YOGA - Caste & Unholy Distortions Hijack a Timeless Tradition

There is a sudden high cackle in a low-brow but serious podcast between an unknown yoga teacher, Anjali Rao, and a podcaster. They are discussing the “oppression in yoga” and laugh  - Exactly, if yoga is about liberation, what is the liberation from if not from caste oppression? The podcaster cackles!

And therein lies the summary of the ignorance of hours of podcasts and reams of writing that Anjali Rao is developing to connect caste to yoga. People like Anjali Rao, who don’t understand the depth and concept of the yogic idea of liberation of Self from the self, of maya and moksha, are now sitting as ‘experts’ to speak of Marxist  binaries, inserting theories of the oppressor and the oppressed in yoga, the highest of sciences. 

It is like a 2nd Grader pretending to be an expert in quantum physics. Anjali Rao, a relatively unknown yoga teacher, wrote an article last year that revealed a shocking ignorance of the very tradition she sought to critique. Many dismissed it—just as we once dismissed the deeply flawed Equality Labs caste report. 

Indifference is perilous. Rao is now expanding her misrepresentations into a book to be published by Shambhala Publications, recasting yoga as a story of caste oppression. This is not just sloppy scholarship; it is a deliberate distortion -  shoehorning yoga into alien categories of caste and race.

Yoga sutras and related texts carry pithy sutras that reflect quantum theories like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and are not meant for people who lack relevant scholarship. The reason brahmins read Yoga theories is similar to why a PhD thesis in quantum physics is only read by scholars in that science. Is that discrimination? 

Rao makes several such rookie mistakes, and as little knowledge is a dangerous thing, we warn that she is not qualified to speak on yoga.  Yoga does not bend to scheming narratives, nor can it be shackled by invented schisms. 

Quoted below are some of Rao’s most glaring missteps—and why they crumble under examination.

AR QUOTE 1: Insinuating Slave Labor

“In many parts of the world, the economic wealth of nations was built on slave labor. This holds for India and the United States. “

Pick up any text or videos from Khan Academy, and it is clear that India was probably the only land where slavery, feudal systems, and concepts of high taxation did not exist until colonial invasions. 

In a highly democratic setting, villages collectively determined taxes, and the king claimed only a limited share—approximately one-sixth of the yield. This system left little room for institutionalized slavery of the type seen elsewhere, and this has been documented in accounts by Megasthenes and several foreign travelers.

AR QUOTE 2: Attacking Patanjali and Yogasutras

 “Who were the people who had access to the knowledge of the Vedas? Who was excluded when Patanjali shared his Yoga Sutra? Was the study and practice of yoga reserved for only a certain section of the population? Who was and is allowed to be 'liberated'? Who forms the collective of yoga practitioners and its leadership? Is this historical exclusion of a group of people reflected in our modern learning and dissemination of these universal teachings of personal liberation?"

Sloppy Rao throws questions lazily, avoiding any research, presuming that those who can’t read Yogasutras are being sidelined.

Is a PhD a sign of a Caste System? Because it is akin to saying that Columbia University has a caste system if it asks for qualifications to enrol in a PhD. 

Rao puts up her cocky ignorance for open display and conjures a term, “yoga’s caste system.”  It shows that she has no idea of the spiritual and scholarly aspect of yoga or the painstaking training undertaken by yogis to achieve elevated spiritual energy and experiential understanding of the yogic principles.

AR QUOTE 3: Attacking the Varnas

The first mention of the Varnas appears in the Purusha Suktam of the Rig Veda.

Rao once again puts her ignorance on display. She doesn’t even seem to know that the Purusha Suktam makes no mention of Varna. Instead, she drags in words like “Dalits” and “Untouchables”—colonial-era inventions that the British pushed into currency only in the 20th century. 

Even more troubling is her attempt to bash yoga under the banner of “inclusivity,” when in truth yoga has always been open to all, as natural and accessible as breath itself. For centuries, it was part of Gurukul learning, practiced in akharas, at home, and prayer halls – and today it is everywhere - from TV channels and school classrooms to universities, wellness programs, and global spiritual movements like Transcendental Meditation™ and the Art of Living, together reaching over a billion people globally. 

Of course, not every practitioner is a master of yogic science, just as Rao herself is no authority. Most people seek yoga for personal growth, not PhD-level scholarship. So why is Rao parading her lack of knowledge as if it were insight? One has to ask—does she simply despise her own faith and the wisdom it has offered the world? 

AR QUOTE 4: Attacking Manusmriti

Manu Smriti (an ancient legal text from the Vedic period)

No Surprises here: Anjali Rao attacks the Manu Smriti but has no idea that the Manu smriti is not from the Vedic period… In fact, in Sanskrit, smriti means a secondary text, implying it's not vedic. it specifically refers to a vast body of post-Vedic texts of human origin, considered to be of secondary authority to the divinely revealed Vedas. Among its several meanings, it also means something that is transitory and for that particular time period. Manu Smriti was a legal text relevant to the British times and has nothing to do with YOGA.

We will cover the rest of her glaring errors of timelines and other problems in part 2 of the rebuttal soon. We are deeply concerned that someone like Anjali Rao has no problem contorting divine truth and her own religious texts. She is no expert on either Hinduism or yoga and is hardly qualified to  write a book about yoga. Hindu texts do not call out strict admonitions as  Jesus asks in the Bible, “not to cast pearls before swine”. 

This polarized and sad world needs yoga to remain pristine and spiritual. No agenda can sully or hijack Yoga. The pearls of yogic wisdom can be explained by enlightened gurus not agenda queens.