The Journal of International Communication

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Yoga soft power: how flexible is the posture?

Aavriti Gautam & Julian Droogan

To cite this article: Aavriti Gautam & Julian Droogan (2017): Yoga soft power: how flexible is the
posture?, The Journal of International Communication, DOI: 10.1080/13216597.2017.1388829

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Published online: 30 Oct 2017.

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 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/13216597.2017.1388829

Yoga soft power: how flexible is the posture?

Aavriti Gautam and Julian Droogan
Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Yoga is increasingly being used in India’s cultural nationalist India; yoga; soft power;
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discourse at home and soft power projection abroad, with cultural nationalism; cultural
mixed results. This paper unpacks the rise of India’s use of diplomacy
yoga as a form of soft power narrative through
contextualising it within the a ‘soft’ Hindutva cultural
nationalist discourse. It is argued that this discourse
represents an innovative blend of exclusivist Hindutva with
the earlier democratic state-focused cultural nationalism.
Yoga soft power diplomacy represents an effort on India’s
behalf to draw on ancient Hindu spiritual traditions to
portray itself as a benign and beneficial cultural force in
global affairs. However, while being largely successful, it
also presents a series of significant challenges to India’s
communication strategy at home and abroad. Yoga’s
adoption has led to questions in some communities about
the appropriateness of this political cooption of yoga by
Hindu nationalism, as well as claims that the practice of
yoga is religiously as well as politically laden act. Although
the adoption of yoga has been a remarkably successful soft
power strategy, as evidenced by the adoption of
International Yoga Day, it presents contradictions and
difficulties for any cultural nationalist or soft power discourse.

Introduction
Since the 2014 election of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India
yoga has increasingly being used as an important symbol and narrative in cul-
tural nationalist discourse at home, and soft power and cultural diplomacy pro-
jection abroad. This project has borne mixed results. As a concept and narrative,
yoga is being used as an attractive symbol in cultural nationalist and soft power
discourse, as it embodies an amiable and benevolent national narrative where
Indian Hindu tradition represents timelessness, holism, harmony, health,
cooperation and well-being, and even a metaphor for cooperative international-
ism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, yoga is a particularly flexible concept that can be

CONTACT Julian Droogan julian.droogan@mq.edu.au Department of Security Studies and Criminology,

Macquarie University, Level 2, South Wing, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Sydney, NSW 2109,
Australia
© 2017 Journal of International Communication
 2 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

presented as authentic and ancient, but also as hip and contemporary in the
modern world.
This paper unpacks the rise of ‘yoga diplomacy’ through contextualising it
within the ‘soft’ Hindutva cultural nationalist discourse. It is argued that this dis-
course, personally adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, can be under-
stood as an innovative blend of exclusivist Hindutva (traditionally associated
with the Hindu right) with the democratic state-focused cultural nationalism
utilised by Nehru and the Congress party for decades immediately prior to
and after independence. Modi’s blending of these two streams of Indian cultural
nationalist discourse to create a new flexible soft power narrative has born sig-
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nificant results on the international stage, including the 2015 UN-proclaimed

International Yoga Day.
Yoga soft power diplomacy represents a concerted effort on India’s behalf to
draw on ancient South Asian spiritual traditions to portray itself as a benign and
beneficial cultural force in global affairs. However, it also presents a series of sig-
nificant challenges to India’s communication strategy at home and abroad. In
particular, the appropriation of yoga as part of a soft Hindutva political
agenda has led to questions in some Christian and Muslim communities
about the appropriateness of this political cooption of yoga by Hindu national-
ism, and by Hinduism more generally, as well as claims that the practice of yoga
is religiously as well as politically laden act. Indeed, there is a fear that yoga prac-
tice can covertly lead to a form of blended and diluted religious syncretism
among some more conservative Christian and Muslim groups.
Ultimate, yoga, while useful as a dominant Indian cultural export and brand
icon, is an ambivalent symbol in any cultural nationalist or soft power discourse.
Despite the apparent success of its recent cooption, Yoga remains a rich, multi-
layered and constantly changing pan-Indian construction too complex and
meaningful to too many groups for it to be neatly packaged into any narrow cul-
tural nationalist or soft power narrative.

Cultural nationalism
Like other postcolonial nations, India has experienced the steady rise of various
cultural nationalisms, each of which emphasises the adoption of politically active
identities characterised by a commitment to tradition (Barnett 1976, p. 10), often
in the case of India conceived in predominantly religious terms. The accelerating
impact of the forces of globalisation and modernity in India has been particu-
larly conducive to this rise, as received cultures and lifestyles which appear all
encompassing and timeless are perceived to be under threat. For example,
India’s extraordinarily complex networks of communitarian relationships such
as family, village, caste, and kinship, while having been shown to be somewhat
resistant and adaptive in the face of these pressures (Michaels 1998), have the
potential to produce conflicted identities when they give way to new globalising
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 3

forces (Mohan 2011, pp. 215–216). This expansion of globalisation, often

expressed under the vague and all-encompassing terms ‘westernisation’, ‘mod-
ernisation’ or ‘development’ (Kuppens 2013, p. 328), has resulted in the relative
decline of communitarian relationships and the related rise of cultural anxieties
and insecurities.
It has been argued that the apparent popularity and even success of reli-
gious cultural nationalism in India should be interpreted as a remedial
response to these anxieties of exclusion, insecurities of individualism, and
fear of losing out to a globalised world (Annavarapu 2015, pp. 126–127).
According to this interpretation, cultural nationalism has emerged in a
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number of developing nations offering a solution to the threats of obscurity

and relative alienation posed by modernity (Fung 2009, p. 748). Its rise has
been assisted by the tendency of many multi-religious postcolonial countries
such as India to adopt a secular nationalist identity in an attempt to dismiss
religious differences, a decision that has made these countries more susceptible
to allegations of being victims of westernisation, globalisation, and modernis-
ation (Kinnvall 2002, p. 89). According to this argument, cultural nationalist
forces present a potent opportunity to promote cultural, moral, and national
regeneration along with the comforting promise of moulding the future
based on older national traditions and virtues. The irony being of course
that these cultural nationalist forces are themselves a political response to
modernity that appropriates and modernises heritage and tradition in order
to make them more compatible with the unique pressures of modern politics
and nation building.
What is sometimes lost in these arguments, however, is a wider perspective
that takes into account how political elites and the electorates and diasporas
that support them creatively wield elements of cultural nationalism on the
global stage as forms of soft power and cultural diplomacy. In the case of
India, for example, the BJP government under Narendra Modi has been active
in moulding an innovative and new form of religious cultural nationalism
that can be mobilised both domestically and internationally, particularly
through the promotion of popular and ‘friendly’ cultural touchstones such as
yoga. This ‘soft’ Hindutva cultural nationalism can be understood as an innova-
tive blend of exclusivist Hindutva (traditionally associated with the Hindu right)
with the democratic state-focused cultural nationalism utilised by Nehru and the
Congress party for decades immediately prior to and after independence.

Hinduism and cultural nationalism

Hinduism embodies a range of characteristics that both assist and resist attempts
to package it into any neat cultural nationalist formula. As an ancient religious
tradition (or series of traditions) with not clear origins in time, Hinduism is
notoriously varied, multipolar, and non-dogmatic, often being non-theistic,
 4 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

non-teleocratic, and having no universally organised clerics. This flexibility and

pluralism allows it to provide the basis of a number of different types of Hindu
inspired cultural nationalism in India and beyond (Wariavwalla 2000, p. 598,
Doniger 2009), for instance, Tamil Hinduism, Brahmanism, Sanatana
Dharama, Vedism, Saiva Siddhanta, and Saivism. One way of making sense
of this diversity of contemporary Hindu cultural nationalisms is to classify
them into different general paradigms such as democratic or state-focused
nationalism that draws on Hindu elements, hard exclusivist Hindutva, and
soft Hindutva cultural nationalism (Murthy 2010, p. 1414). The form of cul-
tural national adopted by Modi, and used as the basis for soft power projection
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abroad, represents a ‘soft’ Hindutva which blends element of earlier cultural

nationalist traditions, and represents India and Hinduism as both traditional
and modern, indigenous but also open for global consumption.
After independence, in 1947, the Indian National Congress under the leader-
ship of Jawaharlal Nehru declared India as a secular and pluralistic democracy.
However, even in the midst of adopting a secular and Westernised democratic
civic identity, significant elements of Hindu and wider Indian identity were crea-
tively and eclectically incorporated into this nation building project. Nehru, for
instance, adopted constitutionalised religious rights under the ancient Indian
philosophy of Sarv Dharma Samabhava (everyone’s religion will be equally
respected), consequently implementing a combination of cultural nationalism
and secularism (Kinnvall 2002, p. 91). Simultaneously, one of India’s most influ-
ential poets, Rabindranath Tagore, advocated for the formation of a mahajati
(great race) based on the principles of human solidarity and the abandonment
of religious extremism (Quayum 2015, p. 182). More widely remembered,
however, are Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts to combine Western nationalism and
law with ancient Indian philosophies and mystical traditions such as Advaita
Vedanta, and declaring India as a pluralistic democracy established on the
ancient Indian philosophy of ahimsa, or nonviolence (Smriti and Smriti 2004,
p. 62).
Perhaps the best foundational vision of this democratic and state-focussed
nationalism, however, is the Preamble of the Indian Constitution (Government
of India 1950), which defines India as a secular and pluralistic democracy where
citizenship is territorial and all individuals are treated equally irrespective of
their caste, creed, and culture. Nonetheless, these principles of pluralism, toler-
ance, and equality were also influenced, or at least legitimated, by older Hindu
philosophies of spirituality and tolerance (Murthy 2010, p. 1414). This for-
mation of national self-identity established on Hindu-derived principles of tol-
erance not only reflects an effort to unite various Hindu groups but at the same
time creates an opportunity to criticise the intolerance of those who disagree to
integrate and label them as ‘the other’, for instance, Muslim or Sikh nationalists
(Kinnvall 2002, p. 95).
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 5

Emerging at the same time as this state focussed and democratic form of
Hindu infused cultural nationalism, other more parochial and self-consciously
indigenous narratives adopted a more wholesale approach to joining ‘Hindu-
ness’ with national identity. Hardline Hindutva cultural nationalism, for
instance, emerged as a nativist and even fundamentalist interpretation of
Hindu cultural and national identity that was consciously built upon an exclu-
sivist and conservative reading of Hindu scripture and celebration of supposed
traditional Brahman primacy. This form of cultural nationalism provided the
foundation of BJP ideology, buttressing the claim that the party was established
on ancient Hindu cultural norms, and the celebration of Vinay Damodar Savar-
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kar’s (1883–1966) concept of grounded religious ‘Indianess’ or Hindutva (Smith

2003, pp. 188–197).
Followers of Savarkar such as Madhav Golwaker (1906–1973) added to this
concept of Hindu exclusivity and primacy by rejecting secular nationalism as
a discrimination of the Hindu national majority and betrayal of India’s wider
national and international interests (McDonald 2003, p. 1566). This geographi-
cal exclusivity did not, at first, encourage the adoption of Hindutva philosophy
onto the wider stage of international cultural diplomacy or soft power. Indeed,
for Savarkar, Hindutva was the birthright of all Hindu, and a Hindu was ‘one
who originates from the Himalayas (motherland) and extends to the Seas
(fatherland)’; although this exclusivist nativist definition has since been
expanded by groups such as the BJP by claiming that it has no geographical
boundaries as it extends throughout the earth, allowing Hindutva identity to
be adopted by the diaspora (Murthy 2010, p. 1414).
While the ascendance of the BJP to power after its remarkable performance in
the 2014 elections was proclaimed by many as a triumph of Hindutva cultural
nationalism, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a more flex-
ible and syncretic form of cultural nationalism has emerged that combines these
two streams, particularly in its soft power projection. This newer form of ‘soft’
Hindutva cultural nationalism draws on the older democratic state-focussed
nationalism adopted by Nehru and dominant within the Congress party for
much of the later half of the twentieth century. The adoption of this less chau-
vinistic and more expansive vision of Hinduism and its place in the world has
allowed the current BJP government to successfully adopt symbols such as
yoga as being of global relevance. While it has been successfully adopted by
Modi in new and innovative ways, in particular through overseas soft power pro-
jection, the origins of this blend can be traced back to the 1980s when the BJP
opted for a more moderate approach and based its fundamental principles on
a combination of Hindu nationalism and the Gandhian ideology of socialism
and democracy (Mitra 2013, p. 278).
 6 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

India’s soft power

India’s soft power, or its ability to persuade other states and non-state entities to
want the outcomes it wants without tangible threats or payoffs (Nye 2004, p. 5),
is on the rise. Through appropriating and marketing culture in a way that sup-
ports and promotes the country’s positive image, India has been making a con-
certed attempt to seduce and influence its region and the globe – most recently
through the adoption of yoga. However, like any successful soft power pro-
gramme, this strategy relies on at least two factors: a marketable set of attractive
cultural resources and a good narrative strategy for presenting these to a global
audience. Tharoor (2009) puts this well when he states that in today’s world it is
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the country with a better story-telling capacity that attains success, not necess-
arily the country with the larger army.
There are at least five factors that have encouraged India’s recent turn towards
a serious engagement with soft power politics. First, the realisation that India’s
unsuccessful hard power projection have had negative impacts on neighbouring
countries – for example, the retraction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force from
Sri Lanka in 1990 (Kugiel 2012, p. 363). Second, India’s effort to shed its image as
a bullying hegemonic power – for example its exploitation of Nepal’s water
resources from shared rivers (Adhikari 2014, p. 331). Third, India’s competition
with China’s growing influence in the South Asian region, especially in bolster-
ing relations with Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Kugiel 2012, p. 363). Fourth, the for-
mation of a Public Diplomacy Division in 2006 as a tool to explain India’s
policies and manage its image through the proficient use of social media
(Kugiel 2012, p. 360). Finally, the rise to power of the explicitly Hindu nationalist
BJP government with a clear majority in 2014 and an agenda of mobilising the
vast global Indian diaspora.
Since its 2014 electoral victory, the BJP government has been wielding a
uniquely soft form of Hindutva cultural nationalism overseas by tapping
into India’s cultural richness and projecting its image as simultaneously
modern and ‘hip’, steeped in local tradition, but also universal and contem-
porary. India’s soft power embraces a diverse set of resources including Ayur-
veda (traditional medicine), Bollywood, a global cuisine, fashion, music and
dance, gurus, mediation, and yoga; as well as political pluralism, a history
of peaceful co-existence and religious diversity (Blarel 2012, p. 29; Hymans
2009, p. 235). With this rich collection of cultural touchstones to draw
upon, it is no wonder that narratives have been devised that combine the pol-
itical with the purely cultural and religious. For instance, Modi in his speech
to the UN General Assembly in September 2014 soon after his landslide
victory, adopted the Sanskrit mantra Vasudhaiva Kutumban (the world is
one big family), to express that India is prepared to provide humanitarian
and development aid to countries that are in need as a duty to the global
family of nations (Modi 2014).
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 7

Certainly, since coming to power Modi has made a large number of official
regional visits, unprecedented for any Indian Prime Minister, in order to
strengthen India’s relationship with Asia-Pacific countries. Often during these
engagements, Modi takes the opportunity to address the Indian diaspora
through patriotic Hindi speeches (Modi 2015), in which he encourages the dia-
spora to unite with their matrabhumi (motherland) by contributing to the
Indian economy in terms of monetary investments, donations of expertise,
and frequent visits to India to enhance the tourism industry. Of all these
resources and narratives, however, no concept has been as enthusiastically
adopted by Modi than yoga. As symbol and narrative, yoga bridges the
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ancient with the modern, the local with the universal, and even ‘East’ with
‘West’.

The benefits of yoga

In his Address to the Nation on its 69th Independence Day, Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi emphasised the physical and spiritual benefits of practicing yoga
(Modi 15 August 2015). Since then, yoga has been used as a key concept in dom-
estic BJP cultural nationalist discourse as well as wielded internationally as an
element of soft power diplomacy. This adoption of yoga as a noticeable
element in Modi’s strategy of cultural diplomacy serves the purpose of portray-
ing India to the world as inclusive and promoting a more general and ‘deeply felt
spiritual and philosophical worldview that promotes India’s civilizational and
cultural characteristics as unique contributions to the world’ (Piccone 2016,
p. 94). Its adoption, however, while enthusiastic and largely successful has
borne mixed results both domestically and internationally.
As a concept and narrative, yoga is an attractive symbol to utilise in cultural
nationalist and soft power discourse. In terms of reach, yoga has the benefit of
already being a global and globalised cultural export seen as being quintessen-
tially Indian and that has become big business both in India and throughout
the world. It has been estimated that the global yoga industry is worth up to
US $80 billion annually (Sharma 2016). A study conducted by Yoga Journal
and Yoga alliance suggested that in the US alone the yoga industry is worth
US $16 billion annually, with the number of yoga practitioners in the US cur-
rently at more than 36 million (2016 Yoga in America Study 2016). In India
itself, it has been estimated (Make In India) that the sector for yoga and other
traditional health and spirituality practices has an annual turnover of INR 120
billion (US $1.8 billion).
Under Narendra Modi, the BJP has capitalised on this global popularity and
positioned itself as the custodian of yoga by reviving a number of projects to
support the promotion of yoga nationally and internationally. In 2014, the
Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Sidhha, and Homoeo-
pathy, called ‘AYUSH’ (the abbreviation signifies ‘long-life’ in Sanskrit) was
 8 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

elevated to a dedicated federal Ministry, and the country’s first national minister
for yoga was appointed. Formerly, it had been the Department of Indian System
of Medicine and Homeopathy, and first established in 1995 (Ministry of AYUSH
2015).
According to its website, AYUSH was designed to promote India’s linkages
with yoga within and outside the country (Ministry of AYUSH 2015), and the
ministry has conducted a concerted public relations campaign through social
media. In 2017, for instance, AYUSH had 40,650 friends on Facebook, around
20.8k followers on Twitter, and about 500,000 viewers on YouTube. This
includes not only those who follow yoga, but ayurveda, unani, siddha, and
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homeopathy as well.
The Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), an independent
organisation under AYUSH, is responsible for organising, marketing, and coor-
dinating yoga education, training, therapy, and research. Its main functions
include the production of publications, organisation of conferences, seminars
and workshops with yogis, yoga therapists and researchers, and the utilisation
of social media to expand its influence nationally and internationally.
As an element of public diplomacy, this promotion of yoga reflects a wider
shift in India away from traditional methods and towards the adoption of
new and innovative strategies and incorporation of social media platforms
(Hall 2012, pp. 1090–1091). Certainly, the strategy behind the recent revival
and elevation of AYUSH suggests an enthusiastic attempt to attract new audi-
ences within India and beyond by promoting India as a nation with ancient tra-
ditions of yogic health and harmony, as well as using a blend of old and new
media to engage a truly global audience.

Yoga soft power diplomacy

As part of his wider soft power engagement with the Asia Pacific and beyond,
Modi has emphasised Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (‘together with all, development
for all’) (2017) hoping that it can be the ‘guiding light for action and cooperation
in South Asia’. On these tours Modi has consistently advocated the benefits of
yoga practice in tandem with a message celebrating India’s history and heritage
as a benign cultural power and promoter of peaceful coexistence. This yoga soft
power diplomacy represents a new concern on India’s behalf to draw on ancient
Hindu spiritual traditions to portray itself as a benign and beneficial cultural
force in global affairs.
Modi’s 2015 visit to China is a good example of how yoga is being used to
present India in an attractive light to a vast and ambivalent Chinese audience,
and at a time when the two countries share a significant number of diplomatic
and territorial disputes. The declared purpose of this visit was the promotion of
peaceful co-existence, mutual trust, and confidence building and a shared com-
mitment and prosperity (Address by Prime Minister 2015, Prime Minister’s
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 9

Media Statement 2015). During the visit, a joint yoga-tai chi event was scheduled
at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing (Li Keqiang; Modi 2015), and a memoran-
dum of understanding for the establishment of a yoga college in the Yunnan pro-
vince was signed (List of Agreements Signed 2015). Later that year, China
inaugurated its first school of yoga in Yunnan Minzu University (Baijie 2016),
enhancing cultural ties with India. Simultaneously, Modi has also been increas-
ing yoga’s outreach in China through Weibo, the Chinese state sponsored
version of Twitter.
In the case of Japan, a nation with which India has been steadily been building
a formal defence alliance, India’s yoga diplomacy overtures have resulted in a
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creation of a Parliamentary League for Promotion of Yoga in 2017 (Embassy

of India-Tokyo 2017). This institutional mechanism was put its place to encou-
rage the practice of yoga in Japan and strengthen the friendly ties between both
countries.
Yoga has also been used as an element of soft power diplomacy in Israel, a
country that Modi was the first sitting Indian Prime Minister to visit in 2017.
During Modi’s interview by Israeli television, he suggested that the station
should showcase a 30-minute programme everyday on yoga in order to
promote yoga’s holistic approach (Neelakantan 2017). Motivated by Modi’s
passion for yoga, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surprised audi-
ences by using yoga as a metaphor to cultivate warm ties between the two
countries, stating
when I do a relaxing tadaasana in the morning and I turn my head right, India is the
first democracy I see and when Modi does vasisthasana and he turns left, Israel is the
first democracy he can see. (Inspired by Modi’s Enthusiasm 2017)

The most ambitious example of Modi’s promotion of yoga as an international

symbol for India as a wise and positive cultural power, however, is the creation
and promotion of International Yoga Day. In 2015, India formally requested the
United Nations (UN) to acknowledge yoga, one of its leading cultural exports, as
being of global significance. This resulted in the declaration of June 21 as ‘Inter-
national Yoga Day’, with more than 170 countries co-sponsoring the resolution
(UN General Assembly Regulation). Under UN General Assembly Resolution
(69/131), the UN recognises that ‘yoga provides a holistic approach to health
and well-being’ and it also recognises the benefits of practicing yoga that will
have a positive impact on the health of the world population. At the same
time, Yoga was inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-
tural Organisation’s (UNESCO 2016) list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity.
Since this declaration, Modi has personally performed yoga as part of staged
mass yoga demonstrations on the Day in India each year, as well as encouraged
people around the world to follow suit. This adoption of yoga as a prominent
element of the BJP’s cultural nationalist programme at home and soft power
 10 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

diplomacy aboard fits well with Modi’s own personal character. It is reported
that Modi is a yoga enthusiast and his daily routine consists of practising
yoga for one hour (Here’s why Prime Minister 2017). Piccone (2016, p. 94)
speculates, ‘As a devout Hindu, Modi is not shy about preaching the virtues
of what he considers not a religion but a way of life that encompasses all
societies’. For instance, in 2015, Modi accompanied 35,985 people from 84
nations in the celebration of the first International Yoga Day in New Delhi –
simultaneously earning two Guinness World Records for the largest yoga
session at a single venue and most nationalities in a single yoga session
(Lynch 2015). During the event he emphasised how ‘yoga reduces greed, coarse-
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ness and violence … In a world of fear, yoga creates courage and strength’ (In a
World of Fear 2015). Similarly, in 2016, Modi joined 30,000 people for a mass
yoga session in Chandigarh in Punjab (Yoga Day Live 2016). In his speech, he
requested people to introduce yoga in their everyday lives and also clarified
how yoga is not associated only as a religious activity but is in fact more
widely valuable for health and well-being (India celebrates Yoga Day 2016).
In 2017, India earned another Guinness World Record in the celebration of
the third Yoga Day for the largest yoga session at a single venue – 54,522
yoga participants in Gujarat. It has been estimated that in 2016 between approxi-
mately 400 and 500 million people around the world participated in Yoga Day
(Vishwagujarat 2016, Ghose 2016). Indeed, large numbers of yoga enthusiasts
have reportedly participated in Yoga Day events around the globe: 10,000 in
China (International Yoga Day: Record 10,000 people 2017), 1200 in South
Africa (Hundreds of children perform 2017), 1500 in Indonesia (Around the
world 2017), and 12,000 in the United States (More than 12,000 expected 2017).
To celebrate the Day in 2017, Modi along with 50,000 students and many
others took part in the public yoga demonstration in Lucknow amidst a
mushy rain-soaked field (Yoga Day: India’s PM 2017). The weather did not
dampen Modi’s enthusiasm as he personally led the participants in performing
a series of yoga asanas (postures). In his speech, Modi stated that many countries
that were not familiar with India’s language, heritage, and culture are now con-
nected with India through yoga, as it embodies unity of body, mind, and soul,
and helps the world connect with itself (PM Modi takes part 2017). He
claimed that yoga gives ‘a zero cost health assurance’, and pledged people to
make it a part of their daily routine (PM Modi takes part 2017).
Modi’s immediate and vibrant approach to public diplomacy through direct
communication with the people allows him to portray himself to mass audiences
as an approachable yogic teacher, one invested with spiritual merit and virtue.
His official Twitter account with the following of 31 million followers has
been flooded with pictures of mass yoga sessions commemorating the day in
numerous locations nationally and internationally – including in 180 countries
worldwide and even in an Indian Navy submarine (International Yoga Day
2017, Yoga Day: India’s PM 2017).
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 11

The limits of yoga

As useful and successful a tool as yoga has been for BJP cultural nationalist and
soft power narratives, and for Modi’s own cult of personality, it has not been
without controversies and detractors, making it at best an ambivalent symbol.
In particular, the appropriation of yoga as part of a soft Hindutva political
agenda has led to questions about the appropriateness of this political cooption
of yoga by Hindu nationalism, and by Hinduism more generally, as well as
claims that the practice of yoga is religiously as well as politically laden act.
Much of this ambivalence comes, perhaps not surprisingly, from Christian
and Muslim communities and nations looking with suspicion at a practice
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that is increasingly being packaged as a Hindu cultural product. As early as

2015, there were media jibes in India at the absence of the Vice President,
Hamid Ansari, from the Yoga Day event, supposedly because of his hesitation
as a Muslim in being seen to support what was being interpreted as a fundamen-
tally Hindu practice (Row over Vice President 2015). These accusations by an
anxious media were later claimed to be unfounded (Not invited to Yoga Day
2015).
Certainly, the launch and global acceptance of International Yoga Day rep-
resents an attempt to politicise and nationalise yoga within India’s oft-times
communal political landscape. The BJP has been accused of cultivating and
exploiting a ‘saffron wave’ of Hindu dogmatism and cultural nationalism
(Hansen 1999), often at the expense of religious minorities – particularly Chris-
tians and Muslims – and those who follow other less Brahmanical forms of Hin-
duism. The adoption of yoga as a symbol of a politically motivated ‘Hindu’ India
is perhaps useful as it counteracts more aggressive and parochial elements of
Hinduism (such as casteism and a devotion to the motherland) with a more
amiable and benevolent national narrative where Indian Hindu tradition rep-
resents timelessness, holism, harmony, health, cooperation, and well-being.
Yoga can be presented as authentic and ancient, but is also perceived as ‘friendly’
and contemporary in the West.
The success of International Yoga Day can best perhaps be interpreted as an
attempt to tie yoga with the cultural and religious supremacy of Hindutva ideol-
ogy across India and indeed the globe. But the timing of the launch of the Day
comes amid rising fears by religious and other minorities and the international
media of a ‘growing intolerance’ in Indian politics and civil society (Amnesty
report condemns 2016, Ganguly 2017). Indeed, the attempt in Uttar Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, and Haryana to make yoga education compulsory in schools as
part of the physical education curriculum (Chellappan 2017, Haryana Sports
and Physical Fitness Policy 2015, Srivastava 2017) has been controversial
among non-Hindu populations, with a Christian Pastor being arrested in
Tamil Nadu for condemning the attempt to make yoga mandatory (Carvalho,
2017).
 12 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

However, the most significant reluctance to any acceptance of yoga as a

legitimate cultural resource has come from non-Hindu religious communities,
both at home and abroad. Some Muslims and Christians in India and beyond
have expressed concerns about yoga practice contributing to a dilution of
their religion and encouraging a syncretic blending that infects their faiths
with foreign influences (Nicholson 2013, p. 502). After the announcement
of the International Yoga Day, for example, the state of Mizoram’s church
leaders requested Christians not to participate in the event as it coincided
with their holy Sunday (Mizoram’s Church 2015). In February 2015, a
church in England prohibited yoga sessions from being held in its halls on
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the belief that yoga had links with alternative spiritualities (Church
Accused 2015).
These religious concerns can also pose difficulties for attempts to export yoga
as a soft power commodity. In 2008, for example, the Malaysian Fatwa Council
issued a fatwa against yoga declaring it haram according to Islam and prohibit-
ing Muslims from practising it. The chairman of the Council stressed that prac-
ticing yoga is haram because it is a combination of physical movements,
worshipping, and chanting of mantras (Wang and Yang 2013, p. 147). He
emphasised that the physical aspect of yoga might not constitute haram but pos-
tures like surya namashkar (sun salutation) are equivalent to worshipping of the
sun as god and that the chanting of Hindu mantras are illegal. Simultaneously, in
2009, The Council of Ulemas in Indonesia issued a fatwa against yoga and exam-
ined the courses being taught at various yoga centres in Jakarta, Bandung and
Bali, including the Hare Krishna Centres and the Bali India Foundation
(Khalik 2008).
This emergence of ‘yogaphobia’ (Jain 2014) within some Muslim majority
populations has been met with attempts by the BJP to make yoga palatable to
non-Hindu communities. In 2015, AYUSH launched a book titled Yoga and
Islam just weeks before International Yoga Day, which was approved by the
Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an Indian Muslim organisation that is
broadly supportive of BJP politics (Press Information Bureau 2015). The book
attempted to demonstrate the universal nature of yoga by drawing parallels
between some yoga asanas and Islamic namaz (prayer), implying that yoga is
permissible in Islam (World Yoga Day: Muslim wing 2015).
At the same time, attempts have been made to make yoga appear more
secular, such as through removing the surya namaskar (sun salutation) from
the yoga routine at International Yoga Day, and making the chanting of the
sacred Hindu-Buddhist syllable ‘Om’ optional (Yoga Day 2016 diluted 2016).
During her speech at the International Yoga Day celebrations at the UN, Exter-
nal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj characterised yoga ‘as the perfect antidote’
to curtail violent extremism and ethnic conflicts that plaque the world and
‘move[s] us on the path of harmony and peace’ (External Affairs Minister’s
2015). She went on to add that yoga could develop into ‘a potent tool for
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 13

the UN to promote the message of brotherhood and amity in the finest Indian
tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one big family)’ (External
Affairs Minister’s 2015), thus moulding yoga as an approach to attain ‘spiritual
capital’ (Strauss 2005, p. 9). In an attempt to make yoga appear more secular,
Swaraj emphasised that ‘yoga is neither a religion, nor should it be seen as
belonging to any particular religion’ (External Affairs Minister’s 2015).
Indeed, in Modi’s address to the UN, he referred to yoga as ‘an invaluable
gift of ancient Indian tradition’ (Statement by H.E. Narendra Modi 2014),
and promoted yoga as a gift of ancient heritage rather than Hindu heritage
in an attempt to acknowledge the other historical and religious elements that
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shape India.

Conclusions: owning yoga?

This attempt by Modi to emphasis yoga as part of a soft Hindutva cultural
‘package’, ripe for global export, while at the same time suggesting its essential
secular character, appears to have been very successful. However, it is also
fraught with contradictions and difficulties. Whether these tensions will create
responses inimical to the successful wielding of yoga soft power in the long
run remains to be seen.
From a religious and historical perspective yoga derives from an early meta-
physical philosophy, first codified in the Yogasutras of Patanjali (c. 2nd to 4th
centuries CE), that makes definite claims about the nature of the human self
and its relation to the cosmos and ultimate reality (White 2009). This perspective
identifies yoga as not only as a set of postures which improve flexibility of the
body but also as a part of a wider structure of religious tenets, practices, philos-
ophies, and beliefs (Altglas 2014, p. 181). According to this perspective, it has
been suggested that yoga is indeed an extension of Hindu philosophy that
cannot be detached from Hinduism (Jain 2014).
Equally, however, any attempt to tie yoga too tightly to a strictly Hindu
expression of cultural nationalism is problematic. The spirit of India’s soft
power, according to Tharoor (2008, p. 43), lies in the ‘tolerate plural expressions’
of the diverse selves, as India by its very nature is pluralistic and the repository of
multiple cultures. This pluralistic characteristic is so vital to the formation of
India’s soft power that any attempt to tie yoga too closely to Hinduism has
the potential to backfire.
There is a wider political context to controversies around the origins and
ownership of yoga that reveal a high level of sensitivity and anxiety about
who ‘owns’ yoga now that it has become an international commodity in the glo-
balised world. Although, as described above, Modi and the BJP today wield a
‘soft’ form of Hindutva that embraces to some degree the international and
humanistic perspective of earlier democratic and state-focussed cultural nation-
alism, this does not mean that yoga’s international adoption is not been
 14 A. GAUTAM AND J. DROOGAN

perceived by many on the Hindu right as problematic. This is well illustrated by

the political controversy that developed in September 2017 around the teaching
of a course on the ‘history and politics of yoga’ at Nalanda University, which was
subsequently discontinued apparently due to political pressure (Nalanda axes
yoga course 2017). Nalanda University, build on the foundations of the famed
Buddhist institutions from the First Millennium CE and itself a key element
of India’s cultural diplomatic landscape, discontinued the course amidst state-
ments from BJP’s general secretary about the inappropriateness of teaching
courses that debate the politics of yoga, and having those courses taught by a
non-Indian, non-Hindu European woman (the course was being taught by a
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PhD candidate from SOAS).

Yogic traditions – both physical and metaphysical – have been performed in
India for centuries by a wide range of non-Hindu communities, including Bud-
dhists, Jains, and various mystics, warrior fraternities, and spiritual opportunists
(Jain 2014, p. 451). At the same time, yoga as we know it today, including many
of the familiar asanas and practices, only emerged in the nineteenth century
through a synchronism of various elements including the Yogasutras texts, med-
iative poses, British army callisthenics, and gymnastics (White 2009). From this
perspective, the origins and nature of yoga can best be described as ‘ancient
Indian’ or ‘Sanskritic’ instead of Hindu, and part of a general set of spiritual
practices that transcend Hinduism per say (Bronkhorst 1981, p. 317). Indeed,
this tension in recent Hindu nationalist attempts to claim ownership over an
‘entirely Hindu’ yoga and ‘cash in’ on its ‘use as the poster-child of a more spiri-
tual “Indian wisdom”’ (Doniger 2013, p. 124) is difficult to sustain. Yoga remains
a rich, multilayered, and constantly changing pan-Indian construction far too
complex and meaningful to too many groups (Doniger 2013, p. 124) for it to
ever be neatly packaged into any simple cultural nationalist or soft power
narrative.
Through adopting yoga as a major symbol and narrative in its cultural nation
building and soft power diplomacy India displays to the world a contradiction.
At times this adoption highlights an India that strikes an almost yogic balance
between tradition and modernity, the local and the global, whereas the discourse
that lies beneath its connection with soft Hindutva expressions of cultural iden-
tity unpacks political narratives of intolerance and prejudice. Overall, Modi’s
yoga diplomacy stretches India’s soft power narrative powers to their limits,
inviting the world to ponder an India associated with both religious conflict
and chauvinism as well as a deep tradition of tolerance, syncretism, and spiritual
generosity.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
 THE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 15

Notes on contributors
Ms Aavriti Gautam holds a Bachelors of Laws (LLB) degree from Cardiff University, UK, as
well as a Legal Practice Course (LPC) from BPP University, London. Additionally, she has a
double masters degree in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism and International
Security Studies from Macquarie University, Australia. She is currently pursuing higher
degree research in the field of religion and Indian politics. Her areas of specialisation
include Hinduism and politics as well as Indian-Australian strategic relations. She can be
contacted at aavriti.gautam@gmail.com.
Dr. Julian Droogan runs the terrorism research program in the Department of Security
Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Australia. He is editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (Routledge). His areas of specialis-
Downloaded by [University of Saskatchewan Library] at 01:48 02 November 2017

ation include the relationship between religion and international security, countering violent
extremism and counter terrorism studies. He can be contacted atjulian.droogan@mq.edu.au.

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