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- Title
Rishis and Rebels: The Punjabi Sikh Presence in Early American Yoga.
- Authors
Deslippe, Philip
- Abstract
This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the United States during the early to mid-twentieth century: Wassan Singh (1882-1942), Bhagwan Singh Gyanee (1884-1962), Rishi Singh Gherwal (1889-1964), Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967), and Sadhu Balwant Singh Grewal (1899-1985). After placing them in the context of modern yoga and its early history in America, it is suggested that as yoga teachers these five are best understood as immigrants and merchants who occupied a unique and liminal position between the prevailing antagonisms against South Asian immigration and a fascination with an imagined "metaphysical Asia." In addition to their political activities for rights within the United States and an independent Indian nation abroad, they are cast as a significant presence in both the history of yoga and the history of the Punjabi diaspora in America.
- Subjects
UNITED States; RISHIS; SIKHS; YOGA teachers; YOGA; IMMIGRANTS; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Journal of Punjab Studies, 2016, Vol 23, Issue 1/2, p93
- ISSN
0971-5223
- Publication type
Article