Veganism is a strict form of vegetarianism; though the term ‘vegan’ was coined in the United Kingdom in 1944, the culture of meat-avoidance can actually be traced back to ancient Mediterranean and Indian societies.Over the years, many prominent people in society have adopted this lifestyle choice.
Have you made the choice to follow in these iconic footsteps?
Some of the most notable historical figures who were vegans include:
1. Mohandas Gandhi
Gandhi was a renowned spiritual leader and a staunch advocate of non-violence activism. To most people’s expectations he was also vegan. Despite having a busy schedule leading his followers and advocating for world peace, he wrote extensively on vegetarianism. One of his famous quotes on this issue was, “I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
2. Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy is best remembered as one of Russia’s greatest novelists. His most famous works were War and Peace, and Anna Karenina. Other than being an accomplished writer, he was also a moral philosopher, animal rights activist and a vegan. He publically advocated for vegetarianism and professed that, “a vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism.”
3. Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo was a genius during the Italian Renaissance known by many for his unmatched talent and knowledge in painting, mathematics, sculpting, philosophy, music and cartography. Out of public life, he was vegan and did not drink milk during his entire life. He was also an animal rights crusader as he frequently purchased caged animals and birds to release them to the wild.
4. Nikola Testa
Revered for inventing over 700 devices, Testa was not only an engineer but also a visionary. The AC, alternating current, was a result of Tesla’s work. His move to veganism was gradual. He first stopped eating meat, but consumed fish, and then gradually quit eating fish too.
5. Albert Einstein
Einstein in Western culture epitomizes genius. The inventor of the relativity theory became a strict vegetarian during his later years. However, since his early years, he was an advocate for a vegetarian lifestyle, “though I have been hindered by circumstances from observing a strict vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle.”
6. Voltaire
Voltaire, whose real name was Francois Marie Arouet, was an outspoken French writer whose works are synonymous with the 18th century Enlightenment era. He was a vegan and an animal rights activist. He advocated for animal rights as he questioned the notion that animals were machines deprived of understanding and feeling.
7. Plato
Just like other great Greek philosophers of his time, Plato was a vegan. He founded the opinion that the more meat a society begins to eat, the more unhealthy it becomes. One of his famous statements on veganism was, “the gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies; they are trees, plants and seeds.”
8. George Bernard Shaw
Shaw was a prolific Irish playwright and writer who was a strict vegetarian for the last 70 years of his life. As a testament to his beliefs he stated that, “if a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.”
