INDIA-YOGA DAY PREPS Minorities in India feel marginalised as country prepares for yoga day

Record ID: 151780

  • Title: INDIA-YOGA DAY PREPS Minorities in India feel marginalised as country prepares for yoga day
  • Date: 20th June 2015
  • Summary: LUCKNOW, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA (JUNE 19, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) MUSLIM CLERIC, MAULANA AKRAM NADVI, SAYING: "We have not opposed yoga, that is a misconception. But yes, if yoga is associated with certain religious beliefs or with some religion, then we find it wrong. Yoga is an exercise and exercise should be left as such and nobody has objections to that." NEW
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5KBI0JMGD5YPCJQ50UAHCMI8M
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of volunteers took part in yoga and meditation at New Delhi's central vista on Friday (June 19), preparing to make a success of the first International Day of Yoga under the stewardship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
    Modi's efforts to seize on yoga as India's signature cultural export have his Hindu nationalist allies swelling with pride but are leaving some minority religious groups feeling marginalised.
    An enthusiastic practitioner of yoga himself, Modi set up a new ministry for yoga last year.
    He also persuaded the United Nations to declare June 21 the International Day of Yoga, the first of which will be celebrated on Sunday (June 21) with a big yoga event in New Delhi, with schools encouraged to take part.
    The ministry says yoga is "widely considered as an 'immortal cultural outcome' of the Indus Saraswati valley civilisations," which date back to 2,700 B.C.
    Renowned yoga and meditation instructor Sadhguru, whose Isha foundation has trained 36,000 instructors who will lead yoga classes across the world on Sunday, said the global community's willingness to embrace yoga has signalled a paradigm shift in mindsets.
    "Leaders of nations have talked about how to win wars, occupy other lands and stuff. But rarely they have ever spoken, for the first time in one voice 177 countries, talking about the inner well-being of the human being. I feel it is momentous and it is, in a way, can be a game changer," Sadhguru told Reuters at his ashram on the outskirts of New Delhi.
    He said it was high time people began looking inwards for peace and prosperity of the body and soul, something yoga propagates, instead of material gains.
    However, the run-up to the event has been marred by acrimonious exchanges between Hindu right-wingers and Muslim radicals.
    Hindu nationalist groups, including Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have said they want to resurrect India's past glory, a concept based on a mix of history and Hindu myth.
    The so-called glory days, however, precede Islam and Christianity, and the yoga push comes at a time of heightened fears among religious minorities that the BJP and its right-wing allies are trying to change India from a secular nation to a Hindu country.
    Members of India's minority groups say the move to promote yoga is a ploy to whip up Hindu pride and marginalise the country's 175 million Muslims.
    India's main opposition Congress party has also attacked the yoga event as a political gimmick.
    Muslim cleric and member of the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Khalid Rasheed, said the community is against the chanting of Hindu hymns on the International Day of Yoga.
    "So what we have objected [to] is that the government must not associate any kind of religious ritual or any kind of Surya Namaskar (sun salutations), and basically the politics that is being played and the type of comments and the type of statements that is being given by certain BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] MPs that are targeted against the Muslim community," Rasheed said.
    Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest who is now a prominent BJP legislator, said earlier this month that minority groups that oppose yoga should either leave the country or drown themselves in the sea.
    The RSS last year passed a resolution calling for yoga to be made compulsory in schools and universities.
    Maulana Akram Nadvi, a Muslim cleric, said the hype and comments from Hindu bodies ahead of the event had given the yoga day a distinct religious colour.
    "We have not opposed yoga, that is a misconception. But yes, if yoga is associated with certain religious beliefs or with some religion, then we find it wrong. Yoga is an exercise and exercise should be left as such and nobody has objections to that," Nadvi said.
    Some proponents of yoga argue that it is an exercise regimen that transcends religion, and so Muslims are wrong to oppose the government for encouraging it.
    Sadhguru said yoga is a means of keeping the mind and body healthy, without any religious connotation.
    "The first step of yoga is the user's manual: how to sit, how to breathe, how to manage this body, how to get the maximum out of this system. How to keep it an optimal level of function and experience every moment of your life. This is the science of yoga. Is it against any religion? It does not matter what you believe, what you don't believe, every human being has a right to be well. If he has a right to be well, yoga is a powerful tool," Sadhguru said.
    In spite of controversy surrounding the event, Modi is set to showcase it as one of his personal accomplishments.
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