YOGA, AYURVEDA—INDIA CAN LEAD THE WISDOM ECONOMY

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.

- ANSHUL KHANDELWAL

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.

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