Yoga and Hindu Nationalism: The Case of India

Shivani Choudhary, Yale University

In the current Indian political scenario, the populist leader (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) successfully mobilizes people and creates meaning by dominating the cultural codes and symbols around the traditional practice of yoga. The paper illustrates this argument by invoking the Cultural Theory of Social Performance and undertaking an analysis of the discursive appropriation of yoga by the Indian PM through successful performance. He does it by employing the binary discourse through his yoga performances, where those who identify with the Hindu nationalist ideology and belief systems fuse with the leader’s performance. They become a part of the sacred side of the binary and the flagbearers of the Hindutva project. Those who are unable to fuse with this particular meaning of yoga that supports the Hindu nationalist project are projected as the profane and evil of society. The critical issue that needs to be underlined here is that yoga, which is treated as a symbol and practice of spiritual and physical well-being, becomes politically charged and attains the ability to push forward the agenda of a regime in power. The leader propagates a ritualistic experience of the practice of Yoga through the medium of the most popular radio program in the history of radio worldwide, Mann Ki Baat. The propagation of yoga by the leader is an exemplar of how, with the advancement of mass media and technology, the interactions and performances by actors are no longer bounded by the material world and need not take place only in the ritualistic sense, whereby each individual is present in a particular space and undergo the first-hand experience to identify themselves with a specific symbolic repertoire. Successful performance in contemporary societies is a combination of both virtual and physical realities.

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 Presented in Session 144. Cultural Practices and Collective Mobilization