Today on Tuesday 21 June, the celebration of the International Day of Yoga discovers how the piqued curiosity of Westerners, has turned the Eastern rituals of yoga into an international phenomenon.
The practices that millions are turning to for their spiritual and health benefits, as the wielding of Yoga and Ayurveda are now seen as soft power by the Indian government, were once legally and de facto banned in India under British rule and colonization, from 1858 to 1947.
However, in recent decades the appeal of yoga and Pilates in the Western world has increased tenfold, as the industry has had a revenue of over £926 million in 2020, which is up 6% from the year before, which was £875 million, as online figures report.
There are over 10,000 yoga teachers in the UK and their average salary is £27.54 per hour.
Online statistics have reported up to 460,000 British people are taking part in yoga classes each week.
Yoga classes on YouTube have subsequently become a sensation with accounts like Yoga with Adriene, which has accumulated over 11 million views on some videos and stands as the largest YouTube channel for yoga in the world, with 11.2 million subscribers.
Appealing to the masses, Yoga with Adriene is popularly known amongst her legion of fans, for her euphonious soft tones in her voice and the aesthetically pleasing, clean white, plant-friendly, clutter-free backdrops where she films her online videos.
Also commemorating International Yoga Day in India, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata, Nick Low, said in an official statement “Yoga is an example of a UK-India living bridge that unites our people, communities and countries together”.
“We celebrate International Yoga Day every year by practising it together with our staff and community. This year, we commemorated the day by inviting medical professionals from Charnock Hospital, children from an NGO, youth, entrepreneurs, and people from the tourism fraternity at Eco Park, New Town”.
Nick Low, who actively participated in the yoga session also added “India and the United Kingdom have much in common. Our living bridge of people-to-people links. More than two centuries of shared history, strong democracies, connected cultural institutions and the English language. And each of our countries wields great soft power.
“Yoga, deeply rooted in spirituality, is at the heart of India’s soft power perhaps India’s greatest gift to the world. Today I am delighted to join friends and colleagues in celebrating the force for good that is yoga,” he said.
From the hill stations in North India, by the foothills of the Himalayas, the Hindu tradition in which chanting in Sanskrit and spinning up Ayurvedic concoctions are considered everyday rituals, according to Tiwari Yoga.
Living in London, the founder of Tiwari Yoga, Angie Tiwari, an Indian yoga, meditation, and breath work teacher, talks to Asian Sunday about the origins of yoga and how the ancient practise has become a form of cultural appropriation.
Decolonising the practice over a decade ago, she says “There are a lot of south Asian people who feel, that because of colonialism, these practices have been taken from the culture that they grew up in, but then their culture has not been reflected in the practice.
“I know a lot of South Asians who go to yoga classes and feel very disrespected when they hear white yoga teachers, or yoga teachers who are not from South Asian culture, butchering the pronunciation of an ancient mantra, like ‘om’ or saying namaste in class but not really explaining what that means and how it links to yoga”.
Tiwari explains the effects that culturally appropriating yoga has on South Asians “Taking the bits that you want and find interesting and not including the fullness of the practice, is a way to make people from that culture feel excluded, whether it is intentional or not”.
“For example, for the yoga practice, you just don’t see the deep spiritual rituals of the kriyas which are the cleansing practices, the Bhakti, which is the devotional practice of yoga, you tend to mainly see the asana, which is the yoga poses, that’s a typical sign of ancient indigenous art and a practice that has been culturally appropriated”.
Working full-time in a corporate job she says yoga is soul food and has transformed her life “My ancestors have practised yoga for centuries and centuries, so when I’m practising whether I’m chanting at the shrine in Sanskrit, or when I’m reading the Bhagavad Gita, it takes me into a different state, which awakens a different part of my body”.
Ticketing and event platform Eventbrite has revealed some of the key yoga trends it has seen over the last year.
Eventbrite reports during the lockdown, online yoga classes grew from March 2020 to March 2021 almost 150,000 attendees joined yoga events on Eventbrite and over a year after in-person classes have returned, there is still an appetite for virtual classes, as more than a quarter of yoga events have remained online.
Peak days for in-person yoga events, when more than 90% of classes are held face to face, are Fridays and Saturdays, while most virtual events are held on Mondays and Wednesdays, with around 50% of sessions online.
Head of European Communications of Eventbrite, Sebastian Boppert said “It’s now fair to say that online yoga is here to stay. Yogis with a packed agenda have realised the benefits of classes that fit more easily around work and family commitments than the in-person classes in studios”.
Eventbrite data also revealed that the number of yoga sessions with sound baths, a type of meditation where participants bathe in the supposedly healing vibrations of sound, has doubled over the last 12 months by 83% over 2019, while the number of attendees to these events has increased by 115%.
