EASTERN SPIRITUALITY(?) AS CREATED BY WESTERN, COLONIAL IMPERIALISM

Peter van der Veer, The Modern Spirit of Asia: The Spiritual and the Secular in China and India (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2014) ("This book examines India and China and the ways in which they have been transformed by Western imperial modernity. In my understanding the onset of modernity is located in the nineteenth century and is characterized politically by the emergence of the nation-state, economically by industrialization, and ideologically by the emphasis on progress and liberalism. What I call 'imperial modernity' is the formation of modernity under conditions of imperialism. This is a study in comparative historical sociology, informed by anthropological theory." Id. at 1. "The term 'spirituality' vaguely alludes to German Geist ('Spirit') and to mysticism. It is a modern Western concept, like 'religion,' 'magic,' and 'secularity.' There is no equivalent term either in Sanskrit or in Chinese. . . .  I am not able to present a genealogy of Indian and Chinese concepts, but instead I would merely point out that despite the ubiquitous reference to India and China (and indeed Asia) as 'spiritual,' spirituality is a modern, Western term." Id. at 35. "In most  places in the world one can follow courses in yoga and qi gong . . .  These forms of Indian and Chinese spirituality have gone global, but they are still connected to national identities. . . . However transcendent they claim to be as as forms of spirituality, they are deeply embedded in political and economic history.  Historically, yoga is an ancient system of breathing and body exercises that was reformulated at the end of the ninetieth century as part of Hindu nationalism, but simultaneously as a form of Eastern spirituality that was alternative to Western, colonial materialism. Today it is embedded in global ideas of health and good living, but also in modern management practices and corporate cultures." Id. at 168.).