Authenticity, Legitimacy and the Transglobal Yoga Industry

Patrick S.D. McCartney is a Phoenix Fellow at Hiroshima University, Japan. He is also a Research Associate at Nanzan University’s Anthropological Institute, Japan, an ISRF Research Fellow at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. Patrick is trained in archaeology, social anthropology, classical philology, sociolinguistics and computational social science. He works at the boundaries of the politics of imagination and the economics of desire. A sustained interest has involved exploring the biographies of Sanskrit and yoga and their relations to political theology, competitive diplomacy and faith-based development.

"'[This book analyses] how authority and authenticity are constructed within a transnational ashram.By showing how ritual practice, lineage discourse, and market engagement interact, McCartney provides a useful framework for analyzing similar spiritual organizations...[It] will be most relevant to scholars of the Study of Religions, particularly those working on contemporary Hinduism and global yoga."-- Elena Popov, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review, vol. 52. no.2 (June 2026)

• Preface; Acknowledgements; Primary Texts Mentioned; A Brief Outline of this Book Part I Chapter 1. Entering the Temple of Peace; Chapter 2. The Ashram, its Surrounds and the Daily Schedule; Chapter 3. Shanti Mandir’s Tradition, Lineage and Philosophies; Chapter 4. The Social Network and Symbolic Exchanges of Capital; Chapter 5. Marketing Yoga, Sanātana Dharma and Neo-Hinduism Part II Chapter 6. Reading the Guru-as-Text; Chapter 7. Darśana’s Double-bind: Shame, Anxiety and Celebration; Chapter 8. Suggesting Śāntarasa: The Aesthetic Mood of Satsaṅga Part III Chapter 9. Analysing Yoga’s Knowledge Spectrum; Chapter 10. Cultivating Gazes and Knowledge Structures: Aesthetic Theories of Perception and Performance; Chapter 11. Exiting Shanti Mandir; Index