Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

Established in 2006, TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited operates as the nodal point for Tata businesses in West Africa. TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited has a strong presence in Nigeria with investments exceeding USD 10 million. The company was established in Lagos, Nigeria as a subsidiary of TATA Africa Holdings (SA) (Pty) Limited, South Africa and serves as the hub of Tata’s operations in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.

What About Us

Peter Berger (1929) is an American sociologist best known for his collaboration with Thomas Luckman in writing The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. That book argues that human reality, and knowledge of it, is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group’s interaction with larger social structures (institutions). Social structures, once widely adopted, lose their history as social constructions (objectivation), and come over time, by the people who live within them, to be deemed natural realities independent of human construction (reification). Berger predicted, in his later book, The Sacred Canopy, near-term all-encompassing secularization of religion, which prediction has proved false, especially in the third world (as Berger himself has acknowledged in his later work, Desecularization).

神圣的帷幕 : 宗教社会学理论之要素 = The sacred canopy elements of a sociological theory of religion

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Silencing the past: power and the production of history

Yoga is now found in urban centres and rural retreats across the world as well as in its historical home in the Indian subcontinent. What is now practiced as yoga across the globe has a long history of transnational intercultural exchange and has been considered by some as an outgrowth of Neo-Hinduism. Although the popularisation of yoga is often cited in theories about ‘Easternization’ or the ‘re-enchantment’ of the West since the late 20th century, most of these theories make little reference to the growing number of historical, sociological and anthropological studies of modern yoga. This article will consider how the apparent dichotomy between yoga as a physical fitness activity (often termed ‘hatha yoga’) and/or as a ‘spiritual practice’ developed historically and discuss recent trends in the research.

The Development of Modern Yoga: A Survey of the Field

Yoga in Britain reveals how yoga came to be an accepted, mainstream activity. In mid-twentieth century Britain, yoga transformed from an esoteric concept into a something that could be taught in to middle-class women in adult education classes.

Much of the popularization of yoga in this context was seen in terms of being a source of potential public benefit in promoting physical health and wellbeing. Yoga was also widely acknowledged to offer an opportunity for spiritual exploration, but largely as a private, highly individual concern.

Using extensive archival evidence and oral history interviews, the book stresses the importance of adult educational structures in how yoga was popularized in twentieth century Britain. It argues that this context is crucial in understanding the contemporary popularity of yoga globally.

Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis

In Britain, yoga became an increasingly popular group activity from the 1960s onwards in government-subsidised adult-education evening classes. Although yoga classes were open to everyone, women tended to make up 70 to 90 per cent of the student base of most classes as well as the majority of yoga teachers. This article briefly outlines how yoga became popular in Britain and then explores yoga's particular appeal to women during this period. Yoga's popularity can be partially accounted for by the way it simultaneously supported women's traditional identities of wife and mother, as well as a more independent identity promoted by second-wave feminism. Women typically attributed better physical health and emotional well-being to their practice of yoga and this was an important reason for their participation in the classes. Additionally, yoga served as an important support for women becoming more aware of feelings of alienation from traditional biomedical practitioners.

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Stretching for Health and Well-Being: Yoga and Women in Britain, 1960-1980

Flying, mind-reading, levitation, astral travel, controlling forces of nature, entering another’s body at will, defying aging and death, killing enemies at a distance—all these and more have been t...

Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration

The word yoga refers to a multi-faceted array of beliefs and practices. Yoga is twined with sāṃkhya as one of the six orthodox darshanas (worldviews) of Hindu philosophy, having been codified by around 400CE. A distinct body of texts known as the haṭhayoga corpus appears around the eleventh century and emphasizes physical practices most likely used by ascetic communities. The ultimate aim of yoga is described by various words (e.g., kaivalya, samādhi, mokṣa, etc.); it is often described as an experience of an individual soul’s uniting with the divine, and/or becoming liberated from the material world. These historical precedents have continuities with contemporary yoga practices and for many Indians today, yoga is understood as the essence of Indian spirituality.

However, yoga took on new meanings in the late colonial period, becoming a mental, physical and ethical discipline to aid in the struggle for an independent Indian nation state; a scientific, evidence-based practice to improve health and wellbeing; and template for the evolution of an individual as well as humanity as a whole. At the same time yoga kept an association with liberation and the realization of the ultimate nature of reality.

In the early twenty-first century, all these meanings are current in the Indian context, where yoga is continuing to experience a revival. Today in India, yoga is understood as a unique and valuable cultural resource which has the potential both to revitalize an individual’s health and the Indian nation-state, being an exemplar of the unique insights Indian traditions can give to the rest of the world. Despite a notable shift in what is understood by yoga in the modern period, yoga continues to be a multivalent and increasingly popular practice in contemporary India.

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Suzanne Newcombe

Papers

The Development of Modern Yoga: A Survey of the Field

Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis

Stretching for Health and Well-Being: Yoga and Women in Britain, 1960-1980

Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration

The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India