Exclusive: Pakistan on Yoga-High Despite Crackdown

Yoga has many adherents in Pakistan, but this Yoga Day, religious politics has taken over.

Yoga in the morning at a park in Islamabad. (Photo: Hamza Ameer)

Amid the rhetoric and politics surrounding International Day of Yoga, those who practice yoga in Pakistan have become unlikely casualties.

In various centres in Pakistan, yoga trainers and organisations have been warned not to conduct any activity on Yoga Day on Sunday. This even as India attempts to create history by getting at least 100,000 people perform yoga together.

In a fresh development, the Pakistan government has refused visas to yoga instructors from India, invited by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

Further, the Art of Living (AoL), meditation centre has been directed to halt any plans to conduct yoga workshops tomorrow. Other organisations too have been warned not to go ahead with plans.

Yoga Viewed as ‘un-Islamic’

Breathing exercise during yoga in Islamabad. (Photo: Hamza Ameer)

The reason for these restrictions? Security fears that extremists might target these workshops.

While these are reasonable restrictions given the current climate of hostility between the two nations, questions have been raised over the manner in which these restrictions have been imposed.

Speaking to The Quint in Islamabad, an Art of Living representative who did not wish to be identified for security reasons, said the centre toned down its activities after the attack on its centre in the city.

The representative said,

Authorities have not only directed Art of Living (AOL) but all other organisations working in the country to halt all preparations for International Yoga Day.

Attack on Art of Living Centre in Islamabad in 2014

A woman inspects the damage at the Art of Living centre in Islamabad, 2014. (Photo: Hamza Ameer)

In 2014, a centre operated by Art of Living in Islamabad was burnt down by the at least 15 gunmen. The Bani Gala branch in the country’s capital had been a place of activity for yogis in Pakistan ever since Sri Sri Ravishankar inaugurated it in 2012.

Yoga adherents were drawn mainly from the urban and educated elite. But the centre has been controversial since the majority view yoga as un-Islamic. Questions were raised during Sri Sri’s visit in 2012 when he asked people to chant ‘Om’.

Even in India, the criticism that yoga is un-Islamic has had support among the country’s 175 million-strong Muslim community.

Is Surya Namaskar un-Islamic? No, Practioners Say

Sri Sri Ravishankar at the Islamabad Art of Living centre. (Photo: Hamza Ameer)

In Pakistan, confusion reigns over the Surya Namaskar, or the Sun Salutation, an exercise routine that constitutes a set of at least 12 different postures, done when the Sun rises in the morning. Some religious scholars have declared it as un-Islamic, maintaining that Islam forbids followers from worshipping anything but Allah.

Yet, many yoga enthusiasts in Pakistan are regulars, in one form or the other at practising this ancient style of relaxation.

Shamshad Haider, a leading instructor in Pakistan says that yoga is not an un-Islamic practice.

I have taught yoga as a science. It is not part of any religion. Yoga is a way through which we can live a healthy life and it’s the best thing for people to overcome various sorts of diseases.

(Junaid Saeed, a Senior Producer with Asia Despatch contributed to the article.)