But it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has transformed yoga into a hugely potent tool for public diplomacy. Even during Nehru and Indira Gandhi’s times, yoga had become popular with the global elite. Pierre Trudeau, twice the prime minister of Canada, was a yoga enthusiast. In a popular photo from 2011, his son and the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, copied his father’s peacock pose (Mayurasana), performing it on the desk of the Canadian Parliament’s Opposition Caucus room. However, by the time Modi became the prime minister in 2014, yoga had become a big global trend. The internet increased the popularity of yoga manifolds.
In yoga’s vast popularity in the West — from pop singer Madonna to Michelle Obama, yoga practitioners come from diverse backgrounds — Modi spotted its potential to become a vehicle of India’s soft power. Today, Modi will lead a unique yoga session in a historic celebration to commemorate the 9th International Day of Yoga at the UN Headquarters in New York. It was Modi who first announced the International Yoga Day in 2014 under the UN auspices.
By taking part in numerous public yoga events and promoting yoga in various ways at home and across the world, Modi has become synonymous with yoga. This gives Modi a definite edge in his ambitious diplomatic enterprise.
A icebreaker in power talks
Modi’s relentless efforts to position India as a global power player are helped by yoga. Small gestures and routine shared interests do matter when world leaders interact. If nothing else, they provide a small common ground that has the potential to later turn into a big interface. Modi’s active evangelism for yoga has become a talking point among the global power elite.
Modi has said that almost every conversation he has with a world leader starts with yoga and there is scarcely any dignitary who has not discussed the wellness regime with him.
“Wherever I travel in the world, irrespective of how tall [in stature] the leader is, the conversation starts with yoga. There is hardly any leader who has not spent 5-10 minutes talking about yoga. Some wanted to know about yoga. I have sent literature to some. And there are few who practise on their own,” Modi said in 2019.
A personal connection between global leaders indeed goes a long way in strengthening relations between their countries.
Hard benefits of the soft power
It is often argued that yoga gives India a soft power in the world. Soft power gives a country influence without coercive or transactional means. Soft power emerges from the culture of a country which persuades or attracts others. Yoga, of course, is India’s soft power, which presents India as a benign and well-intentioned country and draws foreigners into Indian traditional culture.
Yoga’s soft power can yield hard benefits too. For example, India has to battle negative perceptions in global discourse which limit not only its scope to influence the world but these perceptions also find ways into policies and norms that influence India’s economy. Negative perceptions can deter foreign investors and impede new alliances. Yoga is an effective burnisher of India’s image that showcases the country’s inclusive traditions.
America is the largest yoga-practising nation outside India. More than 36 million people (around 12 per cent of the population) practice Yoga in the US, according to a 2019 Yoga Journal survey, There was a staggering 50 per cent growth in yoga practitioners since 2012 when only 20 million were in the fold. Approximately one in three Americans has tried yoga at least once, with the number of over 50s practising yoga tripling over the last four years, according to the survey. The majority of the yoga practitioners (72 per cent) are female. The survey said there were 6,000 yoga studios in the US and Americans spent $16 billion on yoga classes, clothing, equipment, and accessories each year.
Such a vast demographic that practises yoga in America must include politicians, diplomats, other government officials, policy makers and corporate leaders. A positive image of India among the American power elite can get India hard benefits, swinging government and business deals India’s way and creating bipartisan support for India. In fact, people who practise yoga in America are largely seen as a college-educated, liberal demographic, certainly the kind of people who influence public discourse.
India has been late in deploying its cultural power. China started doing it more than a decade ago. Despite being ruled by a communist party that has no love for tradition, China worked hard to popularise traditional Chinese medicine in the West, and it has got it recognised in many Western countries. It also excavated Confucius from history and presented it as a Chinese icon to the world to make itself more acceptable in the West. Such measures have played a great role in mainstreaming China’s regime in the West.
Yoga and Modi’s normative ambitions
Modi often speaks of India as the vishwaguru, the teacher of the world. No doubt, the world can learn a lot from India’s philosophical traditions for creating a better society, but the real vishwaguru today is Europe which sets the rules for the world. Normative power, roughly the power to decide what is right or wrong for the world, lies with Europe. It has the power to create norms and globalise them such as human rights and sustainable development.
Modi’s references to India as the Vishwaguru indicate his ambition to put India on the path to become an alternative normative power. While this may sound quite unrealistic at the moment, such enterprises take a very long time to materialise. Yoga’s universal character can help India promote universal ideals that can influence policies and procedures.
The practice of yoga comes with a range of sophisticated philosophies which can inform global policy debates, if not dictate them. Modi has already presented yoga to the world as a universal practice and promoted its adoption. Saudi Arabia is set to introduce yoga in its universities, Arab News reported recently. It had earlier approved yoga as a sporting activity. This is a mark of Modi’s zeal to promote yoga in the world since yoga is generally considered a Hindu religious practice and finds little favour in people practising other religions.
Modi’s success with promoting yoga as a universal practice could be a beginning for India to start emitting other ideas too in the larger world. Yoga could be the thin end of India’s cultural wedge that can create a special place for the country in the world. Modi’s yoga push could be a tiny step towards India’s emergence as a global power that defines important debates and decision-making processes.
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