Veganomics

Young Jains organised a ‘Vegan Lifestyle’ event a couple of weeks ago. The event was coordinated by Mahersh Shah, the founder of Shambhu’s Kitchen, a vegan catering company that delivers lunches to offices in central London in a low emissions vehicle (and also my somewhat distant uncle).

At the end of the event, Mahersh read out two quotes by Mahatma Gandhi that lead me to believe that if he was alive today, he would be a vegan. I would like to share these quotes with you all – they can be found in Chapter 8 of Gandhi’s autobiography.

“It is my firm conviction that man need take no milk at all, beyond the mother’s milk that he takes as a baby”

“I should be greatly obliged if anyone with experience in this line, who happens to read this chapter, would tell me, if he has known from experience, and not from reading, of a vegetable substitute for milk, which is equally nourishing and digestible.”

Apparently there is much more in his autobiography that is relevant to the topic of veganism. I can’t wait until my exams are over so I can read it.

The event was brilliant. Saurabh Dalal (of the Vegetarian Society of Washington DC) made an excellent presentation on veganism and its the connection with Jainism and it was incredible listening to the experiences of Wenda Shehata from Hugletts Wood Farm. There were also representatives from a number of vegan organisations including Mr. Man restaurant in Edgware, London Vegans, The Vegan Society,Vegan Campaigns and Lifescape Magazine.

My personal experience tells me that cultural and social influences within the UK Jain community have resulted in the objectives of financial stability and a high quality material standard of living have gained a higher priority over practising Jain principles within many Jain households. I found it deeply humbling to see so many vegan organisation representatives who have come from non-Jain backgrounds, but yet appear to practice the Jain principles of non-violence, self-control and non-absolutism to a greater extent than many people who call themselves Jains. My admiration for these people is deepened when I imagine how difficult it must have been to switch from a non-vegetarian non-Jain background to veganism – it makes my journey from a lacto-vegetarian in jain-vegetarian household seem like such a small step.

I was also deeply inspired by Mahersh and Saurabh’s enthusiasm to demonstrate the relevance of veganism for Jains. I believe the event will spark a healthy debate within UK Jain community about the priorities that we should have when trying to reduce our karmic footprint in the context of the complex production and distribution processes that envelope our consumption habits. For example, perhaps promoting a vegan diet during Paryushan might be more effective (in terms of karmic impact), and be more meaningful to small children who find it difficult to understand the harm of eating root vegetables.

I was impressed by how the event brought together a number of Jain vegans and people wanting to become vegan. Before I went to JAINA, I didn’t know any vegans (at least I didn’t think I knew any vegans). At the event, I realised that I knew quite a few vegans – but I just didn’t know that they were vegan. For someone trying to reduce animal products from their lifestyle, knowing that you have a friend or two doing it at the same time can be really motivating, and sharing tips and recipes is really useful.

A Jain Vegans e-support group was created at the event to try and provide support to any Jains looking to go vegan or to those already vegan who would like to shape a growing vegan community. The group has been running for about a month now, and we have a number of active members from the US, the UK and India. The e-group has a number useful links and documents, and through the group members have found recipes for vegan chocolate cake, vegan yoghurt and vegan gulab-jamun. If you would like to join the group please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JainVegans/.