| Author | Savitri Devi |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1959 |
Impeachment of Man is a book by the French-born Greek fascist and Nazi sympathizer Savitri Devi.[1][2] Written in India and first published in 1959, its central themes are animal rights and ecology.[1]
The book is dedicated to To Zobeida Khatun, an Indian Muslim[3] and "a poor beggar woman who yet saved many distressed animals and fed them, day after day, for years."[4]
Devi criticises "man-centered creeds" which disregard human duties towards other species, and which dominate spirituality in both Europe, though Abrahamic religion and China, through a worldview centered on the human family. She identifies India as the one part of the world in which "life-centerd religion" was established, resulting from the belief in a continuity of reincarnation between all life forms.[5] However, the prevailing Hindu worldview is pessimistic in nature, seeing individual life as a curse rather than a blessing. Thus, Devi notes, while a western vegetarian might abstain from meat out of a love for animals, an Indian vegetarian is only seeking their own liberation from reincarnation.[6]
Devi would favour a religion of "joyous wisdom," which should be "neither man-centered nor pessimistic, nor lacking truly universal kindness in the Buddhistic sense of the word."[7] Devi says that no known historic civilisation has been founded on such a belief, but it can be found in a few individual figures throughout history. Throughout the work she gives as examples such figures as the Egyptian king Akhenaten, Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana and Ashoka.[8] Throughout the text Devi condemns meat eating, vivisection, animal testing, fur clothing, the wastage of food that might be given to animals, pet abandonment, neutering, and the abuse of beasts of burden, as well as some infractions against plant life, such as the destruction of woodlands.[8] Beyond this, she advocates for active kindness towards animals, and criticises the merely negative Hindu concept of Ahimsa or "non-violence."[9]
Written while the Nuremberg trials were ongoing, Impeachment of Man makes several references to World War II, and Devi uses her criticism of "man-centered creeds" to trivialise the human cost of the Holocaust. The book also contains frequent references to racialist ideas. Devi considered National Socialism to be a life-centred religion, and attempted to synthesise it with her belief in Hinduism.[10] Devi's book has seen increased attention in recent years as a result of modern eco-fascist movements.[11][12]