My statement posted on social media on July 4th 2021

Me, Indian Hindu woman, performing yoga in real time — Photo credit: Alex Garland. Zarna Joshi, Indian Hindu woman, performing yoga in real time

Guess what Modi did?

His government released a stamp of Indra Devi, a white woman, calling her the "First Lady of Yoga".

Indra Devi (that’s a fake appropriated name that doesn't even make grammatical sense) was a Russian actress who went to India during British colonial rule and decided that she wanted to learn yoga. She went to a famous Hindu teacher, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, but he refused to teach her because she was a westerner and had no right to our teaching. This was all during the British colonial rule when the British were systematically exterminating Hindus and especially yoga gurus to kill the practice of yoga entirely.

She then went to the local Hindu king who was Krishnamacharya's patron and protector from the British and put pressure on him to make Krishnamacharya teach her. The king did what the white woman wanted and forced Krishnamacharya to teach her which is against everything in our values. Yoga is consent based. The student consents to learn and the teacher consents to teach and that is how it is supposed to be. But Krishnamacharya was forced to allow her to stay with him, instruct her each day, and teach her yoga despite how he didn't want to and knew she was an unworthy student.

She then went to LA, styled herself as "Indra Devi", bastardized everything he'd taught her by changing all the teachings, and set herself up as a Hollywood "yoga teacher". She bemoaned to the white Hollywood celebrities how her Indian teacher wouldn't teach her at first "because she was a woman".

No, white woman. He wouldn't teach you because you're a westerner and he was absolutely right. And even then you forcibly took his teachings.

This is the woman Modi is promoting as the "First Lady of Yoga". Not any of our ancient Indian Hindu women sages who spoke the Vedas into existence. Not any of our Indian Hindu women saints who used the power of yoga to resist colonizers. Not any of our Indian Hindu women yoga gurus who have taught the practice throughout our history. Not even any of our Indian Hindu women leadership right now who are teaching sincere students all over the world our authentic practices.

He is promoting a white woman as the "First Lady of Yoga", slapping every Indian Hindu woman in the face including our Hindu trans women.

This is why I can't stand International Day of Yoga. It is nothing but a shameless ploy to appeal to the culturally appropriating western supremacist yoga world and legitimize all their violence against our own people. And who is crushed beneath that western supremacist yoga boot? Hindu women.

#Yoga #Modi #HinduWomen #SmashCulturalAppropriation #SmashHinduphobia #SmashWhiteSupremacy #SmashTheEmpire