The Map, The Territory, and the Reason for Travelling: Lessons from Yogalands

It is common for scholars to note the wide range of often idiosyncratic activities that get labeled as yoga in the West. The diversity is significant: some spaces use music, others do not; some focus on a guru, others do not; some cater to young professionals, others do not. But in the language and chants used in class, the aesthetics of the studio graphic design and teachers' tattoos, the books on display, the use of “namaste,” the food and drink served, and the teacher biographies, we can see the presence of India. In these spaces, India is arguably a polysemic signifier that refers to an actual state, but also an imagined community, the birthplace of lineages, and perhaps most important, what we might call an authorizing discourse. As one participant in my ethnography, Yogalands: In Search of Practice on the Mat and in the World (2025) noted, “Without India, all we are doing is stretching.”

In this paper, I raise questions about the complex ways India is invoked in yoga spaces in the West. I am not interested in determining if North American teachers and senior students understand India correctly. Indeed, I am also not really interested so much in the geographical “territory” or state of India. Rather I am curious about the ways these subtle and sometimes un-subtle references to India in North American yoga spaces place students, teachers, and studio communities on a larger symbolic “map”. What might the data emerging from Yogalands (fieldwork, a survey, interviews, and my personal immersion in yoga teaching and practice) suggest about why certain aesthetic, philosophical, and ideological norms are imported, but not others? Any what does this project suggest about our use of maps and territories?