Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy - Softcover

Joseph S. Alter

3.71

17 ratings by Goodreads

9788178223247: Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8178223244 ISBN 13: 9788178223247

Publisher: New Age Books, 2010

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Yoga has come to be an icon of Indian culture and civilization, and it is widely regarded as being timeless and unchanging. Based on extensive ethnographic research and an analysis of both ancient and modern texts, "Yoga in Modern India" challenges this popular view by examining the history of yoga, focusing on its emergence in modern India and its dramatically changing form and significance in the twentieth century. Joseph Alter argues that yoga's transformation into a popular activity idolized for its health value is based on modern ideas about science and medicine.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

"This is the first time Indian Modern Yoga has received such sustained, in-depth treatment by a reputable and well-informed scholar. Much of the book is quite accessible to the general reader, and many of Alter's more theoretical and analytical interpretations of modern understandings of yoga, health, medicine, the body, and truth claims are novel and stimulating. Highly recommended."--Elizabeth De Michelis, Director, Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research, Cambridge University

"Yoga in Modern India is a mine of thought-provoking propositions in regard to the historiography of classical and modern writing on yoga. Well written, it provides detailed and frequently provocative analyses of particular yogic ideas and practices that contribute to a more sophisticated discussion about the status of modern yoga in its various guises over the last one-and-a-half centuries."--Waltraud Ernst, University of Southampton, author of Plural Medicine, Tradition, and Modernity, 1800-2000

About the Author:

Joseph S. Alter is Professor of Anthropology and Research Professor at the University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of "The Wrestler's Body, Knowing Dil Das", and "Gandhi's Body".

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.