Even if the ancient purpose of Āsana was not to show us that we could go beyond our limits, now a days, in a lifestyle where we have lost so much connection with our bodies, the practice of Āsana allows us also, between other things, to remember that the limits are in our minds. If you had told me on the times when I was a dancer, when I was 20 years old, that 17 years later I would not be a dancer but I would be more flexible and strong than what I was, I wouldn’t have believe it. These type of realizations can help us to remember about our potential, and to reprogram the limits in our minds. Though, I believe this acknowledgement is just a door. Then it has to be left behind. Once we remember that the limits are built in our minds we start walking the path of learning to let go of our achievements, otherwise, there will be a lot of practice and very little spiritual growing. 📸👉🏽 @b.p.wcislo #kapotasana #asana #sadhana #yogapractice #posturalyoga #svadhyaya #selfobservation #selfknowledge https://www.instagram.com/p/BxS5NyphllH/?igshid=1txw43ml8j9ae
The practice of Postural Yoga has been a gift in my life through which I have found healing, it has been a medicine in the relationship with my body, with my ego, with myself. After some years of dedicating my life to contemporary dance, and after entering in an internal battle with my need of attention and external recognition, I found Asana. In the practice of Asana I have found a way to express my deepest emotions, and the possibility to move subtle energies than otherwise would be condensed in my physical body. Through the practice of Asana, I have started to walk a path, the path to see inside, to see that which is invisible to the human eyes, that which we call soul. #asana #posturalyoga #svadhyaya #selfstudy #yogaismymedicine #practicekindnessandcompassion #yogaisequanimity https://www.instagram.com/p/BtoS5nFl7Ye/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1fi4umsqhrwo7
Cultural Appropriation & Yoga: Untangling the Knots, A Complex Conversation
The yoga taught in studios across London, New York, or Melbourne is, at first glance, remarkably similar to that found in many South Asian cities today. Sequenced postures, breath awareness, moments of meditation, and even playlists of gentle ambient music. In many ways, the globalisation of yoga has meant that it has become a shared, somewhat standardised form, whether taught in Mumbai or Manchester. Yet beneath this surface similarity lies a tangle of history, cultural shifts, and ongoing negotiations about how to honour a tradition while also allowing it to evolve.
A Complex Conversation
The question of what to share, what to protect, and how to teach with integrity is not only an Indian story. Many Western teachers, aware of the weight of colonial history and the risks of cultural appropriation, have also wrestled with these questions:
How to honour the roots of yoga without freezing it in time
How to adapt language, methods, and accessibility without hollowing out the depth
How to recognise privilege and historical harm while still participating in this living tradition.
Why the Term "Cultural Appropriation" Has Risen Now
The phrase has become more visible in recent decades alongside wider conversations about colonial history, systemic inequality, and the preservation of Indigenous and marginalised cultures. In many cases, communities have watched their traditions mined for profit while they themselves remain excluded from the benefits. The pushback is about balance, dignity, and reciprocity, not about shutting down sharing altogether.
Cultural Appropriation vs. Cultural Exchange
From the dawn of humanity, we’ve been exchanging words, music, tools, food, rituals and architecture. Ideas migrate like seeds on the wind. Cultures have met on trade routes and at river crossings, exchanged marriage vows across borders, sung each other’s songs under foreign moons. Language itself is the story of shared breath. Many tongues, from Greek to Latin to English, carry Sanskrit roots, just as Sanskrit absorbed Dravidian, Prakrit, and Persian influences.
Yoga itself has been adaptive and syncretic for hundreds of years. Indian yoga didn’t remain a sealed “pure” tradition; it absorbed ideas from Buddhism, Jainism, Sufism, European physical culture and modern gymnastics (especially in the early 20th century with figures like Krishnamacharya engaging with British and Swedish calisthenics).
That means influence has always been part of yoga’s story, but earlier exchanges often happened through cultural dialogue, shared philosophical ground, and mutual respect, not the globalised commercial extraction we see now.
Cultural exchange is mutual sharing that enriches both giver and receiver. It’s what has allowed human beings to grow, adapt, and evolve. Without it, we’d still be living in isolated fragments of the same human tapestry.
In modern yoga for example cultural exchange happens when the core philosophical and ethical frameworks remain intact, even as forms adapt (e.g., trauma-informed yoga or yoga therapy grounded in both ancient principles and modern science).
But cultural appropriation is different. It’s not the meeting of equals, it’s when a dominant culture takes elements from a marginalized culture without understanding, respect, or consent, often stripping away context, sacredness, and connection to the people who birthed them. What remains is a hollowed-out version, commercialised or aestheticised, while the originating community may still face discrimination for practicing the same traditions.
In modern yoga for example, cultural appropriation happens when its complexity, history, and context are stripped away, leaving a product (e.g., "45 mins sculpt", "power yoga", "aerial yoga", "yogalates" “goat yoga” or “beer yoga”) that uses the name but not the heart of the practice.
The two can look similar on the surface, and that’s where the blur comes in.
Navigating Survival, Politics, and Cultural Pressure in a Colonised and Post-Colonial World
Why did many of the most famous 20th-century Indian yoga teachers shape their teachings in ways that made yoga more acceptable, appealing, and “modern” for both Indian middle-class students under colonial influence and for Western audiences?
1. A Changing India
The early 20th century was a time of upheaval and reinvention. When yoga left India under colonial and postcolonial conditions, the power dynamics shifted.
India was under British rule, yet also experiencing surges of nationalist pride, reform movements, and cultural exchange. The British Raj certainly influenced perceptions of Indian traditions, often favouring what seemed “rational” or “scientific”, but the story was not one-way. Indian teachers, scholars, and reformers actively reshaped their traditions in dialogue with both local and international ideas.
The British Raj framed Indian traditions as “primitive” or “superstitious.” To gain legitimacy, Indian teachers often emphasised physical fitness, science-friendly explanations, and stripped-down spirituality that resonated with Western and Western-educated Indian students. Later Western industries often filtered, simplified, or rebranded yoga for Western tastes while marginalising Indian voices.
What might have once been exchange became, under these imbalances, appropriation, especially when Indian teachers had to teach a “safer,” “exotic-but-not-too-exotic” yoga to be accepted.
2. Indian nationalism and physical culture
In the decades before independence, physical vitality became linked to national pride. The physical culture movement sought to renew India’s strength and spirit, and yoga, reframed as a discipline of health, agility, and moral focus, was part of that vision.
Around the early 1900s, teachers like T. Krishnamacharya were part of a nationalist fitness movement aimed at strengthening India's body and spirit to resist colonial rule.
At the Mysore Palace, Krishnamacharya taught an athletic, flowing style of yoga to boys like B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois. These young students would later become pivotal in carrying yoga beyond India’s borders.
He integrated āsana with Swedish gymnastics, Indian wrestling, and calisthenics, not simply to please colonial tastes, but to meet the needs of their students, to strengthen the body, and to position "modern" physical culture, yoga, as relevant and powerful in India.
3. Global appeal and economic survival
By the mid-20th century, the West’s curiosity about Eastern practices grew, though often with selective interest, philosophy and ritual were sometimes less sought after than dynamic physicality.
Post-Independence, teachers like B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois found eager Western audiences. Many of these Western students wanted physical discipline with a touch of exotic mystique, not necessarily the full philosophical or ritual context.
When Iyengar, Jois, and others began teaching abroad, they brought with them the same evolving yoga that was already becoming popular in Indian cities. In fact, the yoga practiced today in South Asia, particularly in urban studios, is often very similar to what is found in the West, because both grew from these same 20th-century lineages.
Simplifying or reframing practices often meant more students, more income, and more reach.
This means the global “yoga body” is not simply a Western creation; it is a shared inheritance of adaptations made in India that travelled outwards, and then circled back through further exchange.
Examples of this adaptation
T. Krishnamacharya incorporated Swedish gymnastics and Indian wrestling moves into āsana sequences, particularly for young boys at the Mysore Palace.
Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga Vinyasa, presented as “ancient”, was in fact a modern, flowing style influenced by physical culture drills.
B.K.S. Iyengar used props and a highly anatomical focus to appeal to Western medical and therapeutic sensibilities.
Satyananda Saraswati systematised yoga nidrā, kriyās, and simplified mantra practices, making them accessible to Western students and publishable in books.
The double edge of adaptation
Positive: It made yoga accessible globally, creating pathways for cross-cultural learning. It also gave Indian teachers visibility and income in a Western-dominated world.
Negative: These adaptations often reinforced a Western-palatable image of yoga as mostly physical exercise, leaving behind ritual, philosophy, and community frameworks, which in turn fed the dilution and commodification we see today.
Yoga, Exchange, and Appropriation
As we have just explored and summarised yoga’s history is itself a story of exchange and adaptation. Over the centuries, it absorbed influences from Śramaṇa and Vedic traditions, from Buddhist and Jain thought, from Persian mysticism and Greek philosophy. Its philosophies travelled along with traders, seekers, and invaders, evolving in practice and form.
Modern postural yoga, as it’s often taught today, owes as much to 19th–20th century Indian innovators as it does to Swedish gymnastics, British military drills, and the emerging physical culture movement. Figures like Krishnamacharya blended traditional āsana with callisthenics and even elements of gymnastics to appeal to a changing India under colonial rule. If this hybrid form grew through intentional cultural cross-pollination, does it still count as appropriation when taught in the West?
The answer isn’t simple.
If we’re teaching yoga purely as a fitness fad, without acknowledging its roots, we risk erasing its philosophical and cultural depth.
If we treat Sanskrit words as trendy slogans or wear sacred symbols without understanding them, we reduce living traditions to mere aesthetic.
But if we engage with yoga’s history, lineage, and philosophy respectfully, recognising its Indian roots while acknowledging its modern hybrid form, our teaching becomes an act of cultural exchange, not theft.
A Living Tradition
Yoga is neither a relic to be preserved in glass nor a brand to be endlessly rebranded. It is a living, breathing path, one that will keep evolving as it meets new bodies, new cultures, and new challenges.
Sharing yoga means holding the tension between fidelity and fluidity, between respect for the past and responsiveness to the present.
It means asking ourselves, again and again:
Am I carrying this practice forward in a way that keeps it alive, and keeps me honest?
How can I teach in a way that honours lineage without pretending to be something I am not?
Am I offering these practices with full acknowledgment of their origins?
Am I giving my students access to the depth, the philosophy, the ethics, the meditation, rather than presenting yoga as “just stretching”?
Am I making space for South Asian voices in my learning, my references, my events?
How We Can Honour & Mitigate Harm
The question is not whether cultural borrowing should happen, it always has and always will, but how it happens. The difference between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation often comes down to consent, credit, context, and care.
To honour yoga’s complexities, we can:
Teach the whole path: Include philosophy, ethics, breath, mantra, mudra, nidra, relaxation, energy body and chakras and meditation alongside postures.
Learn the history. Understand the origins of the practices you share.
Name and credit the roots and lineage. Acknowledge the cultures and people who carried them forward. Share stories of the teachers and traditions that shaped your practice.
Credit and contextualise: Name the sources of chants, postures, and teachings.
Deepen our study: Learn from South Asian teachers and scholars, not just asana specialists, both in person and through reputable online platforms.
Go beyond aesthetics. Engage with the depth, not just the surface.
Support living traditions. Buy directly from artisans, study with teachers from the culture, contribute to preservation efforts.
Stay in conversation. Be open to feedback from the communities whose traditions you are sharing.
Use Language Thoughtfully, Consider when to use Sanskrit, and pronounce it with care. Avoid using sacred words as branding gimmicks.
Stay humble and curious: Recognise we are participants in a living, evolving tradition, not its owners. Recognise that this is an ongoing learning process, not a box to tick.
When Does It Stop Being Appropriation?
Perhaps the moment cultural borrowing stops being appropriation is when it becomes exchange rooted in relationship. When there is mutual respect, shared benefit, and awareness of history. When the act of teaching or practising is not one of extraction, but of stewardship.
In this light, yoga’s modern form, in both South Asia and the West, can be seen as a shared creation, born of countless dialogues, adaptations, and even tensions. It is neither frozen in time nor bound to a single cultural image. But it is also not ours to dilute beyond recognition.
Yoga asks us to walk with awareness, of our breath, our body, and our impact. To teach with integrity is to stay in that awareness, even when the path feels uncertain.
When we teach or practice yoga with humility and awareness, we can be part of a long, rich lineage of respectful cultural exchange, one that recognises the full humanity, history, and sacred meaning behind the practices we inherit.
Final Reflection
Yoga’s journey is not a simple slide from “pure” to “polluted,” nor is it a seamless story of universal sharing. It is a living, braided tradition, one strand carrying ancient philosophy, one carrying modern adaptation, and one carrying the marks of globalisation and power.
If we walk carefully, we can keep those strands woven together. The path is challenging, but it is also the path that leads forward, not to preserve yoga in a glass case, but to keep it rooted, vibrant, and responsive, without losing the soil from which it grows.
Reference and Further Reading
1. Understanding Cultural Appropriation vs. Cultural Exchange
Start broad, what the terms mean, how they’ve evolved, and where debates arise.
Young, James O. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
Scafidi, Susan. Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law. Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Ziff, Bruce, and Pratima V. Rao, eds. Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation. Rutgers University Press, 1997.
Rogers, Richard A. “From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural Appropriation.” Communication Theory, 2006, 16(4): 474–503.
2. Historical Patterns of Cultural Exchange
To see how ideas, foods, languages, and practices have always moved between peoples.
Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. Bloomsbury, 2015.
Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. Penguin, 2005.
Standage, Tom. An Edible History of Humanity. Walker & Company, 2009.
3. Colonial Contexts & Power Dynamics
For understanding why cultural appropriation debates sharpen in the context of colonialism.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton University Press, 1993.
4. Yoga’s Modern History and Globalisation
Focusing on how yoga moved from India to the West and transformed along the way.
Singleton, Mark. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Alter, Joseph S. Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 2004.
Strauss, Sarah. Positioning Yoga: Balancing Acts Across Cultures. Berg, 2005.
Newcombe, Suzanne. Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis. Equinox, 2019.
5. Ancient History of Yoga
For those curious about the deep historical roots of yoga beyond modern interpretations.
Mallinson, James & Singleton, Mark. Roots of Yoga. Penguin Classics, 2017.
Simpson, Daniel. The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga's History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices. North Point Press, 2021.
Wallis, Christopher D. Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition. Mattamayura Press, 2013.
6. Yoga, Cultural Appropriation & Ethics
Exploring the intersection of practice, respect, and responsibility.
Jain, Andrea R. Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Mohan, A. G. & Ganesh Mohan. Yoga Therapy: A Guide to the Therapeutic Use of Yoga and Ayurveda for Health and Fitness. Shambhala, 2010. (For context on traditional frameworks)
Shukla, Shreena. “How Not to Appropriate Yoga.” Journal of Yoga Studies, 2020.
Rosen, Richard. Yoga FAQ: Almost Everything You Need to Know About Yoga—from Asanas to Yamas. Shambhala, 2017.
7. Contemporary Debates & Voices from the Diaspora
Hearing from South Asian and Indian diaspora teachers and scholars is essential.
Jagannathan, Meera. “The Problem with How We Talk About Cultural Appropriation of Yoga.” Quartz India, 2018.
Patel, Rumya S. Yoga and the Roots of Cultural Appropriation. Self-published, 2021.
Mohanraj, Sharanya. “Decolonising Yoga: Beyond the Buzzwords.” Medium, 2021.
Podcasts like Yogaland (episodes on cultural appropriation), Yoga Is Dead, and The Love + Liberation Podcast.
The Rectus Femoris is one of the tricky muscles that when too tight can limit the range of back bending with hip extension. This is a polyarticular muscle which crosses the hip joint and the knee joint (while the other quadriceps cross only the knee joint). So most of the times we don’t reach its full range of lengthening and opposite to it we end up shortening it if we do many postures that require quadriceps strength and do not stretch it properly. When doing deep backbends such as Kapotasana one can feel the consequences of the extra tension in the muscle. Fortunately in Āsana practice we have postures such as #bekasana or Supta Virasana which stretch deeply the fibers of the Rectus Femoris. In order to create a deeper stretch in Bekasana, focus on creating a subtle posterior tilt of the pelvis by pressing the pubic bone to the floor and activating Moola Bandha. Add this to your daily practice and feel the difference in your backbends. #asanapractice #yogaasana #posturalyoga #sadhana #yogapractice #yogajourney #yogatips https://www.instagram.com/luanafarayoga/p/ByNjnEOndLR/?igshid=c0ylmdtqugt
What goes through your mind when you see a yoga practitioner doing what is considered an advance posture? . . . First of all, I have to start saying that this āsana, Dūrvāsāsana, is not in my practice (which you will notice immediately if it is in yours) and maybe I attempt to do it a few times times per year, mostly with curiosity and a playful intention. I don’t believe there is a difference in the dimension of my spiritual practice by doing this posture or any other, but I do acknowledge it requires a lot of mental focus in order to attempt it. Mental focus by itself without the devotion of the heart, for me, means nothing but a physical discipline. I have seen lately there is an association of complex asanas with being an advanced yogi. Just because I put my leg behind the head or because I do a handstand or a backbend doesn’t make me more yogi, it doesn’t make me more spiritual. There are two subjects here that I want to discuss: one is the fact that asana performance is associated with being a spiritual and conscious person. The second one is the collective imaginary that is built on the background of our minds about how a yogi should look (...) . (...) continue reading on my blog (link in my bio): www.luanafarayoga.com/blog-alma-nomada . 📸👉🏽 video still by @b.p.wcislo . . #durvasasana #posturalyoga #yogaasana #yogapractice #sadhana #yogajourney #svadhyaya #selfknowledge #selfobservation #practicekindnessandcompassion #collectiveawakening (at Santa Ana, Costa Rica) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByGS0fXny5F/?igshid=1vlwh20dabie4
