YOGA EVANGELISM YOLK : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

Trafalgar square, like many public places in London, is crammed with British Indian history. On one of its giant plinths is a statue of Charles James Napier, conqueror of Sindh in 1843.

On another is Henry Havelock, who beat the rebels at Kanpur in 1857. On June 20th, 2023, the square hosted a major contemporary display of Indian-empire-building in the form of 300 British Indians and assorted others [ including The Economist ] practising Yoga.

It was an early celebration of international yoga day, a UN initiative launched at the urging of Narendra Modi in 2015. Critics of the Indian Prime Minister's Hindu-nationalist agenda view his yoga evangelism with suspicion, given the practice's Hindu origins.

The yoga chant ''OM'' is a sacred sound in Hindi scripture. The Sun Salutation, a common set of yoga poses, is associated with Hindu prayer. Yet the annual Yoga day is, like the practice itself, more obviously inclusive.

It also signifies increased Indian confidence and visibility - and Mr. Modi's genius for marketing his country and himself. A daily practitioner, the Indian leader himself marked yoga day by leading multinational contortion at the UN headquarters in New York.

For many in Trafalgar Square, yoga was a spiritual, but non-sectarian, answer to the pressures of modernity.

Inderpal Chandel, a 45-year-old from Hounslow, credited her daily practice with easing a workplace injury that for 17 years put her on the crutches :

''My life was changed by yoga.'' For many, too, it was a way to sustain an Indian identity in the West.  

'' Yoga should not be minimised for recreation, but appreciated culturally and wholly,'' says Mamata Subramanian, a 30-year-old raised in Ohio.

Though few were diehard Modi fans, most said the prime minister had raised the prestige of Indian culture. '' He's not polite but he's pushy,  and that's a good thing,'' says Mohit Singh Bharti, 31, a mortgage adviser and immigrant from Jaipur.

Yoga-wise, The Economist concurs. Trafalgar Square, a place of protest and revelry, had never rung with more civilized instruction than that offered over the course of the two-hour session.

'' Feel awareness in your toes intently.'' '' Any remaining thoughts and feelings, just relax and make a note of them.'' And, ahead of the gut-wrenching pawanmukt-asana, which encourages flatulence : 

'' If you hear any noises, be kind to yourself and your neighbour.''

If this was rascality, as the imperialist Napier said in an altogether less benevolent context, it was a '' very advantageous, useful, human piece of rascality''.