Bend it like Bharat: PM Modi stretches India’s cultural influence in US and across the world with Yoga Day at the UN

Americans spend $16 billion on yoga classes, clothing, equipment, and accessories each year. According to Yoga Journal, more than 36 million people (around 12 percent of the population) practice Yoga in the U.S. where it was first introduced by Swami Vivekananda in 1883 and propagated extensively by Paramahamsa Yogananda nearly a century ago.Come Wednesday, thousands of Americans, many of them Indian-Americans, will be out on their mats in New York and other cities as Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads a yoga session at the United Nations’ Secretariat to mark the International Yoga Day (June 21), a formal designation sought and obtained in 2014 by New Delhi in an effort to propagate its ancient heritage for its health benefits.
The results are already showing at least in terms of numbers: There has been about 50 per cent growth in yoga practitioners since 2012 when only 20 million were in the fold. Approximately one in three Americans have tried yoga at least once, with the the number of over 50s practicing yoga tripling over the last four years. The majority of the practitioners (72 per cent) are female.

“Acceptance of another country’s culture and heritage on such a large scale… it might be difficult to find another parallel. Yoga has indeed lifted and popularized the Indian way of life,” India’s envoy to the UN Ruchira Kamboj told Times Now on Tuesday ahead of the Prime Ministerial push in New York before he departs for Washington DC for his state visit.
Indeed, the first Indian VIP to be invited to the White House was a yoga guru — President Calvin Coolidge welcoming Paramahansa Yogananda in 1927. While two of India’s most prominent yoga gurus, BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois, have a devoted following in America, the US has also engendered many McYoga spin-offs, including hot yoga, yin yoga, yoga lite etc.

Sure enough, there have always been doubting thomases and malingerers, suspicious of what they see as a religious agenda rather than embracing its health benefits. Some of them have surfaced this week, accusing the Modi government of “omwashing” its “radical right agenda” at home with a “carefully curated PR campaign” to propagate yoga.
But there are few takers for the allegations, with New Delhi proposal to designate June 21 as International Yoga Day endorsed by more than 175 countries at the UN, the few holdouts being Islamic countries, notably Pakistan and Malaysia.
In fact, Prime Minister Modi’s exercise on Wednesday has the UN’s official blessings, with Secretary General Antonio Gutteres, in an implicit rebuff to critics who see a divisive agenda, saying yoga “reveals our common humanity – helping us to understand that despite our differences, we are one.”

“Yoga offers a haven of calm. It can reduce anxiety and promote mental wellbeing. It helps us to develop discipline and patience. It connects us to our planet, which so badly needs our protection,” Gutteres said in a video message, adding, “On this International Day of Yoga, let us embrace the spirit of unity, and resolve to build a better, more harmonious world for people, planet, and ourselves.”
Indeed, Modi’s own message on the matter has been universal “Yoga embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfilment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and nature,” he said when he proposed the International Day of Yoga Resolution in September, 2014.
The yoga event is scheduled to run for an hour – from 8 am to 9 am EST (5.30pm to 6.30 pm IST) – and will be attended by dignitaries from over 180 countries.