Dear Nagaraj, 

It's a good question. Please let me try and explain.

I'm an anthropologist, primarily, who is interested in the politics of imagination and the commodification of desire. I am using a dialogic utopian method to explore what the world could be for various groups. With that in mind, my remit is to suspend judgement and disbelief, and try to privilege the emic perspective.

I focus on the global wellness industry, of which yoga and ayurveda are a part. More specifically, I analyse the marketing rhetoric of the global yoga industry. I do this to understand many things, however, one thing in particular that I am increasingly interested in is the tacit links, via the Sanskrit episteme, between the ethno-nationalism of the Indian state and the desires of global yoga practitioners, which are overwhelmingly to apply yoga, as a technology, to help re-enchant disenchanted worlds. It is through the cultural capital of yoga and prestige of Sanskrit that hindutva ideology is normalised and legitimised. 

There are many ways in which global yoga practitioners come to unwittingly support the banal nationalism of hindutva. Two principal ways are through the soft hindutva of various yoga gurus, and the fantasies of people like David Frawley, Stephen Knapp and PN Oak. This hindutva-inspired world view permeates to deep layers of global yoga. Furthermore, the logic of the guru-disciple relationship relies on the cultivation of affect. People are taught how to feel, and not to think critically. This further creates opportunities for hindutva logic to be infused into the guru's rhetoric, normalised, and consumed by the global yoga practitioner.

Of course, all nations are metaphysical entities, and exist within social imaginary landscapes. Are you suggesting that we should ignore the fantasies of hindutvavādins as mere pie in the sky machinations, and not take them seriously? Or should we, instead, see them as earnest post-colonial, counter-hegemonic assertions against the privilege of Eurocentric perspectives?  While it seems unlikely that as Praveen Togadia and others assert, that the world will become Hindu/Vedic by 2030-ish, and that Sanskrit will replace English, these post-colonial assertions mean something to the people saying them, especially when they are found not only in the echo chambers of Hindu supremacists, but also within the global imagination of yoga practitioners. 

Therefore, how do these seemingly disparate worlds intersect? This is particularly pertinent given that a seeming majority of global yoga practitioners consider the legitimate yogic disposition to be apolitical, which is another way in which the theo-politics of hindutva gains popularity, simply because people do not want to think about yoga AND politics, or that yoga might be involved in larger political operations. 

My fieldwork amongst global yoga practitioners leads me to assert that there are many who eagerly await a Vedic-inspired utopian ramrajya, but do not, however, really understand the implications, as what we are more or less discussing is the aspiration to create a global Vedic caliphate, which is what Ramdev asserts is the only answer to stopping ISIS. These aren't fringe fantasies, as the key note speakers who attended this conference attest.

Therefore, in a nutshell, this is why I give credence to such fantasies. 

Best, 

Patrick








On Aug 7, 2017 3:25 PM, "Nagaraj Paturi" <nagarajpaturi@gmail.com> wrote:
Patrick,

Why do you give credence to all such fantasies and spend serious research time to work on them?

All beliefs that someone, some religion, some nation, some ideology can rule the whole world are fantasies. 

""The Bhagwa flag has existed and guided the Vedic society right from its origin. It has inspired and has been honored by the Vedic Saints and heroes. In ancient times, the warriors used to put on saffron robes and go to the battlefield. If they are victorious, they will rule and if vanquished, they might die on the battlefield and thus go to heaven--such was the motivating force for the heroes.""

is a fantasy about the past. 



On Thu, Aug 3, 2017 at 9:38 AM, patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Friends,

I'm conducting a geneological study of the bhagwa dvaj flag, and would appreciate any assistance in this matter. 

I'm reading about the significance of the flag. As I'm sure many of you are aware, it is the flag of choice for the RSS. They consider it their 'guru', and have only recently hoisted the tricolour flag at their Nagpur headquarters, after several decades of saying they never would. However, it also happens to sit upon just about every Hindu temple I've ever seen. I'm curious, then, if this could mean that every temple/ashram supports the RSS, or that the RSS has simply co-opted the flag, and interpolated their own political imagination onto the symbology inherent in the flag. 
Either way, it is conveniently confusing, as it happens to also represent sanātana dharma, which is equated with Hinduism. But, then, I would argue that sanātana dharmic ideology rests at the core of the hindutva project. Therefore, I'm quite confused about the semiotic entanglement of this one sign, and its multiple semantic valencies. 

I ask these questions because I figure that, if I have trouble disambiguating these things, what is the chance of success for the recently minted 200-hr yoga teacher graduate, or casual yoga practitioner?

I'm writing these days about the entanglement of global yoga practitioners and their potentially unwitting, tacit support of hindutva ideology. As an example, Stephen Knapp, a prominent ISKCON-wallah, and head of the VFA (vedic friends association), whom some of you might be familiar with, controversially suggests the following: 
"The Bhagwa flag has existed and guided the Vedic society right from its origin. It has inspired and has been honored by the Vedic Saints and heroes. In ancient times, the warriors used to put on saffron robes and go to the battlefield. If they are victorious, they will rule and if vanquished, they might die on the battlefield and thus go to heaven--such was the motivating force for the heroes."

I find this appeal to a (martial) tradition somewhat perplexing. Aside from what a lot of Knapp says, this is possibly less controversial; however, for the uncritical mind, who is expected to unquestionably accept the truth claims of certain gurus, this type of triction (truth+fiction), is a prime example of how global yoga practitioners potentially come to unknowingly support a hindutva world view, which, as Ramdev explains, seeks to create a hindutva alternative to an ISIS caliphate. This, by the way, is his solution. By creating a global, Vedic theocratic state we can apparently stop a global Salafist caliphate from succeeding...

Knapp has not responded to my question regarding the textual, historical or archaeological source of his claims. I'm wondering, then, if anyone is able to point me towards the earliest mention, perhaps, of the bhagwa dvaj, anywhere, in a primary, or secondary, text. 

Thank you. 



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--
Nagaraj Paturi
 
Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.


BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
 
FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
 
(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )