Authenticity

    Sanskrit has come to connote “authentic” or pre-colonial Indian yoga…

          Yoga was first formally introduced to western audiences in 1893, when Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda spoke about Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Since then, yoga has taken on many new manifestations, blending the profound simplicity of Eastern philosophies with the consumer culture and the virile wellness/fitness industries of the West. These hybrid formats have swept the globe and made their way back to India – the birthplace of yoga – where they have been increasingly popular ever since.  Yoga, then, has evolved into a transnational phenomenon, defined not just by its historical origins but rather, shaped continually through a mutual process of cultural exchange. 

          Many yogis feel that this cycle of globalization and westernization has cheapened or otherwise compromised the authenticity of the yogic teachings – which have historically been developed by South Asian spiritual masters, rather than American consumers. Thus, to combat cultural appropriation and commodification of yoga, Sanskrit has emerged as a symbol of authentic Indian-ness. Many teachers speak Sanskrit to openly convey their investment in the Indic roots of yoga.

          In many cases, speaking Sanskrit in yoga is also part of an established effort to “decolonize yoga,” or, in other words, to liberate the surviving yogic traditions from overreaching western influence. This movement to decolonize yoga is a response against European colonialism on the Indian subcontinent throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, as well as continued American imperialism over the global economy today. Strict adherents to some yogic traditions argue that yoga may only be authentic if it is purely Indian or even purely Hindu – see previous articles Antiquity and Authority for more details on this perspective – therefore, Sanskrit is often employed to envision a return to pre-colonial yoga or authenticate a vision for the future of de-colonized yoga.

    BUT Sanskrit supremacy IS a legacy of colonialism in yoga.

          Some of the first westerners to encounter yoga were European Orientalists: scholars of the “exotic East” who worked closely with trade charters such as the British East India Company to further western understandings of the Indian subcontinent – to enable more effective colonial rule. Orientalists like Max Muller and John Woodroffe (aka Arthur Avalon) were particularly captivated by Sanskrit texts – not because Sanskrit was somehow more authentic than all the other Indian languages, but because the British East India Company was primarily colluding with local Indian elites – namely, Sanskrit-literate Brahmins. To refresh your memory on the relationship between Sanskrit and Brahmanical Hindu orthodoxy, please refer back to Part 5 of this series: Authority.

          Orientalists brought Sanskrit yoga texts back with them when they returned to Europe, where they were translated and published for western audiences, popularized, and thereafter hailed as the only civilized things to emerge from an otherwise “backwards” culture. Thus, western audiences came to understand Sanskrit as a definitive marker of authentic yoga – while knowing nothing of the diverse cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions that contributed to the development of yogic tradition. This pattern was not new; vernacular and oral traditions have long been overshadowed by the prominence of Sanskrit texts and the scholarly frameworks of the Brahmanical elite. European Orientalists simply replicated this system of exclusion and cultural sublimation, known as Sanskritization.

          By focusing solely on Sanskrit as a marker of authenticity, we are doing the same thing that Brahmins and then Orientalists and British colonialists did: we are cherry-picking certain elements from the yogic canon that are agreeable to our sensibilities, and then asserting those as the only authentic form of yoga. Sanskrit supremacy perpetuates a narrow and elitist view of yoga, and it reaffirms the same casteist and orientalist systems of power that have excluded so many South Asian yogis throughout history.

          Furthermore, despite spirited efforts in the present to “re-Indianize” or “re-Hinduize” the tradition, modern yoga remains highly, inextricably involved in global infrastructures of cultural exchange. When we westerners cherry-pick certain elements of yoga to assimilate into our practices, those elements eventually make their way back around the world – in distorted, sanitized, and/ or commodified forms – where they are adopted by South Asian yogis once again. Thus, when we emphasize Sanskrit as the primary marker of yogic authenticity, we are incidentally drawing this notion back into the global mainstream. This is the same system of mutual reproduction that has existed for centuries through Sanskritization; just as high-caste men curate the lower rungs of Indic society, today the West curates “the rest.”

          This paternalistic dynamic between wealthy, developed nations (like the U.S. or the U.K.) and newly post-colonial nations (like India) need not always be so. Rather than treat yoga like a capital good to be civilized or improved upon, we can appreciate the vast and diverse array of existing South Asian yoga traditions, while recognizing how colonial encounters have shaped those traditions into their modern forms. Yet, we must also acknowledge how western individuals have benefited disproportionately from the globalization and capitalistic consumption of this ancient religious practice. In this way, we can celebrate yoga for the cross-cultural discourse it fosters and work towards a more equitable distribution of its financial and spiritual wealth.

        Visit the Inspiration tab to read about my embodied experience of Authenticity in modern yoga →

Spaces Between

          My father, a Bengali, came to America in 1988. He charted mazes of red tape in his decision to stay, against the wishes of his family back home.

          He met and married a gauri: fair-skinned one. She was not who anyone expected, not exactly what they desired, but she bore him two daughters who were just brown enough to wear bindis and just white enough to be thought pretty.

          Raised far from the motherland, his girls had neither his accent nor his grit. Always air conditioned, English educated, and blissfully unaware in a way only Americans can be – he was proud to have given them something more than he had, though they didn’t know it. Instead, they moaned when they were handed the phone at night, unable or perhaps unwilling to make out his mother’s words on the other end.

          As they grew, his girls became aware of their difference. Not quite Bengali – this much they learned quietly, for they wore their bindis not to school but to play pretend. Certainly not gauri – this much was told plainly by their classmates’ mocking stares. Not quite either thing, they often felt like nothing at all; an inauthentic cocktail of two diluted halves.

          Gratitude came slowly, with time and understanding. Bengali by name and gauri by nationality, his girls grew into women with long eyelashes and ample opportunities. They came to wear their bindis proudly and visited the motherland, and though they spoke only English, they still picked up the phone. They recognized the blessing of being and belonging to both.

          When my father came to America in 1988, his decision was hardly a dilution. With bravery and great sacrifice, he forged duality new. Authenticity, after all, is not some fixed, unmixed relic. It grows, like my sister and I, in the spaces in between.

          Visit the Practice tab for actionable tips, self-reflection questions, and resources to learn more about Authenticity in modern yoga →

Practical Tips for Yoga Teachers:

• You can cultivate authenticity in your yoga practice by teaching from your own embodied experience, rather than relying on lofty proverbs and platitudes.
• To mitigate the effects of colonialism and cultural appropriation, we must recognize and fairly compensate our host cultures for their generosity with their spiritual exports. Whenever possible, source yoga classes & products from Desi teachers, creators, and entrepreneurs.
• Work to decolonize yoga by combating elitism, classism and consumerism in the modern yoga industry. This could look like:
  • Advocating for more affordable rates at your local studio.
  • Offering tuition scholarships/ retreat discounts to your low-income, BIPOC, and Desi yoga students.
  • Decentralizing Sanskrit in your yoga classes.
  • Teaching fellow yogis about Sanskrit’s colonial history.

Questions for Reflection:

• What styles/ types of yoga do I gravitate towards?
  • Do I know the histories of these traditions?
  • Are these traditions eastern, western, or a blend of both?
  • What feels authentic about them to me?
• How do I define “authentic” yoga?
  • Can “authentic” yoga have more than one manifestation?
  • Do I believe that yoga must be “pure” or unchanged from its Indian origins in order to be authentic?
• How do I strive towards authenticity as a yoga teacher?

Resources for Further Learning:

Alter, Joseph S. Yoga in Modern India: The Body between Science and Philosophy. United States: Princeton University Press, 2021.

De Michelis, Elizabeth. A History of Modern Yoga: Patañjali and Western Esotericism. 1st pbk. ed. London; Continuum, 2005.

Deslippe, Philip. “Fakir: How a Word from India Moved Through American Popular Culture for Nearly a Century.” In The United States and South Asia from the Age of Empire to Decolonization, 5:69–82. Amsterdam: Leiden University Press, 2022. doi:10.1515/9789400604421-004.

Deslippe, Philip. “The Swami Circuit: Mapping the Terrain of Early American Yoga.” Journal of Yoga Studies 1 (2018): 5–44. doi:10.34000/JoYS.2018.V1.002.

Foxen, Anya P. Inhaling Spirit: Harmonialism, Orientalism, and the Western Roots of Modern Yoga. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Goldberg, Michelle. The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West. First Vintage Books edition. New York: Vintage Books, A division of Penguin Random House, 2016.

Kale, Sunila S. and Christian Lee Novetzke. “The Cultural Politics of Yoga in India and the United States.” In At Home and Abroad, 44:210–27. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2021. doi:10.7312/hurd19898-013.

Lau, Lisa, and Ana Cristina Mendes. Re-Orientalism and South Asian Identity Politics: The Oriental Other Within. 1st ed. Oxford: Routledge, 2011. doi:10.4324/9780203814543.

Miller, Christopher. “Embodying Transnational Yoga.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. First Vintage Books edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

Schwind, Christa. “Tracing an American Yoga: Identity and Cross-Cultural Transaction.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015.

Singleton, Mark. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395358.001.0001.

Strauss, Sarah. Positioning Yoga: Balancing Acts across Cultures. Oxford; Berg, 2005.

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