Nitin Mehta MBE is a passionate speaker and author whose primary areas of interests include India’s spiritual heritage, animal rights, vegetarianism and veganism. The Kenya-born British Indian has been recognised within the UK and India for his service to the community.
Here, the campaigner writes for iGlobal on the growing impact of vegetarianism across the British society.
Years of campaigning by many groups for moving away from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet is paying off. What our rishis [seers] and our Dharma said thousands of years ago is being proven right. Not only is meat consumption bad for your health, but it is also a big contributor to global warming and involves extreme cruelty to animals.
We as ‘Young Indian Vegetarians’ have been at the forefront of pushing the idea of vegetarianism and veganism. For over 40 years, we have campaigned tirelessly up and down the country and have organised over one thousand events during these years. Like yoga, vegetarianism is a gift of India to the world. People who become vegetarian or vegan come closer to Sanatan Dharma. According to time, circumstances and country we should adapt our methods to promote Dharma and that is what we did.
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New figures from the UK government have shown that meat consumption in the UK is at its lowest level since records began.
Per capita meat consumption in the UK fell by 14 per cent between 2012 and 2022, according to new government figures from the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The trend takes total meat consumption to the lowest level since records began in the 1970s. There is a vegan revolution going on with millions of people abandoning meat and becoming vegan. Fish consumption has also gone down.
Although humans crave peace, they simultaneously commit immense violence against animals. Animals are hunted and exploited in horse racing, bull fighting and in many other ways. Tens of thousands of animals are transported to other countries. During the journey they suffer in many ways and on arrival they face a brutal death. Animal rights groups have been campaigning to ban export of live animals for over thirty years in this country.
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It is a matter of great pride that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has decided to ban this vile trade, as mentioned by the King Charles III during his speech in the parliament. The next evolution in the human race has to be the adoption of a plant-based diet and granting of fundamental rights to the animal kingdom. Hindus have a special responsibility to promote a plant-based diet.
The question which everyone should be asking themselves is: what is the need to eat a corpse?
*Info: Nitin Mehta