“It may not be entirely right to say yoga is Indian as ancient Greece and Rome engaged in similar exercises”

Foraying into Myanmar and snuffing out militants to avenge the death of Army men killed on Indian soil is one aspect of the Narendra Modi government which has its clutch of takers.

While special forces of the Army fight the nation’s battle, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, Culture Ministry, Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Health Ministry are waging a different battle for the minds, leading to what some historians say is a situation where an entire population could be lulled into thinking and acting on similar lines.

Perhaps, even ordered to, by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, as he prescribes an aasana a day to mark International Yoga Day on June 21. On his Twitter handle @narendramodi, the Prime Minister asks you to learn about Salabhasana or the locust and its positive effects #YogaDay. This posture improves flexibility in the back and improves digestion.

And yet it is the significance of June 21, which no one seems to be asking. It is not just an arbitrary date on the calendar. As an article on the website Firstpost points out, “The story of yoga is linked to Hindu religious myths. In fact, the choice of June 21 in the Modi government’s proposal to the U.N. to have it observed as International Day of Yoga is connected to one such myth. On June 21 occurs the Summer Solstice, which in the yogic transition that marks the transition to Dakshinayana, or the shifting of the sun from the northern to southern run. It was on this day that Lord Shiva is said to have become Adiyogi, or the first yogi, his transformation marked by a mood of ecstasy and then frenetic dancing, unfathomable to those who witnessed it.”

The article then goes on to describe how Shiva taught yoga to a chosen few after he was satisfied about their intent and preparation. Historian D.N. Jha dismisses the Shiva connect as just a myth, arguing that yoga which is peddled now is vastly different from what it meant — meditation. “If I remember it right, it is in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, where there is evidence of postural yoga. It may not be entirely right to say yoga is Indian as ancient Greece and Rome engaged in similar exercises.”

The proposal to mark the day, as the Firstpost article points out, goes back 10 years when the idea of getting the United Nations to endorse the day was initiated, but it really got a fillip when powerful yoga practitioners reiterated their demand at a conference in 2011. This combination of branding, says Dilip Cherian, co-founder and consulting partner of PR firm Perfect Relations, is a perfect soft power of Modi vs the hard power of Modi on display. While Mr. Jha worries that in the current scenario a large section of people will be throwing rationality to the winds, Mr. Cherian says it may not work as it is being thrust by the government. And yet, it is this soft power, as historians and political scientists will teach you, which has a lasting impact.

A similar such cultural rewriting is on display in the Indian Council of Historical Research, which comes under the HRD Ministry, whose head Y.S. Rao believes that the Ramayana and the Mahabharata can be verified through historical research. In an interview to The Hindu, Prof. Rao had said: “Some, of course, deny to ascribe any historicity to the Epics and the Puranas, again for their own ‘good reasons’. It doesn’t mean that ‘others’ should not work on theses sources.”

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already asked historians to focus on why Maharana Pratap cannot be pre-fixed with honorifics applied to the Mughals. Professor of History Salil Mishra says: “Culture, education and cinema are the instruments to hegemonies the society and it is far more effective.”

Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, as has been reported, wants to build a museum for Ram in Ayodhya — which will focus on the grandeur of the Hindu king.

Dr. Jha says there is a similar museum for Krishna in Kurukshetra, which has negligible artefacts of historical value, yet they memorialise events in such a way that people actually start believing in them. “Locally produced artefacts are put on display and people start thinking, Ram and Krishna actually used them.”