Animal Crusaders
Thiruvananthapuram
05.12.2014
Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, eminent jurist and former Supreme Court judge, passed away in Kochi this afternoon. He was 100.
The Rights Of Our Animal Brethren
Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer
“From an early age, I have adjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men look upon the murder of animals as they look upon the murder of men.” -Leonardo Da Vinci.
An issue of fundamental significance and universal relevance needs to be brought into the consciousness of the world community. Ecology and environment, life in every form and evolution, have certain harmony and intergrality that makes all creation kin. Spiritually speaking, the quintessence of the environmental movement, in its widest sweep, is that everything belongs to the supreme self and performs its karma with a functional nexus. In practical terms, there is a purpose for everything in Nature too sacred to be destroyed. Eknath Easwaran has exquisitely expressed this idea which I may excerpt here.
“Nobody has any right to pollute the air, water, or seas, to cut down forests, or to wash away the topsoil. We do not own the earth. We are just transients who have been entrusted to leave the earth a little better than we found it. This is everybody’s job; nobody is exempt from it and, in this sense, nobody is unemployed.”
“It follows that our environment crisis demands that every one of us play a useful part, in our own way, to improve the environment wherever we live. If a person fails to do that, even if he wins a prestigious prize, the Buddha would say, you haven’t done what you have to do.”
“When you have done what you have to do, you will feel very secure, very fulfilled. As you discover the self in your own heart, you discover it simultaneously everywhere, in the people and creatures around you. You will feel very much at home in this universe. You don’t need to take my word for it. Try it and see for your self ”. (“Your life is your message” by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press, USA-p 92-93)
Ahimsa of Gandhi or “love thy neighbour” of Jesus proceed on the basic law of our being, the truth of our nature and our innate dignity. This a Davidic vision is the soul of our cultural heritage: and when we meditate with this unitive understanding, the mountains, the oceans, the forests and all living forms and inorganic things look divine. God (or call Him by whatever name you like) sleeps in the mineral, wakes in the vegetable, walks in the animal, thinks in man and reaches realization when the human ascent and the divine descent meet. If we are able to gain this vistaramic perspective, peace on earth becomes an easy essay to achieve. In the words of Adlai Stevenson, the human race is a family: men are brothers: all wars are civil wars. Such a holistic perception, makes the whole world kin and promotes anew order alive with a sublime presence.
The U.N.Conference on Environment and Development and the Declaration made at Rio de Janeiro emanate from these spiritual depths. The order of Nature is it self a manifestation of this conceptual globalization. The time has come for the nations and peoples everywhere to adopt the order of Nature as the cornerstone of the New World Human Order.
The philosophy of the Order may be tersely expressed thus:
Nature is made up of an inanimate terrestrial, aerial and aquatic ensemble, on the one hand an animate vegetable, animal and human habitat, on the other hand.
The human species must consider itself an element of the terrestrial habitat and must respect co-existence and symbiosis. Any failure to respect these is an attack on nature, prejudicial to the whole ensemble of inanimate and animate beings.
‘The actions to be rewarded concern, in particular, the safeguarding of the natural environment, the struggle against genocidal pollution, the safeguarding of the vegetable and animal species, animal protection, the teaching of the relations between humans and nonhumans, the fight against speciesism and more generally, all actions tending to render efficient the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Animals, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Plants and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature which is drafted by Prof. Georges Heuse. The declarations and the order of Nature will stimulate the perception of the cosmic integral Unity in human species.
There is no international nor national order comparable to the Order of Nature; the existing orders regard human beings as humans, and not as members of the community of Nature. The Order of Nature will be considered as the first supranational Order and the first planetary model.’
This vedic vision of the Indian seers of ancient vintage is our proud heritage. The radiant of this world of harmony and non-violence must persuade all humanity to adopt what Prof. Heuse, President of the World Foundation of Quality of Life, has called the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature. Animal Welfare, plant culture, organic and inorganic chemistry of existence find fulfillment only when everyone is conscientised into acceptance of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature. This declaration was drafted by Prof. Georges Heuse (Belgium), President of the World Foundation for the Quality of Life (University of Ghent), author of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Animals (1972) and proclaimed on 15th October, 1978 at UNESCO. I advocate the adoption of this declaration by Bharat of the Buddha and Gandhi and inspire humanity world-wide to attain harmony with everything everywhere.
Mobilise peoples’ compassion to activise animal welfare legislation
The universality of divinity is a fundamental faith of Indian humanity rooted in the Rig Veda and manifest in the spiritual core of all religions. “The ancients have stated that God sleeps in the mineral, awakens in the vegetable, walks in the animal and thinks in man”. The unity that runs thro’ Creation is thus a basic truth. Nature has thus an integral relation with animalia and homo sapiens is an in severable part of the evolutionary spiral, the highest peak of ecological ascent. The ecological and environmental preservation is vital for life to survive on earth. These great values are reflected in our constitution, a rare good fortune and a binding recognition. The State and the citizen are duty bound to promote and preserve ecology and environment as mandated by Articles 48A and 51A.
Justice to animal citizens is as basic to humanism as social justice is to an exploited people. You are no true Hindu, Jain, Parsi, Christion or Muslim if you do not accept the indivisible unity of Creation and the power of the invisible Creator. So it is that love of animals, in the widest connotation, is integral to the divine vision. Be you secular or spiritural ecological fundamentals compel us to a compassionate relationship with our sub human brethren. Here, indeed, is the starting point of the deeper awareness of the harmony of Nature, Karuna and Ahimsa as apart of our cultural heritage.
The philosophical perspective of Animal Welfare is thus part parcel of our cultural heritage. Every time cruelty is practiced on man or beast or bird or insect, we do violence to the Buddha and Mahavira. Every torture on an animal and every export of animals is a sin to the memory of the founders of Bharatiya Sanskar.
Rukmini Devi, that gracious lady who symbolized kindness to animals in her person, moved Jawaharlal Nehru to pass a legislation and thus we have today the Prevention of cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
Laws are decorative pieces on the Statute Book unless there are powerful movements supportive of their provisions. The anatomy of the 1960 Act has powers and, functions and infrastructure and has the funding and control of the Government. Cruelty to animals is an offence and experimentation on animals is regulated but not abolished. Performing animal in circuses and otherwise for exhibition imply torture and so the Act has provisions for policing such performances and exhibitions with view to prevent cruelty. With all this and one or two later amendments, cruel practices are continuing in the land where the cow is sacred, compassion is a constitutional duty but torture some entertainment, bleeding, butchery, animal sacrifice and other forms of cruelty are still extant. Sans people’s movement, cruelty to animals will never, cease.
Now that the western winds are blowing and the consumerist craze is growing, there is anew peril to our animal brethren. For instance:
“The fur industry wages war on wildlife, the lucrative leather market bolsters the cattle industry, and wool comes from sheep who suffer unanaesthetized tooth grinding, tail cutting and unskilled shearing. Angora is made from the hair of rabbits bred for a fast –growing intensive confinement industry.
By choosing products made with canvas, cotton, nylon, acrylic and other materials, we can clothe ourselves beautifully without endorsing cruelty.
The more we realize that animals have real lives like our own, the more courage we have to inform others. Most people prefer not to be associated with animal suffering, but may not know the facts. Our silence must not contribute to their ignorance.”
IS THERE A SOLUTION?
Governments must be pressurized to do the right thing lest India’s image and cultural heritage suffer severe damage. Let us not betray the generations from the Buddha to Gandhi. Our tryst with destiny, made when India awoke to Independence, included an imperative that the nation will wipe every tear from every eye’. This applies to our animal brethren, parrots, doves and other birds with broken wings to be sold as pets or for delicate dish, lions and tigers cramped and doped in small cages and even elephants and bears brutally treated to perform impossible feats. Let us begin the crusade for compassion and we must win because our case is just.
“DARWIN TAUGHT US NOT THAT ALL MEN WERE MONKEYS ONCE, BUT THAT SOME MONKEYS HAVE NO TAILS NOW.” –George Bernard Shaw.
(Excerpted from Random Reflections by Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer, Universal, ed. 2003.)
Courtesy: LAWYERS UPDATE- JULY 2005