International Yoga Day: is yoga religious?

Image by Matthew Ragan via Flickr.

The first International Yoga Day on June 21 sparked controversy in some parts of India as tensions rose between the Hindu foundations of the practice and those claiming that it opposes Islamic teaching. Rather than an isolated incident, these tensions highlight the ongoing debate about whether the nature of yoga is a spiritual experience, or whether it holds religious and political significance, too.

The tensions in June were a result of accusations by significant Muslim figures including Kamal Farooqui, a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, that by promoting yoga the Indian government was pushing a Hindu agenda. These accusations provoked controversial responses, and one historian, Dilip Simeon, expressed his belief to the Indian Express that the debate was deliberately ‘manufactured’ by Hindu politicians to assert Hindu culture as dominant in the region—a drive towards ‘unification of thought and culture’.

While Simeon suggests that the practice of yoga is somewhat political, debates on the practice around the world tend to focus largely on its religious element. The debate draws on questions of cultural appropriation, the significance of Hinduism in yoga, and the gradual separation of yoga in some cases from its spiritual foundations.

A recent political decision to ban yoga in Russia resulted from fears that the practice could ‘spread new religious cults and movements’, according to the Moscow Times. In Russia, then, political powers have acted on their belief in the inseparable link between yoga and religious practice, despite the fact that yoga is practiced by many purely for its physical and relaxation benefits.

Some religious organisations have been speaking out against the increasing popularity of yoga for a decade. A public elementary school in Aspen, Colorado shut down requests from Tara Guber to teach yoga to its children in 2002 because of their concerns that yoga’s Hindu roots conflicted with Christian teachings. More recently, a legal fight to block the teaching of yoga in Encinitas public schools in San Diego County resulted in media coverage of the controversial nature of yoga in the United States. Although Dean Broyles, the lawyer leading the fight, was unsuccessful, he aims to continue educating parents about the ‘religious intent’ of yoga, expressing his concerns to the Los Angeles Times of yoga’s ‘deceptive religious indoctrination’ of children in schools.

Concerns such as these also work in reverse. According to the Washington Post, some Hindu and Buddhist leaders have long expressed concerns about the gradual Westernisation of yoga, and by extension meditation, in which the practice has been morphed from a religious or at least spiritual exploration into a method of physical exercise. Denying yoga’s Hindu origins, as exercise classes often do, is seen by some as cultural appropriation. While many claim that yoga is for everyone, the arguments for and against it worldwide highlight the controversies surrounding the practice. To separate yoga from its religious roots is seen by many as disrespectful to Hindu culture, but to offer the practice to others with these religious and spiritual roots in place is viewed as a political move towards cultural domination.

Originally published on The Global Panorama.