Patrick S.D. McCartney – författare

This book is a recollection of McCartney’s journey across ‘Sanskritland,’ which is the term coined to refer to the utopian landscape within which the ‘Language of the Gods’ is thought to be spoken.There are three destinations on the author’s journey. The first includes understanding how Sanskrit narratives are woven into yoga-inflected ‘lifestyles,’ forming biographies operationalised toward soft-power purposes. Next, the historical sociolinguistic contexts that have shaped Sanskritland are discussed, framed by application in sustainable development narratives. Finally, comprehensive demographic and linguistic analyses of Sanskrit across all of India’s census enumerations (from 1872 to 2011) shows the ‘shifting sands’ of Sanskrit’s ‘speakers’ and how the ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ village data show that most people who identify as speakers of Sanskrit live in urban areas and ‘speak’ Sanskrit as a third language. All of these together shed light on how, why, and where Sanskrit is spoken in the twenty-first century, the complex and dynamic historical and contemporary that have allowed this, and how both yoga and Sanskrit are instruments for development and soft-power projects.This book is an essential read for scholars and students of linguistic anthropology, Indology and sustainable development.

This book is a sociological study of knowledge and knowers and explores the production and perceived value of ‘yogic knowledge,’ how distinction is curated, and how access to this knowledge is gained.The book focuses on the organization Shanti Mandir (SM) in India, a new religious movement, which was founded in 1987 by Swami Nityananda Saraswati. It is a non-profit charity operating within the unregulated and competitive multi-billion dollar global and domestic wellness/spiritual tourism industries, and as a registered education provider within India’s education industry. The main aim of this book is to answer the question how legitimacy is acquired, negotiated and expressed within the SM yoga ashram. The theoretical framework applied in this study is a confluence of the sociology of education, knowledge and religion. The author engages a methodology based primarily on ethnographic participant-observation and discourse analysis. Situating SM within the transglobal yoga and spiritual tourism industries, the book demonstrates how SM promotes itself as a provider of a consumable lifestyle that spiritual aspirants can adopt through attending retreats, workshops, meditation intensives, yoga teacher training and philosophy courses in their global network of ashrams. By identifying the structuring forces of the guru’s discourse, and focusing on the marketing strategies and subsequent exchanges of capital and affective emotions, this monograph documents what the legitimate yogic identity promoted by SM is within the context of the transglobal yoga industry.A highly original and incisive portrait of an Indian devotional community with strong transnational connections, this book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Indian religion and yoga.

This book is a sociological study of knowledge and knowers and explores the production and perceived value of ‘yogic knowledge,’ how distinction is curated, and how access to this knowledge is gained.The book focuses on the organization Shanti Mandir (SM) in India, a new religious movement, which was founded in 1987 by Swami Nityananda Saraswati. It is a non-profit charity operating within the unregulated and competitive multi-billion dollar global and domestic wellness/spiritual tourism industries, and as a registered education provider within India’s education industry. The main aim of this book is to answer the question how legitimacy is acquired, negotiated and expressed within the SM yoga ashram. The theoretical framework applied in this study is a confluence of the sociology of education, knowledge and religion. The author engages a methodology based primarily on ethnographic participant-observation and discourse analysis. Situating SM within the transglobal yoga and spiritual tourism industries, the book demonstrates how SM promotes itself as a provider of a consumable lifestyle that spiritual aspirants can adopt through attending retreats, workshops, meditation intensives, yoga teacher training and philosophy courses in their global network of ashrams. By identifying the structuring forces of the guru’s discourse, and focusing on the marketing strategies and subsequent exchanges of capital and affective emotions, this monograph documents what the legitimate yogic identity promoted by SM is within the context of the transglobal yoga industry.A highly original and incisive portrait of an Indian devotional community with strong transnational connections, this book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Indian religion and yoga.

This book is a sociological study of knowledge and knowers and explores the production and perceived value of 'yogic knowledge,' how distinction is curated, and how access to this knowledge is gained.The book focuses on the organization Shanti Mandir (SM) in India, a new religious movement, which was founded in 1987 by Swami Nityananda Saraswati. It is a non-profit charity operating within the unregulated and competitive multi-billion dollar global and domestic wellness/spiritual tourism industries, and as a registered education provider within India's education industry. The main aim of this book is to answer the question how legitimacy is acquired, negotiated and expressed within the SM yoga ashram. The theoretical framework applied in this study is a confluence of the sociology of education, knowledge and religion. The author engages a methodology based primarily on ethnographic participant-observation and discourse analysis. Situating SM within the transglobal yoga and spiritual tourism industries, the book demonstrates how SM promotes itself as a provider of a consumable lifestyle that spiritual aspirants can adopt through attending retreats, workshops, meditation intensives, yoga teacher training and philosophy courses in their global network of ashrams. By identifying the structuring forces of the guru's discourse, and focusing on the marketing strategies and subsequent exchanges of capital and affective emotions, this monograph documents what the legitimate yogic identity promoted by SM is within the context of the transglobal yoga industry.A highly original and incisive portrait of an Indian devotional community with strong transnational connections, this book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Indian religion and yoga.

This book is a sociological study of knowledge and knowers and explores the production and perceived value of 'yogic knowledge,' how distinction is curated, and how access to this knowledge is gained.The book focuses on the organization Shanti Mandir (SM) in India, a new religious movement, which was founded in 1987 by Swami Nityananda Saraswati. It is a non-profit charity operating within the unregulated and competitive multi-billion dollar global and domestic wellness/spiritual tourism industries, and as a registered education provider within India's education industry. The main aim of this book is to answer the question how legitimacy is acquired, negotiated and expressed within the SM yoga ashram. The theoretical framework applied in this study is a confluence of the sociology of education, knowledge and religion. The author engages a methodology based primarily on ethnographic participant-observation and discourse analysis. Situating SM within the transglobal yoga and spiritual tourism industries, the book demonstrates how SM promotes itself as a provider of a consumable lifestyle that spiritual aspirants can adopt through attending retreats, workshops, meditation intensives, yoga teacher training and philosophy courses in their global network of ashrams. By identifying the structuring forces of the guru's discourse, and focusing on the marketing strategies and subsequent exchanges of capital and affective emotions, this monograph documents what the legitimate yogic identity promoted by SM is within the context of the transglobal yoga industry.A highly original and incisive portrait of an Indian devotional community with strong transnational connections, this book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Indian religion and yoga.

This book is a recollection of McCartney's journey across 'Sanskritland,' which is the term coined to refer to the utopian landscape within which the 'Language of the Gods' is thought to be spoken.There are three destinations on the author's journey. The first includes understanding how Sanskrit narratives are woven into yoga-inflected 'lifestyles,' forming biographies operationalised toward soft-power purposes. Next, the historical sociolinguistic contexts that have shaped Sanskritland are discussed, framed by application in sustainable development narratives. Finally, comprehensive demographic and linguistic analyses of Sanskrit across all of India's census enumerations (from 1872 to 2011) shows the 'shifting sands' of Sanskrit's 'speakers' and how the 'Sanskrit-speaking' village data show that most people who identify as speakers of Sanskrit live in urban areas and 'speak' Sanskrit as a third language. All of these together shed light on how, why, and where Sanskrit is spoken in the twenty-first century, the complex and dynamic historical and contemporary that have allowed this, and how both yoga and Sanskrit are instruments for development and soft-power projects.This book is an essential read for scholars and students of linguistic anthropology, Indology and sustainable development.