbivorous.
Dean Ornish’s book, “Reversing Heart Disease” as well as “The Mc Dougall Plan” by Dr John Mc Dougall gave her the confidence to advise her own patients to switch to whole food vegan diets. She found that the patients who were most willing to make changes in their diets were the most desperate ones, these were willing to try anything.
A 22 year old boy with insulin dependant diabetes was able restore his blood sugar to normal levels and to get off his thrice daily insulin injections within just three days. He has not needed medication since. A 70-year-old diabetic man was able to normalize his blood sugar in just 2 weeks. These and other patients were able to reverse their diseases, thought to need extreme medical treatment, at a speed, which was beyond their and her own wildest expectations
Repeated results forced her to teach this diet as a method of preventing and reversing diseases. She now runs regular workshops with the goal of putting the responsibility of patient in his own hands, rather than in those of doctors. The workshops are complete with healthy, tasteful, vegan meals, and cooking demos.
Nandita’s driving force behind the workshop is her desire to see people stop eating or harming animals. Her organisation, SHARAN, meaning sanctuary or protection in Hindi and an acronym for Sanctuary for Health and Reconnection to Animals and Nature aims to address just this. SHARAN will have organic farms, and residential buildings where patients can come to reverse their diseases while learning about sustainable vegan lifestyles. The land will also host a farm animal sanctuary with the aim of reconnecting people with the animals so that they no longer wish to eat them. Until the sanctuary is ready Nandita continues to spread the vegan word through her workshops.
People get healthier and more confident of their health. These days the workshops are filled beyond capacity and Nandita has also got invitations to give them abroad.
You can find more information about the project and the workshops soon. SHARAN’s website, still under construction, is at www.sharan-india.org
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