The following dialogue
takes place between a Patanjali yoga Teacher, Vidya, and a student, Brahmari.
Part 2
V: What are your thoughts now, Brahmari, is Orientalism
something that we have moved beyond or is it something that continues today?
B: I went back and read through Orientalism again, and it seems that Orientalism, according to
Said, is an ongoing project, because although European colonialism has formally
ended, NATO nations maintain an imperial influence over the former colonial
world[1].
V: How then are Orientalist discourses perpetuated today?
B: Mostly through media and popular culture. For example,
Said argues that Western media largely ignores the Orient except to portray
Orientals in a negative light, usually as terrorists or helpless victims of
patriarchal societies, natural disasters and disease[2].
In popular culture, Said says Orientals are typically portrayed as
"oversexed, degenerate...cleverly devious intrigues, but essentially
sadistic, treacherous, low"[3].
V: Do you think Orientalism continues to influence how
popular culture portrays Hindu images?
B: Absolutely, an obvious example is the film "Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom". The majority of the film takes place in
1935 Northern India. Indiana Jones and company crash a plane in the Himalayas and
are immediately assumed by the local Hindus to be saviors sent by Shiva.
Already one can see the Orientalist power relationship between the Occident and
the Orient being utilized by the filmmakers. Considering that during 1935
India's fight for independence was in full force it is highly unlikely that a
group of foreigners would be perceived as being God-sent.
B: Further misrepresentations of Hindus are present during
the banquet scene, when Indiana Jones and company are served dishes such as
baby snakes, human eyeballs and monkey brains. Snakes, monkeys and eyes are all
sacred icons in Hinduism, but this is ignored in favor of establishing Hindus
as barbaric Heathens. The portrayal of the goddess Kali as a bloodthirsty
demoness further engrains the portrayal of Hindus as barbaric Heathens. This
portrayal of Kali is also highly inaccurate and ignores the sophistication of
her iconography. During the first sacrificial scene in which the audience
witnesses a Hindu being sacrificed to Kali, the nameless Hindu is portrayed as
small, and skinny, praying to Shiva to save him. The image contrasts Indiana
Jones' portrayal as the rational, brave, active Occidental hero. As the priest,
Mola Ram, shows the heart he has removed from the (still living) victim's chest
to the masses of followers the audience sees masses of faceless Hindus waving
their arms and beating drums. As Said note: "the [Oriental] is always
shown in large numbers. No individuality, no personal characteristics or
experiences. Most of the pictures represent mass rage and misery or
irrational...gestures"[4].
While Temple of Doom takes place in a Hindu region of India, many of the
background characters portrayed are dressed in more Islamic styles, further
perpetuating the idea that all Orientals are the same.
V: While the Indiana Jones films are classics and certainly
perpetuate Orientalist stereotypes, on some level the audience knows that what
they are watching is not a reflection of reality. Can you think of any more
subtle expressions of Orientalism present in today's popular culture?
B: The other day I saw former Disney channel star, Selena
Gomez's music video for her song "Come and Get It" playing on a TV
that was for sale. While it is less blatantly disrespectful than the Indian
Jones example, the song and music video rely heavily on Orientalist
assumptions. For example, the song relies heavily on the use of technology to
create the overall texture of the song, but underneath the dense sound of
technology, is an Indian tabla drum, which creates the beat. The tabla gives
this otherwise unremarkable, if catchy, pop song an exotic flavor. Coupled with
the sexual lyrics the song relies on the listener's Orientalist samskaras to
reinforce the idea in our minds that this song is exotic and erotic due to its
Oriental flavors. While promoting the song Selena, a half Caucasian half Latina
American, wore a variety of colorful, sparkly bindis while performing the song
on television.
V: What is the significance of the bindi?
B: Traditionally the bindi is representative of the third eye
chakra, one of the major energy centres located in between the eyebrows. The
bindi is reminiscent of the Hindu god Shiva, as well as the goddess Shakti. The
bindi is also indicative of a woman's marital status and it also indicates that the wearer is committed to her
Hindu beliefs[5]. Selena
Gomez is not married, she is not Hindu and the lyrical content of the song is
more appropriate for the sacral chakra than the third eye chakra. Instead Gomez
is using the bindi to appear more erotic without upsetting her Disney channel
fan base by channeling an Oriental persona. She has created her own meaning,
her own significance for the bindi, one that is completely detached from the
significance it traditionally holds in Hindu culture.
V: The argument can be made, however, that the bindi is now
detached from its traditional meaning in India as well, it has become more of a
fashion accessory than a religious icon[6].
Why does it matter that Gomez is wearing a bindi?
B: The meaning that Gomez creates for the bindi when she
wears it to perform "Come and Get It" is very different than the
meaning that is attributed to Hindu Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in the West. On
Selena the bindi is cool and sexy, but on an NRI woman it is a sign of failed
assimilation, it brings to mind the image of the immigrant who is 'fresh off
the boat' and inherently backwards. The colonial and Orientalist samskara that
'they' (the Orientals) need to become more like 'us' (the Occidentals) in order
to develop as a civilization is still present in our minds. Gomez is associated
with Disney, a company that embodies Occidental ideals, and therefore she can
adopt the bindi and all it's Orientalist associations without demeaning
herself, while a Hindu NRI woman must adopt Western dress and practices in
order to experience the same level of respect in society in general. While
there are exceptions, by and large North American and European culture demands
that immigrants conform with cultural norms in order to be accepted, and the
bindi does not fit into that cultural norm.
V: How do you feel when you see instances of ongoing
Orientalism?
B: I feel very uneasy. I have an enormous amount of respect
for the beliefs and the culture and that is not represented in Orientalist
discourses. Orientalism tends to not only be inaccurate but also degrading and
dominating. To see that Orientalism is ongoing implies that the corresponding
colonial power relationships are also ongoing. It implies that the West is
still a colonizing force, and so long as that persists there will be enormous
inequity. The British wanted India's natural resources, and so took them by
force, justifying it with the lies one finds in Orientalism. We still use those
lies, but instead now we are taking what we want out of India's cultural
knowledge and iconography and using them how we want.
V: Would you define what is happening here as cultural
appropriation?
B: Yes, Selena
Gomez is absolutely appropriating the bindi in her performances. The main thing
I struggle to comes to terms with in regards to cultural appropriation is this
sense that only the more dominant group can appropriate cultural products, when
technically cultural appropriation can go both ways.
V: While this may be true, ongoing Orientalism and colonial
power relationships shape any kind of cultural exchange that occurs between
India and the West. Specifically, your initial concern about Lululemon's
Brahmacharya bag is about a Canadian clothing company appropriating the Hindu
cultural concept of Brahmacharya and recreating it in its own image. Very
clearly this is an instance of cultural appropriation.
B: I can see how ongoing Orientalism is insulting, but
stealing on such a large scale? It does not seem that simple when one takes
into account the history of Hindu Nationalism.
V: How so?
B: Hindu Indians such as Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda and
Mohandas K. Gandhi used Orientalist discourses that romanticize the Orient to
justify a Hindu Nationalist movement based on the supremacy of Hinduism[7].
In the Hindu Swaraj, Gandhi repeatedly refers to how India's (Hindu Brahmin)
ancestors had the foresight and wisdom to predict many of the pitfalls of
Europeans' concepts of modernization, civilization and development and forge a
different path. Instead, Gandhi argues for a dharma-based concept of the
civilization, in which morality and self-control are the measurements of
success[8].
In justifying his conceptualization of civilization he relies on the accounts
of British Orientalist writers to justify the superiority of Indian Hindu
culture over all other cultures, saying, "If this definition be correct,
then India, as so many British writers have shown, has nothing to learn from
anybody else"[9]. Years later
he goes on to say "that the Europeans themselves will have to remodel
their outlook if they are not to perish under the weight of the comforts to which
they are becoming slaves"[10].
Not only does Hindu Brahmin India have the greatest cultural base for a
thriving civilization, but the Occident would be advised to adopt the system
Gandhi is arguing for as well. Gandhi is not the only Hindu Nationalist to
argue that Hinduism and yoga are India's greatest goods to export; most notably
Swami Vivekananda made similar arguments. Swami Vivekananda re-imagined
Hinduism and yoga in an Orientalist-inspired, Hindu Nationalist vein, one that
rejected the hatha yoga tradition that fuelled Orientalist heathen stereotypes,
and exported it to North America and Europe[11].
If Vivekananda wanted to, in some respects, export religious and spiritual
practices to the West, then not only is he countering Orientalist/colonial
power dynamics, but he is inviting non-Indians to engage with these cultural
beliefs and practices; therefore, it cannot by definition be appropriation.
These religious and cultural ideas i.e. yoga have been freely given, not
stolen, asteya. There seems to be, in a sense, a conversion process.
V: Is it a conversion process? Perhaps you can make that
argument with Buddhism but Hinduism was never intended as a conversion religion[12].
B: If this huge acceptance of certain Hindu images in Western
popular culture is not the result of a conversion process, does that
necessarily mean that Hinduism is being appropriated en masse? Is there no
middle way in which the popularity of Hindu images and practices is the result
of mass appreciation?
V: Appreciation of what? Of a glorified, exotic exercise
regime? Or the actual teachings? And which teachings? The ones favored by
Orientalist scholars? There is a mass cultural appropriation of Hinduism taking
place in the West. Yoga may be appreciated en masse, but most people in the West
who practice yoga are not engaging with yoga's background; instead, yoga is
being primarily used according to Western cultural norms. That is not to say
that all yogis in the West are appropriating yoga, but on a popular culture
level, absolutely. How many people who buy Urban Outfitters' Ganesh tapestry,
have any clue who Ganesh is and what his significance is? Bhakti art is a
fashion accessory in the West; do you see other religion's iconography
exploited the same way?
B: People can identify the Buddha, the cross and the Star of
David, but Hindu deities are not nearly as well known by name nor are their
significance understood, and yet they are easy to purchase.
V: These religions have different relationships with Orientalism
than Hinduism. We have proven that Orientalism is not dead and therefore our
society's larger cultural attitudes towards Hinduism are still informed by
those samskaras. Orientalism gives us the feeling that we have the right to
appropriate Hindu icons and concepts and recreate them however we so please. We
can glorify them or we can tear them down depending on what we feel like.
B: So the Ganesh tapestry and the Brahmacharya bag are only
two visible examples of how these colonial samskaras are still within our
minds...
V: Exactly. Are these samskaras something Sri Patanjali would
teach us to stop through our yoga practice?
B: Of course, in the passage you were discussing at the
beginning of the lesson Sri Patanjali tells us that Isvara, pure awareness is
part of the path to enlightenment and that Isvara is without samskaras.
Furthermore, the actions that arise out of these latent impressions are harmful
to others. As Said puts it so aptly, "The nexus of knowledge and power
creating 'the Oriental' and in a sense obliterating him as a human being is
therefore not...an exclusively academic matter. Yet it is an intellectual matter
of some obvious importance"[13].
Orientalism deems Hindus as lesser human beings due to the othering of their
culture. Not only is that harmful, but it is untruthful as well. Orientalism is
also contributing to our belief that we in the West have the right to continue
acting like our colonizer forefathers did. We believe that we have the right to
take what we want from other people and use it as we please, that is stealing,
and it is stealing based on greed and possesiveness. That is four of the five
yamas or self-restraints broken, and considering the relationship between
Orientalism and eroticism it is not a stretch to believe that the fifth yama,
brahmacharya is also threatened. More importantly than that Orientalism forces
us to perceive the world and the people in it incorrectly, it allows our minds
to turn things around. If the goal of yoga is to stop the mind from turning, we
need to combat our internalized Orientalism and our internalized experiences of
colonialism, which in the West put us on a false pedestal. That is our yoga
today in the West.
V: How are we to do that?
B: Sri Patanjali identifies a number of practices to engage
in to work towards Isvara, among them beginning to discern between correct
perceptions and the mind turning, good actions or karma through the practice of
the yamas and niyamas, in addition to the external work of the asanas and
pranayams etc.
V: What Sri Patanjali describes in the Yoga Sutras is how to
engage in a process of 'unlearning', which is what Said himself calls for[14].
In place of all the samskaras which we are 'unlearning' Said urges us to search
out alternative, nonrepressive and nonmanipulative perspectives to Orientalism[15].
Living a life according to the yamas and niyamas forces us to do just that
while also furthering us along the path to enlightenment.
B: Said also notes though that, in his words, "One would
have to rethink the whole complex problem of knowledge and power,"[16].
Is that not extreme?
V: Inspired by the Upanisads to question the power relations
laid out in the Vedas and challenge our understanding of the world, is that not
the lineage of our practice?
B: It is.
V: Then perhaps Patanjali yoga is extreme, but the ongoing
effects of Orientalism and colonialism are also extreme and stretch far beyond
the issue of cultural appropriation of Hindu images. That is why we need to
practice yoga.
[1]
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the
Orient. London: Penguin Press. p. 285
[2] Ibid. p. 286
[3] Ibid. p. 286-7
[4] Ibid. p. 287
[5]
Antony, Mary Grace. 2010. 'On the Spot:
Seeking Acceptance and Expressing Resistance through the Bindi.' Journal of International and Intercultural
Communication. 3(4): 346-368
(http://journals1.scholarsportal.info/show_html.xqy?uri=/17513057/v03i0004/346_otssaaerttb.xml&school=queens).
[6] Ibid.
[7]
King, Richard. 1999. 'Orientalism
and the Modern Myth of "Hinduism"." Numen. 46(2): 146-185. p. 151
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid. p. 66
[11]
Singleton, Mark. 2010.
Yoga Body: The Origins
of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 42
King, Richard. 1999. 'Orientalism and the
Modern Myth of "Hinduism"." Numen.
46(2): 146-185. p. 160
[12]
Rodrigues, Hillary. 2006. Hinduism the eBook: An Online Introduction.
Journal of Buddhist Ethics. p. 463-464
[13]
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the
Orient. London: Penguin Press. p. 27
[14] Ibid. p. 28
[15] Ibid. p. 24
[16] Ibid.
