Look beyond the ‘cultural appropriation’ talk – yoga is about resisting the patriarchy

Dr Nayantara Sheoran Appleton is a science and technology studies lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, and a long-time yoga practitioner currently pursuing her teaching certificate.

OPINION: Aotearoa’s yoga practitioners may have been alarmed to read on Stuff recently that their practice could be seen as cultural appropriation.

But while the concern may be understandable, it is also a dangerous proposition to suggest that only people of certain backgrounds can legitimately teach or practise yoga.

When it comes to yoga, there is a fine and complex line between gatekeeping, cultural appropriation and resistance.

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I am manuhiri in Aotearoa since 2015 and have practised yoga since 1995 in India with my mother, and then in the US in different “traditions”, including Iyengar and Bikram (yikes, I know), and more non-traditional forms like “vinyasa flow”.

I have practised yoga in pretty much every studio in Pōneke – and with a variety of teachers (some physically extremely agile, and others who with their grounding calmness helped me with my pregnancy). I am a medical anthropologist and feminist science and technology studies scholar, working at the School of Science in Society at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.

I am currently on a minor sabbatical in Sri Lanka and pursuing my 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate from the International Yoga Alliance (under the guruship of Serena Burgess).

After more than 20 years of yoga practices, I feel humbled to be able to take my yoga understanding to the next level with yoga teacher training – as a 43-year-old woman with tender back and all.

One thing I am clear on is that yoga is not a static thing. While yoga requires a respect and understanding of its philosophical and religious roots, it also requires critical engagement – which is not always a form of cultural appropriation.

Yogic practices were originally initiated, written up, controlled, and maintained by upper caste Brahmin men (priests) for millennia, without acknowledgement of and to women and other (ahem, regular) people who made it possible for these sagely men to sit for hours to contemplate life.

It is vital to understand that it was only in evolving out of these strongholds of power that yogic practice became not only democratic, but also better.

If the logic of cultural appropriation of yoga is to be held up, then only oppressor caste Brahmin men would be allowed to teach and practise yoga. There would definitely be no women allowed into the practice.

A lot of this evolution was in light of the fact that people wanted to walk closer towards the truth about life and the human condition on Earth, as opposed to having this truth obscured by ritual and high Hindu religious practices.

As it moved out of the sacred texts and into the jungles of India, yoga was a form of resistance. Teachers should be well-trained and respectful of the various traditions of yoga, but to critique somebody for pronouncing a Sanskrit shloka (verse) wrongly is saying that only the pandit sitting in a temple should be allowed access to enlightenment.

That is a form of gatekeeping that emboldens anew the oppressor caste, elite Brahmin men.

As an aside, my practice of pregnancy yoga is a long way from the way yoga might have been imagined – but to use yoga in this form is an act of resistance for me against patriarchy and patriarchal yoga.

There is, too, scope for anxiety about who are the real knowledge holders of yoga.

Yoga New Zealand (the official registration space for practising teacher yogis) is said to be establishing a working group to visit how we practise yoga in Aotearoa.

They say: “In establishing this working group, we are liaising with senior yoga professionals of Indian descent.”

The risk I see in that is that it relies on a small category of people who could predominantly be oppressor caste Hindus, who may dangerously use yoga (a collective good) to the benefit of religious fundamentalism.

It risks allowing a small minority with long histories of cultural capital and power to mobilise caste hierarchy in Aotearoa – and allow historical inequities from Indian traditions to dig deeper into our social fabric under the guise of “respectful diversity”.

Every single yoga teacher I know – committed to politics of equality, kindness, generosity, love of the earth, and other fellow humans – refuses to participate in International Yoga Day, given that it is attached to the divisive, intolerant and hyper-aggressive, conservative Hindu right regime.

Finally, the arguments put forward around “profiting” of yoga also needs our attention – specifically in the context of Aotearoa.

My experience in Aotearoa is of yoga studios and teachers struggling on a regular basis to do this amazing mahi of yoga while juggling the cost of living, and raising gentle, kind families.

Yes, in India there are yogis (usually saffron robe-wearing men) who have billion dollar industries and own entire islands – but I do not know of any such people in Aotearoa.

Trust me, I will be the first person on a picket line if anyone in Aotearoa ever tries to use yoga to copyright asana sequences (a la Bikram), uses yoga to militarise one community to hurt another (a la Hindutva), or even treats fellow humans as secondary citizens (a la oppressor caste).

However, I am not going to be upset if an extremely muscular man (who insists on doing an unsupported handstand every single class…ayieo!) comes to yoga class and chants “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti” in a “different” accent. Because he, too, like me could just want some peace.