white women co-opted pandemic yoga. Now, South Asian instructors are taking it back.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the party is always right.

George Orwell, he/his/him

For Melissa Shah, yoga has always been entirely Indian. Her first memories of the practice don't include top buns, athleisure wear or even exercise. Instead, the 33-year-old recalls trying to manage her childhood asthma, coughing and wheezing through deep-breathing exercises.

For South Asians, yoga isn't about image or aspiration. It's simply an everyday physical and mental health routine.

Shah said she felt a sense of belonging in learning unfiltered yoga among other South Asians in Queens, New York, where she grew up. But when she started visiting white-dominated studios outside her community, she says she felt excluded and uneasy, like she was participating in a foreign practice. So she got her instructor's license, and she started building her own community to take it back. Then, the pandemic hit.

Industry professionals say yoga in the U.S. has long been branded with a white face, and white influencers have reaped the most benefit from the boom of online yoga during the pandemic.

"If you were to go on YouTube and be like, 'I just want a free yoga class', you're probably not going to find someone who isn't white", Shah said.

These virtual practices aren't going anywhere, instructors say, even as studios start to open again.

South Asian instructors like Shah say they've been working to "decolonize" an industry that for decades has centered white elites. The pandemic, which put online yoga at the forefront, is giving them an opportunity. They're able to connect with each other, build coalitions and reach a broader group of students. But the cultural appropriation runs deep, experts say, and fighting it will take time.

Newer News
Pelosi invites Biden to address Congress

Older News
Don't play with fire on Taiwan, China warns U.S.

Privacy

white women co-opted pandemic yoga. Now, South Asian instructors are taking it back.

Cultural appropriation should be illegal when practiced by whites