Politics Beyond the Yoga Mat: Yoga Fundamentalism and the 'Vedic
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Politics beyond the Yoga Mat: Yoga Fundamentalism and the ‘Vedic Way of Life’ Patrick McCartney Articles Journal: Global Ethnographic Publication Date ǁ May 2017 ǁ Issue 4 ǁ Published by: Emic Press Global Ethnographic is an open access journal. Place of Publication: Kyoto, Japan ISSN 2186-0750 Global Ethnographic and Emic Press are initiatives of the Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD). © COPYRIGHT GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHIC 2017 0 Articles Politics beyond the Yoga Mat: Yoga Fundamentalism and the ‘Vedic Way of Life’ Patrick McCartney ABSTRACT This article explores an under-appreciated relation between the quotidian practices of Western yoga practitioners and the global agenda of Hindu supremacism. It demonstrates how yoga, or rather, the yoga body, can be a political instrument. I suggest that yoga practitioners, whether they choose to or not, engage in tacit, naive and unwitting support of a Hindu supremacist ideology through the adoption of various yoga-inflected lifestyles within the global yoga consumption-scape. first came across the phrase ‘Vedic there are multiple modernities and way of life’ in 2013 during doctoral hetereotopic spaces, there is a banal I fieldwork into the global yoga industry. consumption of yoga that includes adopting It was during my year of ethnographic variants of a ‘Vedic way of life’. The idea of fieldwork in the Shanti Mandir ashram in heterotopic spaces builds on the southern Gujarat, India, that I noticed this utopian/dystopian binary. It is neither good innocuous phrase on their website (Mandir nor bad, but different. It is a space where 2016). I took it for granted that I knew what ideas or groups have little perceived it meant, and that it was simply an connections with one another (Mead 1995: idiosyncratic phrase. However, it is 13). The global yoga industry is ostensibly ubiquitous and can be found in different an unregulated, heterogeneous market. ways across the internet. It is particularly While there are many yoga-focused guilds embedded in the marketing rhetoric of the and alliances, there is no global body that global yoga industry. In this article, I governs international best practices, or problematise this ‘Vedic way of life’ phrase, which has any control over what yoga is or and take a phenomenological approach to should be defined as. Furthermore, due to investigate what exactly people imagine a this heterotopia, the unrecognised ‘Vedic way of life’ to be. intersection between global yoga and Hindu The focus of this article is to supremacism allows for a supremacist demonstrate that through our practice of narrative to be subtlety infused within yoga we appropriate and consume various global yoga’s rhetoric. I argue that this can cultural symbols, ideas and practices. While lead to a type of banal nationalism. These 1 assertions are based on my almost 20 years of nostalgia for a future-past (similar, of working in the global yoga industry, and perhaps to a future perfect tense, i.e. ‘will as an anthropologist who works on the links have’) that is potentially more cohesive. It is between the production of desire, the considered the antithesis of the politics of imagination, and the economics hyper-consumption and perceived moral of religion. vacuity of the West. It is here we find in I assert that through adoption of certain some ways the source of yoga’s popularity yoga-inflected lifestyles we are (or at least and the greatest irony of all. Yoga’s at risk of becoming) unwitting supporters of popularity is a direct result of the capitalist an imperialist, Hindu supremacist agenda infrastructure and consumerism to which it that has global, expansionist aspirations. is constantly marketed as being antithetical. The broader aim of my research is to Yoga is a key instrument in India’s explore whether the ontological realities foreign policy, the re-making of ‘Brand may or may not be commensurable. There India’ and the rebranding of yoga (Gowen are parallel aspirations for an identity that 2014). As Gowen points out, rebranding includes the use of similar narratives and yoga and India is a counter-hegemonical, textual sources of authority, which are post-colonial ‘take back’ that builds upon sourced from the Sanskrit episteme, i.e. the centuries of oppression from colonial rulers justified ‘true’ beliefs found within the and frustration at how yoga is commodified Sanskrit literary canon. and seemingly cut off from its cultural roots When viewed through a utopian without due acknowledgement. For example, framework, the social, political, there are no royalties paid to the Indian state religious and economic implications of for the global expansion of yoga. Hindu supremacism, and its overlapping The normative idea of ‘yoga’ guides and intersecting relationship with the India’s soft power diplomacy on the global discrete, arguably similar, utopian stage through such events as World Yoga worlds of yoga practitioners urge us to Day and International Yoga Day. Prime consider many things. This article seeks Minister Modi is fond of asserting that due to assert that there is more to yoga, India to India’s cultural capital as the ‘home of and our consumptive practices than what yoga’, it is the self-appointed ‘world guru’ is happening on the yoga mat. (viśva-guru) that has the ‘necessary’ moral A ‘Vedic way of life’ is an appeal to superiority (i.e. dharma) that will save the tradition, nature, emotion, and authority. It world from consuming itself (Singh 2014). is perceived as being older and, therefore, As Reddy (2008: 99) asserts, the Vedic many consider its intrinsic properties as literature used today to interpret Vedic inherently better (read ‘purer’) than culture is representative of an ‘ideal’ society. anything late-stage capitalism and Western Bowman (2015) points out that this is based culture is supposedly able to offer. on a post-secular (re)turn towards a According to Darling (2014: 13), the reconstituted axial age (800-200 BCE), and temporality of nationalism, which relates to that as political borders become in some ideas of a ‘Vedic India’ allows for affective ways increasingly irrelevant, this has given attachments of collective unity and common political agency to many religious groups purpose to form. These affective bonds rely within transnational civil society. on narratives of loss, which invoke a sense Even though Van der Veer (2016) 2 warns anthropologists, at least, against using gender and race’ (Weiss 2016: 632). As yoga civilisational narratives, the Indian state is increasingly normalised, regulated and homogenises core axial ideals to create a institutionalised, the battle to control it and civilisational ethos. Examples are found its role in the means of persuasion intensify. within India’s official tourism and Engaging a queer epistemology assists in health/wellness marketing strategies (Union exploring the politics of imagination, the Ministry of Ayush 2016; Union Ministry of production of desire, the consumption of Tourism 2015). An example of its use within intangible goods inherent in the the wellness industry is the following: commodification of yoga, and the legitimising discourses used to achieve Welcome to Veda Spa – Veda these intertwined aims, which are social, means ageless, eternal “Science” commercial and political. or “Knowledge” built on Siddhantas and Unchanging *** Principles. Veda is not just a theory it is a map for how to derive In 1987 Swami Nityananda Saraswati practical benefit from the (1967- ) established Shanti Mandir, which knowledge. Our mission is to means the ‘Temple of Peace’, and of which become leader in the segment of he continues as the current spiritual head wellness spas in India by ensuring (Mandir 2016). Shanti Mandir is aligned a proper balance between with an older tradition (Sabharathnam et al. aspiration and potential investor so 1997). However, it is a result of contentious that the spa guests, developer and succession issues that occurred during the operator gets benefits from mid-80s schism in the Siddha Yoga empire, pampering treatments & therapies. which was created by the charismatic, (Vedaspas 2016) entrepreneurial, ‘Tantric godman’ Baba Muktananda (1908-1982) (Jain 2014; ‘Vedic’ ideas are involved in how the Williamson 2005). past, India and yoga are represented within Today, Shanti Mandir has a global the global consumption-scape, and how they network of ashrams and allied yoga centres. are operationalised to suggest possible, Its devotees support the organisation alternative futures through the production of through their generous donations of money, desire. The result is that many western time and labour. These investments of interpretations of a ‘traditional’ Indian yoga different species of capital are essential lifestyle are consumed based on these towards the growth of the organisation and official narratives, symbols and fetishised the implementation of its charitable work goods. Having then consumed the official (Jain 2013; Thursby 1991). narratives, they are often criticised for an The ashram, which is known as ‘insensitive appropriation’ of aspects of ‘Magod’ is located three hours north of Indian culture. Mumbai on the west coast of India. It is a Just like the BDSM community in 20-acre biodynamic mango orchard that was Weiss’ (2011) work, the yoga community is donated by a devotee of Muktananda in the involved in similar ‘circuits of capital, late 1990s, and has since evolved into an commodities, and neoliberal ideologies of āśrama, which is a cloistered, intentional 3 community like the western concept of a which in this case refers to the non-dualistic monastery. Shanti Mandir describes it as a (advaita) school of thought. Vedānta [‘the ‘beautiful and serene natural setting’ end (anta) of the Veda’] is the later (Mandir 2016). Even though Shanti Mandir philosophical developments of the is a new religious movement and promotes a Upaniṣad-s. While Vedānta is a philosophy, neo-Advaita/Hindu philosophy,i it offers an at its core it is also an epistemology that orthodox and Sanskritic form of religious aims to offer individuals techniques to practice and identity, which originated in the identify what suffering is through Vedic period (1200-500 BCE).