Yoga between Authenticity and Commodification: Politics and Postcolonial Dynamics in Globalized Yoga Practices

This paper draws on my ongoing dissertational research that examines how Yoga in India is continuously negotiated at the intersections of authenticity, globalization, institutional regulation, and political instrumentalization. It zooms in on scaling processes that operate across multiple levels—from individual practice to institutional frameworks and state governance.

Yoga today functions simultaneously as a spiritual practice, scientifically legitimized knowledge, and globally circulated commodity. It is both a universal resource for health and well-being and deeply embedded within global market logics, political agendas, and national identity discourses. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023–2024, the paper focuses on the in 1924 founded Indian research institute Kaivalyadhama as a case through which institutional mechanisms of production, legitimation, and standardization of yogic practices and knowledge can be traced.

I illustrate that authenticity is not an inherent property of yoga but is continually enacted through institutional standards, appeals to tradition, and scientific legitimacy. Yogic authority is negotiated and sustained through administrative hierarchies, certifications, and institutional networks. The local practices and knowledge at Kaivalyadhama are reshaped to align with global health narratives, international demand, and national regulatory frameworks.

The paper argues that an understanding of globalized yoga requires attending to these scaling processes, revealing a practice whose authenticity, authority, and adaptability are actively produced within postcolonial, economic, and transnational contexts. The case of Kaivalyadhama exemplifies how institutional structures mediate the circulation and transformation of knowledge, negotiating the tensions between claims of spiritual authenticity and pressures of commodification.