“Anjali Rao’s Yoga as Embodied Resistance introduces us to four often-overlooked feminist icons whose very presence troubles mainstream narratives. Rao’s storytelling weaves the deeper meaning and history of yogic tradition with important corrections. We learn that transcending the self also means actively challenging social hierarchies. That spiritual devotion can be an experience of embodied pleasure or radical expression. That practice, like reality itself, always demands a play of sameness and difference, synthesis and identity.”

 —DR. ANYA FOXEN, associate professor at California Polytechnic State University

“Fierce voices like Anjali Rao’s show us what’s possible when writers are courageous enough to contend with yoga’s entangled origins in Hindu and caste-based oppression while simultaneously politicizing its potential toward embodied resistance. Like the metaphorical quilt she references, Rao’s text weaves critical analysis of historic texts, compelling storytelling, and reflective narrative toward a dismantling of neoliberal and Hindutva control over yoga’s transnational circulation. May more yogis read it and politicize their practice toward interconnected freedom!”

 —SHEENA SOOD, PhD, PhD, assistant professor of sociology at Delaware Valley University