The Evolutionof Woke Yogaasa Branding Strategy

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The Evolution of 'Woke Yoga' as a Branding Strategy
Article · April 2021
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The Evolution of 'Woke Yoga'

as a Branding Strategy
Battles over yoga’s biography have unintended consequences.
Representative image of a yoga class in the west. Photo: Hector Milla/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Patrick McCartney
1 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
HISTORY SOCIETY 7 HOURS AGO
If one starts to think about the branding of yoga and the

narrative threads involved in creating demand for its
consumption, one seemingly insurmountable issue relates
to the multiple ways yoga’s biography is imaginatively
curated to suit various ends. For example, yoga and
Sanskrit are employed by nation states, like India and
China, through faith-based development narratives.
While China considers developing “yoga villages” part of

its attempt to eradicate extreme poverty and morally edify
the masses, this development narrative competes with
India’s concept of “Sanskrit-speaking villages,” which are
similarly employed.
Yoga’s popular romantic biography pivots from

threadbare, forest-dwelling ascetics to flexibly fit urbane
people about town. Today, in certain parts of Yogaland –
which is a term used to refer to the global consumption-
scape of yoga – there is a growing rise in the application
of critical race theory and progressive feminist ideology.
Over the past few years, the merging of yoga and social
justice activism has intensified. Though this appears
geographically bound to Western Europe and North
America. This evolves out of the critical theories that
developed from within the Frankfurt School, attempting to
find problematics (wrong think) and attain collective
liberation, though not of the mokṣa kind. These theories
frame contemporary yoga as indelibly intersected by race,
oppression, and appropriation, while promoting a static
monolithic view of the past. Innumerable articles exist
2 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
prescribing how to decolonise one’s practice.
One of the main critiques of the decolonizing yoga

movement, which is not necessarily unified in its
ambitions, is the ways in which yoga’s “history” is
supposedly taken out of context, while the “embodied
practice” is diluted and stripped of its full potential. This
has caused the roots of yoga to be trimmed of its source.
The irony is that these historiographical origins are often
completely removed or altered to suit the decolonizing
project of “honouring yoga’s roots,” where the earliest
layers of “yogic wisdom,” and the term, yoga, first
appears. Even though it specifically refers to the action of
harnessing for warfare, cattle raids, and migration, it is
not surprising that this fundamental element is so often
omitted. Today, the pursuit of wellness, stretching, and
social justice replace yoga’s root. Though none of this is
accurate, yet, somehow these honour its roots.
People do yoga by the Ganga at Rishikesh. Photo: DJ SINGH/Flickr

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Success in the martial action of yoga enabled kṣema, or

relative “times of settled rest.” The early Ṛig Vedic culture
(1200–800 BCE) is defined in the unassailable sections of
Hinduism’s corpus, as one that engages in yearly cycles of
action and rest. The compound, yoga-kṣema, refers to
acquiring and preserving prosperity and property, at the
3 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
expense of others. None of which is related to being

equitable, inclusive, or just.
The etymological root and historical origins of yoga

reportedly relate to the martial action of uniting with other
“strong-armed” men to destroy one’s enemies.
Ironically, yoga’s biography is often reconstituted to suit

this emergent narrative, which asserts that yoga has
always been about social justice, which is now “too
white.” It appears there is no yoga without justice and no
peace without yoga. Does this not seem close to the
earliest definition of yoga-kṣema? One representative
organisation, Yoga for Black Lives, has instrumentalised
yoga to “combat state-sanctioned violence that Black
people across the United States experience,” which
“support resistance to this kind of violence by giving
people the opportunity to take part in a life-affirming and
life-sustaining practice.”
Yoga is now considered a political act and radical health

intervention. The yoga of today is reframed as the action
of social justice, through which the perceived whiteness of
the global consumption-scape of Yogaland must be
decentred. Increasingly, white yoga entrepreneurs are
asked to offer free classes to BIPOC students and promote
and centre BIPOC teachers, as well as “help create access
for what we believe is transformation of yoga in the
West.” This includes the Afro Yoga Allies, which asserts
the necessity of making reparations to help “dismantle
racism and white supremacy while directly investing
100% of proceeds to yoga teachers of colour.” Though,
why does decolonising yoga look more like a turf war and
a takeover attempt?
Also read: The Story of Yoga’s Sporting Journey
The perceived dilution and hyper-commodification of
4 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
yoga occurs in roughly the same way all over the world.
No matter the country or culture. It is not the sole domain
of white people to uproot and appropriate this cultural
practice, as many of the popular narratives used to create
yoga’s history in India do not square with the linguistic,
archaeological, and historical records. The rampant
commodification and essentialising of yoga across Asia,
especially in India, China, and Japan, helps in advancing
market share in domestic wellness tourism, which
typically far outweighs any profit made from international
tourism, pandemics, or no.
It is strange that only white people and their “Western

yoga” are deemed capable of hyper-commodification,
while Asia’s adoption of self-orientalising narratives, such
as the Incredible!ndia advertisements, which recycle
affective moods of the “mystical and sacred Orient,”
contain essentialised, “racist” tropes about the East and
Asians being “more traditional” or “spiritual.” As the
Nippon Yoga Union claims, Yoga has been practiced in
Japan for 3,000 years. Even though the term, yoga, does
not appear to have arrived in Japan until Kukai (774–835),
also known as Kobo Daishi, returned from China at the
beginning of the 9th century, to establish the Vajrayāna
Buddhist-inspired school of esoteric Shingon.
5 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
A morning yoga session peering into the jungle in Ubud, Bali. Photo:
Jared Rice/Unsplash
It appears to be the case that one’s credibility to employ

essentialisms is determined by skin colour. Take, for
example, the criticism of “Hip Hop Yoga” and its
perceived cultural appropriation by white people and
compare it to black culture’s “Trap Yoga.” While the
former is derided, the latter is celebrated for its fusion of
yoga with trap music, without any mention of causing
harm through appropriating traditional Indian culture, or
for that matter, the perceptibly white culture of modern
yoga.
Myth and mystery are key to the branding strategies of the

petit bourgeois yoga studio owner, who often, though
inadvertently, take cues from India’s Ministry of Tourism
6 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
and the Ministry of External Affairs. Any yoga

entrepreneur trying to put some chapatis on the table uses
the same essentialised communication strategies as these
ministries. The same essentialising logic is core, as much
as it is legion. The industry, no matter which
market/continent is discussed, ensures that every yoga
teacher must keep grinding out a living in an overly
saturated market, which keeps churning out too many
yoga teachers, many of whom are thoroughly
underemployed.
Is it really the case that Yoga’s perceived issues with

equity, diversity, and inclusion only emerged through the
perceived white supremacist take over?
As a counterpoint, it is worth considering that from its

proto-stage of development, yoga was an antinomian
pursuit, predominately, if not exclusively, practiced by
male social outcastes sidelined by the hegemony of
Brahminical orthodoxy, which imposed innumerable daily
rites. Though, much of the heterodoxy that emerged in
competition was later absorbed. The best example of this
is the Bhagavad Gītā, which clearly appropriates ideas
and terminology from other groups, such as the Buddhists.
Today, the global yoga consumer cannot but help imbibe

the ‘upper’ caste sentiments of a Sanskritised and
sanitised biography, which many South Asians have never
considered part of their history. Though, attempts to level
white supremacy with caste supremacy, as a way to
holistically decolonize yoga, with assertions that sūrya
namaskāra (sun salutations) “has no roots in ancient yoga
but was formed through modernisation by Europeans to
integrate fitness into the practice” demonstrate selective
readings, or, perhaps, none at all, rather to suit an
ideology. The fact is that sūrya namaskāra emerged out of
India’s physical fitness culture over a few centuries and
was created by Indians who were partly influenced by
7 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
European physical culture. It would help if the

decolonisers could get their yoga mats in order.
Though, seemingly not much more than a Facebook

group, the activists working with Dalit Yoga seek to claim
a space for all the othered communities in Indian society,
at home and abroad. A backdrop to this is the
objectionable statements by Rajiv Malhotra, who seems to
have a limited idea of what jobs Dalits are entitled to or
can do. For instance, he does not think Dalits are
scholastically inclined, which makes them suitable for
“body stuff,” like yoga teaching, and being a maid or
driver.
The decolonizing of yoga must address the monolith

of vaṛṇajātī, as difficult as this is.
One could argue that modern Yoga’s global popularity,

which is critiqued as not being democratic or diverse
enough is, in fact, that which it is claimed it denies. It is
capitalism that democratised and popularised yoga,
making it accessible to billions of people all around the
world and able to seep into the most banal layers of the
twenty-first century social imagination. There is an ever
present irony related to how yoga entrepreneurs use yoga
to disrupt and dismantle the very capitalist infrastructure
that made it globally popular. If it were not for capitalism,
India would not have the symbolic capital it derives
through the International Day of Yoga.
Life, in the early Vedic period oscillated between times of

seasonal movement (yoga) and times of settled peace
(kṣema). Jarrod Whitaker explains how yoga relates to the
act of “harnessing” animals to carts and weapons to
bodies, for warfare and travel. Though, importantly, it
does not simply refer to plowing fields. Even if this
8 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
agrarian trope is often used.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrating International Day of Yoga

in Ranchi on Friday. Image: Video screengrab
Prior to each period of yoga, the poets and strong-armed

men performed rituals to gain support of the god of war.
Adding to the irony, the aim of Ṛig Vedic soma rituals was
to manifest Indra’s help in obtaining victory in battle.
Soma refers to a fermented drink, which possibly
contained ephedra, cannabis, and other intoxicating
substances. Aldous Huxley refers to it in his novel, Brave
New World. While the original Vedic beverage is said to
have emboldened and strengthened those who consumed
it—in preparation for battle—Huxley’s hallucinogen
promotes well-being and the replacement of religion
through spiritual but not religious escapist sentiments and
a lowering of critical thinking skills. Huxley seems to
have inadvertently predicted the rise of the global wellness
industry and Yoga’s role within it, as part of a new Yoga-
inflected social justice theology. Within a Huxlian frame,
Yoga is the soma that puts those who practice it, to sleep,
as the Latin root suggests. The irony that Woke Yoga has a
far greater soporific effect, as opposed to stimulating,
should not be underestimated. Though, if the ritual
supplication succeeded, Indra, drunk on soma and puffed
up by praise, would lead the seasonally amalgamated
tribes as their symbolic chieftain (rājan). As the “war
king,” Indra was responsible for controlling the war band
and defeating foreign parties. Though, for some reason,
the typical “5,000-year-old Yoga narrative” instead
9 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
explains, that:
The word “yoga” does appear in the older Vedas;

however, the context of its use is more as a state of
unitive/transcendental consciousness rather than as a
contemplative behavioural practice.
If this is the case, then destroying one’s enemies is a

peculiar way of attending to the pursuit of universal
consciousness and dealing with trauma. Some
decolonisers go as far to say there were no kings, armies,
police, etc., or that society was egalitarian. It is hard to
know what to make of the clear administrative hierarchy,
some of which includes the village chief (grāmiṇī),
district chief (viśpati), leader of an army (senānī), leader
of a division (senāṅgapati), leader of a troop
(cakranāyaka, gaṇapati), leader of an army and village
chief (senānigrāmaṇī).
Also read: Where Does India Stand When It Comes to

Yoga Tourism?
This leads toward one of the most well-known stories

from the Ṛig Veda, which is found in book seven (of ten),
regarding the ‘battle of the ten kings’ (dāśa-rājña). As the
early Vedic period advanced through its mature and later
periods (1000–500 BCE), the smaller tribes (janas) grew
into larger and more complex amalgamations (janapadas).
This resulted in more complex economic battles evolving
from simple cattle rustling into battles over land. This is
2000-plus years before any European colonisation
occurred. As well as the pre-modern antecedents of
modern postural yoga, which started to emerge from the
eleventh century CE onwards in Buddhist Tantric texts.
Yet, multiple examples exist claiming this idyllic utopia
was vegetarian. Even though this is at odds with the
graphic Ṛig Vedic poetry celebrating the slaughter of
animals and Indra’s joy at seeing rivers of blood, the smell
10 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
of entrails, and the buzzing of flies. To which his pleasure

was only outmatched by the smell and sizzle of the
slaughtered animal’s fat dripping on the coals, and, of
course, eating it.
How does obfuscating Yoga’s cultural ground zero

honour anything?
It seems that a common impression of the “Vedic Period”

is one where everyone just lived a peaceful agrarian
existence punctuated by some stretching, farming, and
rituals. The Yogi Approved website explains that, “yoga
first made an appearance in the Rig Veda, the oldest of
these scriptures.” Next, it relates yoking to harnessing two
animals together to plow fields, and that, “essentially, to
yoke is to create a union, and this is typically how we hear
yoga defined today.” There is no mention of warfare.
Though the author asserts their credentials as a teacher of
Yoga’s history, it is difficult to understand why they either
choose to edit out the martial context or do not know
about it. Neither option is tolerable for anyone
proclaiming to be an expert on the history, origins, and
development of yoga.
Soldiers perform yoga in Siachen, June 21, 2016. Photo: PTI/File
The following is indicative of a popular yoga narrative

and how it is contorted. Writing on the topic of Cultural
appropriation, colonialism, and capitalism: Yoga in the
21st Century, Hannah Dahl claims that Yoga was either
borrowed or stolen. Even though Narendra Modi claims it
11 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
was gifted to the world, Dahl says, that:
“Yoga originated in what is now Pakistan, in the

northwest part of India during the Vedic times.
According to Indian scholars, this could have been as
far back as 5000 BCE, making yoga one of the
world’s oldest spiritual practices, said Susanna
Barkataki, a British-Indian yoga teacher and yoga
culture advocate. Yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, is
considered to be the oldest science in the world.
Aside from some scholarly debates over when exactly
yoga emerged, one thing is abundantly clear — it
started in the East, and has always had roots in
Eastern spiritual practices.”
Apparently, it is only scholarly debates that get distracted

by niggling issues and forget about simply living a yoga
lifestyle. Though, if facts and figures are oppressive, why
are they used at all? Why do decolonizers of Yoga, who
clearly have little regard for history or know much about
yoga’s complicated story, even bother to include dates?
Why do they begin their victimhood narrative that white
people stole yoga when there is ample evidence showing
that various sects and schools within South Asia
borrowed, stole, appropriated, improved through doctrinal
innovations, and fought and killed for access to and
possession of technological profits and control of
mercantile trade routes and centres related to Yoga?
Dahl, like many others, seems unaware that the Bronze

Age, Indus Valley Culture (3,500–1700 BCE) is not the
same as the Vedic Culture (1,200–500 BCE), either
culturally, temporally, or geographically. This monolithic
appeal to mystery is a universal marketing tool. Take, for
instance, the narrative that “yoga is 5,000 years old.”
Though, most of what appears in the previous link is
patently misinformed romanticism only pretending to be
factual, it is, nonetheless, an indelible refrain. Who needs
12 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
facts when appeals to emotion are far more effective? This

website claiming to offer the history of yoga, is indicative
of general template. It mentions the self-proclaimed
steward, Susanna Barkataki, who perceives that:
“Yoga is a practice that comes from the subcontinent

of India and has been practiced, passed down,
codified and developed for [sic] somewhere between
2,500 and 10,000 years. We don’t know the exact
dates for when yoga was first practiced. Based on
more recent research, Western scholars are dating
yoga to around the time of the Buddha, some 2,500
years ago.”
Barkataki provides an explanation of what yoga is, which

drips, not with the sweat of ホットのヨガ (hotto no
yoga), but with an indelible irony. Apparently, there have
been:
“…some misunderstandings as to what yoga is in the

West today. The problem with these
misunderstandings is they dilute yogic teachings to
the point where yoga is barely recognizable at all.
Change is always happening, so why does this matter,
you may ask? At its root yoga is a practical,
structured, scientific framework and embodiment
practice that aims at curing our personal and social
ills.”
13 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
Students practice yoga during a training session ahead of International

Yoga Day. Photo: Reuters
One might wonder, though, how yoga’s abovementioned

root resembles the linguistic root relating to warfare. It
might cause one to wonder if the decolonisers of Yoga,
who engage in diluting Yoga’s root through promoting
their brand of social justice-oriented Yoga, have much
knowledge of the complex and dynamic past. One flag
goes up with the conflation and mingling of yoga with
Ayurveda. The popular narrative revolves around these so-
called “sister sciences” having 5,000 years of direct
interaction and exchange. Yet, this is a fantasy. There is no
historical link, as Suzanne Newcombe explains, prior to
their wellness merger in the 1970s. It seems that Yoga has
had a heart transplant, because Barkataki claims that:
“Yoga, at its heart, is a radical and civically engaged

practice.”
Essentially, there are some familiar traces from Harappan

society seen in contemporary Hinduism. Though, they are
also found across a much larger and older pan-Asian
political-religious economy and long-distanced trade back
as far as the third millennium BCE. Suggesting a socially
engaged yoga originated before the Vedic culture, without
14 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
any evidence, does not honor any roots. If anything, this

narrative is a colonial construction and is recycled to
supposedly decolonise yoga. In fact, a multilayered meta-
tautology emerges through the decolonisers using
colonially constructed narratives to recolonise Yoga.
Scholars of yoga and consumers, alike, are caught in their

own consumer/producer cycle that too often involves
appeals to mystery. Scholars, if writing to the Yoga
consumer audience, might frame the history of Yoga more
in line with popular narratives. This might occur even if
they know the history is in fact different and more
complicated. Still, mystery is used to promote the idea that
it might, probably, or could, be true. See Daniel Simpson’s
disdain for academic enquiry and preference for “mystical
zeal,” through which he seeks to protect the “practical
objectives” from the “intellectual gymnastics,” which, in
his opinion, “are clearly a block to the ultimate goal of
transcending the mind.” Though, Simpson’s new book, the
Truth of Yoga, might be best described as a collection of
all the colonially constructed, Orientalist imagined
narratives, which are unironically presented as truth. Even
though it seems the sophistry of scholars can get in the
way of honouring yoga’s roots, because consumers of
yoga generally prefer romantic simplistic reification over
complex nuance, we know much more than any History of
Yoga section in most yoga teacher training manuals will
ever likely include. Even though it could. A common
example is found in the claims of Yoga Basics suggesting
its origins of 10,000 years while conflating the Indus
Valley Culture with the Vedic Culture. This lecture by
archaeologist, Mark Kenoyer, has some of the most recent
knowledge on this fascinating topic. So too, the reprint of
Andrew Robinson’s book, The Indus provides valuable
insights.
Sanskrit is often considered the “language of the gods”

(devabhāṣā). It is intimately connected to yoga. Though,
15 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
riding roughshod over millennia, according to Barkataki:
“Sanskrit is a specific and precise language with

powerful resonance. Each sound has embedded
within it the essence of the meaning of yoga itself. It
is important to use the original language used at the
time when yoga was first organized into a system or
way of being in relationship with one’s self and the
world.”
Over 3,500 yoga enthusiasts take part in one of the biggest yoga events
in China in Wuxi. Photo: PTI
Sanskrit has multiple layers and has evolved over time.

Even though Barkataki seems to imply it just emerged and
was perfect from the beginning, because Yoga was:
“codified and developed for [sic] somewhere between

2,500 and 10,000 years.”
What is difficult to assess is the degree to which the

generic decolonizing rhetoric crosses over with neo-
colonial Hindu nationalist rhetoric, which Barkataki does
speaks out against and calls for introspection. Though, it is
confusing. For instance, her preferred narratives, which
are the dominant decolonizing narratives, read like these
Hindu supremacist assertions. This speaks to the fact there
16 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
are multiple ways in which the social worlds of

decolonizing Yoga social justice advocates seamlessly
cross over sharing the same sentiments and narratives as
Hindu supremacist ethno-nationalists. Though, not all
scholar-activist-yoga practitioners entertain the myth-
making rhetoric.
Seena Sood’s discussion of decolonising through critical

self-introspection and the difficulties in demarcating
boundaries is noteworthy. So too, Anusha Laksmi presents
a valid critique of the issues with Yoga’s international day
and ethno-nationalism. Particularly because these
boundaries are porous and the sentiments subtle, which
allows for untold spiritual bypassing.
If the reader is curious, here is some of the original

“language of yoga.” This is the cultural and linguistic root,
which does not square with any contemporary narrative
suggesting social and political justice is the core of yoga’s
origins. Any attempt to assert such a biography, as part of
a social justice inspired, neo-colonial attempt to reclaim
an imagined past and weaponise it to create a fortified
moral community around the idea of a global yoga tribe,
seems to miss the point, and certainly falls short of
honouring yoga’s roots or, for that matter, bringing people
and groups together.
Based in Japan, Patrick McCartney is trained in

archaeology, political-economic anthropology,
sociolinguists, historical sociology, and classical
philology. His work focuses on documenting the
imaginative consumption and biographies of yoga,
Sanskrit, and Buddhism. He tweets @psdmccartney and
@yogascapesinjap.
17 of 20 2021/04/19 8:41
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The Evolution of 'Woke Yoga' as a Branding Strategy

Article · April 2021

Sanskrit & Yoga Land View project

Iyengar Yoga and Women View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

POLITICS ECONOMY EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SECURITY LAW SCIENCE SOCIETY CULTURE

The Evolution of 'Woke Yoga'

HISTORY SOCIETY 7 HOURS AGO

If one starts to think about the branding of yoga and the

While China considers developing “yoga villages” part of

Yoga’s popular romantic biography pivots from

prescribing how to decolonise one’s practice.

One of the main critiques of the decolonizing yoga

People do yoga by the Ganga at Rishikesh. Photo: DJ SINGH/Flickr

Success in the martial action of yoga enabled kṣema, or

expense of others. None of which is related to being

The etymological root and historical origins of yoga

Ironically, yoga’s biography is often reconstituted to suit

Yoga is now considered a political act and radical health

Also read: The Story of Yoga’s Sporting Journey

The perceived dilution and hyper-commodification of

It is strange that only white people and their “Western

It appears to be the case that one’s credibility to employ

Myth and mystery are key to the branding strategies of the

and the Ministry of External Affairs. Any yoga

Is it really the case that Yoga’s perceived issues with

As a counterpoint, it is worth considering that from its

Today, the global yoga consumer cannot but help imbibe

European physical culture. It would help if the

Though, seemingly not much more than a Facebook

The decolonizing of yoga must address the monolith

One could argue that modern Yoga’s global popularity,

Life, in the early Vedic period oscillated between times of

agrarian trope is often used.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrating International Day of Yoga

Prior to each period of yoga, the poets and strong-armed

The word “yoga” does appear in the older Vedas;

If this is the case, then destroying one’s enemies is a

Also read: Where Does India Stand When It Comes to

This leads toward one of the most well-known stories

of entrails, and the buzzing of flies. To which his pleasure

How does obfuscating Yoga’s cultural ground zero

It seems that a common impression of the “Vedic Period”

Soldiers perform yoga in Siachen, June 21, 2016. Photo: PTI/File

The following is indicative of a popular yoga narrative

was gifted to the world, Dahl says, that:

“Yoga originated in what is now Pakistan, in the

Apparently, it is only scholarly debates that get distracted

Dahl, like many others, seems unaware that the Bronze

facts when appeals to emotion are far more effective? This

“Yoga is a practice that comes from the subcontinent

Barkataki provides an explanation of what yoga is, which

“…some misunderstandings as to what yoga is in the

Students practice yoga during a training session ahead of International

One might wonder, though, how yoga’s abovementioned

“Yoga, at its heart, is a radical and civically engaged

Essentially, there are some familiar traces from Harappan

any evidence, does not honor any roots. If anything, this

Scholars of yoga and consumers, alike, are caught in their

Sanskrit is often considered the “language of the gods”

riding roughshod over millennia, according to Barkataki: