American Vegan Society History
A decisive and historic history of the usage and meaning of the term 'vegan' was accomplished through the success of the American Vegan Society under the Dinshahs. Although the term 'vegan' had, since its coining in 1944 in England by Donald Watson (and possibly others), usage could refer either to merely an entirely plant-based diet (without spiritual or philosophical or ethical underpinnings) or to a purely plant-based diet ONLY in terms of those principles and motivations (which is represented by AVS).
Under their seemingly indefatigable energies and their "evangelical" enthusiasm for promoting veganism AS "dynamic harmlessnes" ("Ahimsa" derived from the Sanskrit, meaning "not to harm"), Jay and Freya Dinshah, beginning almost immediately after their founding AVS on the parcel of land the Dinshah brothers inherited from their father, organized a number of conferences, and conducted vegan promotional tours.
In 1961, the American Vegan Society organized and carried out a Coast to Coast Crusade for Veganism across North America, including various parts of Canada and the USA. In 1965, the American Vegan Society organized and carried out North Atlantic Lecture Tour (Iceland, Britain, Europe). In 1967 and 1968, the American Vegan Society organized and carried out an international ("Round the World") Lecture Tour. Through these efforts, Jay Dinshah managed to lecture to vegetarian audiences in 19 different nations, on 5 continents, with the benefit of local interpretation into a dozen languages by ad hoc local polyglots, reputedly found widely in some communities of widely-traveled vegetarian entrepreneurs.
The name of the AVS quarterly, Ahimsa, was changed in 2001 to American Vegan.
Today, countless vegan organizations (and animal rights organizations and organizations bearing the name 'vegetarian) promote this purer form of veganism, in the self-effacing and missionary spirit of AVS in which the message is far more important than any of the messengers. The word vegan did not appear in most English dictionaries published in the USA until the late 1970s or the mid-1980s. By the mid-1990s, a much clearer appreciation of the meaning and implications of the word 'vegan' (AS 'ahimsa' or dynamic harmlessness) had pervaded American consciousness. Even if they didn't practice veganism, most younger Americans now know what veganism is, though idiosyncratic practices continue to dim the clarity of 'ahimsa'.
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