Literature Review

Conflicting Goods: Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Awareness in Yoga

Cultural appropriation is a concern for some practitioners in modern American yoga. Indian and South Asian voices are concerned about what they see as an abuse or misuse of their cultural heritage. They feel their heritage is being colonized and stolen from them. (Bartaki, 2015). Conversely, Non-Hindu South Asian communities feel this caste-privileged argument is being used as a tool for suppression and control against them (Pantankar, 2014). It is an ethically complicated and emotionally charged issue for all stakeholders.

While there are many studies about cultural appropriation and cultural awareness in yoga, there are few studies about best practices for hosting dialogic communications aimed at better awareness and understanding. This project aims to create and test the efficacy of encouraging discomfort to host productive dialogues around a socially uncomfortable topic. The project uses three philosophical tools; Parker Palmer’s Tragic Gap, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and Hermeneutics to discuss cultural appropriation in American yoga teacher training programs.

History of Modern Postural Yoga

Philip Goldberg’s (2010) book, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation – How Indian Spirituality Changed the West, detailed how Hindu yoga masters repackaged the practices of Hinduism and yoga for an American audience. Beginning with Swami Vivekenanda’s speech to the Council of World Religions at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Americans have been interested in the teachings and practices of yoga (Goldberg, 2010). Master teachers were astute at understanding how to repackage and rebrand their religion to meet American sensibilities (Jain, 2012). In her 2012 article, Branding Yoga: The Cases of Iyengar Yoga, Sidha Yoga and Anusara Yoga, Jain stated, “yoga proponents sought to disseminate yoga to the general populace… In order to do that, yoga needed to stand out in the marketplace amongst available products and services by being packaged in ways that made it seem valuable, accessible, and unique” (p. 4). Vivekananda himself said, “The Hindu is only glad that when he has been cherishing in his bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language and with further light for the latest conclusions of science” (Goldberg, 2010, loc. 1366).

Their efforts were enormously successful. According to a 2016 Yoga Alliance study, yoga is a $16 billion industry in the United States. Over 36.7 million people (or 25% of the adult population) have practiced or are interested in practicing yoga and 28% of all Americans have practiced at some point in their lives (Ipsos Public Affairs, 2016).

Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Awareness in Modern Postural Yoga

Cultural appropriation is defined by Rogers (2017) as, “the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture… It is involved in the assimilation and exploitation of marginalized and colonized cultures and in the survival of subordinated cultures and their resistance to dominant cultures” (p. 474). Antony (2016) said, “this process involves an active ‘taking’ and ‘making one’s own’ of another culture’s elements, through various modes that include cultural exchange, imperialism and hybridity” (p. 285). Cultural appropriation does not acknowledge the artifact’s original purpose, origin, and often is couched in imperialism, entitlement, power and control over the originating culture (Rogers, 2017). Antony (2016) noted, this clash of cultures often results in “hostility and backlash as both cultures lay claim to a single artefact that is (re)articulated in vastly different ways” (p. 285).

For this study I will use the term modern postural yoga to define the contemporary, consumer culture yoga primarily practiced in the United States. In modern postural yoga, the question of cultural appropriation is of particular concern because yoga’s religious origins are often downplayed or disregarded (Antony, 2018). However, the religious origins of yoga, and therefore the question of ownership and authenticity, are largely debated (Antony, 2016). Yoga “encounters Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism during the third century BCE and is rearticulated through these religious systems” (Antony, 2016, p. 286).

This re-articulation is experienced many times throughout history, and, most recently, when yoga encounters the consumer culture of the United States (Jain, 2012). Singleton (2010) noted that what we experience as yoga today, would not be recognized as yoga prior to the turn of the twentieth century. “Transnational anglophone yoga was born at the peak of an unprecedented enthusiasm for physical culture” (p. 81). Jain’s (2012), Branding Yoga, The Cases of Iyengar Yoga, Siddha Yoga and Anusara Yoga, studied how yoga has been adaptive and affected by consumer culture. The modern physical practices are a “hybridized product” of Indian martial arts and Western gymnastics (Singleton, 2010, p. 80). Krishnamacharya and Sivananda are largely credited with bringing postural yoga practices into the main in the 1930s, but it is Krishnamacharya’s students; Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar who, in the 1960s, “most successfully constructed yoga brands and marketed those brands to the general populace” (Jain, 2012, p. 5). Jain (2012) said these teachers were adept at understanding how to exploit market trends. They created systems that allowed students to “construct a desired self-identity by consuming what they think signifies that self-identity” (p. 6). That identity was one of self-development. This “ideological shift towards medical and therapeutic wellbeing therefore aligns yoga with contemporary discourses that valorize scientific knowledge and individual empowerment over one’s health” (Antony, 2016, p. 295). Yoga is identified as “a tool that will enable consumers to become better people through physical and psychological transformation” (Jain, 2012, p. 6). Yoga is therefore, “couched in the consumerist discourse of customer entitlement, where paying clients may direct the exact nature of anticipated services” (Antony, 2016, p. 297). This pedagogic shift from traditional guru to disciple transmission, to personal wellness and development, changed the dynamic of how yoga was taught and consumed. The student went from being under the command and control of the guru, to having autonomy, free will and choice. Now yoga “can be consumed in combination with other worldviews and practices (Jain, 2012, p. 6). Jain’s study illustrated how modern postural yoga teachers adapted to consumer culture and articulated self-development as a means of marketing and branding yoga in the United States.

This marketing effort has been most effective with urban, middle-class white women. Rosen’s (2019) article, Balance Yoga, Neoliberalism, studied the semiotic logic of the concept of balance and “the social practice of yoga to the political projects of neoliberalism and second-wave feminism in the United States” (p. 289). Rosen conducted interviews with yoga instructors in New York City and found that balance was “mediated by speakers’ racialized, gendered, and classed social positioning as middle-class white women within a neoliberal political economy” (p. 290). Rosen believed that the “positioning of yoga as a source of relaxation and self-empowerment [made it] accessible to a privileged social domain in the United States” (p. 292). According to Rosen, neoliberalism shifted people’s perceptions of themselves from workers for one purpose to “a collection of usable skills and traits to be continuously honed and improved” (p. 293). Rosen believed that neoliberalism and the increase of women in the workforce, combined with the “professed message of share female experience,” caused “the ascendency of balance as a valorized state for middle-class white women… and in the positioning of yoga as a technique of the self through which to attain it” (p. 295). Women in the workforce came to mean white women in the workforce, thus the concerns and burdens felt by this demographic became the narrative of the need for all women in the work force. Self-care and the concept of balance become a way of trying to reconcile the “double burden” of work life and home life and maintain autonomy, power and control, as well as stress relief from aspects of their lives (p. 296). Rosen’s study is limited in scope, however, the study does draw interesting correlations between how yoga moved from a relatively fringe practice to the mainstream, and how it shifted to be associated with white, middle-class women.

Because modern postural yoga’s efficacy is touted for its potential to provide overall physical health and wellbeing, it is not closely aligned with traditional Hinduism. Antony (2016) stated, “Appropriated yoga is frequently characterized by the erasure of religious themes and elements” (p. 299). Jain (2014) attributed misunderstanding and stereotypes about Hinduism as the reason “much of the yoga industry generally avoid the ‘unmarketable H-word’” (p. 443). Positioning yoga within American consumer culture, Jain (2014) focused on the backlash in the United States against this consumer culture re-orientation. The study focuses on protests by both American Christians and Hindus against modern postural yoga. Both view modern postural yoga as a threat to their culture (Jain, 2014). Using the terms “Christian yogaphobic” and “Hindu origins,” Jain noted that both center their argument around the potential dangers of modern postural yoga by explaining how “modern forms of yoga are damaging for a true Christian or Hindu as well as prescribe how narrow visions of how a Christian or Hindu should be religious” (p. 431). This study is important because it explored the protesters’ biases. From a Christian yogaphobic point of view, “Christians who practice yoga endanger their own Christian identities and commitments” (Jain, 2014, p. 433). For Hindu origins, modern postural yoga “is perceived to dramatically ignore or dilute yoga’s Hindu essence” (Jain, 2014, p. 441). Jain centers modern postural yoga as a cultural unto itself, created through consumer culture, and points to the fact that yogaphobic arguments share a backlash against personal choice. For Christian yogaphobic and Hindu Origins, choice is “a challenge to the boundaries they want to maintain” (Jain, 2014, p. 457). By centering modern postural yoga as a unique culture, differentiated from Hinduism or Christianity, and squarely rooted in consumer culture, Jain both calls into question the purity of the yogaphobic arguments and defines modern postural yoga as an entity unto itself, not beholden to any religion or culture.

Competing points of view of cultural appropriation are not limited to Hindus, American Christians, and modern postural yoga. Contemporary Hinduism “began with European Orientalists… [and] resulted from a discourse between Orientalists and elite Hindu reformers… the result… was a definition of Hinduism in terms of a normative [Protestant] paradigm of religion.” (Jain, 2014, p. 448). This “sanitized vision of Hinduism” (Jain, 2014, p. 449) subjugated and downplayed the practices and beliefs of tantra, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and others. Antony (2016) stated that “yoga’s early restriction to predominantly male, high-caste, south Asian ascetic betrays its elitist roots” (p. 77). Lower-caste South Asians, Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis protest “caste-privileged Hindus” claim to practices and norms that they see as oppressive (Pantankar, 2014). Jain’s (2014) study is important because it offers many competing points of view to consider regarding cultural appropriation in yoga.

Multifaceted Points of View: Modern Postural Yoga, Upper-Caste Hindus, Lower-Caste and Non-Hindu South Indians

Modern Postural Yoga

Bourne’s (2010) study of teaching Vedic chanting within one South Indian school to both local students and visiting Western students, illustrated how Western expectations have shaped Western education of yoga (2010). In Bourne’s study, the classes were broken into two groups; one for locals, and one special one-month training for visiting students. The local classes were one-on-one; teacher to student. The work was performative and did not include discourse about meaning or corrective instruction (2010). Bourne observed that this instructional style was rooted in lineage and socio-history. This practice “created an unambiguous, stable, collective identity” (Bourne, 2010, p. 17). Conversely, the Western students were “consumer focused, as they shopped around for different yoga experiences in a yoga world market” (p. 18). Bourne (2010) noted that the Western students pressured the teacher into changing her techniques. The teacher thus changed her approach from transmission to one of modeling and personal narrative storytelling.

Bourne’s study is important because it illustrates how yoga has been adapted by the lineage holder from a practice that develops community and preserves the lineage, to a commodity that can be bought and sold. This differentiation is a key factor in how Western audiences have historically understood and expect to learn yoga. While Bourne did not directly investigate the dynamics of imperialism, cultural appropriation or power, she noted that the teacher “does not expect or even attempt to demand the same relationship of devotion and respect from the Western students” (p. 18). Bourne observed that, although chanting is being taught to both students, the outcome is different; the Western students are not learning Vedic chanting, “but only what Vedic chanting was about” (p. 20). This is an important distinction that echoes many of the concerns of South Asian Desi and Hindus; the information is being consumed and collected, but not embodied.

Antony (2016) expanded on Bourne’s findings by studying the ways in which non-Indian yoga teachers re-articulated yoga in their classrooms as “fitness and physical therapy, and this discursively shift the focus of yoga… to the consumer” (p. 283). Additionally, in a separate 2016 study, Antony explored how the teachers “negotiate religion and spirituality in their classrooms and daily lives” (p. 70). Both studies are limited in scope; focusing on a few teachers in a small city in the Southern United States. They are not good representations of the depth, variety, or quality of yoga teaching in the United States, however, they do illustrate how cultural appropriation is used to offset the uncomfortable experience of Other. Teachers used three techniques to adapt the practice to their audience; “replacing Sanskrit nomenclature with more relatable terminology; highlighting the physiological (rather than religio-spiritual) benefits; and varying asana routines to discourage boredom” (Antony, 2016, p. 290). The instructors saw the practice as a way into spiritual practice without explicitly saying so, thus yoga is “discursively linked with an ambiguous yet expansive spirituality, which in turn makes it adaptable to individual philosophies and preferences” (Antony, 2016, p. 77). This shift privileges the desire of the student over the authority of the teacher. It also highlights how cultural appropriation, by removing references to Other, works to make the uncomfortable Other, comfortable. Catering to the student’s desire to not know about Other invariably “privileges some adherents above others… facilitates and panders to …a suspicion of brownness and the hypervigilance of brown bodies” (Antony, 2016, p. 300). In this way, “the Hindu thus remains an ostensibly foreign and inscrutable entity within the mainstream American cultural milieu” (Antony, 2016, p. 77). Both students and the teachers of modern postural yoga are predominantly female identifying, white and middle-class. They are acknowledging a preference for “not Hinduism” and are re-articulating yoga to accommodate this preference.

Upper Caste/Caste-Privileged Hindus

The yoga of middle-class aspirations from the United States found its way back to upper caste Hindus in India. Bourne (2010) noted, “originating in South India, it has been relocated in the Himalayas, carried to the West, then returned to India as a practice for the middle class” (p. 12). This re-orienting back to India created a strong feeling among upper-caste Hindus of ownership over yoga. Vats’ (2016) article (Dis)owning Bikram: Decolonizing Vernacular and Dewesternizing Restructuring in the Yoga Wars, depicted how Bikram Choudhury filed for copyright protection of his yoga sequence in the United States and how the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) digital database “designed to prevent the ownership and commodification of yogic and medicinal knowledge” was able to stop him (Vat, 2014, p. 326). According to Vats, Choudhury’s attempt to copyright his yoga sequence through a Western legal lens was an attempt to colonize yogic knowledge. Choudhry was able to both claim personal ownership of yoga and commodify it by claiming that yoga was “authorless, ahistoric” (p. 329). These are key concerns and problems with cultural appropriation.

In response to Choudhury’s claim, The Times of India coined the term “yoga piracy” (Vats, 2016, p. 326). People who claimed ownership over this existing knowledge were “exploiters of that which has already been discovered” (Vats, 2016, p. 332). The TKDL re-oriented “the racial Other as creator situated in non-Western histories of knowledge, production and innovator” (p. 333). The Indian yogis created the knowledge, versus the knowledge being a mixed jumble of disparate ideas codified through a Western lens. “It situates Indians in ways which promote the recognition and acceptance of knowledge production from previously devalued subject positions” (Vats, 2016, p. 339). Arguing the case in this way, the court rules Choudhury’s sequence was not copyrightable (Vats, 2016).

This is the central argument to upper-caste privileged Hinduism. Yoga is an ancient religious practice that should not be commodified or separated from its Hindu roots. Separating yoga from Hinduism “is a continuation of white supremacy and colonialism, maintaining the pattern of white people consuming the stuff of culture that is convenient and portable while ignoring the well-being and liberation of Indian people” (Gandhi & Wolff, 2017, p. 4). Gandhi and Wolff (2017) outlined how yoga’s utility was used a colonization tool. By showing that yoga was “scientific, healthy and rational… [it] reified colonial forms of knowledge – that knowledge must be proven scientific to worth anything” (p. 3). In 2010, The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) created the “Take Back Yoga” campaign to “suggest that people become more aware of yoga’s debt to the faith’s ancient traditions” (Vitello, 2010). Dr. Aseem Shukla, HAF co-founder, said, “yoga has thrived, but Hinduism lost control of the brand” (Vitello, 2010). Antony (2018) agreed, “Instructors who choose to resignify yoga in a manner that communicatively distances it from Hinduism and Vedic ontology (inadvertently) contribute to hegemonic trends that confine non-Western belief to the periphery” (p. 10). Shukla and HAF, wanted to ensure that Hinduism is a part of that story, not written out or marginalized (Vitello, 2010). For Shukla and HAF, yoga is connected to the history of Indian civilization and its contributions to the world.

South-Asian/Pakistan/Muslim Perspective

The idea of yoga as a Hindu contribution to the work is further propagated through the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)’s embrace and use of yoga for “soft power and cultural diplomacy” (Gautam & Droogan, 2017, p. 18). Gautam & Droogan’s (2017) Yoga Soft Power: How Flexible Is the Posture? studied the effects of using yoga in “India’s cultural nationalist discourse at some and soft power projection abroad” (p. 18). BJP has been very successful in presenting India “as a benign and beneficial cultural force in global affairs,” however it “creates an opportunity to crtiticise the intolerance of those who disagree to integrate and label them as ‘the other,’ for instance Muslins or Sikh nationalists" (Gautam & Droogan, 2017, p. 21). Nanda’s (2011) article, The Ludicrousness of “Taking Back Yoga,” argued that the claim of lineage holder by upper-caste Hindus was tenuously draw and unprovable. Vats’s (2016) article regarding the legal battle for copyright over Bikram’s sequence illustrated how “the yoga wars are discursive negotiations through which legality and identity evolve in ways which include some and exclude others” (p. 331). Hinduism is not homogeneous and South Asia is home to many traditions besides Hinduism. Patankar’s (2014) article Ghosts of Yoga Past and Present, states, “many caste-privileged Hindus use such claims to cultural capital to dominate cultural norms in ways that oppress and even perpetuate violence against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Bahujans, and Adivasis, altogether the vast majority of India’s people.” Patankar argued the appropriation of yoga as similar to what “caste-privileged Hindu leaders” had done to culturally appropriate “a variety of diverse sects, practices, beliefs and rituals that have existed for centuries” (2014).

"From the standpoint of the vast majority of South Asians, the cultural threat they face

is not from 'white people' practicing or 'appropriating' yoga. What they are looking for

is conscious solidarity and support for their struggles against communalism and

caste oppression, bellicosity towards Pakistan, land-grabs and dispossession, and

threats to their livelihoods and to their resilient cultures too" (Patankar, 2014).

Chandra, (2014) agreed; “for a range of American scholars, writers, and activists, India was Hindu. Specifically, and perhaps even unbeknownst to them, …[it] was also upper-caste and Sanskritic” (p. 492). Chandra equated naming India as Hindu “as a primary conduit for transnational whiteness. Erasing the realities of contemporary globalization—especially those of Islamophobia, labor-based migration, and genocide… both of which have deliberately targeted, resexualized, and reracialized minorities” (p. 508). In her essay about the world post 9/11, Chandra explained how white women appropriated upper-caste Hinduism to reestablish “a transnational American entitlement to the globe… her pain and vulnerability give the selective geography of the post-9/11 world a veneer of innocence” (p. 509). While this article did not directly address yoga, it is an important counter perspective to the idea the South Asian traditions are exclusively Hindu. By bringing awareness to how upper-caste Hindus positioned themselves in relation to post 9/11 politics, it brought attention to the diverse, long history of religions in India. Thus, who can claim ownership over yoga, and who is allowed to appropriate it, becomes a more complicated and nuanced question.

Yoga Teacher Trainings in the United States

Bhalla and Moscowitz (2020) article Yoga and Female Objectification: Commodity and Exclusionary Identity in U.S. Women’s Magazines illustrated how modern postural yoga is marketed and branded in consumer culture. Bhalla and Moscowitz (2020) studied representations of yoga in several women’s magazines and found that the predominate image is of thin, white, women. This “depicts and position tropes of female objectification that reify values of commodity, consumerism, and divisive exclusionary identity” (p. 90). Middle to upper class women are the primary consumers of yoga and it “has been transformed from inner fulfillment to a vanity driven pursuit” (p. 93). Additionally, Bhalla and Moscowitz (2020) noted that yoga “is associated with ‘being white’ … consumers associate yoga with being skinny, white and even upper class” (p. 93). This appropriation has created a gap in understanding between yoga’s history and cultural ties.

Modern postural yoga teacher training programs are generally marketed to anyone interested in studying yoga with more depth. Mike Patton, owner of Yoga Vida, one of New York City’s most financially successful studios, said, “the real engine driving the business of yoga is turning working stiffs into yoga evangelists… many eventually become instructors themselves…and ultimately create a positive feedback loop that creates more evangelists” (Goddard, 2018). Most yoga studios offer a basic 200-hour yoga teacher training because, “for every yoga teacher in the United States, there are two more people who want to become yoga teachers” (Zenplanner.com, 2017). These trainings constitute a substantial revenue for yoga studios (Archer, 2016).

Because yoga teacher trainings are a primary economic driver in the business of yoga in the United States, they provide a strong platform for studying the efficacy of a dialogic approach to concerns of cultural appropriation. Additionally, because modern postural yoga teachers have historically catered to students’ desires, I will study how a paradigm shift from avoidance of Other for comfort, to accepting discomfort, opens productive dialogue regarding Other.

Tools for Approach: The Tragic Gap, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Hermeneutics.

The Tragic Gap

Parker Palmer (2009) said the Tragic Gap is where we “learn to hold the tension between the reality of the moment and the possibility that something better might emerge” (p. 175). Palmer’s work is rooted in Christian (Quaker) theology and can be used as a bridge understanding between yoga and Western theology. The Tragic Gap is the space in between; a way of being in the present space with compassion, patience and non-violence (Parker, 2009). The Tragic Gap as a place where “we quickly confront the reality of a culture riddled with violence” (p. 168). Like yoga, the Tragic Gap creates a tension, a space for discovery. This space, according to Parker (2009) creates empathy, compassion, understanding, and ultimately, better, less reactive, decision making. Like yoga, The Tragic Gap is a doing, active, participatory practice. It demands a level of action and commitment and acceptance of discomfort on the part of the individual.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali & The Eight Limbs of Practice

Yoga is a personal practice; it is subject motivated. Without personal participation, there is no awareness. The effort one puts into the practice is directly related to what one can expect to get out of it. (Satchidananda, 2004). The foundational principles of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are ahimsa (non-violence), present mindedness and practiced non-attachment (Satchidananda, 2004). Like the Tragic Gap, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali demand the student be self-motivated and willing to be uncomfortable; the yogi must accept “pain as purification” (Satchidananda, 2004, p. 79). I believe this idea, that one must accept that discomfort (pain) as a necessary step to greater awareness (purification), creates space for discomfort and productive conflict.

Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is “based on interpretation rather than observation.” (Radford, 1991). “However thoroughly one may adopt a foreign frame of mind, one still does not forget one’s worldview and language-view. Rather, the other world we encounter is not only foreign but is also related to us. It has not only its own truth in itself but also its own truth for us” (Gadamer, 2004, p. 458).  The limits of human understanding are key to hermeneutic understanding. Our limited understanding plays a pivotal role to creating new meaning. (Gadamer, 2004). Using this foundational understanding, I draw upon the work of Deetz and Simpson’s (2004) study, Critical Organizational Dialogue: Open Formation and the Demand of “Otherness” to map out the training. Deetz and Simpson provided a detailed roadmap for Hermeneutic dialogue; acknowledging the limits of self-expression, developing an appreciation of otherness, understanding our relationship to meaning and common ground, and conflict resolution – surviving “the disgraceful fact of our mutual difference” (Deetz, 2004, p. 153).

Specific Purpose/Rationale

The issues of cultural appropriation in yoga are not clearly defined and the power dynamics in modern postural yoga are not balanced or shared. As a yoga teacher and teacher trainer for over twenty years, I am aware that most American yoga students do not have a foundational understanding of the complicated political or cultural histories of yoga. Minority voices continue to be discounted and quieted (MacDonalds, 2013). Yoga continues to be marketed as something for thin, upper-middle class white women (Bhalla & Moscowitz, 2020). The majority of studio owners and largest yoga personalities continue to be white men and women (Bhakta, 2019).

Productive dialogues are ones that provide minority voices a safe, supportive opportunity to be heard and believed. I believe the practice of modern postural yoga with its focus on practice, self-reflection and acceptance, is keenly poised to create such an opportunity. Antony (2016) says “the immense popularity of Indian artefacts such as yoga can be harnessed to engage with and meaningfully explore genuine cultural interaction” (p. 300). Using three resources; Parker Palmer’s Tragic Gap, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and Hermeneutics, I have designed a training module for a 200-hour yoga teacher training. Through a series of interviews, lectures and exercises, I will see if these techniques alter the dynamics of discussions around cultural diversity and cultural sensitivity in yoga.