So, when Starbucks attempted to claim a drink so unapologetically Indian and dilute it of its flavour, heritage and significance, I felt betrayed. Starbucks – and by extension, the West – has yet again colonised something so inherently Indian to provide a taste of ‘exotic’ Indian culture to the world without having to acknowledge its true origins.

And chai is not even the first target of Western gentrification of Indian culture. From the Eurocentric marginalisation of India’s involvement in the development of mathematics to the modern-day erasure of Indian heritage from yoga, a quintessential part of Hindu culture, the West has always looked for ways to steal Indian culture and claim it as their own.

On top of that, Indian immigrants are criticised for ‘not assimilating’ into Western culture, yet white people are celebrated and rewarded as the creators of practices that Indians are ostracised for doing.

Rebranding Indian progress as European

The concept of zero, the decimal numerical system, negative numbers, quadratic equations – and the list goes on – all come from ancient India. In the eighth century BCE, Baudhayana, a Vedic sage and mathematician, wrote the first Sulba Sutra regarding geometry for the construction of fire altars.

The work contains what we now refer to as the Pythagorean theorem, the approximate value for the square root of two, digits of Pi (π), and other formulas that Greek mathematicians later used for the foundations of geometry.

India has also been contributing to hygiene since 2500 BCE. Archaeological remains of the Indus Valley civilisation show evidence of drainage systems, private and public restroom facilities, water sanitation systems and aqueducts. Hygiene is heavily tied into ancient Indian culture and religion because bathing, hand and oral hygiene, and use of antiseptics was seen not just as public health and disease prevention, but as a necessity by society.

To explain how advanced this practice was, consider that Europeans and Americans didn’t buy into the concept of daily bathing until the 19th century when they finally realised that proper bathing and sanitation didn’t cause disease, but could actually be a tool against the spread of disease.

More than a trend

In the US, yoga and pilates is an industry worth $14.7bn and is not seen as the ancient Hindu practice of maintaining balance between the body, mind and spiritual self. It is a highly commercialised fitness activity devoid of any cultural integrity.

While Western power yoga has successfully captured every asana, or pose, and given it an English name, what people have failed to understand is that yoga consists of eight different aspects and the movements are barely one part. In India, yoga is not a common practice among the general public because it is seen as a highly religious and spiritual practice. In fact, yoga studios only began popping up in big Indian cities after it was popularised in the West.

Most people do understand that yoga has Indian origins, but don’t realise its full cultural significance. So you can enjoy getting a good stretch in your next yoga class, but remember that when your instructor feels the need to say namaste after every pose, you are merely partaking in a caricature of yoga.

 

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Turmeric and hair oiling

I was just recovering from the shock of ‘chai latte’ when yet again, the West threw a punch – or maybe I should say, a ‘golden latte’ – in my face. The fix-all concoction my mom had been shoving down my throat for years was now all the rage at local grocery stores and café. But what is this new and magical ‘golden latte’?

Basically, turmeric (or haldi) and milk. And, trust me, there is nothing new about it. Indians have been using it for thousands of years. Turmeric, an incredibly important herb in Ayurvedic medicine, is believed to be tri-doshic or able to balance the three energies within the human body.

This checks out in terms of modern-day science too as turmeric is known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The global turmeric market is predicted to increase to $6.3bn by 2027.

But what the turmeric fanatics fail to realise is that the golden colouring they love in their milk is the same golden colouring that they judged in Indian cuisine.

Take hair oiling, the practice of massaging oils in one’s hair for growth, nourishment, and strengthening, yet another Ayurvedic practice that has been repackaged for Western consumption. Recently, it has been highly popularised over social media, also inspiring slickback hairstyles.

However, when South Asian immigrants used to do this they were often called “greasy” and “smelly”. You can surely imagine my surprise when some white girl on TikTok told me to put coconut oil in my hair, as if I wouldn’t have been bullied for doing the same thing just a few years ago.