Synergy: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies

Globalization has significantly expanded the reach of yoga, facilitating the widespread dissemination of the Bharatiya Knowledge System and yielding numerous benefits including enhanced accessibility, inclusivity, and scientific recognition of yoga’s health benefits. However, this global expansion has also precipitated critical challenges—decontextualization, cultural appropriation, commodification, and pop-culturalization—that fundamentally distance the practice from its philosophical and spiritual foundations. Despite these obstacles, contemporary movements in India and worldwide are advocating for culturally conscious and ethically grounded approaches while actively working to reclaim yoga’s traditional roots. This research article critically examines this dual narrative of adaptation and reclamation, offering a nuanced understanding of yoga as a global knowledge system. Through historical and cultural analysis, the paper investigates three key dimensions: the processes of yoga’s adaptation in non-Indian contexts, the mechanisms of its decontextualization and commodification, and the ongoing initiatives aimed at restoring its philosophical integrity. By analyzing the transformation of yoga from a holistic spiritual discipline to a primarily fitness-oriented practice, this study illuminates the tensions between accessibility and authenticity, globalization and cultural preservation. The findings underscore the importance of decolonization efforts, amplification of South Asian voices, and ethical engagement in ensuring that yoga’s future remains connected to its ancient roots while accommodating cross-cultural dialogue. Ultimately, this paper contributes to broader scholarly discussions on cultural appropriation, knowledge systems, and the challenges of preserving traditional practices in an increasingly globalized world.

Phenomenology has become an influential approach in educational research, often invoked to foreground lived experience, voice, and meaning. Yet its growing popularity has coincided with a tendency to treat phenomenology as a generic qualitative method rather than a philosophically grounded mode of inquiry. This paper argues that such usage risks diluting phenomenology’s epistemological rigour and ethical responsibility. Drawing on classical and contemporary phenomenological scholarship, the paper examines how phenomenology’s foundational commitments to intentionality, lifeworld, bracketing, reflexivity, and interpretation are often selectively adopted or applied superficially in educational studies. Particular attention is given to the unresolved methodological tension between descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology and the ethical risks that arise when this tension is obscured. The paper contends that methodological ambiguity contributes to interpretive drift, aestheticised representations of experience, and weakened accountability in research involving teachers and learners. Rather than proposing phenomenology as a flexible toolkit, the paper repositions it as an epistemic and ethical commitment that demands philosophical clarity, methodological restraint, and reflexive responsibility. The paper concludes by outlining implications for educational research cultures and teacher education, emphasising the need to reclaim phenomenology as a disciplined and ethically grounded research paradigm.