The Yoga Industry: How Much have we transformed in 2021?

In 2020–2021, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Stop Asian Hate, and The Farmer’s Strike in India, commercial yoga outfits ‘woke’ to engage with the communities who’s cultural riches they have sold for centuries. Franchises opened their checkbooks like never before to fund the latest trending organization.

Were these actions fueled from genuine connection, guilt, or concern over their bottom lines? As yoga studios in North America reopen, we are left to wonder if the changes were lasting or if 2020 was a year for performative “slack-tivism”. I’ll say it outright: I don’t believe in bandaid solutions, especially when we are talking about dynamics rooted in imperialism. One time donations do not change the direction of one way street kind of dynamics. In particular the major corporations in the yoga industry may have hired a diversity and inclusion team but the “Debby Downer” in me believes it may be impossible for the industry to actually reckon with its neocolonial ways.

Here’s why this may be so.

From the outset, the absorption of yoga into capitalist society is antithetical to its very philosophy and values. Similar to Buddhism, traditional yoga philosophy says that the root of our suffering lies in worldly attachment. It is a path which, at its core, asks us to reevaluate our…