On Saturday 19th August 2023, animal rights activists from the group Vegan India Movement demonstrated near Chikka Gadiyara in Mysuru, Karnataka, India, to highlight the sufferings humans inflict on non-human animals
Under the name “Freedom for All”, the event included activists sitting inside a cage and holding posters that showed how non-human animals are treated. A video showing the suffering and cruel deaths caused by exploiting animals for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation was shown to the passing public.
Amjor, one of the event organisers, said, “Veganism is not a diet choice, but a social justice movement that recognises that animals are sentient beings and therefore should not be treated as commodities — not just for food (which includes meat, dairy, eggs, honey), but also all the other ways in which they are exploited — for clothing (silk, wool, leather), entertainment (circuses and zoos), experimentation, etc.”
Abhishek, one of the activists, said, “Be a force to fight against this single biggest injustice to animals be it upon a cow, a hen, a goat, a buffalo, a fish, an elephant, a horse, a donkey or a rat and liberate them from pain and suffering that they endure daily.”
The Vegan India Movement is a grassroots activist initiative devoted to promoting the philosophy of veganism, which has as one of its five axioms the principle of ahimsa, an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “do no harm” which is also a tenet of many religions that originated in India, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. In 2019, this organisation set up a series of demands to accord personhood status to all animals (i.e. to grant non-human animals the right to freedom to live well and in safety).
