BRANDING YOGA

CASE STUDY

All the studio’s a STAGE

And all the yogis and yoginis merely players

Introducing the characters

BIKRAM CHOUDHURY

TARA STILES

DEEPAK CHOPRA

16 Million Practitioners of

Yoga

Wide range of Practices

$5.7 Billion Dollar Industry

Does Yoga have Hindu Origins?

2008 :HAF finds no reference to Hinduism in the YOGA Journal

Finds that it associated other religions with yoga more than it did Hinduism

2009: HAF launches a campaign called “Take Back Yoga-Bringing to

Light Yoga’s Hindu Roots”

Lotus pose in the Indus Valley Civilisation

The Vedas

Deepak Chopra

Hinduism as a religion came centuries after the foundation of yoga in consciousness

Yoga predates Hinduism.

The Politics of Yoga

The definition of yogaThe commercialization of yogaThe validity of yoga as exercise aloneDid yoga belonged to Hinduism or to

any one tradition?

“What we noticed . . . was that . .

.

while [Western yogis] are very

accepting of the fact that yoga is

rooted in ancient India, there was

a tension with calling it Hindu, or

even accepting the fact that it was

rooted in Hindu philosophy

In conclusion,

Hinduism and Yoga only form part of each other.

Yoga predates Hinduism.Yoga is not exclusively from

Hinduism.

Is branding Yoga acceptable?

Commercialisation of Yoga

BIKRAM CHOUDHURY

Patented 26 Yoga poses

More than 700

studios in

220

countries

Sent cease and desist letters to other copycat studios

Indian govt records 1500 yoga poses to prevent

future patents

TARA STILES

Emphasised the physical aspect of Yoga

No Sanskrit Chants

Massive increase in

number of Yoga

practitioners

No religion attached to

Yoga

Bringing people together

Wide Variety of Styles to choose

from

Booming Multi-million dollar Industry

Patenting Valuable

Knowledge

Comm

ercia

lisati

on

In conclusion,

The pros outweigh the cons, thus branding yoga a small price to pay for the benefits

Thank you

DisclaimerThis presentation was created by

Abitha Thankaraj, NIT Calicut, during an internship by

Prof.Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.www.IIMInternship.com