Ghee coffee for gut health and weight loss, turmeric shots to boost your immune system, oil-pulling for dental care, ashwagandha pills for cancer-curing detoxes and stress reduction—the internet is filled with information (and misinformation) about Ayurvedic health schemes.
Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old medicinal system originating in India, could be this year’s biggest wellness trend.
Its international appeal is not lost on the Indian government or on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a long-time adherent of Hindutva, the ethno-nationalist ideology associated with Hindu supremacy.
In the last few years, Modi has promoted Ayurveda, successfully lobbied the UN for an International Yoga Day and done countless meditation photo-ops wearing a saffron robe, in an attempt to equate his party’s image with Hindu spirituality. Yoga and meditation have become soft-power tools, a means for the Indian government to co-opt traditional wellness and spirituality for its own benefit.
State machinery, including the BJP government’s Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) has been tasked with propagating alternative medicine systems in the country, based on traditional healing practices. The ministry has also contributed to the spread of medical misinformation and, in 2016, funded the testing of cow urine as a cure for cancer.
Hoping to attract a growing population of spiritual followers to the BJP, Modi has aligned himself with celebrities and influencers, including one modern-day, rock-star yogi.
Jaggi Vasudev, more popularly known as Sadhguru, is a guru cashing in on spiritual healing. After claiming to have attained enlightenment at 25, he has expanded his acquired wisdom into a multi-million-dollar business with 1.7bn views on YouTube.
In 2017, Modi unveiled an 80ft statue designed by Sadhguru and funded by his spiritual and educational foundation. He has also been the chief guest in the guru’s various environmentalist campaigns.
In turn, Sadhguru extended support to the Modi government’s controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which discriminates against Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan by making them ineligible for citizenship, thereby introducing religion as a criterion for citizenship for the first time in the history of independent India. This, along with a series of other policy changes, plays into Hindutva’s overarching aim to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra (in other words, a theocratic or semi-theocratic Hindu polity or state).
In a now-deleted video, Sadhguru states that conventional medicine is “purely chemical manipulation of the system” that should only be used in emergencies. Instead, he instructs viewers to turn to “herbal” Ayurveda. In an ironic turn of events, his own health advice proved nearly fatal for him—after ignoring a headache for a month, Sadhguru was forced to get emergency brain surgery.
Despite allegations of grabbing indigenous land and disrupting a critical elephant habitat, Sadhguru’s status as a wellness guru continues to land him interviews with the likes of the World Economic Forum and Deepak Chopra, the face of mindfulness in the west (and student of American Hindutva activist David Frawley), and celebrities including Russell Brand, Trevor Noah, Matthew McConaughey and Mike Tyson. He has even appeared on the most popular podcast in the world, The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), whose episodes often include references to Ayurveda, yoga and meditation.
In one JRE episode, Jordan Peterson preaches how Kundalini Yoga can “make everything into the equivalent of a psychedelic experience” through the “alignment of levels” or “chakras”, that are “part of the manifestation of the truth”. In another, actor Kevin James promotes the instantaneous, almost miraculous healing abilities of the ashwagandha plant. Last June, Billy Carson, the founder of the alternative history and spirituality channel 4Bidden Knowledge, claimed that the weapons mentioned in the Hindu epic text the Mahabharata were part of the superior technology of ancient Indians that could wipe out cities and leave radiation. He added that modern governments are trying to replicate the technology that was used in ancient India.
This mimics Hindu nationalists’ long track record of promoting historical revisionism—nine years earlier, in 2015, a group of Sanskrit scholars, supporters of the Hindutva regime, held the “Vedic Chronology” history conference at a prominent Indian university. There they made claims about the existence of ancient Indian aeroplanes, complete with GPS-like technology and voice-activated commands, based on mythological accounts of flying crafts. They also postulated the invention of television at the time of the Mahabharata, along with missiles and nuclear weapons.
Narratives of Hinduism’s superior technology and ancient predictions, which are then picked up in converging wellness and alt-right subcultures, aid Hindutva’s agenda of influencing the mainstream.
The growing western tendency to idolise parts of Hindu culture sanitises the violence of the past: yoga practitioners might emphasise beliefs like Karma as harmless principles of good deeds and reincarnation, but in India, they have historically been used to justify the caste system and the oppressive treatment of women. More recently, allegations of rape and sexual abuse have been levelled against practitioners including Yogi Bhajan, the founder of Kundalini yoga in the US, whose disciples include Russell Brand’s yoga gurus.
Yet the popularity of Hindu spirituality continues to expand in the west. Often mentioned in both wellness circles and alt-right groups is the concept of the Kali Yuga—the last of four ages in Hindu philosophy. Celebrities like Brand and the late David Lynch, Joe Rogan and UFC champion Josh Barnett have referenced the Kali Yuga as an age of conflict or destruction. For the alt-right, it’s also a symbol of ongoing culture wars and the moral decline of the west.
Some white supremacists believe the Kali Yuga precipitates the beginning of a golden age and the end of the west’s degeneracy. American Vanguard, an organisation that coordinated the deadly Charlottesville rally in 2017, has even sold “Surf the Kali Yuga” T-shirts. For both Hindutva supporters and the American alt-right, the ancient wisdom of Hindu spirituality seems to be the key to rescuing western civilisation.
Alt-right groups on X and online forums are increasingly promoting the views of Savitri Devi (born Maximiani Julia Portas), a European Hindu fascist and proponent of esoteric Nazism. In 1932, she travelled to India, convinced that the caste system had preserved pure Aryans by forbidding intermarriage, and married a Brahmin. She also believed Hitler was the reincarnation of a Hindu god, destined to bring an end to the Kali Yuga to restore Aryan supremacy.
Seven months ago, Sadhguru declared that the Kali Yuga had ended, indicating the beginning of better times. Some alt-right followers, who believe Trump will usher in a golden age of civilisation, might agree.
