# Do Indian women do Indian yoga?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 29, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072 "2014-01-29T21:37:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/1 "2014-01-29T21:37:30Z")
I know India is (or at least appears to be) a fairly conservative culture and I haven’t really noticed much in the way of Indian women promoting yoga. All Indian yoga promoters appear to be men.
Do Indian women actually practice Indian yoga?
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/2 "2014-01-29T21:40:39Z")
There’s [Vimla Lalvani](https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Vimla+Lalvani%22), for one.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/3 "2014-01-29T21:50:47Z")
Also [Geeta Iyengar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeta_Iyengar).
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### Author:  [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/4 "2014-01-30T00:31:29Z")
Iyengar’s a person? A lady? That’s still alive?
That’s awesome. I do her yoga all the time.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/5 "2014-01-30T00:40:54Z")
> [@LibrarySpy](#):
>
> Iyengar’s a person? A lady? That’s still alive?
>
> That’s awesome. I do her yoga all the time.
_The_ Iyenger is B.K.S. Geeta’s father.
I think there are a couple of Indian women who show up for classes at the yoga studio I go to. I know that’s just two out of billions. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Indian men.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/6 "2015-09-02T23:27:33Z")
I forgot to mention that the term you’re looking for is _yoginī_. The Sanskrit & Hindi spelling for it is योगिनी. As in [this book](http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/yogini-hridayam-HAA019/) Yoginī Hṛdayam which means ‘the heart of a yoginī’. [This book](http://www.amazon.com/Yogini-The-Power-Women-Yoga/dp/1932771883) in English profiles a mixture of Indian and western yoga women.
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### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/7 "2015-09-03T01:58:44Z")
I went to a yoga class yesterday. The other three students were all Indian, and the teacher was of Chinese heritage, though I don’t know what passport she holds. (Probably Indonesian, but that’s just a guess.)
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/8 "2015-09-03T13:15:26Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> _The_ Iyenger is B.K.S. Geeta’s father.
>
> I think there are a couple of Indian women who show up for classes at the yoga studio I go to. I know that’s just two out of billions. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Indian men.
My dad does yoga regularly. ETA: We are Indian, duh. I don’t do yoga, now, but I used to. I actually prefer the gym.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/9 "2015-09-03T14:44:30Z")
I think the OP’s looking more for promoters (teachers) than practitioners (students), but yeah, less than 1% of the students at my gym seem to be Indian, and none of the instructors. That may have more to do with my gym than anything else; there are certainly a ton of consultants here in the Twin Cities from overseas. I also don’t see too many people who seem to be from that region on the elliptical trainers, treadmills or weights. Soccer moms and college doooods as far as the eye can see.
Side question: What’s the generally-accepted, probably-not-insulting term to use to refer to people from India/Pakistan/Iran/Afghanistan? West-Asians? East-Middle-Easterners (wouldn’t that just be “Easterners”?)?
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### Author:  [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/10 "2015-09-03T15:21:41Z")
“South Asian” is the term I’ve heard that encompasses people from India, Pakistan, and other neighboring countries (basically anything south of the Himalayas). I’ve occasionally heard the term extended to people from Afghanistan, though I can’t recall hearing it in reference to Iranians.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/11 "2015-09-03T16:14:44Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Side question: What’s the generally-accepted, probably-not-insulting term to use to refer to people from India/Pakistan/Iran/Afghanistan? West-Asians? East-Middle-Easterners (wouldn’t that just be “Easterners”?)?
South Asian to Middle Eastern, depending on which country. Even the Asians don’t want us. ☹
Thing is, you might lump India and Afghanistan together but you really wouldn’t lump Iran and India together - too different.
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### Author:  [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-indian-women-do-indian-yoga/680072/12 "2015-09-03T16:49:32Z")
My Indian office pals said that “South Asian” is fine when I asked the same question as **lazybratsche**. So did the ones from Nepal, incidentally.