Shameem Black, "Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions" (Columbia UP, 2023)

In this episode of New Books in Indian Religions, Dr. Miranda Melcher interviews Dr. Shamim Black about her book 'Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions,' published by Columbia University Press in 2024. Black explores how yoga—though globally popular—has become a contested site of national identity, cultural ownership, and political ideology, particularly in the context of India’s rising Hindu nationalism. She examines how the Indian state has actively rebranded yoga as a gift to the world and a form of traditional knowledge to assert sovereignty over it, while simultaneously facing ambivalence in the Indian diaspora and resistance from subversive cultural expressions. The discussion delves into how fiction, U.S. court cases, and global capitalism shape perceptions of yoga’s religiosity, Indianness, and gendered power dynamics. Black highlights yoga’s paradoxical role in masking racialized violence in the West while also offering tools for critical self-reflection, embodied inquiry, and cross-cultural connection. Despite the tensions, she argues that yoga’s true potential lies in its capacity to foster awareness of power, diversity, and justice when approached with critical consciousness. Key takeaways include: yoga is not a monolithic practice but a site of competing narratives shaped by politics, capitalism, and identity; the Indian state’s promotion of yoga as a national gift reinforces sovereignty but risks erasing local and diasporic voices; the U.S. legal system’s treatment of yoga reveals deep anxieties about Indianness and religion in public space; yoga teachers embody the precarity of the gig economy while performing emotional labor; and yoga can be a transformative tool for justice when used as a practice of embodied critical inquiry rather than escapism. The conversation ends on an optimistic note, emphasizing yoga’s potential to deepen empathy, self-awareness, and connection across difference.