Producing Ayurveda: Authenticity and Race in the Beauty and Wellness Industries

Abstract

Producing Ayurveda:Authenticity and Race in the Beauty and Wellness Industries Hareem Khan (bio) Introduction In a 2021 article titled, "The Beauty Brands Placing Cultural Appreciation Over Appropriation," Roberta Schroeder described "plenty of promising brands... stepping in to fill" what she called an "authenticity void." In her view, "these niche brands are bringing ancient beauty rituals alive, connecting consumers to their heritage in a way that can't be imitated."1 The depths of this "authenticity void" raise the specter of contemporary global capitalism and reveal the constitutive ways racialized narratives around the consumption of beauty and wellness claim to be the antidote to this void. Ayurveda, as one manifestation of the "ancient" beauty and wellness rituals to which Schroeder alluded, is the overarching site for this study of authenticity. It is one of the oldest indigenous medical traditions of the Indian subcontinent, dating back thousands of years. Today it is often articulated as a set of practices, diets, applications, and regimens geared toward longevity and holistic health that has been made more visible by the burgeoning of Ayurvedic wellness and beauty industries represented by spas, clinics, credentialing courses, and skincare and makeup lines.2 Although integrated with the American wellness landscape for decades, Ayurveda has recently launched to the forefront of beauty and wellness discourses that draw on racialized conceptions of culture, identity, and authenticity. Unlike other forms of alternative medicine, Ayurveda is often [End Page 19] authenticated by its tethering to a particular understanding of India, Indians, and to some degree Hinduism. The early reception of Ayurveda in the United States also differs from other racialized medical systems due to its popularity among non-South Asian clients. Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, emerged out of "ethnic enclaves" and circulated via diasporic routes. Ayurveda, on the other hand, was disseminated through the language and embodiment of universality even while securing its links to India. As a result, its marketing as a "cultural commodity" activates unique forms of authenticity such that Ayurveda gets located to a racialized tradition while simultaneously deeming itself an inclusive ideology.3 These constructed proximities warrant a critical analysis of race-making, which underlies the production, circulation, and consumption of transnational wellness and aesthetic practices alongside producing the conditions of their global palatability. As one Ayurvedic practitioner I interviewed opined, "Ayurveda may have had its origins over there [India], but it belongs everywhere." Thus, what are the particular racialized narratives surrounding Ayurveda that allow it to be both specifically "over there" and generally "everywhere"? This article focuses on the accelerated growth of Ayurveda, its linkages to—and migrations from—the Global South, and its contemporary productions in the United States. Specifically, I am curious about the processes of racialization that structure the Ayurvedic beauty and wellness industries, which rely on an imagining of the Global South to bolster Ayurveda's legitimacy in the West. Scholarship on the visibility of Ayurveda in the West often focuses on its role as a cultural alternative to Western or allopathic medicine.4 Other studies explore Ayurveda's expansion into the wellness industries and the proliferation of Ayurvedic spas and resorts in India and globally.5 My work is shaped by this scholarship; however, it takes race as a central logic to understand how authenticity is given value in the global marketplace. Borrowing from Paola Bacchetta, Sunaina Maira, and Howard Winant's definition of global raciality as a network of "contextual relations of power," I analyze how racialized discourses utilized within the Ayurvedic beauty and wellness industries can be strategically invoked to secure the project of contemporary global capitalism.6 I explore multiple sites in these industries, set within and against the backdrop of Los Angeles, where the desire for authenticity is used to repudiate hegemonic institutions and values even while it simultaneously concretizes its commitment to the values and desires of neoliberal autonomy. The sites I explore include clinics where Ayurvedic treatments, consultations, and therapies are offered as well as Ayurvedic beauty and skincare companies that market and sell their products online and vis-à-vis social media. The authenticity that is commodified and sold at these sites affirms not [End Page 20] simply an authenticated practice or production of Ayurveda...