In the spring/summer/fall of 2020 the yoga anti-lockdown world was a cluster of white fingers pointing at India as a COVID success story. The posts flooded in from spiritual tourists in Rishikesh and Goa, and Indophiles bitching about masks in California. /1

They said the Ganga was cleansing the virus, that Ayurveda would protect the protesting farmers, that Modi's devotion to yoga was enlightened policy. These orientalists looked past the facts and the poor to gaze at their navel chakras and their own neo-colonial fantasy. /2

Proof that masking-burning conspirituality is xenophobic and ethno-nationalist is playing out now in the willingness to gather in juvenile protest, or ban the vaccinated from yoga studios, while the Indian people are reduced to cremating family members in open lots. /3

For the conspiritualist, India is of interest when the gift shops beside the temples are open, when the hotels are cheap, when its political fascism looks spiritual, and when they can look at abject poverty and believe that faith alone bestows resilience. /4

Any influencer or group planning on an Indian yoga vacay coming up should raise the cash to endow a local vaccine clinic as a condition of their visa. Or at minimum, start sending cash now. /end

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ca5YH5YUtp7Qe63sVNX1SlepQcvzc4RCwLhMBvTJyE/mobilebasic#