Far more than a style of clothing fashion or an abundance of fitness studios, yoga holds a long-standing global intersection with the fields of law, political identity, governance and rights, according to Professor Christian Novetzke in a lecture delivered at the University on Wednesday.

“We have to take yoga to be a political thing,” emphasized Novetzke, an associate professor at the University of Washington in his lecture, which was titled, “The Political Theology of Modern Yoga.” Novetzke began by recounting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sept. 27, 2014, speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in which Modi pressed for a UN resolution to name an international yoga day. The rationale behind Modi’s argument, he explained, was that the practice of yoga is “an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition that can help us deal with climate change.”

Novetzke stressed that Modi’s speech must be understood in the international political context of India’s role in climate change efforts, in which the country has argued that economically developing nations should be allowed to remain outside of the binding constraints of the Kyoto Protocol, as “the predicament of climate change is the result of the West’s long use of carbon fuels to propel industrial growth.”

He further explained Modi’s argument, clarifying that if the West has given the world industrial technology, then “India has given the world the possibility of spiritual, and even climatic transformation, through a technology of self-control — yoga.”

Novetzke then discussed the concept of political theology, which he defined as “the idea that formerly theological concepts find new life as secularized, modernized principles, and they are usually formed in relation to the modern liberal state.” He explained that traditional views of political theology, such as those popularized by 20th century German political philosopher Carl Schmitt, are limited by conceiving of theology as purely Christian and Western. Expanding on this view, Novetzke argued, allows for an examination of yoga as occupying a position that is “both theological and secular.”

In order to develop his argument on the secular and theological nature of yoga, Novetzke described the origins of the concept of yoga, stating that “the first use of the word ‘yoga’ in Sanskrit, around 1500 BCE, was in a context referring to the yoking of an animal, and usually the yoking of a war horse to a chariot.”

Of how this original use of the term relays an ideal of commitment and personal discipline, Novetzke added, “In this sense, yoga also meant being committed to one’s actions — the warrior was himself referred to as in a state of yoga, that is yoked to yoga, yoked to war, and to the possibility of a violent death.” Through this historical examination, he argued, yoga can be seen as possessing a distinct political value.

Novetzke then recounted the first writing that explicitly described yoga as a spiritual and salvational tool as we know it today, which was included as part of the “Katha Unipanishad,” a Hindu philosophical text composed around the fifth century B.C.E. This text includes a parable in which a young boy earns a wish from the god of death. The boy requests that Death “teach him how to escape the cycle of transmigration — of death birth, and death again.” Novetzke confirmed that this teaching is referred to in the parable as “yoga.”

In emphasizing the political aspect of yoga, Novetzke first turned his focus to the medieval period, during which “yoga served as a focal point for the negations of culture and religious diversity in India, and also as a way to express culture politics.” Muslims, in addition to Hindus, adapted the practice of yoga in this period as a means of political and cultural synchronization.

Building on this point of the value of yoga in governance, Novetzke invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts in securing Indian independence. Novetzke stated that Gandhi had “mastered the yoga of public politics” in operating under a “yoga of non-violent political mobilization.” According to Novetzke, Gandhi’s success is emblematic of how principles of yoga have always been interwoven with power and politics.

Novetzke added that the United States is now the center of global yoga, both financially and as the home of the practice’s key leaders and central figures. He expressed that examining the American legal system can indicate the current state of the political theology of modern yoga.

In order to do so, Novetzke studied a series of court cases in Encinitas, Calif., from 2013 to 2015, where it was assessed whether teaching yoga in the Encinitas public school system violated the constitution of California and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which both forbid the establishment of a state religion through a show favoritism toward one religion over others.

The court ultimately found that “the yoga exercises did not violate the First Amendment’s protections as the yoga exercise presentation did not advance any religious ideas or concepts.” At the same time, Novetzke, explained, the court paradoxically posed that while the public school’s practice of yoga was not religious, yoga itself was in fact religious.

Novetzke concluded his lecture by declaring that this court decision had occurred in order to “avoid the establishment of religion and to allow the free exercise of it.”

The existence of yoga in the United States as a practice both religious and not, he argued, enables it to “correctly and skillfully manage diversity as a political force.”

“Yoga in a secular democracy is a way to experience secularism as an embrace of diversity.”