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Yoga as Embodied Resistance

A Feminist Lens on Caste, Gender, & Sacred Resilience in Yoga History

by Anjali Rao

foreword by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

A book titled "Yoga as Embodied Resistance" by Anjali Rao, with a subtitle "A Feminist Lens on Caste, Gender, and Sacred Resilience in Yoga History". The cover features an illustration of a woman with traditional Indian attire and jewelry, sitting in a yoga pose with flames in the background.

In this groundbreaking work, Anjali Rao—yoga educator, author, and practitioner—invites readers to explore yoga as a vital path to resistance, agency, and collective liberation.

Bridging scholarship, history, and cultural analysis, Rao illuminates the essential—but often unseen—relationships between caste and gender in yoga. She inquires into how caste oppression, patriarchy, colonization, and ethno-nationalism impact contemporary practice and offers readers radical ways to re-envision a yoga grounded in liberation, discernment, and even dissent.

What does yoga have to do with caste, gender, and power?

INSIDE THE BOOK

Through compelling storytelling and critical analysis, Rao explores:

  • Foundational histories of yoga, caste, and Hinduism

  • Tensions among yoga, nationalism, anti-colonialism, and Indigeneity

  • Impacts and intersections of yoga, gender, caste, and culture

  • Brahminical appropriation and its relationship to eros, spirituality, and loving devotion

  • Sanskritization, vernacularization, and the impact of patriarchy on bodily expression

  • Bhakti as a subversive tool of personal agency and anti-colonial resistance

JIVANA HEYMAN, author and founder of Accessible Yoga

Yoga as Embodied Resistance is like a map to the hidden terrain of yoga’s history…. This perspective is a gift beyond measure, and I’m so grateful to Anjali Rao for taking the time to do the research and reflection that is so needed.

DR. ANYA FOXEN, associate professor at California Polytechnic State University

Rao’s storytelling weaves the deeper meaning and history of yogic tradition with important corrections. We learn that transcending the self also means actively challenging social hierarchies.

ANJALI RAO is a yoga educator, author, and practitioner who centers her work on the intersections of yoga, social justice, and collective liberation. With a focus on decolonizing yoga and reclaiming its roots, Rao brings a nuanced perspective to contemporary practice.

A woman in a yellow saree holding a clay pot, smiling and standing against a plain background.
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PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY

Yoga as Embodied Resistance publishes October 14th, 2025. Be the first to receive a copy and join Anjali for a reading circle to explore the book in community.

Promotional image for a reading circle event on yoga as embodied resistance, featuring author Anjali Rao, with a woman in a yellow saree, a book cover showing a stylized yogi with fire in the background, and details for registration and event schedule.

Yoga As Embodied Resistance:

Reading Circle

October 24 and 31, November 7 and 11

1-3pm Pacific / 4-6pm Eastern

An invitation to study and discuss the book in community. The intention is to cultivate a community of critical thinkers attuned to the praxis of yoga without essentializing the ancient practice and its contemporary incarnations.

KATHRYN BUDIG, founder of Haus of Phoenix

Let the unlearning begin. Anjali provides a brilliant intersection where all practitioners of yoga can meet and evolve.

A stylized digital illustration of a woman in traditional Indian attire sitting in a meditative pose, with a blue silhouette of her arms and legs forming a circular shape around her, against a plain black background.

FARIHA RÓISÍN, author of Who Is Wellness For?

…a book I have long awaited. This ancient Vedic teaching has the power to transform us into being. It is a revolutionary tool, and Rao deftly takes us through its layers of history and resistance.

Yoga as Embodied Resistance calls upon us to realize the work of co-creating a compassionate and courageous world, uplifting the stories of women and gender-expansive people who confront caste and gender dominance.

The stories, or kathas, reflect different parts of yoga history from the Upanishads, the Puranas, and the Bhakti renaissance—and highlight the seismic shifts in consciousness about the potential of spiritual teachings for social change.