Across the country, lines of yoga enthusiasts are taking to open spaces, laying out their mats and practising their postures.
Sports stadiums, public parks, playgrounds have all been appropriated.
Thousands are training up for this Sunday’s International Yoga Day – when India will bid to write its name into the Guinness Book of Records and attempt the largest yoga gathering in history.
While the aim of yoga is to relax the body and unify the spirit, for some of India’s religious minorities, this Sunday’s event is neither relaxing nor unifying.
Last week, Catholic leaders from the southern state of Kerala criticised the decision to hold the event on a Sunday. This week, Muslim leaders have charged the government with promoting yoga to marginalise the country’s 175 million Muslims.
Abdul Rahim Qureshi from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board told Reuters: “It is a campaign to enforce Hindu rituals on all non-Hindus.”
The inclusion in Sunday’s programme of a series of yoga postures, “surya namaskar” (sun salutation) has drawn most fire from Muslim groups, as Islam forbids believers from worshipping anything but Allah.
But Hindu Nationalist groups, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sBharatiya Janata Party, BJP, have said they see yoga as part of India’s past glory that they wish to resurrect.
Yogi Adityanath, a member of parliament from the ruling-BJP, said those opposing sun postures should “leave Hindustan” or “drown themselves in the ocean or live in a darkened room for the rest of their lives.”
The central focus of Yoga Day and the world record attempt will be New Delhi’s grand thoroughfare, Rajpath, where the government anticipates 35,000 people will take part in a mass yoga event.
Prime Minister Modi – himself a yoga enthusiast – will give a speech at the event, but he is not expected to take part in the yoga.
The government is not taking any chances on mass participation. The armed forces, the police, bureaucrats have either been obliged or strongly urged to take part.
In addition to mass-participation events in 650 districts throughout India, 192 countries will also take part. New York’s Times Square is preparing for a Yoga Day celebration.
In London an International Yoga Day event is being organised in front of the OXO building on the South Bank and at Alexandra Palace Gardens.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
