It’s a new beginning for India – in its new pursuit of
promoting a confident identity - using its age-old culture that has assimilated
different incoming shades and has survived for centuries and is still going
strong.
Yoga is a gift from India to the
world. It is an art, a science, and a transcendental philosophy to realize our
spiritual quotient. And in India, if we leave politics aside, its acceptability
goes beyond religions.
And the annual International Day
of Yoga (IDY), beginning this year today, on June 21, the Summer Solstice day
that brings to us the longest day of the year (Summer Solstice day can fall on
any day between June 20 to 22 but June 21 is common), should be seen in this
context. There will be debates on why ‘Narendra Modi’ proposed June 21. Reasons
range from scientific like the Summer Solstice to sociological like
celebrations associated with the day to mythological like Lord Shiva taking
note of the seven people in meditation for 84 years to seek him as their ‘Yoga
Guru’ (as Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev writes) to political like June 21 being the
birth anniversary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder Keshav
Baliram Hedgewar but let’s not go into that.
Yes, Yoga is a healing and wellness
gift to the world from India - from ancient times. And it has continued to be
so, spreading throughout the world, through travelers coming to India, through
Indian texts and religions in other civilizations, like Buddhism spreading in
many parts of the world, through cultural exports like art, sculpture and
tradition and through linguistic influences, like influence of Sanskrit can be
found in languages and scriptures of countries which shared historical trade
routes with India, like Swami Vivekananda found during his voyage to the United
States of America in the last decade of the 19th Century. It was
Swami Vivekananda who introduced Yoga to the Western world in an organized way.
He gave shape to an un-thought process that had started with European colonization
of India.
Yoga has been there since ages.
And its spread throughout the world has taken place gradually, in every age,
based on its merits, more so in 19th and 20th Centuries.
And it is continued even today with India being the leading light for gurus and
teachers of Yoga worldwide.
Sages and ascetics developed the
art in India and so naturally, the spiritual elements of Yoga have religious
texts of Hinduism of the day or whatever we want to call (the religion). It was
natural when the ascetics meditated enchanting names of deities (we follow
them; we find in our religious texts) and taught their followers to do so.
Doing so was practical and not religious. If religion had anything to do with
it, it was about the God, the common link between ascetics, sages and other
people. God was the central and common point of concentration of all. And it
has remained so.
And that pragmatism is applicable
across religions – in India, and outside India.
Yoga is an art that
scientifically improves the mind-body balance of a person and, if willing,
takes him to the higher realms of spirituality. Practicing it is not a must but
a lifestyle with Yoga as its inseparable element brings qualitative changes in
practitioners. And a large-scale adoption has potential to create healthier
societies. Obviously, thinking that Yoga alone can do it will be daydreaming
and more so in a society like India where multiple problems like poverty,
quality illiteracy and poor civic amenities still beset societies across the country.
To address the issue here, we need a political willpower to work on all these
issues holistically.
But it doesn’t belittle on the factual benefits of Yoga –
physical, meditational and spiritual – something that has taken it to beyond
India – in every part of the world.
What Narendra Modi did should have been done by the
political dispensation of India much earlier. It had to claim to be the
origin-place of a legacy that was already global in appeal and outreach. But
every political dispensation in India had failed to do so, so far. We cannot
say if they even thought about it.
And Narendra Modi did it. He realized the potential of
projecting soft power globally by claiming this legacy.
We may debate the quality and outcome of the governance so
far by the government of Narendra Modi but we need to give him the credit for
IDY.
India is the world’s largest democracy. It is the fastest
growing economy of the world. It is the third biggest economy of the world in
terms ‘purchasing power parity (PPP)’. Harvard University study report says
India’s middle class will be the largest one in the world by 2030. The country
is among the top military powers of the world with many firsts to its space
programme.
If politically handled well, the country is slated to go
up in the world order on human parameters as well. That requires efficient
governance not just on core issue but on other important issues as well – like
projecting cultural strength of India and using soft power as a policy tool to
further the nation’s interests.
An international day for Yoga established by the United
Nations and endorsed by its member countries including the Muslim ones on a
proposal moved by Narendra Modi is a positive step towards that. Narendra Modi
proposed IDY in September 2014. The United National General Assembly declared
it in December 2014. And we are celebrating the first IDY today – all in a span
of nine months.
The US has been using ‘soft power’ projections for decades
and is quite successful there. If America is seen the world over as the right
place for democratic values in a free and just society, we need to give due
credit to its soft power projections as well. We all see that theme in
Hollywood films – an industry with global export scale – even to the countries
where dictators run amok. Russia was a natural villain in many big productions
during the Cold-War years. In recent times, North Korea and China (though to a
lesser extent) have also taken that place.
And China is trying its hands on projecting its soft power
too though it has not much to talk about as the country is one of most
repressive societies where one is free as long as one toes the government line
there. That leaves China to promote its culture as the selling point, sans any
political element. Projections of Chinese martial art, Chinese culture in
ancient, medieval and modern times and China’s resilience during its occupation
by Japan have been the main elements of this soft power projection.
India fares much better than China in having acceptable
elements of soft power and the country should use such elements as a policy
tools to enhance its global image like it has done with IDY. Yes, there will be
controversies and criticisms and some loopholes in the execution of the
developments associated with the projections, but sending the larger message
will subside all that.
The world celebrated this global day today – from India to
America – from many European countries to Latin American countries – from Asia
to Africa – from predominantly Muslim countries to the democracies having
predominantly Christian population.
And India led the show, led the way. The day was
celebrated on a wide scale in India and abroad. Government wings including its
forces and foreign missions were preparing for the day. Ministers and teachers
were sent in many countries to organize events there. Spiritual and religious
guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj led the
event at the United Nations in Washington. And in India, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi culminated his ‘daily Yoga tutorial through videos’ with a grand event at
Rajpath in Delhi where more that 35000 people participated. Guinness says two
world records were made today – 35,985 people made the world’s largest Yoga
class in Delhi – and they were of record 84 nationalities.
And the right images from India met with the right images
from the world over. Many in the global media covered IDY naming India as the
country behind the move.
June 21 is also the birth anniversary of Jean-Paul Sartre,
the French philosopher Existentialism is synonymous with. Individual existence
is central to Existentialism and social developments are seen from the
perspectives of human subjects. Hope policymakers in India also work on the
core issues related to the human subjects – alleviating poverty, improving
education and healthcare, ensuring Constitutional rights and removing
corruption – in addition to the successful public relations exercises like the
International Yoga Day.
