Animal Rights in India in times where Animals’ Bodies are Battlegrounds for Politics and Biases

In July 2020, in a big achievement for animal rights in India, the State Government in Nagaland banned the commercial import and trading of dogs, and prohibited the setting up of dog markets and the sale of dog meat. The decision came after former Rajya Sabha MP, Pritish Nandy shared a photograph of dogs tied up in sacks with the appeal to put pressure on the government to stop the sale and consumption of dog meat. Smt. Maneka Gandhi and the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO) had also joined in this call.

Animal Rights in India: Aftermath of the Dog Meat Ban

Some people from Nagaland hotly contested the ban while activists debated it. People questioned the logic behind the ban that singled out trade in dog meat while being blind to the sale and consumption of other animals such as chickens and goats. They alleged that the decision was a form of “racism” and by sharing photographs of dog markets, the activists had tried to portray Nagas as “barbarians” who needed to be “civilized.”

They also raised questions against the politics of the “liberals” who had voiced opposition to the decision to ban cow slaughter on the grounds that people must have the freedom to choose their food habits and the State should not use its power to regulate such “choices.”

Complexities in the Fight for Animal Rights in India

Well, the people in Nagaland are justified in raising the question – why is only dog meat targeted with a ban, when the sale and slaughter of other animals is allowed? This is a form of speciesism that has been discussed in the previous post, Human-Animal Conflict in India – Wild Animals as Victims of Speciesist Violence when humans take over the power to decide which animals are worthy of being protected, and which not.

So, since humans have domesticated dogs as “pets” and have recognized them as their “best friends,” dogs have come to occupy a high position in the hierarchy of animals that are of emotional value to humans. Cows also have a high position in this hierarchy. However, issues relating to the cow are intersected with issues of religious hegemony and caste purity associated with vegetarianism.

Similarly, calls for prohibiting the sale and slaughter of goats get mired in controversies about targeting a particular religious group. And this is not without reason. Such calls are mostly made before certain religious festivals that involve the slaughter of goats on a large scale.

Thus, in the fight for animal rights in India, activists have to simultaneously negotiate between ideas based on speciesism, along with the perceptions around religious domination, targeting of minorities, discrimination against castes whose livelihoods are tied up with the processing of animal remains, and so on. All these get intersected with calls for the ban on the slaughter of cows, goats, dogs.

How, as vegans, do we view these complexities?

For us vegans, the issue is really very simple. Veganism focuses on the well-being and right to life of animals. Vegans ask people to regard animals as “sentient” beings, similar to humans. Animals have the capacity to feel pain and experience suffering just like humans. It is a biological fact that humans and animals have a remarkably similar central nervous system. This central nervous system, with billions of nerve cells, is the stuff that makes up “consciousness.”

This focus of vegans in India on the rights of animals has invited criticism from people who feel that by being blind to the politics over the consumption of animals, we end up strengthening the fundamentalist voices. But that’s not the intention. Rather, vegans have come into confrontation with the guardians of the majority religion as well in speaking out against cultural practices such as the jallikattu.

In reality, vegans espouse compassion for all animals. We do not believe that animals should be exploited for their milk, flesh, skin, fur, labour, or anything else. Vegans want to see cultures change in ways such that we de-link cultural identity from the slaughter and consumption of animals and animal products. Vegans believe that as people become aware of the cruelty imposed on animals by exploitative practices, people themselves will embrace the change.

We welcome the ban on the sale of dogs and dog meat in Nagaland as a step in this direction.