Fascist Yoga

How is postural yoga rooted in white supremacy and fascism?

In this book, Stewart Home (an adept at the lotus headstand) traces the development of postural yoga in North America and Europe through the twentieth century, up to its explosion in popularity in the 1970s. He shows us how postural practice wad first claimed by fascistic and conspiratorial ideologies. Grifters, occultists and white supremacists latched on to a rebranding that packaged yoga as an exotic Indian, Aryan import. After Covid, the yoga industry’s repressed fascism resurfaced. Home tells a history that includes cult leaders and brainwashed followers, TV celebrities and fake gurus, all part of an entanglement of occultism and the far right. This exposé shows us that nothing is sacred.

Stewart Home, born in London in 1962, is a legendary artist and writer and the author of seventeen novels, eight books of cultural commentary and collections of short stories and poetry.

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In the media

‘Presents a new origin story of yoga. Home’s book comes at an opportune time to puncture that monolithic belief of yoga’s Hindu Indianness.’—The Hindu

‘Proves that yoga is multicultural now and no longer essentially Hindu or Indian, with a history that’s neither as harmless nor holy as often portrayed.’—India Today

‘While reading this book, one cannot help feeling sorry for those who fall prey to con artists.’—Business Standard