Yoga is an american Cultural Phenomenon: US Court

W.G.Ewald

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I guess when it comes to people(and politicians) US is not all that better from India.
Not at all.

Parents of some children had sued to stop the school district from teaching yoga maintaining it is a religious practice that surreptitiously promoted Hinduism.
What indications did the parents observe in their children that led them to believe the kids were turning Hindu? :notsure:
 

W.G.Ewald

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They would also have taken Jesus to the court if he reappeared anywhere in USA .....

They would jail him at Gauntanamo because Jesus would oppose multinational monopolies
The Grand Inquisitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tale is told by Ivan with brief interruptive questions by Alyosha. In the tale, Christ comes back to earth in Seville at the time of the Inquisition. He performs a number of miracles (echoing miracles from the Gospels). The people recognize him and adore him, but he is arrested by Inquisition leaders and sentenced to be burnt to death the next day. The Grand Inquisitor visits him in his cell to tell him that the Church no longer needs him. The main portion of the text is devoted to the Inquisitor explaining to Jesus why his return would interfere with the mission of the Church.
 

Das ka das

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This article is a case in point of Western digestion of Yoga. Look what padmasana is now called. The Americans (aided by our Indian sepoys) have successfully transplanted Yoga from its Dharmic roots and recontexualized it to a Western Christian framework. Usually they would replace the name (such as yoga nidra now being called "lucid dreaming" and being used by US troops to better fight) which would erase the source tradition (Jung did this in his works too). The only reason Yoga is not called "exercise" or whatever is due to the fact that Max Mueller never translated Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Its funny how Yoga is now presented as being separate from Hinduism (which is often relegated to the usual caste, cows, curries BS). So now all the good things of Indian civilization have been appropriated by the West, with the West even going so far to claiming that many of these things were always an integral part of their culture or proposing some shared "Indo-European" heritage (Sanskrit), while we Indians can proudly claim such things such as dowry, infanticide, sati, Manusmriti, sati, etc. In this way Indian civilization becomes redundant (and becomes relegated to the museums like the Mayan, Aztec, Pagan European, etc civilizations), as all good things in it were already existing in the West. This process has been coined by Malhotra as digestion.
 

W.G.Ewald

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This article is a case in point of Western digestion of Yoga. Look what padmasana is now called. The Americans (aided by our Indian sepoys) have successfully transplanted Yoga from its Dharmic roots and recontexualized it to a Western Christian framework. Usually they would replace the name (such as yoga nidra now being called "lucid dreaming" and being used by US troops to better fight) which would erase the source tradition (Jung did this in his works too). The only reason Yoga is not called "exercise" or whatever is due to the fact that Max Mueller never translated Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Its funny how Yoga is now presented as being separate from Hinduism (which is often relegated to the usual caste, cows, curries BS). So now all the good things of Indian civilization have been appropriated by the West, with the West even going so far to claiming that many of these things were always an integral part of their culture or proposing some shared "Indo-European" heritage (Sanskrit), while we Indians can proudly claim such things such as dowry, infanticide, sati, Manusmriti, sati, etc. In this way Indian civilization becomes redundant (and becomes relegated to the museums like the Mayan, Aztec, Pagan European, etc civilizations), as all good things in it were already existing in the West. This process has been coined by Malhotra as digestion.
Really, I picture you foaming at the mouth :-(

I believe you and trackwhack share a brain.
 

Das ka das

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Your ranting is not worth deconstruction. Blither on.
Lol. So it means you don't have a cohesive argument against any of the points I addressed. By the way, these are not my original thoughts, its the result of reading a book that has literally shaken the whole "South Asian" studies departments in US colleges.
 

W.G.Ewald

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Lol. So it means you don't have a cohesive argument against any of the points I addressed. By the way, these are not my original thoughts, its the result of reading a book that has literally shaken the whole "South Asian" studies departments in US colleges.
Perhaps you cited the book earlier. If so I missed it; what is the title?

List of South Asia studies programs

Are you seriously debating when you use "Lol"?
 
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Das ka das

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Perhaps you cited the book earlier. If so I missed it; what is the title?

List of South Asia studies programs

Are you seriously debating when you use "Lol"?
Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines

Breaking India | By: Rajiv Malhotra & Aravindan Neelakandan

Breaking India

Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines

Publisher: Amaryllis. Pages: 640. Price: 695 INR/$20.00 US

India's integrity is being undermined by three global networks that have well-established operating bases inside India: (i) Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan, (ii) Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal, and (iii) Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the West in the name of human rights. This book focuses on the third: the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India. The book is the result of five years of research, and uses information obtained in the West about foreign funding of these Indian-based activities. The research tracked the money trails that start out claiming to be for "education," "human rights," "empowerment training," and "leadership training," but end up in programs designed to produce angry youths who feel disenfranchised from Indian identity.

The book reveals how outdated racial theories continue to provide academic frameworks and fuel the rhetoric that can trigger civil wars and genocides in developing countries. The Dravidian movement's 200-year history has such origins. Its latest manifestation is the "Dravidian Christianity" movement that fabricates a political and cultural history to exploit old faultlines. The book explicitly names individuals and institutions, including prominent Western ones and their Indian affiliates. Its goal is to spark an honest debate on the extent to which human rights and other "empowerment" projects are cover-ups for these nefarious activities.
 

Simple_Guy

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@Das ka das

Enjoying your posts. But thoda sa I will disagree that they are appropriating Yoga. It is not becoming part of a western religion, Yoga's roots are acknowledged, Yoga teachers study the Sanskrit books.

Some of the christian fanatics tried making a 'christian Yoga" but it flopped big time. Everybody calls it Yoga only, but they don't capitalize it. And that I don't like.

Why "Pilates" is capitalized? And why not Yoga?
 
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Das ka das

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@Das ka das

Enjoying your posts. But thoda sa I will disagree that they are appropriating Yoga. It is not becoming part of a western religion, Yoga's roots are acknowledged, Yoga teachers study the Sanskrit books.

Some of the christian fanatics tried making a 'christian Yoga" but it flopped big time. Everybody calls it Yoga only, but they don't capitalize it. And that I don't like.

Why "Pilates" is capitalized? And why not Yoga?
Are you in USA by any chance? If so please go to a "yoga" teacher and ask her/him if Yoga has Hindu roots. See what the response will be. In academia, there is very little mention of Yoga in Hinduism studies but plenty of mention of caste, sati, etc. And by the way the only reason they still call it "yoga" is due to the fact that Shriman Max Mueller did not translate Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. As has been mentioned in my post to @W.G.Ewald, these ideas are not my own. The following will be better explain the point I am trying to make:

Rajiv Malhotra has termed it as the U-Turn Theory. According to this theory[16]: "Appropriation occurs in the following five stages:

1. Student/Disciple: In the first stage, the Westerner is loyal to the Indic traditions, and writes with the deepest respect. Many such scholars have genuinely tried and aspired to give up their Western identities and adopt Hinduism/Buddhism very sincerely. In many instances, India has helped the person to "find" himself/herself. A large number of scholars remain in this stage for life, while others move on to subsequent stages, not necessarily in the exact sequence below.

2. Neutral/New Age/Perennial Repackaging: In this stage, Indic traditions are repackaged as "original" discoveries by the scholar, or relocated by interpolating within obscure Greek, Christian or other "Western" texts, or assumed to be generic thoughts found in all cultures. In many instances, this is the scholar's personal brand management to expand the market for the books, tapes and seminars, by distancing oneself from the negative brands of the "caste, cows and curry" traditions.


3. Hero's return to his/her original tradition: Once the ego takes over and the scholar's native identity reasserts itself, he/she returns to the Eurocentric tradition, typically Judaism or Christianity, with bounties of knowledge to enrich it. Alternatively,the scholar repackages the material in secular vernacular, such as"Western psychology" or "phenomenology" or a "scientific" framework.Now the sales mushroom, as the Western audiences congratulate themselves for their culture's sophistication. In some cases, this happens to Indians also who reject their Indian identity after gaining enough mileage out of Indic sources.

4. Denigrating the source: In this stage, into which only some scholars proceed intentionally, they denigrate the source Indic traditions. It furthers their claims of "originality" and absolves them from links to denigrated traditions. In some instance, stages 3 and 4 are in reverse sequence.[17]

5. Mobilizing the sepoys and becharis: This is the phenomenon whereby Indians become proxies for Western sponsors. Bechari is typically an Indian woman who perpetuates the idea that the Indian traditions are oppressive of women and only the Western feminism are liberating, so as to get some kind of recognition or gain in the West.
These gains could be in the form of jobs, recognition as a scholar, invitation to conferences etc. The perpetuation of 'becharihood' of Indian women is used as a justification for 'white woman's burden'.The sepoys also push the Eurocentric agenda and fight against the natives, just like British hirelings did in 1857. They are the result of the Lord McCauley's agenda of "producing Indians with Western waysof thinking." Often they claim to be championing the subaltern causes, using this stage to gain recognition in the West. Becharis and sepoys tend to prove native cultures as the social criminal. This legitimizes the subversion of native culture in the name of human rights and hence becomes the civilizing mission for Western powers.
 
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