U-Turn Theory:

How the West Appropriates Indian Culture

Presented at: Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore October 1, 2008 By Rajiv Malhotra Infinity Foundation Princeton, USA RajivMalhotra2007@gmail.com
Copyright Rajiv Malhotra 2007

Asymmetry of Power Abusive Appropriation

Western Appropriator Explorers Anthropologist Scholar of Text Liberal arts scholar Archeologist/Historian Cognitive Scientist Drug Company Multinational US Think Tank Human Rights Activist What/Who is Appropriated Land, gold, slaves Native Informant Pandit Macaulayized Indian Student/Scholar Rare objects Yogi/Meditator Ayurveda Indigenous producers Retired Government Official Dalits, downtrodden

Cross Cultural Dynamics

Sharing between cultures has always been an important force in civilizational development. There have been positive outcomes including when one culture conquers/dominates another. Within dominant cultures there are individuals who have genuine respect for the dominated culture. My personal life journey has involved cross cultural influences from which I have benefited. Many Westerners have helped me greatly including in this research. However, it is important to study how asymmetric power relations in the cultural ecosystem result in unfair appropriations.

Areas of U-Turns from Indian Culture

Mind Sciences:
Cognitive Science and Neuroscience Transpersonal Psychology Jungian Psychology

Philosophy of Science:
Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Biology and Consciousness

Linguistics, mathematics, astronomy Life sciences:

Medicinal herbs, etc.

Western pop culture:

Literature Yoga and New Age Feminism Liberal Christianity

INDIC India based

Vedanta Transcendental Meditation Yoga Tantra

FRINGE AMERICANISM
New Age Yoga

MAINSTREAM AMERICANISM Secular Funding w E S T E R N S C I E N C E

USBased Indian Gurus

Goddess

A M E R I C A N

Buddhism

I N D I V I D U A L S

Transpersonal Psychology Self Improvement Consciousness Studies Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics Ecofeminism

Cognitive Science / Neuroscience Wellness Science

Philosophy Of Science

Music/ Vegetarianism Bhakti/ Kirtan

Christian Funding

J U D E O

C H R I S T I A N

A M E R I C A

Mind & Life Institute

Bringing Buddhism to Western life sciences and physics Held a dozen conferences and workshops (in Dharamsala and USA) between top Western scientists and Buddhists Major appropriation and mining project to (i) study Buddhist practice and epistemology, and (ii) remap onto Western frameworks

SCIENCE [3 October, 2003]: Buddhism, with its 2500 year history of deep introspection has much to offer to neuroscientists. Buddhist science of mind consists of refining the attention, enhancing attention skills, and developing very sophisticated means for investigating the nature of the mind from a first-person perspective Areas where Buddhism challenges the latest neurosciences include: - Holding mental images for long periods - Holding attention fixed for hours - Shifting attention ultra-fast - Positive emotional states to counter biological disorders

Mainstream press examples

Scientific American, February 2006: Talking Up Enlightenment: Neuroscientists hear, and applaud, the Dalai Lama, by Christina Reed Time Magazine, January, 2006: "How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time" Time Magazine, January 17, 2005: The Biology of Joy, by Michael D. Lemonick National Geographic Magazine, March 2005: Whats in your mind? Washington Post, January 3, 2005: "Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds" New York Times Magazine, September 14 2003: Is Buddhism Good for Your Health?

Time Magazine
Not only do studies show that meditation is boosting their immune system, but brain scans suggest that it may be rewiring their brains to reduce stress...Ten million American adults now say they practice some form of meditation regularly... Meditation is being recommended by more and more physicians as a way to prevent, slow down or at least control the pain of chronic diseases like heart conditions, AIDS, cancer and infertility. Many color pictures of modern imaging techniques of the brain to prove that meditation helps
[Time Magazine, August 4, 2003. pp.48-56.]

Time (contd)
Prominence given to Dr. Herb Benson of Harvard Medical School for his discoveries in the science of meditation. Mentions that Dean Ornish announced his most recent findings that meditation may slow prostrate cancer. Honors Jon-Kabat-Zinn:
Kabat-Zinn has been studying a group of patients with psoriasis, an incurable skin disease...the meditators skin cleared up at four times the rate of the nonmeditators. The better your meditation technique, Kabat-Zinn suggests, the healthier your immune system. One study, for example, shows that women who meditate and use guided imagery have higher levels of immune cells known to combat tumors in the breast.

Time (contd)

Focus is on how the West has discovered all this. Tributes to Western scientists who conducted laboratory studies on yogis and meditators for nearly 40 years. Marginalizes the Indian origins, and even alludes to the Indian cultural aspects as baggage to be shed in order to bring meditation to its Americanized perfection. Uses the common but inaccurate way of describing meditation as a confluence of Eastern mysticism and Western science...

Time (contd)
Denigrates the legitimacy of mantra: As meditation is demystified...theres less incense burning...In its most modern, Americanized forms, it has dropped the creepy mantra bit that has you memorize a secret phrase or syllable. With a tone of heroism, Time announces that Victor Davich will have a new book out, Eight Minutes That Will Change Your Life, to teach the new American form of meditation. (Because eight minutes is the time for most commercial breaks on TV, meditation is now heading towards something you do during the TV commercial breaks.)

Indic Framework
Dhyana Vipassna Yoga Nidra Pranayama Yantra Nada-Brahman Beeja-Mantra TM Yoga Various Hinduism Theosophy

Appropriator/ New Locus

Francesco Varela Jon Kabat-Zinn Stephen LaBerge Various Various Various Herb Benson Various Daniel Goleman Rudolph Steiner Robert McDermott CIIS transformation

Western Framework
Meditation Phenomenology Neuro-phenomenology Mindfulness Lucid Dreaming Energy Medicine Sacred Geometry Sound Therapy Relaxation Response Pilates Emotional Intelligence Anthroposophy

The U-Turn Theory

Surprises that led me to the U-Turn Theory

1. Indian Philosophy was not being taught in most US Philosophy departments except very superficially. My examples of its positive use were dismissed as this belongs to Psychology. Appropriations from Indic were being disguised especially in public. Religious Studies Departments were the originators of biases against Hinduism, and seemed focused on its human rights problems contrary to the treatment of other world religions. Indian Diaspora leaders and gurus were dismissive of these issues, citing many glories and shlokas as proof of invincibility. So I started to study the work by Japan, China, Korea, etc foundations in USA.

2. 3.

4.

Surprises (contd)
1. I started projects to compile Indic contributions to Western culture, with help of many American scholars. Many Indian scholars in the humanities were publicly pro-India but their work was anti-India. Funding institutions had massive influence over the field of India Studies and they tended to focus on certain themes and agendas. Trendy Western originated theories from the humanities were widely taught and applied in the study of Indian culture and civilization.

2. 3.

4.

Civilizational Darwinism: Predator Appropriates, Digests and Rejects the Prey (3) Digest

(2) Satisfied Stomach

(4) Stronger Body

(1) Covet & Consume

(5) Excrete & Flush

U-Turn Facilitating Institutions

Empirical:
National Institute of Mental Health Mayo Clinic MIT Labs Bensons Mind-Body Institute Mind & Life Institute Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies Conference on Consciousness Studies in Tucson Journal of Consciousness Studies Kira Institute Institute of Noetic Sciences California Institute of Integral Studies Esalen John Templeton Foundation

Theoretical:

Prominent Icons of U-Turns

Herb Benson Daniel Goleman Dean Ornish Jon Kabat-Zinn Stephen LaBerge Francisco Varela Evan Thompson Rupert Sheldrake Roberto Assagioli Ken Wilber Teilhard de Chardin Christian Centering Prayer Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science Joseph Campbell TS Eliot Rabbi Shapiro's Non-dualistic Torah.

Stage 1: Student / Disciple

The Westerner is a very diligent student of the Indian traditions, and/or a disciple of a guru or lineage, and writes with the deepest respect for these traditions. Many kinds of intentions, such as:
Genuinely aspire to give up Western religious affiliations, and to sincerely adopt Hinduism/Buddhism. India helps such a person to find himself/herself. Many continue here for the long haul, while others move on to subsequent stages. Some wish to retain their public Judeo-Christian or Western secular identity, and are forthright that they are engaged in an intellectual fact-finding exercise only, and that their adopting the Indian practices is out of respect and for research. Some have a premeditated game plan to later return to their original Western cultural identity. This is simply an anthropological technique to open up the channels of communication from the Indian side, by getting Indians to welcome them as genuine seekers.

Stage 2: Repackaging as neutral, new age, or perennial

Indian traditions are repackaged as original discoveries by the Western scholar, and/or relocated by copy-paste into obscure Greek, Christian or other Western texts, and/or assumed to be generic thoughts found in all cultures. Furthers the authors academic career and expands the market for his/her books, tapes and seminars, by distancing from the negative image of the caste, cows and curry traditions. The personal ego hijacks what has been learnt, in order to serve its selfish purposes. Many lofty arguments are given to justify this as being in the public interest.

Inculturation Strategy
A well developed and effective tool. Heathen practices and symbols are integrated into Christian history and theology:
Christianity inside, but using the symbols and outwards practices of heathens.

Strategy is to make the Church seem native, not foreign. Make the conversion into Christianity gentler, using diplomacy, political correctness, and outright deceit. The Christian side has well researched and tested strategies to take over the other, while the Hindu preachers have little understanding of the Christian side, and lack strategic thinking.

Stage 3: Heros return to his/her original tradition

Return to Judeo-Christian religious identity with bounties of freshly appropriated knowledge to enrich it. Alternatively, repackaged in secular vernacular, such as Western psychology or phenomenology etc. Western audiences feel ingratiated for their own cultures sophistication. The scholar becomes an icon and symbol of the West, eliminating the need for subsequent students and practitioners to read or learn from the source Indian culture. Indian traditions may now be relocated as museum pieces with mere historical significance, sometimes given great respect, but the roots are no longer nurtured as living traditions. Joseph Campbell described this as the heros return back home.
Celebration may be compared to the way Napoleon was welcomed by the French as he marched through the streets of Paris displaying his captured loot from North Africa slaves, ivory, gold, and other items of value. The Western archetype of hero depends heavily upon the conquest of others, displaying the plundered property for pride. Unlike Napoleons loot, modern sentiments against plagiarism and need for original scholarship make it necessary to cover up the non-Western sources.

Sometimes it is not the appropriator but the Western readers, students and followers who insist on Western origins to feel proud of their own collective ego. The scholar is merely complicit. To take a culture apart into its components, and to pluck out some key parts here and there, while denigrating the rest, is an act of violence. Some have rationalized this as the Darwinian evolution of civilizations the strong conquer consume in order that the best parts of the prey becomes a part of the predator.

Parts feed into wholes/containers

Source
Extinct species Dead civilizations Clip Art library Shareware (Public domain software)

Parts supplied
DNA Intellectual, cultural and tangible assets Symbol/Icon Independent code

New Systems
New species Predator civilizations Design Proprietary software (MS Windows, etc.)

Non-Western Traditions Ideas Practices Symbols Biblical Historical Grand Narrative Popular Demand Scientific Legitimacy Judeo-Christian Competitiveness Secular Western Institutional Knowledge

Implications
Wholes are containers for cultural capital the species that thrives Parts cannot hold cultural capital the species that fades away and lives only in the predators DNA

How to appropriate responsibly

Responsible
Farmer Invests in soil, irrigation, seeds, strong roots, etc Nurtures ecosystem & coexistence Long term commitment to land Believes in indefinite supply of future harvests

Irresponsible
Miner Does not replenish Creates ecological disaster & alienation Plunder and abandon mindset Believes in capturing a finite resource

The Mining Expeditions

Funding Institutions Indology

Indic Traditions

Biblical Historical Grand Narrative

Religious Studies South Asian Studies New Age Global Gurus

Western Secular Knowledge

Stage 4: Denigrating the source

A few scholars proceed to trash the Indian traditions as being primitive, irrational, socially backward or abusive, etc. Academic arson: plunder and denigrate/destroy the victim. Furthers the Wests claims of originality, because it tries to absolve them of links to denigrated traditions. Unlike Indian tradition (Sampradayas) of change-with-continuity, Wests progress is often discontinuous with emphasis on explicitly rejecting the past. Western egos heroism involves proving the inferiority of the past as other. (Indian traditions did not burn books or persecute dissenters.) Westerner acknowledges the past that is located within Western identity and collective ego, but finds it very difficult to accept that his past also lies in non-Western origins in positive ways. Hence, U-Turns facilitate these historical discontinuities. Cultural Oedipus complex - murdering ones father (Indian tradition seed source) in order to posses the mother (body of knowledge), so as to become oneself as an adult (new Western locus/origin).

Stage 5: Indian Shame

Yoga Journal did a survey of the attitudes of Indian Americans concerning yoga. David Life, cofounder of Jivanmukti Yoga: Those [Indian Americans] I've met have a certain naivet about their own tradition. They have some vague idea of their roots. These kids didn't have a traditional up-bringing, and they've suffered a bit of separation. Tripti Bose, a former psychotherapist who came to the United States in the 1960: Because of colonization we were brainwashed that yoga was superstition, not something that you can scientifically rely on. Anybody who talked about yoga was looked at kind of funny. In India, if somebody did yoga, they would ask, Who is this weird person? Kumar Dube (typical middle-class man) said that yoga was some ancient, backward, even superstitious practice. Yoga Journal wrote that he loves nothing better than to offer disquisitions on Hinduism and yoga. Growing up under the British Raj, anything Indian was considered no good,Some kind of stupid hocus pocus like the famous rope trick, says Dube. Somini Sengupta (journalist for New York Times): Her specialty was on Hindu abuses, depicting Hinduism as a culture of atrocities against women, minorities, poor, and Muslims. She told Yoga Journal that she has taken yoga classes for stress reduction, but quickly gives a disclaimer to distance herself from the tradition: It's part of an exercise trend, and I treat it as my form of exercise. She reported that she refuses to participate in the Sanskrit chanting in class, because I don't know the meaning. To her, yoga is no more than just another part of American pop culture.
[ Out of India, by Marina Budhos, Yoga Journal. April 2002.

Indian Shame (contd)

Reetika Vazirani, a poet and author, said that had she felt ashamed of things Indian. Yoga had an atmosphere of ancient and back there. The yoga books showed men with almost elemental qualities. I didn't have the cultural confidence to be proud. Unfortunately, India Abroad reported that she recently committed suicide using kitchen knives, also killing her 15-month old son. Her friends described her as someone who has everything going for her, she was the recipient of many honors and awards... In the same issue of India Abroad, on the facing page, Arthur Pais reports that fiction novels by Indians do not get good reviews if they fail to cater to the stereotypes of Indian society. One American publisher told him bluntly, People who read books by Indian authors are not ready to embrace a writer who is not dealing with class and caste tensions.
[India Abroad, August 1, 2003. p.M4.]

Recent Indian Pride

Many second-generation Indians re-discovering heritage positively. Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, researches the identities of Indian-American youth: Most of the second generation has a feeling of cultural ownership. They remember going to school and being ashamed that their mother wore a sari and a bindi. They worked and struggled to learn about Indian traditions; they've earned the right to display their bindis. It came at the price of being made fun of. Their feeling was, We had to struggle to present our Indianness in the face of being harassed; we had to fight to hold on to our rituals. They were just getting over their shame and discomfort, and at that moment Indo-chic took off. Now it is so easy for a white American to take on this cultural sign. That's what bothers them.
[Out of India, by Marina Budhos, Yoga Journal. April 2002.]

Ayurveda Aveda Estee Lauder

Ayurveda is a $5 billion industry worldwide, and growing. Global market for plant medicines is forecast at $200 billion by 2010. Indias exports represent less than 0.1% of global market, although India pioneered in the study and documentation of plants and herbs and provided much of the worlds herbal supply for centuries. The companys name Aveda stands for Ayurveda.
Started by an American devotee of Hindu gurus, when he lived in India Goal was to bring Ayurveda to the West Later, he sold it to Estee Lauder for a huge sum

Case Study:

Today, Aveda is the world leader in the packaging and distribution of Ayurveda products, often not publicly recognizable as being Ayurvedic.
Estee Lauder sources herbs from countries other than India This technology transfer went largely unnoticed and without royalties Nor has Estee Lauder reinvested in Indias tradition in the form of education or further R & D.

Many Indian Ayurvedic clinics promote Aveda products and get free samples. Keralas herbal exports suffer as Indian herbs are transplanted to large-scale farms in California:
This technology transfer program was presented to me at University of California, Santa Barbara, as an example of their great respect for Indian traditions. When I asked whether they had factored the human rights consequences of killing the Kerala farmers centuries old export business, without compensation for the know how being expropriated, it drew blank looks. One Indian present was especially uncomfortable that I had raised the topic.

Case Study: Carl Jung & Indian Thought

Jung and Yoga

Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern psychology, was also deeply influenced by Indic traditions of thought and meditative technology. India had long been particularly preoccupied with what might be called the "inner sciences", the speculative and empirical exploration of the self and consciousness, a field that was almost entirely neglected in the West until the beginning of the last century. Jung found Indian traditions, particularly the traditions of yoga, most helpful in this regard. He made a careful study of Patanjalis Yogasutra and employed many of the concepts therein in the composition of his seminal work Psychological Types. Jung taught summer institutes in Switzerland in the 1930s specifically on yoga, kundalini, etc. Jung was aware of quite sophisticated psychological theories of Indian schools of thought, and made explicit mention of them.

Indic
Atman Samskaras Karmic imprints Alayavijnana (storehouse consciousness) of Yogachara; Chitta (Samkhya) Rta Mandala Kundalini and Chakras Shiva-Shakti Gurus, Devatas Avidya is internal Yoga sufficient for liberation

Jungian System
Self Memory Seeds Archetypes Collective Unconscious Synchronicity Mandala Kundalini and Chakras Soul Images Thought Beings Removal of Satan as externally personified Evil Abandonment of historical Messiah

Jungs New Western Myth

Compatible with Western Science
Self God No Reincarnation No egoless state Samskaras are collective not individual Collective unconscious is Ultimate

Compatible with Christianity

Allow empirically verified facts only

Jungs own personal yogic attainments are constraints Chakras 1-5 = yes Chakras 6-7 = no

Reinterpret Christian symbols & myth

Archetypes cannot be transcended

Purusha is emergent from Prakriti

Samadhi impossible

Prajna & Pratibha impossible

Borrow from Indic but deny and distort

Jungs U-Turn from Indic Thought

Three limiting factors
Limits to his own yoga experience Western chauvinistic presumptions: Indians considered prerational Empiricism is uniquely Western Need to retrofit into the New Christian Myth Elimination of key Indic notions Reincarnation Human transcendence beyond archetypes Egoless State, Samadhi, Omniscience Purusha (collapsed into Prakriti) Considered Indian Yoga dangerous for Westerners. Obsession to reinvent his own Western Yoga

Jungs Imprint on Western Thought The list of Eranos participants became the whos who of Western thinkers in many disciplines. Examples:
Joseph Campbell, Martin Buber, Jean Danielou, Mircea Eliade, Friedrich Heiler, Paul Radin, C.A.F. Rhys Davids, Paul Tillich, Giuseppe Tucci, R.C. Zaehner, Heinrich Zimmer

Why People U-Turn

Insurance against Biblical Hell Hegelian Supremacy:
Joseph Campbells Heros Return Linear Theories of History Imperialist Agendas

Postmodernist deconstruction of Grand Narratives, identities, nation-states Sameness of all religions Human Rights Industry opportunities Marxism struggle against religion Indias vote banking politics of identity Hinduphobia Scandals of gurus/swamis

Advancing from the floor to the lap

Hard Power Difference is emphasized Know your place

Soft Power Assimilation is emphasized Come to my lap and be liberated