Introduction

Many contemporary postural yoga practitioners believe that postural yoga is an ancient spiritual practice birthed on the Indian subcontinent approximately 5000 years ago. The Indian government has reinforced this common popular understanding by revitalizing and claiming yoga as a product of India through global extravaganzas, like the inaugural International Yoga Day (IYD) on 21 June 2015 (Associated Press 2015). In a speech at the United Nations leading up to the 2015 IYD celebrations, Indian Prime Minister (PM), Narendra Modi characterized yoga as “an invaluable gift of ancient Indian tradition” (Suri 2015). Yoga has been similarly framed as India's gift to the world since the rise of nationalism in the early twentieth century. It was championed as such by Swami Vivekananda on his US tours in 1893-1896 and many religious emissaries from India have reiterated this notion since. In the 1990s, Ashok Singhal, the leader of Hindu nationalist political party Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), explained, “Of all nations, India alone has spirituality”, in Hindi, but using the English term “spirituality” (McKean 1996, xv). Yoga has become the most visible form of Indic spirituality to mobilize globally. It has become India's leading spiritual export. Despite its modern-day presentation as a secular physical exercise, yoga is intimately related to Indic religious forms, and as such it has become a leading vehicle for “spiritual nationalism” (van der Veer quoted in Csordas 2009, 263).