October 4, 2012
India’s Vegetarian Congress and the International Vegetarian Union are in a heated debate about whether eggs are Vegetarian. Four hundred million vegetarians live in India, due to large Hindu, Buddhist and Jain populations.
October 4, 2012
India’s Vegetarian Congress and the International Vegetarian Union are in a heated debate about whether eggs are Vegetarian. Four hundred million vegetarians live in India, due to large Hindu, Buddhist and Jain populations.
Many followers in the West are ovo-lacto vegetarians who drink milk and eat eggs
What came first? The Vegetarian or the Egg.?
Indian Vegetarians are revolting- against the International Vegetarian Union IVU and it's insistence that eggs are vegetarian.
The row is no yolk and it has been boiling for some time. Basically the Indian Vegetarians feel the ideology of vegetarianism has been poached and whisked up into a hard boiled concept that's left egg on the faces of UK based IVU. In an eggshell the Indian vegetarians feel their devine inspired definition of a plant based diet is a supreme one, not a half baked omelette of scrambled philosophical thoughts.
So just who are the rightful Guardians of the definition of vegetarian? "Who cares" say the vegans, until you get all animal products out of the diet it's not truly healthier, it's not truly sustainable and it's not truly avoiding the unnecessary slavery and torture of animals.
Meanwhile more and more people tread the Plantarian pathway of health and sustainability than ever before irrespective of the pedantic semantics of the self appointed vegetarian librarians. The Pythagorean, Hindu, Jain and Buddhist principles that spawned the worldwide veganism of presidents and Hollywood stars are now so far out of Pandora's box that they have a self perpetuating life of their own.
Veganism has finally reached critical mass, look out cruel world for the meek are inheriting your debt.(and frankly they are a bit indignant)
The Vegg – Vegan Egg that Indian Vegetarians can eat
While cracks in vegetarian unity might be arcane in the West, it is a vital issue for India's 400 million vegetarians – the world's largest veggie population.
Because millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains follow the diets of their founders and Gods, all Indian restaurants must have separate veg and non-veg menus.
Eggs are restricted to 'non-veg' menus along with chicken and mutton tikkas, and companies selling 'eggless' cakes thrive.
But a row between India's Vegetarian Congress (IVC) and the London-based International Vegetarian Union (IVU) came to a boil this summer after IVC leaders rebelled over an IVU ruling that eggs are 'veg' and those who eat eggs can be vegetarians.
On Monday the IVC's leaders announced they had withdrawn from the International Vegetarian Union and created their own World Veg Council to halt the acceptance of eggs as vegetarian foods and promote "real vegetarianism".
One IVC leader said he had been "shocked" when Indian IVU supporters within his group announced eggs are veg and that the new World Veg Council will quickly launch 3000 centers in India and 500 around the world to promote "real vegetarianism."
Vijay Kumar Bafna, the new group's vice president said India had inspired the rise of vegetarianism throughout the world – from Lords Buddha and Krishna to Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi – especially in Britain and the United States. But now there was a danger of western followers corrupting the purity of vegetarianism.
"Anything which comes from a womb is non-veg, anything which comes out of the process of birth is non-veg. The IVU said they consider eggs veg but gave no significant reasons we couldn't understand it so we withdrew," he said.
Many followers in the West are ovo-lacto vegetarians who drink milk and eat eggs, while in India the vast majority drink milk from revered cows but do not eat eggs.
There have been attempts to market eggs from chickens fed on grain rather than fishmeal as vegetarian but they have yet to catch on.
The IVU did not respond to inquiries, but according to its website it defines vegetarianism as a "diet of foods derived from plants, with or without eggs, dairy products, and/or honey."
Courtesy: Vegan World / Daily Telegraph
