Yoga and meditation lie at the core of South Asian religious traditions, and have done so for millennia. From the second half of the 18th century, however, some non-Asian individuals involved in various colonial enterprises started to become interested in studying them as academic subjects. By the second half of the 19th century we find growing evidence that some European and North American sections of society were experimenting with ways of adopting them as personal forms of belief and practice. At the same time we witness instances of 'revival' and 'reinterpretation' of these disciplines in various South Asia contexts. These often emerged as reactions to the penetration of Eurocentric culture within the subcontinent.

By the middle of the 20th century these modernised forms were well on the way to becoming global phenomena and part of mainstream culture. A variety of socio-political conditions and acculturation trends influenced changes in geographical spread and institutional configuration, in the management of power structures, in patterns of knowledge transmission and authority validation, etc. Nowadays we find ample evidence of their presence and worldwide popularity in the media, across the spectrum of medical and therapeutic disciplines, in the focus on 'spirituality' held by many mainstream religions (including non-Indic ones), and in the numerous and varied attempts to 'sacralise' the body and 'everyday experience' that are on offer across a range of communities and institutions, be it yoga schools, gyms, 'self-help' organisations, monasteries or retreat centres.

Until relatively recently, however, one could find very little information and in-depth discussion about the above phenomena and historical processes: practitioners seemed uninterested in self-reflective analysis, and academic research concentrated almost exclusively on the (mainly sociological) study of more 'controversial' groups without paying any attention to more mainstream, acculturated ones. As a result there was a general lack of awareness about the latter's past and about their multi-layered textual, philosophical, linguistic, social and psychological complexities. All this started to change in the 1990s and by the beginning of the current decade a number of interdisciplinary studies on modern yoga and meditation were starting to be published (for more information see tools).

Drs Elizabeth De Michelis, Suzanne Newcombe and Mark Singleton, and other academics around the world, have a strong interest in this area of research, and in others closely allied to it. They are contributing to develop this field of academic research further through:

• their own research and publications,

• setting up or taking part in relevant events and research groups,

• developing this website as a point of call for sharing relevant news, information, expertise and research tools.

For any further information, or to comment on the contents of this website please contact

Mark Singleton (mhsingleton "at" sjcsf.edu)

or

Suzanne Newcombe (S.Newcombe "at" lse.ac.uk)