Join Roshni Lakhani in a comprehensive exploration into yoga's historical and social evolution. In this two-day training, students will be introduced to the histories and social dynamics that have shaped the development of yoga, exploring yoga from a critical lens.
Unfolding Yoga is a layered exploration of yoga’s histories, tensions and contradictions.
Through a mix of guided discussion and accessible historical context, we’ll explore how ideas around language, spirituality, and identity have been connected to systems of hierarchy across time. This training invites curiosity and reflection, offering students the tools to better understand the cultural, political, and global forces that continue to shape yoga today, both in South Asia and in wider global practice.
Participants will explore how to engage with yoga critically and ethically, expanding their awareness and practice in relation to community and history, we hope you can join us in this conversation.
*This workshop is included as part of the Yoga In Depth 200 hour training with Claire Blackwood and Hayley Rose
Saturday: History, Language & Authority
Explore the origins of yoga in early South Asian societies, the emergence of Sanskrit and spiritual authority, and how Brahminical patriarchy shaped yoga’s development. We’ll look at how caste, gender and access to knowledge were woven into yoga’s textual and embodied histories and why this still matters today.
Yoga history and philosophy is often taught through texts written in sanskrit – but who wrote those texts, and who had access to that knowledge? This workshop unpacks the relationship between yoga, sanskrit and caste, examining how the system of brahminical patriarchy shaped yoga’s development and continues to inform our practice today, while also questioning what sits beyond these traditions. We’ll explore how knowledge was controlled and transmitted and consider how different communities have related to yoga in ways that aren’t always captured in formal texts. This session is for anyone seeking a more honest, historically grounded understanding of yoga.
Sunday: Politics, Power & Responsibility
Building on day one, we’ll apply a historical and political lens to modern yoga.
We will examine the ideas of nationalism, cultural appropriation, and the notion of ‘decolonising yoga’. We will reflect on how these dynamics might affect the lived experience of certain communities, and how they are navigated and responded to, structurally and within our own practice and relationships.
Yoga doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it has been shaped by history, culture, and power.
Yoga is political, whether through its ties to nationalism, or its global commodification. Sunday examines how power operates within yoga, exploring it’s historical roots and how these dynamics continue to play out today, as well as offering a space to reflect on how we show up as practitioners and teachers.
Join us for an eye-opening exploration of yoga’s past and the structures that continue to shape it today.
Event Details
Dates: Saturday 26th - Sunday 27th of September
Times: Saturday and Sunday 12:30pm - 4pm
Location: Folde Yoga School — 4/65 Murray St, Nipaluna, Hobart 7000
Investment
$75 Saturday Only
$130 Full Course
10% Members Discount
Meet your Teachers
Roshni Lakhani
Roshni Lakhani (they/them) is a scholar, educator, and facilitator whose work explores the intersections of language, caste, and power in South Asia. She holds a BA (Hons.) in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London, and has pursued further Sanskrit studies in Pune and Kerala, India. After working in the global non-profit sector and completing a law degree, she returned to her lifelong passion for South Asian studies.
Raised in a caste-privileged Gujarati Hindu family in London, Roshni was immersed in Sanskrit and spiritual traditions from childhood. As her studies deepened, so did her understanding of how caste, gender, and race shape these traditions. Her current work challenges Brahminical dominance in yoga and Sanskrit spaces, combining lived experience with historical and intersectional analysis.
Now based on unceded Gadigal Country, Roshni centres a feminist, anti-caste approach that uplifts caste-oppressed and Indigenous knowledges. She is currently undertaking Romana’s Pilates International training, while continuing her research and building connections across movements for justice and liberation. Roshni acknowledges her position as a caste-privileged person and settler, and is committed to using her scholarship and facilitation to disrupt dominant narratives in yoga, spirituality, and South Asian studies.