Asian Ethnology 83-1 | article Revolution and Spiritualism An Unlikely Chapter in the History of Yoga in Mexico

Adrián Muñoz

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This article seeks to broaden the current scholarship on modern yoga by expanding the customary regional areas of enquiry. It offers an introspective overview of an early episode of the history of implementation of yogic ideas in Mexico. By focusing on the case of Francisco I. Madero, a prominent statesman and one of the chief actors in the Mexican Revolution, I will explore the influence that yogic philosophy had on Mexican politics at the beginning of the twentieth century. With a wide range of meanings, yoga here designates an ethical attitude and discipline, more than a bodily postures methodology. Even before the yoga boom from the 1960s onward, yogic ideas were already present in intellectual international circles—usually mediated by esotericism—and often had an impact on social and cultural environments. This enquiry will explore the intricacies of transregional negotiations of cultural items. Also, this article intends to situate expansive intellectual exchange in the light of global networks of knowledge and wider reimaginings of cultural worlds.