Explained: What Is Veganism And How Different Is It From Vegetarianism

The concept of veganism and people actually going vegan has become quite popular in the contemporary world. So much so that vegans across the world have dedicated a day to celebrate 'World Vegan Day' on November 1 every year.

The event was started in 1994 by the then Chair of The Vegan Society, Louise Wallis, in the United Kingdom, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the organisation.

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Donald Watson, a co-founder of the Vegan Society, had coined the term "vegan" in 1944.

The word was originally used to identify "non-dairy vegetarians." But the Vegan Society modified the definition in 1951 to "...excluding all forms of animal exploitation..."

Not same as vegetarianism

According to the Vegetarian Society, a vegetarian is someone who does not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, or by-products of animal slaughter.

Vegetarian diets contain various levels of fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, nuts, and seeds. The inclusion of dairy, honey, and eggs depends on the type of diet a person follows.

The most common types of vegetarians include:

Lacto-ovo vegetarians: vegetarians who avoid all animal flesh, but do consume dairy and egg products.

Lacto vegetarians: vegetarians who avoid animal flesh and eggs, but do consume dairy products.

Ovo vegetarians: vegetarians who avoid all animal products except eggs.

Then comes the vegans: vegetarians who avoid all animal and animal-derived products.

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In simple words, veganism is the practice of avoiding the consumption of any animal products, including meat, eggs, and dairy products, in one's diet. Vegans do not consume animal-derived products such as fur, silk, or leather because their philosophy rejects the commodity status of animals. It also entails avoiding the use of animals for entertainment or work purposes.

Apart from this, there are also people who do not eat meat or poultry but do consume fish, they are considered pescatarians, whereas part-time vegetarians are often referred to as flexitarians.

Although they¡¯re sometimes confused with vegetarians, pescatarians and flexitarians do eat animal flesh. So, they do not technically fall under the definition of vegetarianism.

An ancient phenomenon

Around 500 BCE, the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras of Samos is said to have first mentioned the vegetarian diet. He advocated for compassion toward all species.

Vegan diets, on the other hand, appeared a little more recently, but have been getting a good amount of press. And, undoubtedly, it is the stringent version of vegetarianism.

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According to available evidence, this concept can also be traced back to ancient Indian and eastern Mediterranean societies. For example, for centuries, followers of Buddhism and Jainism in India have advocated and practised a form of veganism based on the belief that humans should not inflict pain on other voiceless animals. Although not completely, yet a similar belief of vegetarian lifestyle is reiterated in Hinduism as well with several animals considered as deities.

Moreover, globally, one of the most prominent cultural forms of veganism can be traced back to Israel, where all residents of a small village named Dimona, which is popularly known as the ¡®Village of Peace¡¯, are vegan.

In 1969, members of this religious group came to Israel. These Hebrew Israelites do not consider themselves to be Jewish, but rather spiritual descendants of the ancient Israelites. They draw inspiration and guidance from The Bible, as it governs their entire lives, including their eating. More than 3,000 African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem live in the 50-year-old vegan town.

Veganism currently draws influence from all across the world, and it is both a philosophy and an animal rights movement aimed at deconstructing the human-supremacist worldview.

What is a vegan diet?

Veganism is considered to be the strictest type of vegetarianism. Veganism is now described by the Vegan Society as a style of life that tries to refrain from all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty, including exploitation for food or any other purpose.

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As a result, a vegan diet excludes not just animal flesh, but also dairy, eggs, and other animal-derived foods. Gelatin, honey, carmine, pepsin, shellac, albumin, whey, casein, and some forms of vitamin D3 are examples of these.

Vegetarians and vegans often avoid consuming animal products for similar reasons. However, the most significant distinction is their level of acceptance of animal products.

Both vegans and vegetarians, for example, may abstain from eating meat for health or environmental concerns. However, vegans specifically choose to avoid all animal by-products since they believe it has the largest negative influence on their health and the environment.

It's also crucial to remember that veganism has grown in popularity in recent years due to worries about the environment, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic infections, and health.

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Furthermore, vegetarians reject the killing of animals for food on ethical grounds, but they generally believe it is permissible to consume animal by-products such as milk and eggs as long as the animals are kept in proper conditions. Vegans, on the other hand, think that all animals, whether for food, clothing, science, or entertainment, have a right to be free from human use.

As a result, they try to stay away from all animal by-products, regardless of how animals are bred or housed. Vegans say no to all the forms of dairy products and eggs as they believe in eliminating every form of animal cruelty, even if many vegetarians don't mind consuming them.

What's the situation in India?

The popularity of vegan food has been slowly gaining momentum in India. Over the last few years, not only have people started to appreciate the concept of veganism but have adopted it in their lives too.

According to rough estimates, there were around 500 million vegetarians in India in 2020 and of these, only one percent are strict vegans. So, the total number of vegans in India is around five million.

And currently two different movements are taking root in India at the moment. On the one hand, as the economy grows and people¡¯s disposable incomes increase, there¡¯s more consumption of meat and dairy products. On the other hand, as people are exposed to social media and as the world becomes smaller due to globalisation, veganism is increasingly being embraced.

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Further, the pandemic flipped a switch in the minds of many in favour of veganism. Data from Google AdWords show that vegan-related searches shot up by 47 per cent in 2020. Clearly, newspapers carrying articles about the best vegan sweet recipes for the Diwali season and the chicness of vegan leather and social media handles dedicated to spreading information around new vegan products, must have had people examining their health and lifestyle in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

There¡¯s also a massive increase in young people talking more about issues like animal rights and sustainability and this has led to restaurants and supermarkets catering to this demand, offering more vegan options.

For instance, there has been an exponential increase in fully vegan restaurants in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Goa, and other establishments are increasingly labelling their food items ¡°vegan¡± and ¡°veganisable¡±, which means they can be altered to make them vegan.

Supermarkets have vegan aisles and vegan e-commerce stores are blooming, making vegan products accessible even in small cities and towns.

A typical Indian diet seems to be predominantly vegan-friendly at first, but the presence of odd ghee, cream or yogurt not only in an individual's meal but also in packaged products without being explicitly stated in the ingredients list or menu, usually goes unnoticed.

While currently non-vegetarian (including egg) products are labelled with a red dot and vegetarian products labelled with a green dot, there has been a demand to label vegetarian products with a brown dot and vegan products with the green dot symbol to distinguish them further by indicating that they don¡¯t contain any animal ingredients or cruelty.

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Further, in India, the meat and dairy industry are intricately linked, and act as a support system for the marginalised communities of the country. These industries pay the daily wages of many poor Indians. The dairy industry alone employs 8.47 million people. So the major shift towards veganism is certainly not without collateral damage.

Furthermore, the communal discourse surrounding beef, and the cultural and religious significance of dairy in India is also a fundamental part of this whole shift towards being vegan. And these challenges must be taken into account and given enough consideration, only then the vegan movement might be able to carve a larger niche in a country like ours.

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