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This is an archive article published on June 20, 2015
Yoga Day event a mass spectacle, say JNU, DU teachers
In a petition started by JNU Professor Ayesha Kidwai, teachers have expressed their reservation about the real intention behind the day.
The teachers, however, do not intend to submit the signatures they collect. They said the petition is just to publicise the issue.
Teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) have come out against the University Grants Commission (UGC) notice to colleges on International Yoga Day on June 21 and called it an attempt to perpetuate “cultural homogeneity”.
In a petition-“Stop using Yoga to coercively enforce cultural homogeneity! Invest in our health and not in a media spectacle!”-started by JNU Professor Ayesha Kidwai, teachers have expressed their reservation about the real intention behind the day.
“The BJP has made this event and the compulsory practice of yoga in educational institutions into another yardstick by which to judge the loyalty of people to the Indian nation and its cultural traditions. International Yoga Day has little to do with the improved health and well-being of the people. It has everything to do with the great visibility it gives to yet another attempt to enforce cultural homogeneity,” the petition stated.
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The teachers, however, do not intend to submit the signatures they collect. They said the petition is just to publicise the issue. “There is no clear campaign to boycott the event but the government’s doublespeak cannot go unchecked. They’re saying it’s voluntary but they’ve also asked for an action-taken report,” Professor Sunalini Kumar from LSR College said.
The petition also says that although the teachers are “mindful of yoga as a most desirable option for health care”, they are “concerned by the central compulsion driving the directives issued by the present government, namely about entering the Guinness Book of Records through a show of numerical strength”.
There is also the issue of it being made into a mass spectacle without any real investment in the health sector. “It is not backed by any plan of affordability or accessibility… It appears ironically as an advertisement for a new breed of Yoga teachers and assorted Indian gurus who have already amassed colossal wealth by selling public goods like yoga and meditation at enormous prices,” the petition stated.
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