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From the dawn of civilization, the Ego in mankind has been fighting four battles against - Nature, Animal kingdom, Fellow men and the Divinity within him. For thousands of years, Man, Animal and Nature have been co-existing. Weapons used by Man were only bow and arrows, spears and sharp instruments. But during the last one century, Man's power and strength has increased by many-fold. Population now stands a little over six billion, and in a few years, it would go up to 12 billion, which means he needs more land, food, resources and on, thus in effect less for animals and nature. Animals and Nature cannot have the mighty power of Man, who has overpowered the other entities.
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The Report of the Club of Rome in the Fifties warned the world of the dangers of such growth, increase in population and consumption etc. The Summits in Stockholm in 1972 and the one in 1992 in Rio gave a graphic picture of the dangers of pollution, depletion of natural resources, global warming, rupture of the ozone layer and so on. The recent Summit at Johannesburg in 2002 could not come out with solutions to the very many pressing problems and ills, threatening the very existence of mankind in the planet.
My educational background was Science and Electrical Engineering. But from the beginning of my career in the early fifties, I entered the fields of Industrial engineering and Management, as Consultant. A break of good fortune made me join the Education sector, when I joined the Bombay University as professor of Management in the J.B. Institute of Management studies in Mumbai. This was a major turning point in my life, which gave me an opportunity to expand my horizon to many fields - Political system, National unity and integration, Rural and Urban development, Animal welfare and Vegetarianism, Ecology and Environment, Religion and philosophy etc. At the moment of writing this piece (September 2002), I am conducting HRD Training programmes on Ethical and Moral Values in Life, Professions, Business and Administration in Public Undertakings. One area, which I cover, is Man's attitude and behavior towards animals from several points of view. Mankind is exploiting animals for millennia for food, work, transport, companionship, security, leather and hundreds of uses. From the points of view of humanism, ethics, morals, man's brutality against animal species is inexcusable. He is inflicting untold suffering on dumb and helpless creature for thousands of years. 95% of the world population is Non-vegetarians. Met is a major industry, where animal are treated like inanimate materials. Transportation and slaughter methods are horrible. About 300 million work animals - bullocks, buffaloes, horses, camels mules and donkeys suffer through out their life, and finally end up in the slaughter houses. Raising of animals poultry birds for meat are in gory and terrible conditions, where animal and birds undergo untold pain and suffering.
For the last 30 years I am deeply involved in reducing the suffering of work and animals, besides prevention of cruelty to dogs, pets, zoo and circus animals, animals under experimentation etc. It is God's blessing that I got involved in animal welfare. Out of India's population of one billion, not even one lakh are involved in animal welfare activities. In the world at large, the number may not be more that one million.
This is a great tragedy, and a shame on mankind. India is the only country, which has a 30 % of population who are vegetarians. Fortunately, there is a small movement in the West towards Veg. But in India, the reverse seems to be the trend. Buddha and Mahavira, apostles of compassion and Ahimsa were born in India. Certain animal species are worshipped. Hanuman (monkey-God) and Ganapathi (elephant-headed God) are most popular. Cow is a sacred animal. Bullock (Nandi) is worshipped as the vehicle of Shiva. Krishna is associated with cows. Only recently, the West has accepted that animals have souls. Indian philosophy and value system have accepted 10,000 years ago that the Universal should pervade man animal alike.
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