The Commodification and Exchange of Knowledge in the Case of Transnational Commercial Yoga

Abstract

The practice of yoga outside India and for commercial exchange (transnational commercial yoga) is a multibillion-dollar industry that has been the site of increasing formal regulation. The primary questions these regulations are meant to resolve include the following: (1) What is yoga? (2) What is its proprietary nature? and (3) Who has the right to manage its expression? Two recent U.S. federal district court cases involving the Bikram Yoga College of India, a yoga franchise based in Los Angeles, have drawn international attention to the debate on whether yogic knowledge or practice resides in the public or private domain. This article asks, if given the monetary value at stake, did the global market for transnational commercial yoga set the stage for claims to individual IPRs? Furthermore, this article analyzes how yoga, due to its unique characteristics as an embodied practice and intangible form, serves as a platform for experimentation from which new meanings of open source, IPRs, and information management strategies emerge.

Studying at the source: Ashtanga yoga tourism and the search for authenticity in Mysore, India

“…Maddox introduced via British colonialism, modern postural yoga came to incorporate elements of gymnastics, calisthenics, body building, and acrobatics (Singleton, 2010). The 'transnational commercial yoga' (Fish, 2006) popular today in the West has its historical roots in India as an ancient system of unifying the mind, body, and spirit, but it is equally (if not more so) indebted to modern, Western forms of physical culture and exercise for its current appeal and commercial success (Fish, 2006;Singleton, 2010;Singleton & Byrne, 2008). Even Joseph Alter, a foremost scholar on yoga in contemporary India, admits that 'Eugene Sandow, the father of modern body building, has had a greater influence on the form and practice of … modern hatha yoga … than either Aurobindo or Vivekananda' (2004, p. 28), the two Indian yogis most recognized as introducing yoga to the West.…”

Authorizing Yoga: The Pragmatics of Cultural Stewardship in the Digital Era

“…In an effort to secure part of this valuable industry, different parties have registered thousands of yoga-related intellectual property and authorship claims in numerous jurisdictions around the world (Fish 2006;Srinivas 2007). Among these registrants is Bikram Choudhury, the head of the profitable Bikram Yoga College of India franchise, headquartered in Los Angeles.…”

The Institutionalization of the Yoga Tradition: “Gurus” B. K. S. Iyengar and Yogini Sunita in Britain

“…In Iyengar Yoga, the teacher's instructions are concentrated on positioning the body into correct alignment and on directions of actions (e.g., rotation and extension). In Iyengar Yoga, movement between postures is less standardized than in Pranayama Yoga or in Pattabhi Jois-inspired "Vinyasa" sequences (see Burger, 2006 ) and does not involve the verbatim scripting of a Bikram Yoga franchise (see Fish, 2007 ). Nevertheless, Iyengar Yoga places great attention on sequences of postures and how actions and movements link postures together.…”