QUESTION: What is the history of veganism? Here, briefly, is the history of veganism starting with the coining of the word in 1944, but it must be added that the ideology that is veganism has been around for thousands of years. The earliest record of vegetarianism dates back to 500 BCE in India. The ancient religion of Jainism promotes a meat-free diet. Jain vegetarianism is one of the most strict and rigorous religiously motivated diets on the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism and Buddhism also incorporate a vegetarian diet and originate in approximately 1500 BCE and the 5th century, respectively. In August 1944, a few members of the UK's Vegetarian Society asked that part of its newsletter be set aside for non-dairy vegetarianism. When the request was rejected, Donald Watson , secretary of the Leicester branch, set up a new quarterly newsletter in November 1944. He called it: * The Vegan News . The word 'vegan' was invented by Watson and Dorothy Morgan, who he would la