Modi flexes India’s cultural reach on Yoga Day with backbends and corpse poses on the UN lawn
UNITED NATIONS — Praising yoga as “a way of life,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed poses ranging from cobra to corpse alongside a multinational crowd Wednesday at the U.N. headquarters as he kicked off the public portion of his U.S. visit.
With a checkerboard of made-in-India yoga mats covering the U.N.’s spacious north lawn, Modi stopped and bowed at a statue of the assassinated Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi before saying in brief remarks that yoga was an all-ages, portable practice accessible to all faiths and cultures.
“It is a very old tradition, but like all ancient Indian traditions, it is also living and dynamic,” Modi said. “Yoga is truly universal.”
While yoga is a means to physical fitness, mental calm and emotional contentment, “it is not just about doing exercise on a mat. Yoga is a way of life,” said the year-old leader of the world’s most populous nation.
For Modi, who arrived Tuesday in New York on a trip that will offer plenty of time to discuss global tensions, highlighting an ancient pursuit of inner tranquility was a savvy and symbolic choice. He has made yoga a personal practice and a diplomatic tool.
Taking his spot on a mat amid the throng of a thousand or more, the 72-year-old Modi participated over the next 35 minutes in breathing exercises, meditation, backbends and other poses — from palm tree to diamond, hare to half-camel, crocodile to stretched-up frog.
The event honored the International Day of Yoga, which Modi persuaded the U.N. to designate in 2014 as an annual observance. This year’s version set a Guinness World Record, announced on-scene, for most nationalities — 135 — at a yoga lesson. It drew actor Richard Gere, singer-actor Mary Millben, New York Mayor Eric Adams, U.N. General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi and Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, among other dignitaries. Secretary-General António Guterres, who is at a conference in Paris, sent in a video greeting.
The shouts of demonstrators across the street could be heard during the meditative utterances of “Om.” About 200 Modi supporters and 50 critics rallied, kept apart by barriers and closely watched by New York police.
The pro-Modi group cried out greetings to him and held signs with such messages as “America Welcomes Narendra Modi” and “United We Stand,” accompanied by a photo of the U.S. flag. Opponents yelled, “Modi, go back!” and waved large yellow flags referring to Khalistan, the name of the homeland that Sikh separatists seek to create in India.
First practiced by Hindu sages, yoga has become one of India’s most popular cultural exports. Modi has energetically promoted it as a feel-good way of stretching the country’s influence abroad.
Modi, a Hindu nationalist, presents himself as an ascetic who adheres to his religion’s strictures on vegetarianism and yoga.
He has posted social media videos over the years of himself practicing yoga poses and provided live visuals of him meditating in a Himalayan mountain cave after national elections in 2019.
Modi last visited the U.N. during the 2021 General Assembly.
