now in our 40th year Newsletter of the Young Indian Vegetarians Summer 2018 | Issue 61 Eva Gore-Booth The Charlotte Suffragette Despard movement and Lady Constance Vegetarianism Lytton Leonara Cohen up for animals were muzzled and ridiculed. A world where there was no empathy or mercy towards the animal kingdom also extended to a cavalier attitude Is the world moving away from towards the environment and the ecological balance the mass killing of animals in of the planet. The plundering of resources provided by nature for short term gains became respectable. slaughterhouses? Is a new dawn of Nobody thought of the consequences. Drunk with human civilisation on the horizon? arrogance and a belief that science would cure all our Throughout history great thinkers, philosophers, ills we have brought the planet to its knees. A planet spiritual leaders and even economists have spoken that had been handed over to future generations out against wanton cruelty towards animals. in a healthy state for millennia has been plundered However, the arrival of the Industrial revolution in the last 200 years - the consequences of which spelled doom for animals. Along with everything are already being felt and will jeopardise the lives that was being mechanised animals came to be of future generations. In the name of progress the seen as mere commodities and it gave birth to the human race lost its soul. idea of factory farming of animals. The dominant However against all odds tens of thousands of ideologies of the 19th Century, namely capitalism compassionate souls never gave up. In the last 50 and communism put their faith in mechanisation of years here in the UK they have campaigned day and products. These ideologies also produced a whole night, though many have passed away and many are generation of scientists and academics who very approaching old age. Their work has not gone in vain. successfully desensitised human beings by claiming A new dawn has risen. There is a vegan revolution that animals were not sentient beings, that they taking place. What we are seeing is unbelievable. could not feel pain, pleasure or any emotions. The The masses are shunning meat and dairy. Battles stage was set to use and abuse animals without any are being won for animals, governments are taking moral compunction. notice, animals are once again sentient beings. You could do anything with animals - nothing We are on the cusp of changing the human/ was out of bounds. You could artificially inseminate animal relationship from abuse and subjugation to them, you could keep them in small cages, you could compassion and empathy. To all those living and starve them and force feed them. Maximum profits, dead who for the last 50 years and more have been maximum output became the mantra. The most fighting for the cause of animals: have been fighting flesh you can get out of them, the most ruthless for the cause of animals - thank you. Your hard work and efficient means of killing them became the and dedication has paid off. You have changed the goal. Killing animals for fun, hunting them, using course of history. Your lives have not gone in vain, them for human entertainment in zoos and circuses, your life's journey has been a success. You now have wearing of animal skin, maiming and torturing a whole new generation of young people who have them to find cures for human diseases all became taken up the baton. symbols of progress in the 20th Century. Animals were doomed and a few human voices speaking Nitin Mehta The Young Indian Vegetarians Nitin Mehta, 226 London Road, West Croydon, Surrey, England CRO 2TF Tel: (044) 020 8681 8884 | Fax: (044) 020 8681 7143 email: [email protected] | Website: www.youngindianvegetarians.co.uk Communicate! Please acknowledge receipt of this newsletter by emailing us. Do you have a story you think our readers might be interested in? We would like to hear from you. Please write to us or email us with anything which you feel may be of interest. movements of the world, the awakened instinct which feels the call of the sub-human, which says, "I am the voice of the voiceless, through me the dumb will speak". The Vegetarian The Society's journal of April 1907 had this to say: 'It is interesting to see how vegetarianism Suffragette becomes related to progressive movements. Quite a number of the leaders in the women's movement and suffragist moment are vegetarians'. Suffragist activists who ended up in Holloway Vegetarianism prison opted for vegetarian food as it was much nicer then the meat that was served! Marion Wallace Dunlop, the first suffragette to go on hunger strike, was a vegetarian as were activists Leonora Cohen and Grace Roe. Lady Constance, who wrote a book called 'Prisons and Prisoners’, was a vegetarian. Suffragist, Earlier this year the country celebrated 100 poet, Irish nationalist and pacifist Eva Gore- years of women winning the right to vote. The Booth, (1870-1926) was also a vegetarian for Representation of the People Act 1918 gave the last 26 years of her life. A school of thought many women over 30 and all men over 21 the known as 'food reform’ believed; that meat was right to vote. However it was not till 1928 that all responsible for many illnesses which could be women over the age of 21 got the right to vote. alleviated or cured by switching to a vegetarian Women only got the vote after a huge struggle diet. and a relentless campaign. Many of the women The roots of the link between vegetarianism active in the Suffragette movement were also and feminism lay in the 1890s, as manifested in concerned about other injustices at the time. the radical journal, Shafts, published between Cruelty towards animals was one such issue. 1892 and 1899 and edited by Margaret Shurmer. According to Leah Leneman who wrote Sibthorp. Shafts had articles condemning a research paper called 'The Awakened hunting, wearing of fur, vivisection and wearing Instinct' there were three major suffragettes’ of hats and bonnets with ospreys and the stuffed organisations. The oldest was National Union bodies of birds. Another system of thought in of Women's Suffrage Societies (NWWSS). Victorian Britain that had a huge following at The second was the militant Women's Social the time was Theosophy. Many of the leading and Political Union (WSPU) led by Emmeline lights of the time such as Annie Besant and Pankhurst. The third was Women's Freedom Madam Blavtasky were followers and activists League (WFL). president of WFL, Charlotte in the Theosophical Society. Mahatma Gandhi, Despard, was a committed vegetarian. She first who was in London at the time, was also became vegetarian for her love of the famous associated with the Theosophists. With its basis poet Shelley. However, having come in contact in Hinduism, Theosophy naturally encouraged with Gandhi in 1909 reinforced her commitment. vegetarianism amongst its members. WFL opened vegetarian restaurants in various Gandhi was impressed by the Suffragettes parts of the country. Charlotte said: women's courting arrest and hoped that their example movement is related also with other great would inspire Indians in South Africa to go to jail page 4 in their struggle against racial discrimination. disgorge the entrails of fowl, game and fish'. Gandhi used this technique to great effect Vegetarianism was seen as an empowering tool both in South Africa and India. It was his for women. A speaker at a suffrage meeting vegetarianism that brought Gandhi in contact said, 'vegetarianism aims so directly, as women with the Theosophists, British vegetarians and aim, at the abolition of the unregenerate other radical thinkers of the time. Had Gandhi's doctrine of physical force’. mother not insisted that he take a vow not to The last suffragette Victoria Lidiard died in eat meat as a condition to going to England, he 1992. Angela Holdsworth, in an article called would not have come in contact with all these 'The Last Suffragette', says the following about people and may not have become one of the her: 'Victoria Lidiard died in 1992 aged 102. In greatest human beings in recent history. So March 1912 she was imprisoned for two months much has been written about Gandhi but hardly for taking part in Emmeline Pankhurst's day of anyone has grasped the significance of the action. She had travelled from Bristol to London life-changing impact of vegetarianism on his to protest at the Liberal Government's refusal life. to give women the vote. At a prearranged time Margaret Cousins was active in the Irish Suffragettes smashed windows all over central Women's Franchise League and the Irish London. Victoria's beat was Whitehall and she Vegetarian Society. She saw a close connection threw a stone at the War Office window. She between the two. She said that a simple grain/ was arrested and sent to Holloway prison'. And fruit/nut diet would free women from hours in yes she was a lifelong vegetarian! the kitchen cooking food! She also mentioned Eva Selina Laura Gore-Booth and her sister Constance Gore-Booth the 'fine and sensitive nature of a woman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Charlotte Despard: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs should not be subjected to cooking flesh’. 'A Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-B2-1234] Leonara Cohen: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leeds/hi/people_ woman', she wrote, 'instinctively shrinks at first and_places/history/newsid_8387000/8387247.stm Lady Constance Lytton: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_ from having to touch raw meat, from having to Constance_Lytton,_1908.jpg) Luxembourg 10th European country Bouquets to..