The not so united states of Yogaland: Post-nationalism, environmentalism, and #yoga’s sustainable development

This is title and abstract of my forthcoming book chapter. You can download a free copy of the PDF, here.

The primary field of enquiry is the transnational USD 4.75 trillion-dollar wellness (tourism) industry. Today, Yoga is instrumentalized in service of the soft power ambitions of the Indian state. “Yogaland,” is an allegorical toponym used to refer to the transnational consumption-scape where Yoga is consumed. The topic is “Yoga nationalism,” which explicates the Yoga hybrid heuristically referred to as Applied + Yoga. This refers to the sentiment that Yoga can solve the “climate crisis.” The reason for this is that many global yogins consider their ancient counterparts to have supposedly gained spiritual powers through performing austerities in forests. This apparently makes them the “tree hugging” type and is often provided as “proof” that a contemporary Yoga lifestyle is, in fact, more sustainable than other options. Close reading of primary sources, however, demonstrates the role ascetics played at the frontier of state-sponsored settler colonial expansion of the “Vedic nation,” some two millennia ago. It is difficult to agree that forest-dwelling yogins are commensurable with or valued an environmentalist-like ethic. Today, India’s prime minister…