{"id":1609,"date":"2019-02-28T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vaishnava-news-network.org\/vaisnava-news\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2019-02-28T07:00:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T12:00:16","slug":"american-university-yoga-club-shuts-down-over-cultural-appropriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaishnava-news-network.org\/vaisnava-news\/american-university-yoga-club-shuts-down-over-cultural-appropriation\/","title":{"rendered":"American University Yoga Club Shuts Down over \u2018Cultural Appropriation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maya Krishnan wearing a “culturally appropriated” jeans jacket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by\u00a0Alana Mastrangelo<\/em><\/p>\n

All it took was one student\u2019s complaint to dissolve the Bhakti Yoga and Vegetarian Club that had been active on American University\u2019s (AU) campus for the last seven years.<\/p>\n

AU student, Maya Krishnan, took offense to an event in October, in which the yoga club had invited the touring group\u00a0Viva Kultura<\/a>\u00a0to perform on campus for its \u201cIndia Day\u201d festival.<\/p>\n

In an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>,\u00a0Krishnan accused the yoga club of \u201ccultural appropriation,\u201d due to the Viva Kultura group being \u201calmost entirely comprised of white European dancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving my culture represented by an almost entirely white troupe of dancers is incredibly frustrating,\u201d wrote\u00a0Krishnan in her op-ed, \u201cHinduism is not widely practiced by white people \u2014 having white people\u00a0centered in the performance was not the way to go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite European dancers will never know my intersectional experience as a Hindu woman, being a brown bodied person and the other aspects of systematic racism that I, as well as other South Asian people, have experienced,\u201d continued the AU student.<\/p>\n

Krishnan had also filed a complaint with the President\u2019s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, according to\u00a0ISKCON News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The yoga club\u2019s faculty adviser, president, and vice president then decided to resign, which caused the group to lose its status as an active club on AU\u2019s campus\u00a0\u2014 thus shutting it down entirely.<\/p>\n

Not all students involved with the yoga club agree to it shutting down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an affront to free exercise of religion on this campus, for anybody who meditates or has a spiritual practice\u201d said student Ben Zavaleta to ISKCON News, \u201cThere were some Indian people in our group too. Maya has targeted other Indian students because she didn\u2019t like a performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zavaleta, who has been involved with the club for two years, added that he joined the group \u201cout of\u00a0sheer curiosity,\u201d and ended up enjoying it.<\/p>\n

The student has also been appointed as the club\u2019s new president, which suggests that there will be future attempts at getting the group started again on campus.<\/p>\n

AU\u2019s Center for Diversity & Inclusion told Breitbart News that their office \u201cdoes not handle such student reports,\u201d regarding\u00a0Krishnan\u2019s alleged complaint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n