Hinduphobic Disability Justice
*Trigger Warning* Hinduphobia
Who invited you into this space of yoga, non-Hindu non-Dharmic person with chronic pain? Who invited you into this sacred space?
I know for a fact it wasn't my people. They didn't knock on your door and invite you to "try" yoga.
Because you don't belong here. This isn't your space. You have no right to it.
And yet you're using my people as a punching bag to make your point about disability justice.
You were never invited here. And yet you "tried" yoga? What that means is that you engaged in stolen Indigenous Hindu practices, culturally appropriated them, bastardized my people's path, insulted and exploited us in a million ways, turned my people's sacred practices into something to buy and sell, and when all of that didn't work for your chronic pain - BECAUSE YOU BASTARDIZED THE PRACTICE - you whine and complain and punch down on the very Indigenous people you just stole from.
Do you have any idea how many fragile non-Hindu non-Dharmic people whine at me and use this very excuse to keep culturally appropriating yoga: "But I have CHRONIC PAIN! I NEED YOGA IN MY LIFE!"
Do you have any idea how many times I see tweets and memes just like this one that spit on my people when the real problem is your own entitlement and capitalism and western supremacy and Hinduphobia?
Do you have any idea how many Hindus with chronic pain exist in the world? There are 1.2 billion Hindus worldwide, most of whom are the poorest people in the world, many of whom face genocide everyday, all of whom face imperialist pillage every day - INCLUDING YOUR PILLAGE. Your Hinduphobic messaging continues to harm them but you never care about that, do you? My people with chronic pain aren't included in your little disability justice tweet, right? They're never included in any of these social justice "liberation" struggles because they don't count as people to you. That's why you're punching down on them. I'm one of those Hindus with chronic pain, by the way, western supremacist.
Yoga is not for dealing with chronic pain, fool. Yoga is for spiritual development.
So you can take your chronic pain and your Hinduphobic "disability justice" and get the fuck out.
Hindus, THIS is why our practices should NEVER be shared with outsiders. They do not deserve our wisdom and they never have. No matter how compassionate you are being towards them, they will never be compassionate towards you. They will always treat you like an object. They will always use you as a punching bag. Never teach them yoga. Never teach them pranayam, ayurveda, Sanskrit, or anything. They don't deserve it and never will.
Hindus, they won't even learn a simple lesson about how they shouldn't share Hinduphobic messaging about yoga. Do you know how many of my own so-called "allies" laugh reacted and heart reacted when a white person posted this tweet? Even after years of reading my posts about the cultural appropriation of yoga and Hinduphobia, they still did this. If they won't even learn such a simple lesson, how can any of us even imagine that they can learn the depths of wisdom that is yoga? They refuse to see our humanity even as we see theirs. So stop giving our practices away to the enemies of our ancestors and STOP uplifting "white Hindus".
PS: There is no such thing as "underwater horse yoga", western supremacists. So take your capitalism and your Hinduphobia and your exclusive little disability “justice” club and get. the. fuck. out.*
*Note: I used the word “fuck” in this article because that is how this Hinduphobe referred to our sacred and ancient Hindu practice of yoga.
Resources
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1–800–656–HOPE (4673)
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1–800–799-SAFE (7233)
National LGBT Hotline: 1–888–843–4564
Hotline for 2SLGBTQIA+: 1–519–752-HELP (4357)
How white yoga harms Hindu people and culture
Yoga philosophy for western yoga teachers
Make financial restitution for your western yoga practice
Yoga for social and climate justice activists
1000 Years of Hindu Colonial Trauma
Community responses to my presentation on Hindu Colonial Trauma
White words out of Black and brown mouths
Imperialism is domestic violence on a macro level
The British burned papers to cover up their crimes in India
Hindu relationships with animals appropriated for western colonizer profit
Starving Hindus is funny to western colonizers
The continued destruction of Hindu temples
Hindu multiverse culturally appropriated for profit
My Hindu ancestors forced to fight Britains WWI and WWII
I don’t like International Day of Yoga