Global Breathing

Religious Utopias in India and China

Van der Veer, Peter (2009)

 The author
Dutch anthropologist.

Born in 1953.

Van der Veer works on religion and nationalism in Asia

and Europe.
Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic
Diversity

Teacher of anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam, at Utrecht

University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dean of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research at Amsterdam

Director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam and Chairman
of the Board of the International Institute for Asian Studies, both in
Leiden.

University Professor at Large at Utrecht University, a position he

continues to hold.
Outline

Introduction

Spiritual Nationalism

The contemporary scene

Conclusion
 Abstract
Yoga and Qigong are forms of Indian and Chinese

spirituality that have gone global, but are still connected to

national identities. This article compares contemporary

Indian and Chinese spiritual movements after sketching the

extent to which they are the product of the imperial

encounter with the West.

 The globalization of Asian forms of
spirituality
The spiritual is political and the secular turns out to be spiritual

Spiritual also involves social and political life

Yoga and Qigong are forms of spiritually and parts of the political and economic
history

They have gone global, but are still connected to their national identities

the national is directly connected to a global system of nation-states.

Products of the national construction of civilization and aspects of cosmopolitan

modernity
 Yoga and Qigong as historical and political phenomena
related to the construction of modernity
Yoga: was reformulated at the end of 19th century as part of Hindu nationalism

and as a form of Eastern spirituality that was an alternative to Western societys

colonial materialism.

Qigong: several forms of exercises including breathing which develop skills to

use the vital energy present in the body to connect it to the natural world of

which is a part
 Secularist view of
modernity
Example
In one of Indias English-language newspapers a
photograph of an Indian holy man who had taken a
bath in the sacred confluence of the Yamuna and the
Ganges at Allahabad during the Kumbh Mela, a
bathing festival occurring once every 12 years and
attracting more than 20 million pilgrims. The caption
read: This sadhu has taken his bath at the Kumbh and
now he is off again to the Himalayas.
The essence of renunciation, that its proper place is
outside normal society, in a cave in the Himalayas
The normative view of modern: renouncers do not
belong to modern, secular society, and thus should
be confined to their Himalayan caves..
 The interaction of Indian and Chinese nationalisms
with imperial modernity

The opposition between eastern spirituality and western materialism

Ideological movements like anti-imperialism, nationalism, Pan-Asianism, spiritualism

prove that the spiritualitys participation in secular, modernist culture produces its

traditional authenticity
 SPIRITUAL NATIONALISM
Yoga and breathing techniques was developed as part of religious disciplines that also

involve image worship or asceticism.

In 19th century, Christian missionaries claimed that Christianity was the true religion, and that

Hinduism was a backward religion Hinduism spiritually truer and also modern

In this context, traditional practices like yoga and martial arts became part of an urban religious

lifestyle

Indian religious movements reappropiated Western discourse on Eastern spirituality - the

translation of Hindu discursive traditions into spirituality meant a significant transformation of

these traditions
 Vivekandas translation of
Ramakrishnas message
One of the most important reformer

Vivekanandas translated Ramakrishnas message in terms of spirituality through a

modern version of the religious ideas and practices

His writings in English often compare the lack of spirituality in the West with its
abundance in India

1893, he visited the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago as representative of

Hinduism

he was proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world both tolerance
and universal acceptance

Yoga as a unifying sign of the Indian nation for the world

 Vivekanandas construction of
spirituality and its relation with
nationalism
Vivekanandas construction of Yoga as the core of
Hindu spirituality

No specific devotional

Religion based upon reason, not belief. Yoga is legitimized

as a scientific tradition in terms of rational criteria.

The lack of religious specificity and the claim to be scientific

attracted the nationalist

Result = enormous impact on a whole range of thought and

movements.

McKean has shown the extent to which the idea of

spirituality is even used in promoting national products,
such as Indian handlooms and handicrafts (McKean, 1996)
 The emergence of Qigong in the 20th
century
Bodily exercises connected to conceptions of cosmology, of bodily health, of

concentration of the mind, of meditation and quietness formed part of religious

traditions that date back to the 14th and 15th century.

Direct connection with health

These networks also developed martial arts

A threat to state control

 Some movements originally part of peasant culture carried their traditions forward. In the

19th century, middle class participation emerged, and secret societies arose in the 18th and

19th centuries

Significantly transformed, in the context of imperialism

Tried to transform the Chinese society after the Opium Wars, but they failed.

The failure of these religious movements to transform Chinese society and expel the foreign

powers may have helped in paving the way for the strongly secularist movements that

followed them.
 Nationalism in China
Chinese nationalism in the 20th century was distinguished by the attack on folk religion and

magic as feudal superstition

Statist distrust of folk traditions

Scientific and antireligious stance

When the Enlightenment category of religion moved into China, folk religion was condemned as feudal

superstition, while clerical traditions came to be recognized as religions that should be brought under

the control of the political authority

The modernist attack on magic and superstition

The intellectuals who had absorbed a scientist worldview led the campaigns against popular religion.

They chose to become secular nationalists

 Nationalism in India
Indias religious identity and differences as its main marker

Modernist attack on magic and superstition only as a part of reformist strategies

India nationalism was confronted with an aggressive Christian missionary project

supported by a central colonial state

In India yoga and other spiritual disciplines of the body were part of nationalism, and

nationalists defend their religious institutions through reform. This produced the making of

Yoga as a national symbol of true Indianness.

 The contemporary scene in China
Religion as an obstacle to the modernization of Chinese society. Religion was seen as
superstition, not as a traditional essence of Chinese culture

The nation and modernity were conceived under the sign of science.

The Nationalist Party tried to distinguish between moral religion and superstition. The modern ideal of
freedom of religion was maintained while traditionalism was attacked

New urban consumer culture

Scientific sanctification and purification of Qigong.

Qi exercises were aligned to science In the 1950s, as part of a state-sanctioned medical science

Qi exercises were practised by spiritual masters/physicians. Medical science, physics and biology
produced experiments focusing on the existence of qi

Not total state control

 The contemporary scene in India
To protect religion against imperialism

Scientific nature of indigenous traditions, purify religion from so-called superstition and
show the scientific foundations of religion

The development of scientific and religious thought was connected.

Secular nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru were convinced that the spirit of science had to
be utilized to the project of reindustrializing India. Techno-science supported by a morality
superior to that available in colonialism to solve the basic needs of life

Mahatma Gandhi, a political and religious leader and the representative of modern
spirituality in India. In his Hind Swaraj (1947), Gandhi introduced a fundamental critique of
modern civilization.
 From Vivekanandas work in the 19th century, many branches have emerged

The democratic system in India is able to give a role to nationalist movements

that promote traditional practices, together with a political agenda.

Yogas alignment with the development of global capital.

Indian spirituality is something to be proud of since many non-Indians are

also attracted to it.

Indian spirituality became a lifestyle element.

 CONCLUSION
The transformation in Asia of ancient disciplines of the body () under the

influence of the imperial encounter and nationalism has made Yoga and Qigong

signs of Indian and Chinese tradition and modernity

Scientific in essence, compete with other Western forms of medicine

Political impact

Global