Veganism: Neither cult nor fad, but an imperative of our times

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session of Acharya Prashant at IIM Ahmedabad, his alma mater.

Questioner (Q): A very different topic now. So, from the videos that I have watched, I understand you’re a strong veganism promoter. Now, as institutes like IITs and IIMs and institutes which people look up to and get influenced and follow. What do you believe institutes like these should follow and promote? Do you also believe that institutes should promote veganism in your opinion?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, a technical institution and institution that deals with science and technology or an institution that is devoted to studies in management, obviously cannot have veganism on its agenda. At the same time, we are technocrats and managers later.

First of all, we are living persons, we understand a few things, right? And from that understanding must come our code of ethics. We need not borrow it from somewhere and the code of ethics need not be institutionally enforced; but don’t we understand? Don’t we look around? We know what is happening, we are all pretty literate and sophisticated people, we are conscious of data and if we look at the data it is compelling enough, and from there will come the incentive or the persuasiveness to go vegan and to promote veganism.