Who Owns Yoga? A Case Study Analysis

Situation

Yoga is being adopted world wide

In the U.S alone it has boomed into a $5.7 billion industry. Almost 16 million practitioners are present.

But there is a problem.

Yoga is also being adapted worldwide. Not just adopted.

Bikram Yoga

Toddler Yoga

Christian Yoga

Questions

Can yoga be branded?

Hypothesis

Yes, it can be branded. Branding is good and should be encouraged.

My Argument

Brands serve different interests and needs and disparate sections of the society.

They make a commodity or service more accessible.

1

For example, People who find Bikram yoga expensive can join classes that

charge cheaper fee. “Hot” Yoga would be the trade off.

Secular yoga by Strala Studios made it accessible to

people of different religious beliefs who might otherwise have hesitated to learn the traditional version of yoga.

People who are not into the physical exercises of yoga and

just looking for meditation might find Transcendental Meditation classes more suitable.

Rather than arguing over whether it is right or wrong to brand yoga, my contention is that branding is inevitable.

It happens as naturally as breathing.

2

We may not realize this but ancient seers who first introduced this concept

had their own brand stamps too.

Examples

Example 1

Bhakthi Yoga: Yoga of devotion

Mira Bai, Vallabh Acharya, Ramanuja were all proponents of Bhakthi Yoga.

Example 2

Karma Yoga: Yoga through service or performing duties

Shakaracharya believed the practice of

Karma Yoga purified one’s mind.

Example 3

Jyana Yoga: Yoga of knowledge

not intellectual but the knowledge of the unity

between the body and the soul.

Adi Shankara was an advocate of Jyana Yoga as a separate practice while Ramanuja believed

it was just a prerequisite for the yoga of devotion.

(we can see two brands of yoga propounded right here!)

Example 4

Hatha Yoga: Yoga of physical postures and breathing exercises.

Sage Patanjali ardently practiced Hatha Yoga.

This is the form of yoga that is now gaining

predominance and is used synonymously with the general term yoga. What we see now are different brands of hatha yoga coming up.

Branding is present in other forms of exercises as well.

For example,

Bollywood Zumba dancing. Zumba dancing was a purely western concept that was adopted by

Indians into Bollywood Zumba.

Aqua Aerobics: Involves performing aerobics in water since it was believed the buoyancy in water had better impact on weight loss (similar to

Bikram yoga conception where heat facilitated better stretching)

The global always consumes the local.

It has long been believed that globalization facilitates spread of local cultures and preserves and promotes it.

3

A closer observation would reveal that the global always subsumes or modifies the local.

Nagaland restaurants in Tamil Nadu are never authentic. They are

always influenced by the Tamil culture. What is authentic is the cuisine, that is the style of preparing food and not the food itself.

While Pork and insects might be the authentic food of Nagaland, in Tamil Nadu the same recipe is used on chicken and prawns instead.

What we observe in this case study is the global subsuming the local practice of Yoga and modifying it to meet its

own needs.

The protest by the HAF is nothing but a desire to stamp its brand of Hinduism on all forms of Yoga that

have now evolved.

I would not support the move because the details of the religious origins of yoga are still foggy

Acknowledging yoga’s roots in Hinduism would again involve incorporating some of its elements in practice like the use of Sanskrit terms and chants.

This would impinge on diversity.

Alternatives

The HAF should start their own form of Yoga and introduce it as a separate brand rather than imposing its fundamentalist roots on other individuals’ practices.

After all, “In society, the brands that succeed stay relevant” - Chopra

Rather than emphasizing on Yoga’s religious roots, focusing on its origins in ancient India

would help boost the tourism sector and revenue for the government. So apart from

cataloguing the various yoga poses, the Indian government could look into marketing

“Indian Yoga”.

(Popularising “om” and “namaste” as

Indian Brand mantras and doing away with complicated terms could be a start.)

Afterall, Bikram Choudhuri did say

“I guarantee you, yoga will compete with computers, music, sports, automobiles, the

drug industry. Yoga will take over the world! ”.

Recap • Yoga is becoming commercialised. • Several brands of Yoga have started coming up.

• Can Yoga be branded?

• Yes it can and yes, it should be branded for the following reasons.

o It satisfies different needs of the society. o It is inevitable.

o The global always consumes the local.

• Alternatives: o HAF promoting its own brand of Yoga

o Indian Government marketing its origins of Yoga well to help boost the tourism sector.

References

• Branding Yoga, Harvard Case Study, Rohit Deshpande, Kerry Herman and Anelena Lobb

• Flood, Gavin (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

• http://www.yoginirmalendu.com/Types_Of_Yoga/Karma_Yoga/Karma_Yoga.html

• Thank you! Thank you!

These slides were created by S.Kanishka, as part of an internship done under the guidance of

Prof. Sameer Mathur.