Infected by the Hindutva Virus: The Case of Yoaga
Oh no. Now, Hindutva fanatics living and working in the US (the Hindu American Foundation] are about to claim Yoga and make it their very own 'brand' along with pogroms against Muslims!
Watch this group morph into the HinduTaliban!
“In a way,” said Dr. Aseem Shukla, the foundation’s co-founder, “our issue is that yoga has thrived, but *Hinduism* has lost *control* of the *brand*.” [my asterisked emphasis added]
A US (note, NOT in India or from India) rightwing organization calling itself the Hindu American foundation is in itself an embarrassment to multiethnic, multireligious secular, democratic India.
The asinine, anal, (yeah the urologist) doc who reportedly co-founded the org. appears to be infected with the Hindutva virus, characterized by a pseudo-nationalist claim to a non-existent purity of composite, often contradictory and disparate beliefs and practices, originally associated with people living on the banks of the River Indus (Sindhu in Sanskrit), now in Pakistan!
"The Brand?" The extreme doc wants to "control" and "brand" Yoga! he says above "lost *control*. How appropriately anal!
And how does he propose to
" control" the yoga "brand?" Would that be a subsidiary of General Foods? Or would it become a profitable brand of the HAF?
Yoga is clearly separable from ANY and ALL faith traditions, and cannor be owned by any individual or organizational entity it is traditional knowledge like how to grow basmati rice!
Yoga is now universal practice, as is evident from the millions of (quite likely) sincere yoga practitioners worldwide.
Yoga's appeal both as exercise and healthful, mindful, lifeway has long surpassed faith and belief.
"Let it be" as the Beatles would say.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28yoga.html
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28yoga.html?sort=oldest&offset=7
copyright veg biryani and the NYTimes
157.
Veg Biryani
Hyderabad, India
November 28th, 2010
9:42 am
While it may be so, the fact that this foundation is focusing on such nonsense is truly remarkable. You'll note that it's the ABCD's (look it up if you don't know term) that are driving this, not anyone from India itself. The foundation would like the West to believe that all Hindus in India practice yoga. The reality is that India is the most sedentary and unfit country on earth (look at the numbers, not up for discussion) and there's a reason that it is the world's leader in heart disease and diabetes. The middle class does absolutely nothing in the way of physical activity and it's really only the wealthy counterparts to the yoga zealots that could possibly care about something as trivial as this and that would practice regularly.
Indians are extraordinary tolerant, no one outside of the uber-wealthy cares in the closed off enclaves of Indian society cares, and this foundation should refocus its efforts and save future embarrassment.
