Harish Bhimani (on Wikipedia)
Indian listeners might recognise the voice behind Mohandas in episode 13 onwards. Harish Bhimani narrated the 1988-90 Indian TV adaption of “Mahabharata”, amongst many other roles. He’s one of India’s best-known voice over actors, and I’m very happy that he’s lending his talents to the story of vegetarianism.
VegHist Ep 13: The Vegetarians. Abolitionism, colonialism, and Victorian reformers; with Julia Twigg and Bhaskar Chakraborty. In London
In the late nineteenth century, the new vegetarian movement is intertwined with other struggles – including Victorian reformers, the Indian reaction to British colonialism, and most importantly, slavery.
Episode 13: The Vegetarians
After their foundation in 1847 and 1850, the vegetarian societies in Britain and America rose swiftly faced new challenges.
Dr Adam Shprintzen, author of the history of US vegetarianism “Vegetarian Crusade, tells Ian how the American Vegetarian Society poured its energies into an anti-slavery vegetarian settlement in the Wild West. And how its founder, Englishman Henry Clubb, ultimately took a bullet for the union in the Civil War.
Under British rule, Hindu vegetarianism faced a mix of threat and opportunity. In India, Ian meets historians DN Jha, Burton Cleetus, and Bhaskar Chakraborty, who explain how, faced with rule by distant Christians, vegetarianism became more important as a marker of caste and identity.
Ian also sets off on a cycle tour of vegetarian Victorian London, and talks to the first modern academic to study vegetarian history – Dr Julia Twigg.
Buy Vegetarian History Books
When people suggest I write a book about the history of vegetarianism, I say that there already are quite a few good books. These are the books on vegetarian history I found most helpful whilst making the series, with Amazon links (that give me a little commission).
VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists; with Adam Shprintzen and Derek Antrobus; at Deerfields, Fruitlands, and Salford
In the 1800s, overlapping circles of utopians, mystics, and romantics in both Europe and America develop arguments against meat until “vegetarianism” finally becomes a real movement.
Episode 12: Radicals & Romantics
In the aftermath of the American and French revolutions, the sects and philosophies that embrace a “vegetable diet” multiply – from ecstatic cult to puritan crusades, to utopian community to public-spirited congregation. No longer are they isolated groups – they connect with each other in books, magazines, and letters. Until a single word catches on – “vegetarianism”.
In the United States of America, Ian discovers the the vegetarian sword and shoes of a 1790s “free love” vegetarian sect in a local Massachusetts museum, and visits the failed vegan commune where Louisa May “Little Women” Alcott lived as a child.
And in Salford, NW England, he walks in the footsteps of a nineteenth century vegetarian church, with local historian Derek Antrobus and the vegetarian history specialist Dr Samantha Calvert.
It’s a story that also takes in the French bohemian “cult of the bearded men”, the man who invented the modern idea of Robin Hood, the woman who invented Frankenstein and his creature, Sylvester Graham, and, finally, the creation of modern vegetarianism.
Kickstart the Radio History of Vegetarianism
Researching the history of vegetarianism, I quickly realised it was a much bigger and more exciting story than could fit into a couple of episodes. It needs a full on series, of at least ten episodes, full of interesting characters and amazing twists. To tell it properly is a much bigger project than The Vegan Option has ever done before. I can’t do it without you.
So, for the first time, I’m offering you the chance to get financially involved by backing Vegetarianism: The Story So Far on Kickstarter. I’m offering some great thank you gifts – such as a postcard from one of the places where the story unfolded. Go to the project page to discover more, watch the video (with a glimpse of what the Vegan Option “studio” actually looks like), and help make history.
If this is funded, it will be a resource for vegetarians, vegans, and curious omnivores for many years. So it would be a pity if it wasn’t.
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