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The Bloodless
Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India
The book is called The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India and it has been written by one Tristram Stuart. This is his first book and, in it, Stuart argues that, if we were all vegetarian, far less forest would need to be felled in order that the cleared ground can be used to raise the meat the carnivores of this world consume. Stuart tells of, among many others, an Englishman called Thomas Tryon who, in the 16th century, and way ahead of his time, denounced the destruction of North American forests, the exploitation of animals, and the senseless ransacking of the Earth for useless "dainties". And, as Stuart points out, Tryon’s ideals had their source in India.
As a review of the book in The Guardian says: "The voyages of discovery that had kickstarted the trade in luxuries had also brought back outlandish reports of people — Brahmins — who ate only herbs...The chaplain on Sir Thomas Roe’s 1615 mission to the Mughal court, Edward Terry, delved a little more deeply and brought back to England a description of the Indian doctrine of "ahimsa" or non-violence. Others reported animal hospitals. Among men like Tryon these novelties raised the possibility that vegetarianism might be both healthy and ethical — the two planks on which the practice has stood ever since". But, as the book makes clear, there was a downside to all of this, because the Indian connection led to other associations, for example with reincarnation, which, of course, did not, to say the least, go down too well with Christian England. This Indian vegetarianism also led to accusations of weakness and effeminacy in those who practised it in England — after all, what of the roast beef of old England and all that, which accounted, in some eyes, for the whole growth of Empire. (And, to back up that theory, the French philosopher Rousseau stated that the "cruel and ferocious" English were the brutalised product of their meat-eating diet). It is fascinating that the Indian connection continued into the 20 century when, in a full circle kind of way, Mahatma Gandhi found inspiration in the English poet, and vegetarian, Shelley. It seems from the book that the arguments in favour of vegetarianism have hardly changed over the years. But, as the Guardian’s critic, Kevin Rushby, says: "Perhaps that is simply because the truths — healthier, more peaceful, more respectful to the environment, more ethical — have never changed. "Stuart’s closing call for us to reduce our consumption of meat is not new, but is a welcome reminder of why such a call is more important than ever". — ANI
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A
book, recently published in Britain, is an intriguing account of how
vegetarianism, influenced by India, has been a potent social force in
Europe over the past 400 years.
