Jakarta, 15 July 2024
The International Yoga Day celebrations held in Indonesia this year were a cut above all other previous years. It was a special occasion that combined with the 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two large democracies of the world, India and Indonesia. However, to understand the significance of the events, it is important to understand the historical context of what Yoga and Diplomatic ties mean to the two emerging nations that are on the shared path of prosperity for their respective citizens.
On 21st of December 2014, India moved a proposal in the UN General Assembly to declare 21th June every year as the International Day of Yoga. The significance of 21st June date is the key here, it is summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. Historically and culturally, this is a very important day when both the day and night is equal. In India, in the past, many temples were configured in such a way that the light enters into the temple on certain special occasions. There is the similar phenomenon in the southern hemisphere on winter solstice.
The 1st International Yoga Day was an initiative of India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although yoga is practiced all over the world, its home is in India. Modi had an agenda for promoting wellness and health across communities all over the world and it turned out to be one of the most widely supported resolutions. Since 21st June 2015, we celebrate international yoga day and since then it has become very popular in many countries of the world. Many doctors and hospitals have become practitioners today as they have realized the benefits of yoga and exercise.
International Yoga Day is not aimed at Indians, but it’s aimed at people who are the residents of those countries. The concept of wellness diplomacy today includes Ayurveda, and Yoga is a part of it. India has set up the International Centre for Alternate Medicine in Jamnagar, it’s the first UN center to be established in India where yoga and other alternative medicine systems are being are being tested with clinical trials before being popularized, quite similar to Indonesia’s Jamu (traditional medicine) sector.
In Indonesia, celebrating International Day of Yoga this year is alongside the celebrations of 75th year of diplomatic relations between India and Indonesia. The Embassy of India decided to create a special program to commemorate both events. Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty is the main initiator of this unique effort and we had an opportunity to interview him. “We are of course celebrating 75th anniversary, so it occurred to us that why don’t we do serve yoga in 75 locations all over the country? We have four diplomatic representations in Indonesia, the Mission in Jakarta, two consulates in Medan and Bali and now an honorary Consul in Surabaya, so all of us have gotten together and identified locations to celebrated yoga in many places across Indonesia” said Ambassador Chakravorty.
The first one was held on 21st June at the Indonesian Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and subsequent events were held in various yoga centers and yoga studios across the nation. “We even had a Naval ship, which came specifically for international Yoga Day celebrations. It was it anchored at a port near Medan and yoga was done on board” said Ambassador Chakravorty. He continued, “Then in Bali, we held it in various places, expanding to Lombok and many other Islands. Yoga is not new to Indonesia, there is an incredible amount of yoga following here. This was very surprising and revealing to me.”
The flagship event was held on 23rd June 2024 at the Keraton Palace of Surakarta or Solo where almost 800 yoga enthusiasts gathered, to mark the first time yoga was being held inside the palace. Organized by Manoj Bhat, the newly appointed Honorary Consul for Surabaya, a team of volunteers coordinated a massive effort to create a signature event to commemorate the special occasion.
“The queen, her son and the entire royal family participated in this event. We had the Deputy Minister of Tourism Ni Made Ayu Marthini and several local politicians and business persons present, making this a high profile culmination of the International Yoga Day celebrations this year” said Manoj Bhat.
The previous evening, the Embassy of India worked closely with the local government to hold a cultural performance. Indian and Indonesian traditional dancers collaborated in a fascinating display of shared culture and heritage and the grand finale was by Bollywood dancers of Indonesian origin.
This memorable curtain raiser was graced by the Mayor of Solo, Gibran Rakabuming, the Vice President elect of Indonesia. “He stayed at the event for a long time, and I think that that showed his support to his people to celebrate Yoga Day” said Ambassador Chakravorty.
Manoj Bhat added, “If I have to categorize the success of the dual events in Solo, I would certainly put it that we succeeded in 4 different areas. Firstly from the Embassy’s point of view, we had a successful event in a city of historical and political importance. Not only the current President Joko Widodo is from Solo, but so are many other important politicians and business persons. Secondly from the mayor’s point of view, there was a large influx of yoga practitioners into the city, the hotels were full, charging almost double rates. Yoga is good for the local economy. Thirdly from the Indian Diaspora point of view, they were surprised at the success of the event. This gives us a chance to build a local diaspora organization that can replicate the work of Bharat Club. And fourthly, from the general public’s point of view, they could see the immense support our event was getting from their Mayor and their royalty, who are very popular among the people. This will build better relations between India and Indonesia”
The success of Yoga Day celebrations in Indonesia has encouraged the Embassy of India to take it to an even higher level, with plans for holding the world’s largest Yoga celebration outside of India, that has more than 30,000 participants. This event is being planned on 17th August 2024 at local textile giant PT Sritex. “Employees of this company had requested that they should be allowed to do Yoga every day in the morning and evening. I think the impact of the yoga celebration held there earlier was very significant, so we are going to popularize Yoga in a bigger way through this world record event” added Ambassador Chakravorty.
Acknowledging the fact that people get stressed in the modern day, making their living stressful, several new and unique initiatives are in the pipeline by the Embassy of India. It has plans to make an instructional Yoga video in Bahasa Indonesia, hosted by a well-known personality with the endorsement of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. This video would be made available on popular social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook so that people may practice yoga at home.
When asked about the effectiveness of promoting Yoga Day compared to all the other cultural activities that has been done over the years, Ambassador Chakravorty stated, “ I feel that Yoga is a very effective tool which is easily accepted by people. Everybody does Yoga in some form or the other. Every physical activity is essentially Yoga if you get into the depth of it. Everybody does stretching of their muscles, but they do it in a very unmindful and unstructured way. Associating exercises with breathing is the key difference brought by Yoga. Breathing is most important action, we gain life when we start breathing, we lose life when we stop. So, this breath consciousness, I think is an important part of Yoga.”
He added, “In today’s world, everybody has started to do exercises. Stretching and warm up exercises are popular in schools, offices, and definitely before playing sports. “Indonesia is a big country with huge population. If Yoga can reduce healthcare bills by even 1%. I think it will be a huge impact”.
The Embassy of India and all partners involved in Yoga Day have a plan to bring Yoga programs into schools, universities and communities. “There is a limit to what the embassy can do, but there are many yoga clubs, yoga schools and studios and we will try to make a concerted effort in our outreach”, said Ambassador Chakravorty.
In Indonesia, there are a lot of celebrities and well-known people who practice Yoga on a daily basis. The Indonesian Embassy’s Yoga Ambassador is the Indonesian celebrity Anjasmara Prasetya, who is a popular model, film and television actor. Anjasmara is very enthusiastic about Yoga being a practitioner himself and a competent instructor. He has been to India many times and led the yoga celebrations in Solo city. Another famous figure is the international fashion designer Didit Hediprasetyo, who happens to be the son of Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto, and runs a Yoga studio with instructors who are trained in India.
Yoga tourism also presents an opportunity to bring India and Indonesia closer together. A lot of Indian tourists come to Indonesia, in particular to Bali and a lot of other international tourists go there and participate in Yoga. Alongside spending time on the beach, shopping or scuba diving, Yoga too can become a local attraction. If more Yoga centers are established across Indonesian cities, it can be packaged with hotels and tourism activities in order to attract people from across the world. There are many such Yoga resorts in India that are being promoted by Indian Government.
“I know of at least 23 destinations, one of them is Rishikesh, which has really a strong yoga culture. Then there are also some spiritual gurus like Sadhguru who promote Yoga through the Isha Foundation offering their own yoga practice with thousands of visitors every year.
There is the Jindal Yoga Center in Bangalore, and several ayurveda schools in Kerala and other parts of India, where they offer a mix of Yoga and Ayurveda.” said Ambassador Chakravorty.
It would it be fair to say that India is well-known all over the world because of Bollywood, Indian food, technology talent, and now Yoga would be its fourth contribution to the world. Some things come and go, but yoga is here to stay. Yoga belongs to the world, but it has a home, which is India. And this could be one of India’s greatest soft power tool that will build bridges with the world to promote peace, harmony and human wellbeing.