Yoga Hoga
NB - My article on the artificial yoga controversy has appeared in The Indian Express today. (My original title was as it appears here) - DS:
Yoga
Hoga
The
ongoing controversy about yoga is yet another example of deceitful polemic. It
began with a reminder that yoga has nothing to do with religion. Of late,
however, sundry political swamis have announced that anyone who disapproves of
compulsory yoga should leave the country. So now yoga is essential not only to
Hinduism but to national pride. Refusal to submit to this rule is treachery. The
‘Parivar’ presumes to decide what is or is not ‘national’ and who may or may
not live in India. Perhaps some energetic policemen will lodge a case of sedition
against anyone refusing to perform surya-namaskar.
This
manufactured controversy exemplifies the Parivar’s modus operandi. It is not
wisdom that interests them, but the compulsory unification of thought and
culture. As for the objections raised by certain self-appointed representatives
of Indian Muslims, surely the reduction of any aasan to its
symbolic origins is far-fetched? I have practiced yoga for over 30 years;
including surya-namaskar. At no time did I imagine myself to be
worshipping the Sun God – it was simply an exercise beneficial to my health. Yoga
is accepted the world over as an excellent aid to longevity. To treat it as a
Hindu religious ritual is equivalent to believing that aerobics are a step
towards Christianity or that acupuncture is an insignia of Chinese imperialism.
But
I learned yoga of my own free choice (and, incidentally, was taught it by a
Muslim friend). In this regard, the statements issued by some Muslim groups are
appropriate. It’s the compulsion that is the problem. RSS representatives in
government are attempting to enforce their version of Indian culture. And their
behavior indicates that they treat culture as a means of political domination.
If
the Parivar wished to promote Indian tradition, why did cause AK Ramanujan's
works to be dropped from Delhi University’s history syllabus in 2011? Ramanujan
was a world-renowned scholar who loved the Ramayana. Reading The Three
Hundred Ramayanas can broaden most people’s understanding of Indian
culture. But the Parivar’s representatives campaigned for its removal, even
though an expert committee approved of the author’s scholarship. Their student
wing resorted to intimidation in the process. As Mukul Kesavan observed
in an article on the controversy (The
Telegraph, October 27, 2011):
“The expert committee appointed
by the Supreme Court to investigate the matter had four members, three of whom
endorsed Ramanujan’s essay without reservation. The fourth, while praising
the essay’s scholarship, came to the conclusion that it would be difficult for
college lecturers to teach with sufficient context, especially those
who weren’t Hindu…”
This
reasoning is typical of the RSS, which tends to conflate wisdom with cunning.
Most lecturers are Hindu anyway, and surely the aim of education is to broaden our
minds? No, it is plurality that alarms them. In Kesavan’s words, ‘Hindutva seeks
to re-make the diversity of Hindu narratives and practices into a uniform faith
based on standardized texts.’ Standardization, uniformity and compulsion
are the ideals that inform the Parivar’s concept of India (an imperium); its
view of the Ramayana, whose many versions it wishes to sanitise, as well as surya-namaskar, whose
health-benefits are of less significance than the expectation that Muslims
might object to it. All the gestures of the RSS are assertions that they alone
represent Hindus, and designed to evoke adverse reactions. Such reactions can
be used to tell their critics yet again, to ‘go to Pakistan.’
The
RSS thrives on animosity. They would have been truly upset had Muslims not objected
to compulsory yoga.
Popular
sovereignty has been perverted in South Asia. It refers not to the People but
to the Emperor’s Moustache. The people may not define their nation - it is the
Nation that defines the People. The people are seen as a biomass of zombies
– hamara maal, as the sarsangchaalak once said. Our imperial
metaphors symbolize the inner world of communalists. The RSS are no different
from the maulanas they love to hate. They wish to lay down the law (and defy it
when they like), flatten popular culture, and tell us all how to behave.
The
Hindutva brigade should awaken from its ideological stupor. Their desire for
political supremacy shines through their stupid dictats. It is not yoga that is
at stake here, but the moustachios of the sarsanghchalak. We need not have them
thrust upon our children at breakfast.
We
will learn yoga, not to please the RSS, but for our health. Here’s a suggestion
for the sarsanghchalak: please read the essay you censored, by A K Ramanujan.
It’s available on the Net. Make it compulsory reading for your
cadre! It’s a brilliant celebration of Indian culture. And it’s
thought-provoking. Thinking is something your followers sorely need to do. Next
time they do surya-namaskar they could actually experience light.
See also:
