Honoring the Roots: Building a Practice of Authentic Representation That Ends Appropriation Without Gatekeeping

Honoring the Roots: Building a Practice of Authentic Representation That Ends Appropriation Without Gatekeeping

Walk into almost any yoga studio in the West and look at the walls. There may be a carved Ganesh by the door, a "Namaste" banner, a mala display near the register, and a Sanskrit phrase on a retail tank top. Now look at the schedule, the teacher bios, the marketing photos, and the leadership page. How many of those things connect back to the people and traditions that created yoga? How many South Asian teachers are on the schedule, in the training faculty, or on the board?

For many studios, the honest answer is: the symbols are present, but the people and the relationships are not.

That gap is the subject of this post. It is not a call for shame. Shame makes people defensive, and defensive people stop learning. It is a call for a shared, practical standard of authentic representation: a set of habits that any studio, teacher, or training program can adopt to honor yoga's South Asian roots, share credit and opportunity fairly, and keep the practice open to everyone.

Yoga's impact in society depends on trust. If the field is seen as a wellness aesthetic that borrows from a culture without respecting it, we lose credibility with the very communities we hope to serve. If we get this right, we gain depth, integrity, and a practice that people can trust to be what it says it is.

Why Representation Is a Mission Issue, Not a Side Issue

It is tempting to file this under "branding" or "etiquette." It is more than that, for three reasons.

1. It shapes what people think yoga is. When yoga is presented only as stretching, fitness, or a lifestyle brand, the public misses its range: ethics, breath, meditation, devotion, service, philosophy, and the study of the mind. The traditions behind yoga are vast and varied. Presenting them accurately is part of presenting yoga's real potential, including its potential for mental health, resilience, and community care.

2. It determines who feels welcome. Many South Asian practitioners describe a particular kind of dislocation: walking into a studio and hearing their grandmother's language mispronounced, their family's sacred images used as décor, or their traditions described as "ancient wisdom" with no names, no lineages, and no context. Others have been told that the yoga their families practice at home isn't "real" yoga because it doesn't look like a 60-minute vinyasa class. A field that wants to expand access cannot overlook who is made to feel like a guest in their own heritage.

3. It affects the livelihood of teachers. In the commercial yoga economy, visibility and income have not been distributed evenly. South Asian teachers, and teachers from other communities that have been marginalized in wellness spaces, have often found it harder to be hired, promoted, or featured, even when their knowledge runs deep. Authentic representation is also an economic justice question.

A Little History That Makes the Conversation Richer

A thoughtful approach to representation starts with an accurate picture, and the accurate picture is more interesting than the simplified one.

• Yoga is a family of traditions, not a single thing. Texts and teachings such as the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika describe different paths and emphases: knowledge, devotion, action, meditation, and physical discipline. Contemporary classes usually draw on only a small slice.
• Modern postural yoga has a layered, transnational history. The style of practice many people know today was shaped in the 20th century by teachers in India, such as Krishnamacharya and his students, in conversation with physical culture, colonial-era politics, and later global exchange. This doesn't make it less legitimate. It means we should be honest and curious about where it came from rather than claiming either "5,000 unbroken years of identical postures" or "it's all just Western fitness."
• Yoga has been a site of cultural pride and political struggle. Some Hindu and South Asian diaspora organizations have long raised concerns about yoga being divorced from its cultural context, a conversation made public in campaigns such as the Hindu American Foundation's "Take Back Yoga" effort. Others in the community emphasize that yoga is a gift meant to be shared widely, and that its teachers have a long history of welcoming students from everywhere. These views exist in the same community, and a good-faith approach listens to the range.
• Yoga has received international recognition. The International Day of Yoga on June 21 was established through the United Nations in 2014, and in 2016 UNESCO added yoga to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, signaling that its origin and stewardship matter on a global stage.

You don't need to memorize this history to teach well. But you should know enough to avoid the two most common errors: erasing the roots, and treating the roots as a costume.

Appropriation, Appreciation, and the Space In Between

Words like "appropriation" can freeze a conversation, so let's define what we mean in practical terms.

Signs of extractive use

• Sacred imagery or words used purely as decoration, product names, or hashtags
• Philosophy quoted without attribution, context, or study
• "Exotic" marketing that sells mystique rather than substance
• Training programs that profit from the tradition while sending no credit, compensation, or collaboration back to it
• Mockery, caricature, or "accent" humor in class

Signs of respectful engagement

• Learning from teachers who have long-standing relationships with specific lineages and communities
• Naming sources, teachers, and traditions clearly
• Pronouncing Sanskrit terms with care, and being open about learning
• Paying South Asian teachers, scholars, and cultural advisors fairly for their expertise
• Giving practitioners real choice over how much of the philosophical and devotional context they engage with, without pretending it doesn't exist

What it is not: a rule that only people of South Asian heritage may teach yoga. That's gatekeeping, and it's neither practical nor consistent with yoga's long history of being passed on across cultures. The standard we propose is accountability to the source, not exclusion from the practice.

What a Representation Standard Could Look Like

Imagine a plain-language framework any YFN member could adopt voluntarily. We'll call it a Roots & Respect Practice. It would be built with South Asian teachers, scholars, and community leaders at the table from the beginning, not consulted afterward. Here is a starting draft for discussion.

1. Name your lineage and sources

Teachers and studios share who they trained with, what traditions inform their classes, and where they are still learning. "I studied Ashtanga with..." or "this breath practice comes from a Hatha tradition I learned in..." is far more honest and interesting than "ancient yogic wisdom."

2. Teach the language with care

Offer Sanskrit pronunciation resources to teachers. Use Sanskrit when it serves students, with translations, and not as a performance of authenticity. Where a studio chooses not to use it, that's fine too. The point is to avoid carelessness, not to mandate a vocabulary.

3. Treat sacred imagery as sacred

Before placing deities, mantras, or religious symbols in your space, ask what they mean and who they belong to. If you can't explain it, consider honoring the teaching through a different, better-understood form. If you do display it, add context and invite community input.

4. Share the stage and the paycheck

Audit your teaching schedule, workshop lineup, advisory boards, and training faculty. Invite South Asian teachers and cultural experts for paid residencies, workshops, and curriculum review. Do not ask for unpaid "education" labor.

5. Represent real people in your marketing

Review your images, copy, and social media. Do they show a range of bodies, ages, ethnicities, and abilities? Do they reduce yoga to a single look? Replace stock imagery of staged poses with real members of your community, with their consent.

6. Make room for devotional and philosophical depth

Offer optional offerings such as philosophy study groups, kirtan led by experienced practitioners, or text-based workshops, so students who want to go deeper have a way in that is grounded in the tradition.

7. Create a feedback path

Publish a simple way for students to raise concerns about how yoga is being represented, and respond with humility. A concern isn't an attack; it's a gift that helps a studio live its values.

Avoiding the Opposite Trap: Gatekeeping and Performative Guilt

Any serious effort on representation has to avoid two failure modes.

Performative correctness. A studio posts a statement, adds a land-and-lineage acknowledgment, and changes nothing in its hiring or pay practices. Students notice. Real change shows up in budgets, schedules, and relationships.

Gatekeeping. Policing who "deserves" to practice or teach based on ancestry or appearance alienates the very people we want to welcome, including many South Asian practitioners who simply want to feel at home in a class. It also disregards the many teachers of all backgrounds who have spent decades in humble, committed study.

The healthy middle is relationship. Honor the source by building real, reciprocal connections with it: study, credit, collaboration, and fair exchange.

Where YFN Can Help: A Network-Level Roadmap

Individual studios shouldn't have to build this alone. As a network, we're well positioned to create shared resources.

1. Convene an advisory circle. Bring together South Asian teachers, scholars, community leaders, and founders to co-author the Roots & Respect Practice. Compensate them for their time.
2. Publish an open toolkit. Include a studio self-audit, pronunciation guides, a template for crediting lineages, guidance on imagery, and sample language for bios and class descriptions.
3. Build a visible, voluntary commitment. Studios and teachers that adopt the practice can display a badge in the YFN directory. It should be a commitment to keep learning, not a certificate of perfection.
4. Create a speakers and faculty bureau. Make it easy for studios and yoga schools to find and hire South Asian scholars and teachers, with fair-pay guidelines built in.
5. Fund cultural exchange. Use grants and scholarships to support teacher training in India and in diaspora communities, with a priority for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
6. Host learning events. Run regular workshops on yoga history, philosophy, language, and respectful teaching, led by qualified teachers and open to all levels.
7. Report progress. Publish annual, anonymized data about how many member studios have completed the self-audit, diversified their faculty, and paid cultural contributors.

Where to Start: Steps You Can Take This Month

If you own or manage a studio

• Walk your space with fresh eyes. List every symbol, phrase, and product that references yoga's roots. Can you explain each one?
• Review your last 12 months of workshops and trainings. Who taught them? Who was paid?
• Add a "Our Influences" section to your website that names your teachers and lineages.
• Budget for one paid workshop or residency with a South Asian teacher or scholar this year.
• Ask your current students, including South Asian students, how welcome they feel. Listen without defending.

If you're a teacher

• Write a short, honest lineage statement for your bio.
• Practice the pronunciation of the Sanskrit you use, or pause using terms you aren't confident about until you've studied them.
• Read at least one primary text in a good translation, along with a scholarly introduction to its context.
• Credit the sources of the philosophy and sequences you share, in class and online.
• Seek out teachers whose backgrounds differ from yours. You can find a teacher through our directory, and learn directly from people who carry the tradition in their lives.

If you're a practitioner

• Ask your studio how they honor yoga's roots, with curiosity and not accusation.
• Support South Asian-led studios, teachers, and cultural organizations.
• Remember that you're allowed to be a beginner in understanding yoga's context. Humility is part of the practice.

What Success Looks Like

If this mission takes root, in five years we would hope to see:

• A majority of YFN member studios publicly crediting their lineages and sources
• More South Asian teachers, scholars, and leaders in faculty, ownership, and decision-making roles, with equitable pay
• Teacher training curricula that include history, ethics, and cultural context as standard, not as an optional extra
• Marketing that portrays the real diversity of practitioners, and doesn't recycle clichés
• Stronger trust between the yoga field and the communities it serves, particularly immigrant and diaspora communities
• A public that understands yoga as a rich, living tradition rather than a trend

That kind of trust is also an access strategy. People are more willing to bring yoga to their schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods when they believe the people offering it are respectful, informed, and accountable.

A Note on Humility

None of us will do this perfectly. Teachers trained in the Western commercial system were often handed a version of yoga with the context already stripped out. That isn't a personal failing. But once we know better, we have the chance to do better, and that's what yoga's own ethical teachings, such as truthfulness (satya) and non-harming (ahimsa), ask of us.

The goal is not a perfect studio. It's a studio that is honest about what it knows, generous about what it doesn't, and in real relationship with the tradition it draws from.

Key Takeaways

• Representation is a mission issue. It shapes what the public believes yoga is, who feels welcome, and who earns a living.
• The history is richer than the simple story. Yoga is a family of traditions with a layered modern history. Avoid both erasure and costume.
• Accountability to the source, not exclusion from the practice. The goal is credit, context, and fair exchange, not gatekeeping.
• Start with concrete habits: name your lineage, treat sacred imagery with care, pay South Asian teachers and scholars, and represent real people in your marketing.
• Build it together. A network-level toolkit, advisory circle, and voluntary commitment can make good practice easier for every studio.
• Humility is the foundation. Keep learning, invite feedback, and let the work show up in budgets and schedules, not just statements.

Join the Movement

Yoga's future depends on honoring where it came from. If you lead a studio, teach, or run a training program, we invite you to join Yoga Founders Network, list your space, and add your voice to the advisory work ahead. Share this post with a colleague who cares about doing this well, and tell us what your community needs. Together, we can build a field that is worthy of the tradition it carries.