Yoga Play After Show Resources
October 14, 2024
Stop. Buying. Things. And other ideas behind Yoga Play and #gurusaysdontbuy
Dipika Guha’s effervescent, juicy comedy is underpinned by big ideas. Here are some working definitions and resources that can be useful in deepening the conversations offered within the play.
Capitalism, Colonisation and Racism
Capitalism is an economic system where private actors own and control the means of production: land, labour, and capital. It is driven by the fundamental purpose of increasing profit. Capitalism has only been in place for the last few hundred years.
Colonisation is an exploitative system used by one group to forcibly seize land and resources from local populations (often Indigenous) and enforce cultural domination for economic extraction. Colonisation is driven by capitalism ideology. The two are inextricably interconnected.
Racism is a socially constructed system that uses false narratives of superiority by one group of people over another for the purpose of domination. It is founded on a combination of prejudice and power. Racism is the powerful narrative tool of colonialism. There is no biological basis to racism.
Cultural Appropriation versus Cultural Appreciation
Cultural appropriation is when members of a majority group serve their own interests by using cultural practices of a marginalised group in ways that are stripped of the political, social, economic and cultural context. Regardless of intent, this is exploitative and can reinforce stereotypes and systems of oppression in ways that can be offensive and damaging to members of the marginalised group. It exists in an extractive context. In this sense, it is an extension of colonialism and racism.
Cultural appreciation is when someone seeks to understand and learn about another culture in an effort to broaden their perspective and connect
What is Yoga?
Raj struggles with answering this in the play. Here is a very brief, topline overview.
First mentioned in the Rig Veda, a 5,000-year-old sacred text, yoga has a rich history, a multi-layered cultural context, many branches and a multitude of practices. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is recognised as the first formal text on yoga. The history of yoga is debated and dynamic.
Yoga
Yoga means union. Union with consciousness using mind, body and spirit. It is a process and a state.
Primary Branches of Yoga
There are four primary branches of Yoga. Other branches exist but an understanding of these four is foundational to understanding all other branches.
Karma Yoga – the Yoga of action. Karma Yoga is the path of skilful action, where one acts selflessly without expectation or desire of fruits or rewards.
Bhakti Yoga – the Yoga of devotion motivated by the emotional power of devotional love. It is transforming emotions into pure unconditional love for the Divine, Consciousness and Self.
Jnana Yoga – the Yoga of knowledge. This path encourages the practitioner to use their own mind to discover the true nature of his mind. It requires a high degree of intellectual interest and mental power.
Raja Yoga – This is the methodical, scientific approach to yoga that emphasises control of one’s mind and thoughts. It is also known as Ashtanga Yoga.
Raja or Ashtanga Yoga has 8 limbs. The third limb is Asanas, or physical postures, used as part of an overall practice to achieving Samadhi, or Oneness with the Self.
Many popularised forms of yoga concentrate primarily on asanas, stripping them of their broader context within the practice and rebranding them as mere exercise, fitness, or costly wellness trends.
Decolonising Yoga
The British colonials banned yoga and other Hindu practices during their occupation of India. Today roughly a half a million people in the UK practice yoga per week.
There is a strong conversation within Western yoga, mainly led by Indian diaspora, Black and other women of colour, to decolonise yoga both personally and collectively. This is part of a broader anti-racist, decolonising movement across a range of sectors, including the wellness industry.
Indian women Susanna Barkataki and Yoga is Dead podcasters Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh speak to their own experiences of racism and marginalisation as yoga teachers in a predominantly white industry.
Central to their decolonising principle is a return to an Indian context for yoga and a resistance to using yoga to create better consumers for capitalism.
Capitalism and the athleisure industry
Athleisure describes clothes that can be worn for exercise and daily wear. It’s a massive industry whose global market was estimated at over $358 billion dollars in 2023. Capitalist appropriation of yoga has been used to sell athleisure clothes and has been central to a marketing narrative that targeted women.
An outcome of this is that, globally, more than 70% of practitioners are women. This is a stark contrast to India, where yoga is practised roughly equally across males and females. This indicates that the marketing and image of commercialised yoga in the west is heavily gendered.
Working conditions in the garment industry
Unfairly waged, unsafe working conditions and slave labour are major issues in the international garment industry. There’s a colonising, capitalist and racist complexity in athleisure when most manufacturing is being done in underpaid, dangerous conditions by poor brown women to be sold to wealthy women across the world buying from companies helmed by white, male CEO’s.
Keep learning!
There are many excellent resources to understand yoga, historical lineage, capitalism, colonialism and racism more deeply. We encourage you to explore further. A better world is possible!
Resources
- “Decolonizing Yoga: Conversations on Liberation and Radical Healing” interview with Susanna Barkataki https://www.ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast/decolonizing-yoga-susanna-barkataki
- Yoga is Dead podcast explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. https://yogaisdeadpodcast.com/home
- Rina Deshpande’s personal https://www.self.com/story/yoga-indian-cultural-appropriation
- “How Yoga Became a $27 Billion Industry – And Reinvented American Spiritualism” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-the-yoga-industry-los_n_4441767
- If you’d like to open this conversation with children you could watch Ravi Chand’s Namaste Yoga on the ABC.