by Praveen S. Venkataramana

Today, across the world, discussions about vegetarian diets have reached a high pitch. An article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition documents that the publication rate of vegetarian articles increased steadily over three decades, from an average of 10 per year in the late ’60s to 76 per year in the early ’90s (Sabaté, Duk and Lee 602). This trend reflects our growing uneasiness with the status quo. Such uneasiness tends to be particularly high amongst us college students, especially as we are catapulted from the comforts of home to dorm life. In a typical college food court we are presented with a confusing and unimaginable array of choices: Italian, Mexican, Indian, Asian and more. At the same time we are learning that the choices that our parents made of a diet centered on meat and dependent on industrialized production of food might be unsustainable from the perspective of human health, the welfare of animals and the well-being of our environment. We have many questions: Should we change to a vegetarian diet? Perhaps we should go all the way and become vegans. Is there enough protein in such a diet? How about other nutrients? What should we do?

Overlooked in this frequently noisy discussion is pertinent information about a long-standing experiment in vegetarianism involving a huge number of people. I am talking here about the 400 million people—roughly 40% of adult Indians—that identify themselves as vegetarians (Yadav and Kumar). This represents the largest population of vegetarians in any single country. For some perspective, India’s nearest neighbor in the world of vegetarianism is America, with about 3.2 percent of adults, or 7.3 million people eating vegetarian diets (Turner). Moreover, unlike in the U.S., this dietary style in India is long enduring, with origins that date back to the 6th century BCE if not earlier. Why are so many Indians vegetarian, and why does India have such a long-standing tradition of vegetarianism? Such an inquiry is a worthwhile first step in addressing our own growing ambivalence regarding diet.

A Religious Mandate?

Most people, including many Indians, believe that their vegetarianism has origins in the religious mandate of Hinduism. The most visible witness to this mandate is the image of the sacred cow. However, there is at least one glaring fact that makes us pause: a lot of Hindus, even those that consider themselves religious, are not vegetarian (Yadav and Kumar). Swami Vivekânanda is a well-known example. He was a devout Hindu and a scholar well versed in Hindu religion—having lived the life of an ascetic and wandering monk, he represented India and spoke about Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions on September 11, 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago—and yet, he ate meat and believed that it was completely consistent with Hinduism. Clearly we need to look elsewhere to understand the widespread prevalence of vegetarianism in India.

Since Indian vegetarianism is of ancient origin, perhaps we should journey to ancient India to unravel the true origin of this practice. The earliest records of civilized life in India can be traced back to the third millennium BCE, when in the cradle of the Indus River valley, the cultures of the twin cities of Moheñjo-dâro and Harappâ flourished. Unfortunately, the Indus script is yet to be deciphered, and the varied artifacts, though large in number, yield little information about the dietary habits of this ancient people. Even worse, the end of this civilization is shrouded in mystery, with varying speculative theories being advanced about climatic catastrophes, changing courses of sustaining rivers, and destruction by marauding hordes from Central Asia (Kosambi 53-58). It is these migrating populations from the north that dominate the next great period in ancient Indian history, the Vedic period, which is generally considered to extend from 1500 to 600 BCE. Most of what we know about this period is encapsulated in the Vedas—an oral tradition of which a substantial portion is believed to be lost. But gleaning from what is left, many historians, both Indian and Western, write that meat eating was widely prevalent (Prakash 458) and so was ritual sacrifice of animals. An important piece of information revealed in the earliest of Vedas (the Rigveda) is the high level of importance that the people of this time accorded nature. They considered nature as extrinsic to humans: they were in awe of the power of nature, and deified and worshipped many elements of nature, including fire (agni), water (âpa), earth (prthivî), the moon (soma) and the sun (sûrya) (Sarasvati 24-97).

It is the ensuing period in ancient Indian history, starting around 600 BCE, that is of utmost importance to our inquiry. What we know about this period (called the Vedânta, literally “end of the Vedas”) comes from oral tradition too—this time, in the form of the Upanishads. What is remarkable about Hindu thought in this period is that while it maintains continuity with the early Vedic tradition, it departs in an important philosophical way in the interpretation of the relationship of humans to nature. This time, humans are no longer separate and distinct from nature but they are a part of nature. According to the Taittirîya Upanishad: “From the Self, [loosely defined as the human], verily, space arose; from space, wind; from wind, fire; from fire, water; from water, earth; from earth, herbs; from herbs, food; from food, man. This man here, verily, consists of the essence of food” (qtd. in Embree 261). Interpreting the Upanishads, Swâmi Vivekânanda says that the central idea of the Vedânta is oneness, and this oneness includes all animals (Walters and Portmess 50).

The Emerging Zeitgeist: Truth, Sustainability, Non-Violence and Tolerance

Two novel concepts emerged from this new outlook.  The Mahâbhârata, an important epic of this time, mentions them several times, and ties them together in a neat little verse (Book 13, Chapter 117, Verse 37):

ahimsâ paramo dharmah

In this verse dharma may be interpreted to mean behavior that upholds the underlying order of the universe and ahimsâ, or nonviolence, is the highest (parama) manifestation of such behavior.

What brought about this change in outlook during this timeframe?  Though the information is murky, it is possible to make some reasoned conclusions. For example, we know now that a meat-based food system requires more energy, land, and water resources than the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (Pimentel and Pimentel 660). It is possible that the highly ritualistic Vedic lifestyle placed such a great demand on animals and natural resources that it simply became unsustainable and people were forced to rethink their relationship with nature. Also, a ritualistic system naturally leads to an unsustainable and unstable social hierarchy by creating a rift between those who perform rituals and those who cannot or do not want to. In fact, two major religious movements of this time, Jainism and Buddhism, grew out of a collective disenchantment with the highly ritualistic practices of the Vedic period (Davis 16).

Further, famines, a periodic and common phenomenon in India since ancient times, may have aggravated the scarcity, especially of grazing land. There is historical evidence that people were anticipating a famine, and that Jain leaders migrated to South India in anticipation of such a famine (Embree 50) and returned much later to a north devastated by famine.  Also, it is possible that weary of migration, and realizing that there was not much land south of India to migrate to, these itinerant souls decided to put away their travel shoes and settle down. Doing so must have required them to create a whole new agricultural lifestyle based on a new relationship with nature. In fact, historians state that by 600 BCE the migrants had changed from a nomadic and pastoral tribal society into a predominantly agrarian one (Hopkins 216).

As the people of this time moved to an agrarian society and a vegetarian lifestyle, their dependence on cows must have increased. They needed cows to help them plough the land (a practice that continues to this day in India) and to provide milk, curds and butter to replace the meat in their diet. Is it possible that this was the reason for protecting the cow and considering it sacred?  The epic stories of these times attest to this. They portray new heroes, with Gopâla (literally, “protector of cows”) being a great favorite to this day.  Portraits of Gopâla, better known to the world as Krishna, devouring his favorite foods—milk, curds and butter—adorn the walls of many an Indian home. Later, in the Bhagavadgîtâ, Krishna asks of his devotees,

patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktyâ prayacchati
tadaham bhaktyupahritamashnâmi prayanâtmanah
He who offereth to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water, that I accept from the
striving self, offered as it is with devotion. (169)

We cannot help but notice that there is no mention of animal products of any kind, a clear contrast to the early Vedic period, when ritual sacrifices to appease the gods were common practice.

Supporting the theory that vegetarianism evolved as a sustainable alternative is the etymology of the word dharma itself—it is derived from the Sanskrit root *dhr, which means to hold, support or sustain. In this sense, the definition of dharma could simply be “sustainable behavior.”  Dharma slowly became the overarching principle to live by. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, a venerated freedom fighter and spiritual leader, describes the ascendancy of dharma in his book The Foundations of Indian Culture as follows: “A greater sovereign than the king was the dharma, the religious, ethical, social, political, juridical and customary law organically governing the life of the people” (Ghosh 376-377). It seems that in the new order, what dharma dictated was a partnership with nature and fellow beings, and ahimsâ became the vehicle for forging such a partnership. Ahimsâ or nonviolence was to be practiced towards all living creatures if human beings were to continue to survive and thrive.  As the concepts of dharma and ahimsâ grew more popular, vegetarianism seems to have become a vehicle for the practical realization and expression of these concepts.  It is important to remember that in this ancient environment, all aspects of life—social, political, economic, religious—were closely tied together.[2]  In fact, Hinduism is often described as a way of life guided by dharma and ahimsâ and not a religion with a fixed set of rules and mandates.  So our journey into ancient India seems to reveal that vegetarianism was never a mandate, religious or otherwise. An overwhelming number of Indians are vegetarian because it is their dharma—behavior that they believe best enables them to sustain life on Earth.

In our own times and closer to home we hear similar sentiments expressed by people that have lived close to nature. For example, Thoreau says “I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals” (Thoreau 131).

One of the most perplexing questions with regard to the practice of vegetarianism in India is this: how did vegetarianism survive, especially during periods of extended rule, first by the Mughals, then by the British, both with strong meat-based diets?  The answer is simple and easily understood when we realize that the practice of ahimsâ means, not just nonviolence and non-injury, but also the idea of tolerance. How can something as simple as tolerance lead to such a grand outcome? As E.M. Forster remarked, “Tolerance is generally regarded as a very dull virtue. No one has ever written an ode to tolerance or raised a statue to her.” (44)

Yet, when we explore deeper, we find the many facets of tolerance that help it glitter. Describing the virtues of tolerance, Forster points out that “putting up with people does not mean giving into them.” While Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance demonstrated this to the whole world, it is the practice of tolerance in simple ways by everyday people that helped the vegetarian lifestyle survive through foreign rule in India. These everyday people worked together with the British in the railways, the post offices, and the civil service. They studied and played together in schools and cricket fields—and yet they retained their vegetarian habits. In fact, tolerance in its most glittering avatar includes intelligent discussion, debate, give and take, persuasion, empathy and compassion. Legend has it that in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, there was a Jain monk whose discourses were so powerful that they opened up the emperor’s mind to ahimsa and vegetarianism.

This emphasis on tolerance as being integral to the principle of ahimsâ may also explain why vegetarian and non-vegetarian Hindus have coexisted for centuries. It was probably recognized that people that eat meat do so for varied reasons, not very dissimilar to people who do not eat meat. For some it may be tradition, for others necessity and yet others may eat meat for health-related reasons. As long as dharma informs their actions and the focus on sustainability is maintained, there is no reason why the behavior cannot be accepted and tolerated. That our musings are not idle is substantiated by many facts. For example, the coastal people of West Bengal frequently supplement their vegetarian diets with fish (which is available in plenty making their diet very sustainable) and still are considered as Hindu as their vegetarian brethren. Swami Vivekânanda, a renowned Hindu scholar who lived in the late 19th century, wrote extensively about diet and had this to say to people who assumed that vegetarianism was the only right path: “For him surely is a strict vegetarian diet whose one end is to lead solely a spiritual life. But he who has to steer the boat of his life with strenuous labour through the constant life-and-death struggles and the competition of this world must of necessity take meat.”

A Vegetarian Relay

Yet a tradition does not endure for several centuries merely on the merit of the concepts on which it is based. This is particularly true of a country like India which has always been open to and even courted strong and opposing outside influences. Where India was fortunate is that at crucial points in her history, key figures assumed positions of leadership and influence, and like runners in a relay race, carried and passed on the baton of dharma, ahimsâ and vegetarianism to the next generation. I will examine the life and lasting contribution of three such leaders.

The Edicts of an Emperor: In the annals of ancient Indian history, the life story of Emperor Ashoka exemplifies the importance of dharma and ahimsâ. He ruled India between 268 and 233 BCE (Embree 141). The story of his early life is preserved mostly in legendary form, w  ith few if any historical records. In such accounts he is portrayed as a cruel warrior, who overthrew his brothers and family and assumed the throne of the empire. With continued violence he waged wars against all the neighboring kingdoms and ruled over one of the largest empires in Indian history.

But his transformation from a violent warrior to a benevolent emperor, and the reasons for it, are preserved in stone in the form of inscriptions on rocks that are scattered throughout India. Says Vincent Arthur Smith, a renowned Indologist:

The horrors which must accompany wars, even successful war, made a deep impression on the heart of the victorious monarch, who has recorded on the rocks in imperishable words the sufferings of the vanquished and the remorse of the victor. The record is instinct with personal feeling and still carries across the ages the moan of the human soul. (15-16)

Through Emperor Ashoka’s edicts, inscribed in ancient Pâli, Greek and Aramaic on huge marble pillars (stûpa), rocks and caves, that provided the framework for peaceful and harmonious living, he became renowned as a champion of dharma and ahimsâ. Today, the Wheel of Dharma that Ashoka crafted adorns the Indian national flag. Of most interest to us are the edicts on nonviolence as it pertains to vegetarianism: 

Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice. … Formerly, in the kitchen of Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi [i.e. Ashoka], hundreds of thousands of animals were killed every day to make curry. But now with the writing of this Dhamma edict only three creatures, two peacocks and a deer are killed, and the deer not always. And in time, not even these three creatures will be killed. (translated by Dhammika)

Many attribute Ashoka’s transformation to the influence of Buddhism and consider the edicts an expression of Ashoka’s faith and religion. However, historian Romila Thapar has a different viewpoint–she suggests that the Emperor’s policy of dharma must be seen in a different light, as a campaign undertaken by him to bring his people together and sustain his relationship with them. She says that Ashoka “used the symbols of Buddhism but saw his role in the context of a broader ideology” (Thapar 437). Whether it was religion or simply an expression of Zeitgeist, Ashoka’s edicts have contributed significantly to the enduring incidence of vegetarianism in India.

The Poems of a Saint: The medieval period, roughly spanning the 14th to 16th centuries CE, was a time of great change and upheaval in Indian history as the Mughals displaced the indigenous Hindu rulers. During these difficult times, many poets and saints rose to bridge the gulf between Hinduism and Islam and carve a path for social and religious progress.  We do not need historians or books to tell us this because the works of these poet-saints, cherished even today, speak for themselves. One of the most remarkable of these saints is Kabir. His name in Arabic means “great”. He is believed to have studied with both a Hindu and an Islamic teacher, and he aimed to reconcile the two religions on the basis of what he saw as a deeper unity (Koller 321).

What is most interesting to our study is that Kabir was a strict vegetarian and was very outspoken in his denunciation of meat eating. He was equally scathing in his criticism of Hindus and Muslims in this regard, and he composed several verses condemning the practice and the hypocrisy of the people engaging in meat eating. Following is a verse from Kabir’s work Bîjak (Seed):

The human flesh and the flesh of beasts is similar and their crimson blood is also the same. The flesh of some beasts all men eat but human flesh is eaten by the jackals. Brahmâ the potter has filled the earth; many cows have been born and have died. You should not eat fishes and flesh but what grows in the fields. They make gods and goddesses of mud and offer sacrifices of living beasts. If your god is a true one why did he not take the beasts when they were grazing in the field? Kabir says, “Hear O saints, always repeat the name of Râma. Whatever you have done for the sake of the tongue, the killed animals will certainly take revenge.” (qtd. in Walters and Portmess 48)

The words of a Mahatma: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahâtmâ (“great soul”), who lived between 1890 and 1948, is regarded as the architect of Indian independence from British colonialism. By any standard, this is a noteworthy achievement, but even more remarkable is how he accomplished it. Choosing the path of nonviolent resistance, he overcame his opponents without lifting a single weapon. His expression of nonviolence permeated every aspect of his life—most notably, his diet.

Of the many stories that are told about Mahatma Gandhi’s vegetarianism, the most poignant is the one that he tells us himself, in his now famous autobiography My Experiments with Truth. Raised in a vegetarian home and community, Gandhi was surprised and pained to hear from a close friend in high school that many of his teachers consumed wine and meat. An impressionable teen, Gandhi was, over a period of time, convinced by his friend that in order to be strong and fight the British he needed to eat meat. His reformist zeal won over his guilt about deceiving his very conservative vegetarian parents and Gandhi would eat several meals with meat. Sometimes with humor, and at other times with great regret, he tells us how painful this experience was: “I had a very bad night afterwards. A horrible night-mare haunted me. Every time I dropped off to sleep it would seem as though a live goat were bleating inside me, and I would jump up full of remorse” (qtd. in Desai 11). Eventually his feelings of guilt over deceiving his conservative vegetarian parents overtook him and he stopped eating meat.

Gandhi’s writings on vegetarianism are of great interest to us as we struggle to make dietary choices. He outlines many reasons to be vegetarian that reflect our own concerns about morality, health and nutrition. He says:

In my opinion there are definite drawbacks in taking milk or meat. In order to get meat we have to kill. And we are certainly not entitled to any other milk except the mother’s milk in our infancy. Over and above the moral drawback, there are others, purely from the point of view of health. Both milk and meat bring with them the defects of the animal from which they are derived. Domesticated cattle are hardly ever perfectly healthy. Just like man, cattle suffer from innumerable diseases. Several of these are overlooked even when the cattle are subjected to periodical medical examinations. Besides, medical examination of all the cattle in India seems to be an impossible feat, at any rate for the present. What applies to the milch cattle applies to a much greater extent to the animals slaughtered for meat. As a general rule, man just depends upon luck to escape from such risks. (Gandhi 7)

As the years passed, his belief in vegetarianism and its guiding principle, ahimsâ, or nonviolence and tolerance, became stronger. Ahimsâ for Gandhi meant a humble acceptance of the right of all forms to flourish. He wrote: “So long as man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him” (qtd. in Jacobsen).

To develop a unifying thesis that explains the long enduring practice of vegetarianism in India requires us to distill thousands of years of history and tradition. Most people would consider this a foolhardy task. Yet, if you are fortunate enough to find the key pieces, it becomes possible to solve the puzzle. It is the key concepts of dharma and ahimsâ that help us unravel the mystery of Indian vegetarianism. What is most revealing in Indian history is that diverse people—an emperor managing his empire, a saint uplifting the downtrodden and a freedom fighter overcoming his opponents—chose and influenced countless others to choose ahimsâ and vegetarianism as the path to sustain the natural order of the universe.

As I lift my head from the dusty tomes of ancient Indian history, I am amazed to hear the echoes of my shâkâhârî ancestors all around me in this new Western world. I hear them when Michael Pollan talks about sustainable behavior and plant-based diets. I hear them in the food pyramids and edicts to eat more fruits and vegetables. I acknowledge them when Michelle Obama, our First Lady, exhorts us to grow more vegetables. I hear Gandhi when my friend Sasha tells me that she became vegetarian after the mad cow scare. As I browse the countless websites on vegetarianism I hear the songs of the saints and poets of medieval India. When I answer questions about my own vegetarian diet, I feel the twin arms of dharma and ahimsâ stretch from their home in ancient India to gather the whole world in their loving embrace. It seems now that our generation is challenged with combining this ancient wisdom with modern science to craft an enduring and sustainable lifestyle.

Works Cited

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