From the orientalists of the late 19th century to the influences of Instagram, via the hippies of Woodstock, yoga has spread widely in the United States and Europe. If it is practiced in an approach that is at once sporting, spiritual and therapeutic, the repertoire of athletic postures now often takes precedence over the mystical quest. First the prerogative of a certain counter-culture, it is now at the center of a market brewing colossal sums, from the ashrams of Rishikesh to the trendy clubs of Los Angeles. And if this yoga may seem very far from the ancestral knowledge of which it claims to be, its syncretic and globalized version interests even in its country of origin, both for its commercial opportunities and for its political impact. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thus had the United Nations adopt a world day of yoga, celebrated every May 21 since 2015. On the international level, it is a question of giving India a peaceful image spreading its wisdom. On the domestic level, yoga is one instrument among others, in the service of a professed Hindu nationalism to the detriment of the other communities of the country.
How did yoga spread outside India? How has his international circulation enriched and modified his practice? How does its reappropriation by the current Hindu nationalist movement relate to its globalized character?
Florian Delorme receives Ysé Tardan-Masquelier, historian and anthropologist of religions at the Institute of Science and Theology of Religions at the Catholic Institute and Anne-Cecile Hoyez, CNRS researcher at the Spaces and Societies laboratory (UMR ESO) at Rennes 2 University.
“Between the end of the 19th century and 1968, there was a desire in the West to make room for a form of spiritual quest aimed at compensating for a malaise in relation to modernity. Yoga then served to respond to an interweaving of expectations, spiritual or relating to the rehabilitation of the body.” Explain Ysé Tardan-Masquelier.
“The novelty in recent years has been the strengthening of a political discourse, instrumentalized by Prime Minister Modi, associated with a cultural discourse that highlights Hinduism, i.e. a tightening of identity around Hinduism in practice. yoga” to analyse Anne-Cecile Hoyez.
For further :
– Ysé Tardan-Masquelier, Yoga. The encyclopedia (ed.), Albin Michel, 2021.
– Ysé Tardan-Masquelier, A little spirituality of yogaBayard, 2018.
– Anne-Cecile Hoyez, The space-world of yoga. From health to globalized therapeutic landscapes, Rennes University Press, 2013.
The focus of the day
Very political yoga courses in Indian universities
In recent years, several Indian state universities have opened yoga departments, providing training up to doctoral level. Attached to university hospitals or sports establishments, they favor a practical approach to the discipline, which is not however free of ideology. Because implicitly, these teachings promote a vision of yoga systematically associated with Indian territory and Hinduism, in line with its reappropriation by the Hindu nationalism of Narendra Modi.
With Raphael Voice, researcher at the CNRS, author of Filing Religion. State, Hinduism and Courts of Law (eds. with Daniela Berti and Gilles Tarabout), Oxford University Press, 2016.
” From 2014, and especially from 2015 and the establishment of the International Day of Yoga, a large number of means are invested by the Indian authorities to promote yoga in universities. It is not an identity yoga, but a yoga legitimized from a medical point of view “observe Raphael Voice.
Sound references
- On the last International Yoga Day which took place on June 21, Narendra Modi affirmed that yoga brings peace on earth and in the universe (Editorji, June 23, 2022)
- New York yoga practitioner rejoices that she was able to participate in a giant session in Times Square on this International Day of Yoga (CBS news, June 21, 2022)
- On the last International Yoga Day which took place on June 21, Narendra Modi affirmed that yoga brings peace on earth and in the universe (Editorji, June 23, 2022)
- New York yoga practitioner rejoices that she was able to participate in a giant session in Times Square on this International Day of Yoga (CBS news, June 21, 2022)
- In the historic city of Ayutthaya in Thailand, a yoga teacher talks about the well-being that this practice gives her in this unique environment (AFP, June 21, 2022)
- Excerpt from a report on the arrival of the Beatles in Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges in February 1968 in the ashram of Yogi Maharishi Mahesh in order to participate in a transcendental meditation
- Extract from the speech of Swami Satchidananda who came to calm the crowd during the Woodstock festival on August 15, 1969
- The Yogacharya Devvrit Arya presents on his Youtube channel the different universities offering the best degree to teach yoga (July 29, 2021)
Musical references
- Excerpt from the music of the film “Merchant-Ivory’s film Bombay talkie” performed by Shankar and Jakishan (Label: Abkco records)
- “Across The Universe” by The Beatles (Label: Parlophone)