Western appropriation of Indic culture and why it matters

Cultural appropriation causes harm. It is an extension of racism and colonial oppression. It treats all aspects of marginalised cultures as free for the taking. It’s quite short of skin colour. It’s a power dynamic. Appropriation allows a dominant culture to profit from a non-dominant culture. Then the dominant culture takes credit for the aspects of the non-dominant culture they’ve taken from, which reinforces the imbalance of power between the two groups. That’s historically how appropriation tends to work the way it does. Through pure deception. Nonrecognition and misrecognition through appropriation and misappropriation create a hostile environment, wherein cultural groups are silenced, made invisible and subject to stereotypes and bigoted false narratives. It is limiting and harmful to the people whose culture has been appropriated. It affects their well-being, their financial status, their self-esteem, and their cultural integrity. When a majority or dominant monoculture steals customs, practices, sciences, and ideologies from people of a foreign minority culture, it has negative trans-generational social, economic and psychological effects. It is especially difficult for indigenous and aboriginal peoples worldwide to preserve their traditions and cultures when people such as Europeans and Americans practice appropriation without understanding or appreciation. The latter take the customs of the former and reinvent them, misinterpret them, and re-imagine them to fit into the narrow grooves of their own understanding. Sanatana Dharma is, as the name implies, universal. It’s for anyone on the planet who can come to realize its truth and beauty. Hindu-ism, as the name implies, belongs to the descendants of Bharat or those with ancestors who lived in the valleys of the Saraswati and Indus rivers. As many know, the term ‘Hindu’ is a misnomer stemming from a Persian mispronunciation of the word ‘Sindu’, meaning ‘river.’ Hindu culture, tradition, and heritage therefore, belong to the indigenous. A Western Hindu transplant should acknowledge this and pay due respect. Personally, I went from identifying as a ‘Hindu’, to an ‘American Hindu’, to an ‘adoptee of Hindu Dharma, to a ‘Sanatana Dharmi.’ I am a Sanatani, but not a Hindustani. Linguistic distortion and appropriation work hand-in-hand. Some measures of appropriation are difficult for Westerners to avoid. Many of us must learn what appropriation is in the first place. We tend to have the privilege of never having to be victims of it. Some who do know what appropriation is, fail to see how it causes harm. Any serious Western practitioner of the ‘eternal way’ is in at least some sense appropriating from Indic culture. It is therefore only proper and principled to practice such appropriation along with great appreciation and understanding. The most glaring example of appropriation of Indic or Hindu culture is the abduction of yoga darshana (philosophy). People in the West have always enjoyed the free taking of what is considered sacred to people from the East. We turn it into something it was never meant to be, just so it might fit into the narrow grooves of our understanding. We place it into the material. We make it marketable. We do away with Hindu terminology and create our own brands and labels. We take what is substantially transformative and metaphysical, and turn it into a mere commodity. Then we claim to have improved it and regurgitate a mutation back into the culture we consumed it from. There are, however, many yoga practitioners in the West who study and teach authentic and comprehensive systems of yoga. Many even adopt Hinduism or become ‘Hindu-ish’. There are also many Hinduphobic yoga instructors who have confiscated yoga, twisted it around, made it into a cult of the body, attached it to New Age pseudo-psychology, and then claimed it as their own invention. They have made themselves into the authorities on yoga, then portray it as purely secular. I’ve heard a few say that it has nothing to do with Hinduism. They unfortunately ignore important and preliminary aspects of yoga such as Satya (honesty), asteya (non-stealing), and aparigraha (non-attachment). ‘Is it any wonder there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world with everyone claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever.’ ~ Mahatma Gandhi The mystical and metaphysical aspects of yoga spirituality have been replaced by Christian yoga, goat yoga, power yoga, rage yoga, Namaste Bitches’ t-shirts, and Yoga Barbie dolls. The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued 150 yoga-related copyrights, 134 trademarks on yoga accessories and 2,315 yoga trademarks. And 1,500 patents involving the yoga industry are awaiting approval. This subvention is exploitative and results in the loss and distortion of religious and cultural traditions, arts, symbols, and the languages of Hindustanis. Appropriation along with the reminiscence of colonialism and a modern secular mindset, leaves Hindu tradition in the balance. Such spiritual and philosophical systems as yoga, are taken out of their religious and cultural contexts to fill the egotistical and financial needs of the Western yoga industrialist. There are certainly worse ways to make a living, but these traditions are forced to become a mundane misrepresentation of what was once and in fact still is, a religious practice. Actually, the etymological definition of the word ‘yoga’, and that of the word ‘religion’, are synonymous. I’ve attempted to explain cultural appropriation to American yogis and yoginis in terms they can understand. I ask them if they’d ever take customs from Native or rather indigenous Americans. Of course, they say they wouldn’t. Though if it were socially accepted and profitable, I’m sure they would. If only they could get away with it, as they do with the appropriation of India’s indigenous peoples and cultures. Let’s imagine how this would look. A young white American man, whose ancestors annihilated the natives and put them on reservations, becomes interested in Navajo culture. He visits a tribe and is allowed to take part in a sweat lodge, at no cost. He then comes back to his home in the city and builds his own sweat lodge. He decides to invite others to participate and charges them one hundred dollars each to participate. He doesn’t have an understanding of Navajo customs, and he wants to make the sweat lodge experience unique and more appealing to his customers. So he creates his own rituals and prayers to accompany the ceremony. He has his clients drink a six-pack of beer before entering the lodge (Google beer yoga). Now he’s not only stolen a sacred practice from a marginalized group of people. He’s turned it into something profane. In doing so, he’s promoted the stereotype that Native American people are drunkards. Then of course, the young man goes back to the reservation to teach Navajo children his new and improved ceremony that is ‘better than their traditional way.’ Beyond the appropriation of yoga, Hindu symbology is taken and used to make toilet seat covers. Tantra has been made into a fetish. A guru is anyone who has mastered his or her occupation. Karma is luck and fatalism. Meditation is just relaxation or at best, ‘mindfulness.’ The theory of reincarnation has been watered down, so hypnotherapists can perform ‘past-life regressions’. Even the word ‘dharma’ has been whitewashed and is translated to be synonymous with ‘religion.’ New Age self-help authors like Eckart Tolle (who is worth $75 million) get rich from Hindu ideology he gives no credit to. Kirtan is made performative by Western wallahs who claim that kirtan has nothing to do with any religion. After 1835 C.E., Ayurvedic medicine was subject to negative cultural and scientific appropriation by the British. They actively discouraged and suppressed Indian literature, languages, and sciences. Ayurveda is an integral part of Vedanta. It is a sister science to yoga which addresses all aspects of physical, mental, and spiritual health. In more modern times, the biomedicalization of Ayurvedic herbs, preparations and formulas has taken place. Such herbo-mineral products had been used by many hundreds of millions of Indians for at least the last 4000 years. Western biologists and pharmacologists have stolen some of these, patented them and became wealthy. Not a single rupee went back to the Indian culture or people who developed, tested and perfected what is an incredibly comprehensive system of medicine. Appropriation is ultimately an ingredient in the recipe for cultural genocide. The largest population of indigenous people, or Indian Hindus and their non-Indian Hindu allies, have the capacity to be the strongest front against such an eventual possibility. Though many forces have tried, the culture of Sanatana Dharma which may appear to fade, can never be extinguished. Indian Hindus are part of the oldest remaining civilization on Earth. Indian Hindus, Western Hindus, and the Hindu diaspora should treasure both the traditional and evolutionary aspects of Indic culture and champion common causes. The writer is an American Sanatani & the author of the soon-to-be-released book_, ‘A Hindu’s Guide to Advocacy and Activism’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. 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