Try GOLD - Free
YOGA, AYURVEDA—INDIA CAN LEAD THE WISDOM ECONOMY
Mint Ahmedabad
|October 13, 2025
I was watching a video of a meditation studio in Manhattan when it struck me yet again. Twenty people, mostly American professionals, sitting cross-legged on expensive mats, were following breathing techniques that our grandparents and ancestors practised every morning.
The instructor in the video was a 20-something American man from California, explaining pranayama with the earnestness of someone who had discovered fire. The irony wasn't lost on me. Here was this ancient Indian wisdom, repackaged and sold back to the world at premium prices, while India watched from the sidelines.
This actually captures a larger paradox. Walk through any global city today and you'll find yoga studios at every corner, turmeric lattes in trendy cafes, and meditation apps generating revenue from techniques codified in Sanskrit from thousands of years ago. Yet, somehow, India neither owns this narrative nor captures proportional value from it.
We've become an unnamed source of a global cultural revolution we don't even lead.
What Korea and China got right
This story is from the October 13, 2025 edition of Mint Ahmedabad.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Mint Ahmedabad
Mint Ahmedabad
More Indians turn to foreign markets
FROM PAGE 16
3 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
Movies served with a multi-course meal
Cinemas are serving food tailored to the films on show in an effort to make movies immersive
5 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
The first nepo baby of India’s art scene
As auction prices for Ravi Varma go through the roof, his son Rama Varma is finding new collectors and appreciation
7 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
Is your herbal medicine safe? Govt lens on report of microbes
Amid rising safety concerns clouding India’s $70-billion herbal medicine market, the government plans to conduct a study to assess the microbial load in the materials used in these traditional medicines, said two government officials in the know of the development.
1 min
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
Cos must work harder now to protect secrets
SC judgment narrows the scope of legal privilege for in-house counsels
2 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
D'Angelo leaves behind an era-defining legacy
In the long history of horny sex jams, nothing quite matches up to the brilliance of D’Angelo’s Untitled (How Does it Feel?) It's a seven-minute slow-burn that thrums with a tension both erotic and divine, its entreaties to his lover to “take the walls down” with him delivered by a choir from the heavens.
4 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
Dial P for puzzle-maker
David Mitchell is not a performer known for his acting range. On the BBC panel show Would I Lie to You (YouTube), host Rob Brydon mocked Mitchell—star of the unbelievably good comedy series Peep Show—by mimicking his voice and saying “Shall I do posh and repressed, or repressed and posh?” This, while cruel, is a truism. Mitchell, who has made a career out of quoting Shakespeare when he isn’t playing Shakespeare, consistently comes across literate and wealthy (and haplessly dorky), which is what makes him perfectly cast for the new mystery series Ludwig.
3 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
Move to tag social media AI content runs into resistance
and harm, instead of going by the process through which AI content is generated. Nasscom is set to submit its official response.
1 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
ICE roars back as tax cuts, festive discounts skip EVs
EV sales rose in Oct, but share of sales plunges as more vehicles were sold overall
2 mins
November 08, 2025
Mint Ahmedabad
On a chai-biscuit trail in Hyderabad
Sweet or savoury, round or crescent, Hyderabad's Irani biscuits have retained their popularity since the nizam's times
4 mins
November 08, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size