YSP 36 Philip Deslippe | Early American Yoga and the "Swami Circuit"

In this episode, we speak with return guest Philip Deslippe about his research on the history of Early American Yoga. Philip shares with us his archive of knowledge and stories from the "Swami Circuit"-the network of forgotten South Asian yoga teachers who travelled and taught various forms of yoga throughout the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. We discuss the nature of yoga and yoga teachers during this time, the demographics and geography of yoga, issues of authenticity and professionalization, how racism and and immigration policies impacted yoga, and why yoga was commonly taught at hotels during this period. We conclude with a preview of his upcoming revised online course, YS 102 | Modern Yoga in the West.
Speaker Bio
Philip Deslippe is a historian of American religion with a background in American Studies and literature. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is writing a dissertation on the early history of yoga in the United States from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Philip has published articles on the history of modern yoga in academic journals such as the Journal of Yoga Studies, Amerasia, and Sikh Formations, and in popular venues including Yoga Journal, Air and Space Smithsonian, and the Indian news site Scroll.
Links
YS 102 | Modern Yoga in the West | www.yogicstudies.com/ys-102
ucsb.academia.edu/PhilipDeslippe
"The Swami Circuit: Mapping the Terrain of Early American Yoga" (2018) | www.academia.edu/36543075/The...

[@RP-mm9ie]

great

[@ukurtic]

Thank you very much for sharing! The stage magicians who were using yogic persona in the early 19th century , were Indian origin?

[@PhilipDeslippeable]

We know of stage magicians from India performing in the United States no later than 1893, but the vast majority of magicians claiming to be from India were non-Indians adapting the personae. There were some in the 19th-century who would "split the difference" and not claim to be Indian, but have a back story they would give the audience about how they went to India, learned magic there, then came back.

[@tracydraksic9689]

Great podcast! I am curious what you were going to say about Yogananda not writing “Autobiography of a Yogi”??

[@yogicstudies]

I wish I had remembered to ask Philip later in the conversation... I don't want to speak for him, but I believe he has some evidence to suggest that Yogananda may not have been the "sole" author of the text, and that perhaps he had more help writing it than most realize.

[@tracydraksic5489]

Yes, I googled it and found some reports that The Self Realization Fellowship had a committee that edited the book quite a bit - even after Yogananda’s death. Very curious to hear Philip’s thoughts on this. Next time!

[@collyernicholasjohn]

There was a scathing book review of Gregory David Smith’s book Shantaram in The Conversation online yesterday. The reviewer accused the author of Orientalising and exoticsizing India, and of stereotyping his Indian characters. Whether or not that’s the case, it seems Indians have long done exactly that to create a product to sell to Americans.

[@PhilipDeslippeable]

It was clearly the case in the United States in the early-20th century that many Indians used Orientalist stereotypes about them to their own benefit, sometimes as spiritual teachers, sometimes as merchants, sometimes in legal cases. As we will discuss in the course, this is often a complicated and nuanced process. Many yoga teachers in the US during the 1920s and 30s used the exotification of India to gain students and a platform and then used that platform to advocated for Indian independence from the British, exotification in order to de-exotify as it were.

[@arninarendran5028]

Yogi Ramcharaka was a Theosophist and one of first white American Yoga Teacher.