Yoga Modified: From soft power to nationhood

By Swapan Dasgupta

There is always a danger in trying to anticipate the manner in which an event that seems terribly significant today comes to be viewed by posterity . Matters are further complicated by a made-in-media society that is often inclined to attach more breathless significance to a 140-character tweet than it did to the abolition of the Planning Commission.

The significance of last Sunday’s World Yoga Day was to a large extent overshadowed in India by the lavish media attention showered on the controversies surrounding the help given by two important politicians to Lalit Modi, the cricket impresario now embroiled in controversy . While this controversy has an undeniable significance in terms of its possible impact on public perceptions of the Narendra Modi government, its historical significance may well prove to be more shortlived than the yogic callisthenics on Rajpath. However, this in turn is again dependant on two factors: first, the ability of governments to endure energetically with the occasion and, secondly, the social penetration of yoga as a national virtue.

Even if the media was rather casual in recognizing the potential significance of Yoga Day — now sanctified as an annual summer solstice event by the UN — the same can hardly be said of those who spiritedly opposed participation for a number of reasons.

There was, first, the religious objection of a number of Christian churches and the Muslim Personal Law Board. This objection was grounded in apparently theological reasons. Since the ultimate objective of yoga is to strive for the oneness of the mind and body of an individual with the Supreme Being — by whichever name it is described — it was seen as obliteration of the distinction between man and God. It was debunked as a possible invitation to what Marxists call ‘false consciousness.’ Secondly , there were misgivings over the implied sun worship that was met by dropping the surya namaskar from the official event.

Far more commonplace were, however, the secular objections, including those raised by individuals claiming to be yoga practitioners. Their argument ran something like this: yoga has been around for thousands of years and being a deeply personal endeavour, doesn’t warrant state sponsor ship. This disdain for congregational yoga was complemented by the hostility of those who de tected an underlying Hindu agenda in the proceed ings. Yoga’s historical association with a larger Hindu inheritance could well be one reason why there was a de facto boycott of the June 21 events by the Congress party . Presumably , Yoga Day ran counter to its “idea of India“.

The issue isn’t frivolous. Since the later part of the 20th century , there is a multicultural view of nationality that has gained currency . According to this view, India is akin to a vast supermarket where an array of goods is on display and it is up to both individuals and communities to pick and choose what they want. Everyone does his or her own thing, regardless of the larger consequences.