Not to pile it on (I know the queen just died) but here’s a bummer of a Friday thread for you:
I’m about to problematize your namaste.
#namastekilljoy
#StealingMyReligion
@Harvard_Press @HarvardUPLondon
1/Let’s start with the word: “Namaste.” It is a Sanskrit word deriving from the verb namaha, meaning “to bend.” The te at the end means “to you.”
In the Vedas namaste was used to show respect
to a divinity. But the word evolved over time….
2/In everyday use namaste evolved to mean “salutations to you” or “greetings to you,” a sign of respect, but without necessarily referencing divinity. This is how namaste, and its other regional forms, such namaskar and namaskaram, are commonly used in South Asia today.
3/That means to close a yoga class with namaste is like ending with “hello.”
4/Yoga teachers say namaste can be translated as “the light in me bows to the light in you.” Rather than the everyday South Asian namaste as a greeting, this yoga namaste references the religious meaning found in the Vedic texts, yet without any specific religious content.
5/Namaste becomes a spiritual shortcut, one that can be assigned any meaning the yoga practitioner desires. It adds acoustic gravitas, but only through the reinvention of a foreign word.
6/Scholars are not sure exactly when namaste began to be used in yoga instruction, but today it is a common part of wellness yoga practice. Solemnly, reverently, hands pressed together at the heart’s center, often with a bow of gratitude, namaste “seals the practice.”
7/ How was this namaste get invented? Step one: Imperialism (I told you I was going to pile on). British colonial administrators used certain phrases, like namaste, as representative of Indian culture in colonial records.
wellcomecollection.org/pages/YLC0GxEA…
8/Step two: Religious appropriation. Mainstream wellness yoga is happy to borrow exotic/foreign/eastern devotional practices to seem more “authentic,” BUT insists these practices are not religious = namaste as a form of pseudo-liturgy.
9/@DrArjana has a term for this, “muddled Orientalism,” the “careless mixing of images, terms, and tropes from the imagined Orient.” Muddled orientalism is how namaste gets infused with liturgical meaning in a US yoga studi when, in a South Asian context, the word = a greeting.
10/ And of course orientalism depends on the assumption that the west is superior to the east and therefore entitled to grab us and use anything eastern it wants to (again…..imperialism)
11/ Put simply, namaste is a way yoga teachers invoke ancient wisdom traditions without doing the hard work of truly understanding and incorporating the full traditions and roots of yoga in modern practice. And namaste is a way YOU think you are accessing those traditions too.
12/ Why does this matter? Like all forms of appropriation, harm is caused if the borrowing occurs within conditions of inequity and injustice and guess what, your yoga namaste certainly does that.
13/ South Asian Americans have pointed this (a lot). Check out this NPR piece by @kukzandladders which includes this quote:
"I always mute it at the end of white people Yoga videos. I launch out of corpse pose like ants bit me to hit the button in time."
npr.org/sections/codes…
14/ See also @rsputcha's terrific research blog, namaste nation, which is a teaser for her next book (I can't wait!):
rumyaputcha.com
15/ Also read and follow @SusannaWellness (who is active on IG @susannabarkataki) and check on this fun reel she recently posted with #BlairImani:
instagram.com/reel/CiAjyZtql…
16/ What’s a yogi to do? One suggestion is to consider if you use namaste, WHY? Is it part of your ritual (but do you also insist that yoga is NOT religious?) Does if change the way think abt namaste to learn it offends some folks/makes them feel unwelcome in yoga studios?
17/ A couple of years ago, I would say “namaste” in a
yoga class out of habit, without understanding what I was saying.
18/ But now I never chant “namaste.” I now experience this ritual as a fetishization of Indian culture, finding it upsetting rather than soothing. I now hear ignorance, entitlement, imperialism, & capitalism instead of an innocent “sealing of my practice.”
19/ The more I learn about yoga, the more uncomfortable I become. And that is a GOOD thing. It is a sign that I am becoming more aware of my role in the larger systems of injustice--such as capitalism, orientalism, and white supremacy--that my consumption of yoga depends on.
20/ If you, too, are ending this thread uncomfortable, #sorrynotsorry. There are no quick fixes to the ethical dilemmas of religious appropriation. Let’s try to sit with the discomfort and then see if we might do better.
21/Want even more discomfort? #StealingMyReligion is officially out next Tuesday!
amazon.com/Stealing-My-Re…
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