Hello, my name is Gabi and the purpose I’m doing this project is because I care for animal rights and strongly care for the Indian Freedom Struggle. The Indian Freedom Struggle happened from 1857-1947 in India. The main problem was that the British came to India and started controlling the Indians with many strict laws, for example passbooks to carry around for every Indian person. The goals of the movement was to stop the movement using civil disobedience that Gandhi led. The success of the movement was independence to Indians many years later in 1947. Meanwhile, the Humane League started in 2005 until right now in Philadelphia and now it’s all over United States. The problems are that farms are abusing farm animals and killing them for food. The goals of the movement is to get as many people involved with becoming vegetarian or at least having meatless mondays at their schools. The successes of the movement was getting many people involved with supporting animal rights. Commitment, communication, a non-violent direct action, negotiating and thinking outside the box are similar between the Indian Freedom Movement and Humane League.
An important personal quality needed in a social movement is commitment because with that a lot gets done. One can see commitment in the Humane League when Stephanie goes to six flags to pass out flyers telling people not to be involved with animal experiences. Commitment was important to their work because it got people’s attention and gets a more effective job done. One can see commitment in the Indian Freedom Struggle when Gandhi’s followers didn’t stop walking toward salt buildings even after getting beaten multiple times. Commitment was important to their work because it showed the police they wouldn’t stop and care strongly for salt. Stephanie said “The Humane League, we don’t do protests, but I do it with other groups. I went last week with ‘citizens for animal free six flags’. They have a lot of animals and they are in bad conditions there, so we want them to be released, so we handed out stuff to say not to participate with those experiences.” This shows commitment because Stephanie doesn’t only participate in one organization, she is so committed, she participates in many. The reason that this quality is needed in many situations is without it, there’s nothing to work for and there’s not goal to commit to.
Another important quality needed in a social movement is communication because without it an activist travels on their own. One can see communication in the Humane League with them having volunteers, interns, and other organizations. Communication was important to their work because they wouldn’t have anything done without it and get some information they give to schools with other organizations. One can see communication in the Indian Freedom Movement with the Round Table Conferences when Gandhi and the Raj talked about issues in India. Communication was important to their work because they ended up agreeing in some conferences and that led to the movement ending. The reason that this quality is needed in many situations is it helps people get attention and lets sides talk to agree on things.
Both movements used non-violent direct action. One can see direct action in Animal Rights when Humane League comes to schools and does meatless monday campaigns and cage-free campaigns. Non-violent direct action was important to this action because it got people involved especially students. One can see direct action in the Indian Freedom Movement when Gandhi burned passbooks that Indians needed to carry around. Non-violent direct action was important to this because Gandhi demonstrated that nothing will stop him. Stephanie said, “Lots of ways to get involved best place to start is with what you eat! Its easy, so many issues it feels like you can’t do anything, but what you eat,, you can choose to support factory farming, cruelty to animals, or a meat free option. Even just once a week. And getting more involved- we’re always looking for volunteers, to table and leaflet, or share on facebook, make people more aware. People care about animals, but don’t really know what's going on or feel they can’t make a difference.” This shows non-violent direct action was important because university students got involved to the campaigns and cared strongly for them. The reason that non-violent is needed in many situations is its a calm way to promote an injustice.
Another important strategy that both movements used was negotiating. One can see negotiating in Animal Rights when Humane League does campaigns. To do campaigns the people that educate need to convince and negotiate with the schools and universities. Humane League came to a lot of universities and surveyed them whether they want cage free eggs in the food they eat and 97% voted for them to have it. Showing that to the dining director was powerful and changed his mind. Negotiating was important to their work because it made a huge difference in the food people eat and made them think differently about the foods they eat, helping animal rights. One can see negotiating in the Indian Freedom Struggle when there were the Round Table Conferences. In the conferences things were negotiated about reforms in India. Negotiating was important to their work because it helped India become more independent. The reason that this quality is needed in many situations is it created change for India.
Thinking outside the box was an important lesson to learn from the two movements. One can see thinking outside the box in Animal Rights when they have meatless monday campaigns. These campaigns are something nobody would think of, but also something extremely effective. Schools all over the United States participate in it to not have meat in the school lunches once a week, every Monday. Thinking outside the box was important to their work because it helped many students get involved to watch how they eat, at least once a week which helps a lot. One can see thinking outside the box in the Indian Freedom Struggle when Gandhi fasted. A lot of people fasted religiously in India, but nearly no one fasted to make a change like Gandhi did. This was important to their worked because it got the governments attention. The reason thinking outside the box is needed in many situations is because its a unique idea to get people involved.
Animal Rights and the Indian Freedom Struggle were important and similar in many ways including qualities like commitment and communication, strategies like non-violent direct action and negotiating and lessons like thinking outside the box. These things relate to me because throughout this project I have been having lots of commitment and communication about issues in these movements. My favorite similarity and one I could see myself possessing would be thinking outside the box. I don’t always do something like everyone else and would change it up a little bit so I could see myself already having that lesson in mind. These similarities are important to us as people because we could also go and make a change about things happening in San Francisco. For example, students can go fight for free muni and have because they had a lot of commitment to buses. When students spoke up for free muni, San Francisco opened up a Youth Free Muni Application that any student under 18 can sign up for. With commitment, negotiating, and thinking outside the box anyone can get what they want in the world if they put their mind to it.