The Fight to Decolonize Tantra
- Jun 4
- 24 min read
"It's not Shiva, it's Sheeva! Get to know the God you are talking about before asking the question." This was bellowed in a zoom panel meeting on "What is Sacred?" organized on 26 September 2023 by the AASECT Tantra Special Interest Group. The comment was addressed to me, an Indian and one from a Hindu family. And so, my response was:
"It is my tradition, my religion, my Gods, and I am the only one here who has the ability to speak conversational Sanskrit because it was one of the languages spoken in my household. I think I know how to pronounce my God's name properly, thank you very much."
The audacity, no — the CAUCASITY it takes to yell out in a professional meeting that the Indian in the room does not know how to pronounce her own God's name! That was the start to my journey to Decolonizing Tantra at the so-called "professional" spaces run by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT).
History of Cultural Appropriation by the West
The colonials and their descendants have a history of assuming authority and control over knowledge that is not theirs. Take Rishikesh for example. Rishikesh that stands at the foothills of Ganga, has long been the site for commencing one's spiritual journey. It now stands as part of a larger controversy, one that caters to Europeans' access needs (200-hr/300-hr Yoga trainings) and not that of the natives. Indians are barred from entering temples, ashrams and satsangs in their own Holy Land!
This is not an isolated incident. Upon completing their IDF service, Israelis "unwind" at Kasol and Dharamkot in India. They even have a settlement titled, Little Israel, on our lands. Many of the establishments in this settlement openly state that they do not service Indians, and they only cater to Israelis and foreigners.
We often look at spirituality in an apolitical fashion. But the epistemological roots of the said tradition has long history, rooted in theological politics. When we talk of yoga and meditation, we do credit Swami Vivekananda for bringing them to the West. But do we look closer at yet another darker side to the journey Yoga and meditation took to crossing borders? You see, how Yoga is understood today by the West is dependent on how they were introduced to the synthesized version of Yoga You can credit the Nazis for that.
European occult groups like the Theosophical Society and German Indologists were obsessed with creating this "Germanic superiority" myth that they decided to cherry-pick ideas from the Aryan (Indian-Iranian) civilization. We all know of the history of stripping the Svastika of its cultural significance of good fortune, prosperity and well-being, and re-branding it as the Hakenkreuz (literally translating to "hooked cross"), a symbol of militant, racist ideologies. But we don't talk much about the other elements from the culture that was taken misinterpreted and used to justify atrocities committed by the party.
The Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) commander, Heinrich Himmler carried a pocket-sized copy of the Bhagavad Gita. His reasoning was that it helped him justify his actions. Misinterpreting it as a blueprint for duty and unyielding cruelty, he saw the SS as an elite yogic and monastic order, believing that yoga could help the troops in battle.
Jakob Wilhelm Hauer's book, "Der Yoga als Heilweg" (Yoga as the Path to healing) represents yet another Nazi--attempt to repurpose ancient Indian philosophy. Hauer, a Nazi SS Captain promoted a version of Yoga that is devoid of any Spiritual Enlightenment concepts but is rooted in Nationalism and the urge to build a perfect physical body as a representative of physical vitality that the new German-state was obsessed with. This fascist's version of yoga has close ties with the American Eugenics movements. In fact Hauer did present his ideas to Carl Jung in 1932 in Zurich. Following the interaction, Carl Jung would use Hauer's work to present his lectures on Kundalini Yoga.
This obsession with physique was not only limited to Germany but was adopted by the British, the likes of Major Francis Yeats-Brown, who also wrote several books conflating the ideas of Yoga and merging them with gymnastics, to produce a masculine military discipline. And thus began the Introduction of Yoga to West, where-in it was deliberately decoupled from its spiritual connections and re-framed as a fitness routine.
During the 1930s and 1940s, as Germany and Japan formed the Axis military alliance (the Tripartite Pact), a cultural exchange emerged between the two regimes. Some pro-Nazi Germans developed a distinct interest in Zen, seeking to rebrand it as a mystical, martial discipline that mirrored their own völkisch (ethno-nationalist) aspirations. Count Karlfried Dürckheim, a Nazi diplomat, psychologist fused Zen Buddhism with National Socialist military discipline to create a "warrior mysticism". These examples of cultural appropriation aren't just limited to spirituality.
In 1995, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted two scientists from the University of Mississippi a patent for using turmeric to heal wounds. Turmeric. The spice that Indians have been using for centuries as a herbal medicine! It took 2 years of back and forth litigation for India to "prove" the existence of its traditional knowledge that it held, for centuries! USPTO revoked the patent in 1997.
It didn't stop there. An American company, RiceTec in 1997 decided to patent our Basmati Rice! The very rice that has been grown in India and used in cuisines like Biryani for ages. The audacity! However, following intense backlash and a formal legal challenge from the Indian government, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected 13 claims from patent US 5,663,484 "Basmati rice lines and grains" in a 46-page letter to the Texas-based company. RiceTec voluntarily withdrew four claims in June 2000 when the Indian Government formally challenged the patent through the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. The patent should have never been granted in the first place! Patents are provided for novelty.
One would think that this was it. And we wouldn't encounter anymore Biopiracy examples, but no. In 1985, Robert Larson from USDA obtained a patent for the preparation of Neem Seed Extract. The Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of this product in the US market. In 1988, Larson sold the rights to the oil extraction process to the U.S. Company, W.R. Grace which proceeded to set up a manufacturing plant to create pesticides. There were several companies, by this time, working on Neem products.
If you go by number of patents filed, US would top the list with 54, followed by Japan with 35, Australia with 23 and India with14. In 1995, a coalition of NGOs, environmentalists, scientists and Indian agricultural scientists filed a legal challenge against the patent at the European Patent Office (EPO). EPO revoked the Neem patent, stating it wasn't novel, in 2000. We as Indians are constantly on the battleground to protect our rights to our knowledge bases.
Meanwhile, the purveyors of "global knowledge systems" are only interested in the marketable qualities of the traditional knowledge bases held in a country with a 5000 year old civilization! I suppose the country built on eradicating their own cultural knowledge systems, a country that prioritizes Whiteness over their own ethnic identities, a country that is run by corporations, the very same that did not have any moral issues of setting up their "illegal" settlements upon the graveyards of Native Americans, I suppose that country has no morals when it comes to stealing. After all, what is biopiracy if not a form of piracy, theft?
Do you think this country will ever leave our culture alone? Think again. The video below goes on to explain how colonial descendants continue to extract from India. The extraction often follows a simple procedure.
Identify a product or knowledge system that looks exotic.
Strip it from cultural and spiritual significance.
Introduce it to the capitalistic market systems.
Claim yourself as the "expert" in this knowledge system or obtain patents so that if Indians (from whom it was stolen from) will have to pay you to use their own product.
If you are called out, play the victim card.
Prada Men's Slippers
The Prada Spring 2026 Men's Collection featured a pair of flats, eerily similar to the Kolhapuri Chappals from Maharashtra which date back to the 12th and 13th centuries. After an enormous backlash over the lack of credits given to the source of inspiration, Prada sought to repaid ties with India. It partnered with state-bodies in Karnataka and Maharashtra to re-launch the pair as "Made in India slippers".
While yes the partnering ensured that the slippers comply with Geographical Indication (GI) requirements, each pair with the Prada tag retails at $930. Around 2000 pairs were made, with a gross revenue of $1.86 million. One might ask who benefits from this rebranding of this product as a heritage luxury? How much were the artisans paid for making this product? Prada has yet to respond. Meanwhile, the real Kolhapuri chappal costs $12 - $50 a pair.
We have reached that stage now that the artisan to whom this craft belongs to can no longer afford to survive in this world on this artistry. We are down to the last generation, who make these chappal. Soon, it would Prada that would be the "sole" manufacturer of the Kolhapuri chappals.
Ralph Lauren Earrings
At the 2026 Runway Show of Ralph Lauren, a dom-shaped bell-like earrings were introduced as "vintage accessories". With no reference to cultural origins, Ralph Lauren is yet to credit the community. The aesthetics of these jhumkas (the real name for these earrings) has been deliberately softened, stripped of its essence so that it will be harder for someone from the West to trace its origins. But the South Asian community is paying very close attention.
Even the label, "vintage" is controversial. Words like "heritage", "vintage", "inspired", "exotic", "oriental", "traditional/classic", "borrowed", "ethnic", are often used to strip the essence, any cultural attachment the product may have to its origins. The terminology is effective in re-branding an heirloom so as to market to a global audience as a "vintage" accessory.
"My culture is not your costume," one viral tweet read. "Repackaging the Jhumka as a Western 'vintage find' while selling it for luxury prices is peak extraction."
Ralph Lauren was quick to respond, but the explanation added another layer of complexity. The brand clarified that the jewelry in question was not intended to be Indian. Instead, the pieces were selected and crafted by Native American designers—Neil Zarama, Jimmy Begay, and TÓPA—as part of Ralph Lauren’s Artist in Residence program. Ah the Double Appropriation Dilemma! Can one marginalized culture’s craft be used to overwrite another’s?
Many critics have pointed out that while silver-smithing could be a Native American technique. But the bel-shaped earrings, is a distinct Indian Temple Jewellery design.
Tantra Controversies at AASECT
I dare you to type "Tantra AASECT" on Google. What hits did you receive? I betcha your hits are
"Framework for understanding Classical and Neo Tantra"
"Tantra Trainings for therapists"
"Healing Trauma through Tantric Touch"
"Sacred Sexuality"
"Tantra Workshop for Couples: Ignite Sex, Passion and Sacred Love"
"Tantra Kink"
If you ask any Indian, specifically the ones who actually have had some exposure to Bhakti, this is as offensive as it can get. The very idea that one's religion can be reduced to sexuality and intimacy tools to be taught for $50-$2000 trainings, is the most colonial and spiritually extractive strategies I have ever come across. Mind you these trainings at AASECT are predominantly offered by white people, those individuals who'd do anything to "assert" their right to continue to extract resources from a minority religion, that does share its knowledge with Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
So my readers, here is what I have to share with you regarding this topic — If you have come across a teaching that markets itself as Tantra and they spoke to you of intimacy skills, couples workshops, kinks and BDSM, then mind you, you have encountered the Colonial Tantra. AASECT CE Providers have long held institutional privilege to extract from and mutilate South Asian cultures. The have organized courses from Tantra and BDSM to Kundalini and Circus Sex to Tantric workshops that could be used to count towards the following Core Knowledge Areas (a requirement to become AASECT certified):
B. Developmental sexuality from a bio-psycho-social perspective across the life course
C. Socio-cultural, familial factors (e.g., ethnicity, culture, religion, spirituality, socioeconomic status, family values), in relation to sexual values and behaviors.
E. Intimacy skills (e.g., social, emotional, sexual), intimate relationships, interpersonal relationships and family dynamics.
F. Diversities in sexual expression and lifestyles, including, but not limited to, polyamory, swinging, BDSM and tantra.*
H. Health/medical factors that may influence sexuality, including, but not limited to, illness, disability, drugs, mental health, conception, pregnancy, childbirth & pregnancy termination, contraception, fertility, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infection, other infections, sexual trauma, injury and safer sex practices.
I. Range of sexual functioning and behavior, from optimal to problematic, including, but not limited to, common issues such as: desire discrepancy, lack of desire, difficulty achieving or maintaining arousal, sexual pain, penetration problems and difficulty with orgasm.
J. Sexual exploitation, including sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
M. Pleasure enhancement skills.
Tantra, a religious and spiritual practice, now reduced to pleasure enhancement, intimacy skills, sexual expression diversities, and more. Ever since I raised my voice against this extractive routines, we have managed to remove Tantra from category F.
We have had a history of slave catchers and slavers engaging in platforming black and brown bodies as entertainments at circuses. History textbooks full of examples of Human Zoos where many of our ancestors were displayed for the voyeuristic pleasures of the Europeans. With that as the backdrop, this one educator found it interesting to host a class on Kundalini and Circus Sex?!
How tone deaf do you have to be when we know that the last Human Zoo to be closed was in 1994!! Village de Bamboula was operated in France till 1994! At what point will AASECT Sex Professionals be held responsible for the courses, healing practices and conversations they engage in?! One of the members of the Tantra SIG, continues till date to demand a right to knowledge, incorrectly stating that Tantra is not a religion and doesn't have any rules and regulations, and that no one can gatekeep the knowledge from her and prevent her from practicing.
LOL. Tantra literally has an initiation process with a Guru, and one of the most strictest routines provided to its practitioners. I want you to sit with this entitlement that many of the practitioners in the West have, that they think they can continue their ancestors legacy of pillaging and looting through local communities and that they have the right to do so. So let's back to the documentation I kept of the Tantra SIG's practices. After 16 Sep 2023, I had to take some time off to heal from the incident to only return disappointed to the SIG as nothing had changed.
26 March 2024
I presented the topic, "Journey Through Time: Sex and LGBTQ+ Tales and Imageries from Ancient India". The responses I got were mixed. Some were like this is not Tantra. Where is the mindfulness meditation (because I refused to engage in culturally appropriated practices) to people asking for references and when provided with references commenting, but this is not in English and aren't reputable sources.
The references I had provided were scriptures. If they are not reputable sources then what is? A colonizer's diary documenting his experiences in India from a European lens?? I also mentioned that this is an oral tradition: involving knowledge transfer from the Guru to the shishya/sadhaka (practitioner) or through the maternal line. To which I received the comment: "How convenient. How do we assess if this knowledge is real or not?" To which I replied, "go read the regional books written. It might be in a different language, learn the language and read it."
You cannot expect a person from that tradition who has been engaged with these conversations and practices since the age of 4, to quote a European author's interpretation of her community's faith! Also the audacity of the individual to demand an English version, written by a colonizer is baffling as opposed to writings of people within the culture. To further put in context, the slides had translations from regional languages written in English, in detail so that everyone can read along while I narrated the stories.
Trust me when I say that I had to take another year off to heal from this interaction.
28 January 2025 & 25 March 2025
Desiree Robinson on integrating wisdom into our own growth and development & Marne Wine's Using Tantra Concepts in Session
Both had a lot of somatic exercises that had to deal with breathwork and couple's intimacy. Every meeting began with a mindfulness exercise, again westernized.
"Breathe in from your anus and breathe out from your mouth so that your partner facing you can breathe in your air and breathe out through the anus."
WTF!
Firstly, absolute bullshit. I am a Usui Reiki Grandmaster and a Karuna Reiki Master. My lineages are based India where Reiki developed and was incorporated by Usui into Japanese Buddhist traditions. Anything involving chakra work and pranayama (breathwork) is a SOLO PRACTICE. You do not mix energies with anyone else, especially if their gender is not yours. There are some Reiki Masters who will engage in touch based work who also have to cleanse themselves energetically before and after the session to ensure they are not impacted by the other person's energies. Despite taking precautions, they might need to take off for 1 week to ensure their body returns to its original functioning.
In Tantra, chakra and breathwork are tools used in the sadhana or daily practice. It is still a SOLO PRACTICE. No couple sits and breathes in the other's breathed out air. That's absolute hippie, appropriated BS! Mindfulness is a Western product. Meditation is different. These are religious and spiritual practices and not somatic ones. They an be interpreted as somatic for an individual but cannot be marketed and promoted as somatic for all. Chakra work and breathwork does not equal Tantra. These are tools used in multiple religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Tantra, Sikhism, etc. The tools do not represent the religion.
27 May 2025
Christine Mason: Classical v Neo-Tantra. Here are some quotes from the lecture.
"Tantra=experiencing life with all your senses fully...We have both the ability to harness feminine and masculine energies. The goal is for the embodiment to occur. When we have sex that is the closest you can get to divinity...Practice is mutually empowering..."
"So creativity and sexuality is the core and in many of the Shakta traditions in the South particularly, any religion that doesn't center sexuality and intimacy is considered a dead religion."
The rest of lecture was all about emoting in coupledom, intimacy, sex, love freely (free eros), body pleasure points + a retort directed at me for pronouncing the Sanskrit name properly. And here is my response to everything mentioned in that lecture.
Context is largely missing from all these discourses. You do not do everything together as a couple. Your Guru tells you what & when to engage in activities. It is to help you disconnect from your needs as a human like hunger, alcohol, etc, so that you are ready for Death. And that includes attachments as well. So the very premise that Tantra is for improving intimacy, that it is a couple's workshop itself is misleading.
Yes, Maithuna is one of the Panchamakaras, commonly seen in Vamachara, however, this sentence is out of context. Most of the time, sexual activity does not occur until one reaches Kaulachara. Any aspect of maithuna is practiced spiritually as opposed to sexually: example cooking rice with menstrual blood and eating it, comes under Maithuna.
No. Tantra is a very rigid practice. Doesn't have any creativity inside the padatti (spiritual path), however, outside it, having finished the upasana (day's worship), one may end up engaging in some creative work. Not all Shakta parampara is Tantra. There is an overarching Shakta Hinduism too. However the Tantra form is Sri Kula- Sri Vidya Tantra which is popular in the south and IS A VALID FORM OF WORSHIP. EVEN TANTRA DOESN'T CENTER SEXUALITY & INTIMACY (it centers liberation). Will you call it a Dead Religion???!!!!!
You as a foreigner, appropriating a living tradition, alive amongst people in India, capitalizing it for your own gain, DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHAT IS A REAL OR A DEAD RELIGION!
None of this is Tantra.
It is an Oriental Fantasy being developed by Westerners to then market as Tantra. So essentially an appropriation of Tantra. Real practitioners of Tantra are not obsessed with sex, intimacy, coupledom, etc. They are more interested in gaining liberation from the life-death-rebirth cycle than sex and intimacy. Nobody talks about sex and intimacy. Its kind of a fetish for the Westerners.
22 July 2025
2 Experiential Activities with discussions organized by Rachel Keller. The meeting then proceeded to highlight an Alex Grey video for the purpose of understanding "Tantra rituals and practices". Tantra has nothing to do with the New-Age Psychedelic culture, dance or music. It has nothing to do with intimacy practices in coupledom. The aim in tantra is worship of the deity, not pleasure.
The process of engaging in maithuna is also structured by the Guru. People sometimes have to chant mantras 20 Hundred Thousand times every day to even get to the maithuna (sex activity) stage. Everything you put into your body is dictated by the Guru. That includes alcohol. The guru decides how much, when and in which format. This whole idea that Tantra can be practiced by you nitpicking traditions is ridiculous. It reflects the Western consumer culture that many of the practitioners belong to.
23 September 2025
Sacred Sexuality in Christianity by Rev Bev Dale. I didn't attend this. Mind you the SIG was still called Tantra SIG and not Sacred Sexuality SIG. Either way. Tantra has nothing to do with Christianity. Even Hindus hesitate to begin their practice in Tantra because it isn't for the faint-hearted. It requires a certain type of dedication and discipline to engage in this practice.
Upon witnessing several back-to-back violations by the Tantra SIG, I proceeded to commence my activism. The campaigns covered several grounds
The demand to immediately disband the Tantra SIG, pending investigations
The removal of Tantra from the Core Knowledge Areas of AASECT
Tantra content being restricted and flagged at the AASECT Listserv level
Tantra Task Force operations commencement
Regarding the last one however, I would have preferred a Cultural Appropriation Task Force so that it can be designed to address different types of ethical violations.
22 July 2025: Requested the Tantra SIG to be disbanded
23 July 2025: Labelled the Structural Accountability that is necessary 29 August 2025: AASECT Board met to discuss the allegations
October 2025: AASECT JEDI met with the Tantra SIG Leaders
3 October 2025: Tantra SIG sent out a notice to its members about the name change to Sacred Sexualities SIG
"To all AASECT Tantra SIG Members,We are writing to announce an upcoming change for our Special Interest Group (SIG). We will be changing our name from the Tantra SIG to the Sacred Sexualities SIG. This change will need final approval from the AASECT Board. We have been considering this transition for a couple of years, and we appreciate the perspectives shared during our three group discussions, two of which took place at AASECT conferences. While the initial consensus leaned toward keeping the existing name, we have decided to move forward with the change for two key reasons: 1. The name Sacred Sexualities is a more accurate reflection of the diverse topics and philosophies covered by our SIG. It provides a larger umbrella for practices that combine sexuality and the sacred. 2. The current name, Tantra SIG, is a misappropriation of the original Tantra philosophy and tradition, which encompasses far more than sacred sexuality practices."
So basically side-stepped any allegations put forth stating that the SIG members and the leadership were actively involved in cultural appropriation and spiritual colonization activities. They even proclaimed that it was a decision they have been contemplating for a while.
Moreover, I ask you readers to critically think why in AASECT we do not have any Christian/Muslim/Judaic Sexuality Tools but several practitioners are oh so ready to culturally appropriate Tantra and to sell it as sexuality tools! So when a professional organization allows for people to side-step accountability, I wonder if those individuals will be "careful" in their adventures with Sacred Sexuality. I wonder what traditions, what cultures will be spoken of at this "Sacred" Sexualities SIG.
21 November 2025 — 8 December 2025
Not long after the SIG was "disbanded", and the Tantra Fact Sheet was produced, we had yet another ethical violation on the AASECT Listserv. In order to flag Tantra Content on AASECT listserv, I sent an email to the Moderation Committee.
On 20 November 2025, The AASECT Listserv received an email with the subject line, "Wiber, Nāgārjuna, & Integral Sexual Tantra". The message read, "I am currently reading Ken Wilber's "Finding Radical Wholeness: The Integral Path to Unity, Growth, and Delight" (2024); and believe that discussing it with others, after I have finished reading it, will be a great way to integrate the book's intent. In particular, Wilber outlines “Integral Sexual Tantra” upon the proto-Zen teachings of Ārya Nāgārjuna. Is anyone else interested in reading and discussing these?"
I sent an email to the AASECT Listserv Moderation Committee stating that the there is no sexual content or even eroticized teachings in any of Arya Nagarjuna's works, the ones Ken Wilber claims to have appropriated from. The framing presented in the email is not only inaccurate, it reflects a long-established pattern of American sexologists commodifying Tantra through orientalist narratives, projecting sexual narratives onto living breathing traditions.
Moderation Committee found that they do not moderate SIG discussions and only listserv discussions. Completely missing the point that this email was sent to the main listserv. They also stated they didn't see anything wrong in the conversation.
I pushed back saying by now, whether or not Tantra is colonized fact sheet was already been made and pushed through the JEDI and the Ethics Committee, and that these conversations are on the listserv not on the SIG. I even tagged the JEDI and Ethics Board on this. Then received an email from the Moderation Committee saying that the Tantra conversations are being flagged for review.
7 May 2026
From the President’s Desk: Conference Updates + What’s Ahead, the AASECT President made a comment about reducing Tantra to sexuality tools.
"We have been having the Tantra conversation for a long time and at this point I have personally spent about 10 hrs talking with people, meeting with Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and getting a lot of input around Tantra. The most important thing is that we are not trying to erase Tantra from the field or from AASECT. Tantra is an integral tool that can be used in part for sexuality and by sexuality professionals, and that is not up for debate. What we are going to do however is call for a task force so we can help people who practice Tantra and know Tantra in the breadth and depth of it to help us put together guidelines and best practices. We know that sexuality is a piece of Tantra, it is not all of Tantra. So be on the lookout for a Call for volunteers if you'd like to be involved and really help us establish how Tantra is going to be used for us an organization, and who knows, maybe for the field."
And so my reply was this, addressed to the AASECT JEDI, Ethics Committee and fellow Tantra warriors who have stood behind me in this battle.
Dear AASECT, It has come to my attention that the AASECT President has publicly endorsed the colonization of a living spiritual and religious belief system.In her recent voice note from the President's desk, she stated: "Tantra is an integral tool that can be used in part for sexuality and by sexuality professionals, and that is not up for debate." She further stated: "We know that sexuality is a piece of Tantra, it is not all of Tantra." Let me be unequivocally clear: You, as Americans, do not get to tell the organization what is in my religion, my faith, and my culture. You do not get to call the shots on what is "up for debate" regarding how to actively colonize an indigenous, marginalized faith, tradition and knowledge systems. By reducing the philosophies of Tantra to mere "sexuality tools" that can be used by Americans to continue running their businesses, AASECT is demonstrating complete disregard for the marginalized faith it is actively extracting from. The President spoke of spending 10 hours talking to people who practice Tantra and who are part of the SIG—the very SIG that was disbanded because of cultural appropriation. In those 10 hours, not once did she approach me, the woman who raised this as an ethics violation. Not once did she attend the Decolonizing Tantra class where we spoke in detail about how Tantra has nothing to do with sexuality. So where are the ethics we speak of? Where is the justice we speak of? Is it only justice when Americans get a green light to continue to scavenge and colonize a marginalized people's faith and commodify it by running a business? Whose voices is AASECT desperate to erase? Marginalized South Asians. Whose faith gets reduced to a sexuality tool, stripped completely of its philosophy and religious connotations? South Asians. What is the point in having a JEDI committee, if the JEDI has no role to play, does not intervene, and refuses to take a stand in this conversation? I see this organization for what it is: a capitalist system only interested in ensuring that the rich and the colonizers—yes, I am going to use this term even to refer to those actively using Tantra in their sexuality practices—maintain control over the knowledge bases of a marginalized South Asian LIVING religion. Tantra IS NOT YOUR FAITH. Tantra IS NOT YOUR KNOWLEDGE. Tantra IS NOT YOURS TO SELL. You do not get to decide what parts of my culture, of my religion, of my spirituality of an indigenous marginalized culture to strip apart and use as "sexuality tools" for your benefit. This is intellectual colonization. This is spiritual colonization. With that one statement from the AASECT President, AASECT—not just the people practicing, but the institution itself—is complicit in colonization. Congratulations. Deeply offended, Nishita Rao (she/her) P.S: No qualms about the Task Force. Create one. It is not going to help, because you have already publicly stated that Tantra is a sexuality tool. The damage is done the moment the President of AASECT declares what is and is not up for debate about a marginalized community's faith. Thank you for reducing my culture's philosophies to a tool that can be extracted, commodified, and absorbed into your capitalist organization.
8 May 2026
JEDI Meeting
AASECT President, the JEDI Committee and I gathered to discuss the state of affairs. The President offered context behind the statement made. Meanwhile, I pushed asking the same question: Why Tantra? Why is Tantra the only religion being reduced to sexuality tools to be used by Americans? Why not Christianity/Muslim/Judaic sex tools?! Why do South Asians, who already face an umpty amount of racism and violence in countries of America, Europe and Australia, why extract from us? If you hate us so much, you hate our presence, you detest our language, culture, food and customs, then why do you want to extract anything from us? Tantra is a spiritual practice involving Death traditions. It is rooted in getting your body ready for the afterlife, one that involves trying to avoid rebirth. A philosophy so deeply ingrained into the tradition, being reduced to tools that can be exploited by the West. The conversation went into the need for a task force. However, demands to have an appropriate term such as that of "Cultural Appropriation Task Force" was shut down because "it is too broad and needs to be very specific". So long story in short, Tantra Task Force is in creation and most of its members are White.
The Award and My Response
15 May 2026
AASECT Award Ceremony, Presenter's speech:
"So this next person who is a person of worth is being awarded uh the DEI award. The person is Nishita Rao. Her advocacy exemplifies what it means to embed DEI principles at the core of sexuality education in clinical practice. She brings a strong commitment to culturally responsive care, centering the lived experiences of individuals whose voices are often underrepresented in mainstream sexual health spaces, particularly across intersections of culture, class, immigration, language, religion, and identity. A cornerstone of her DEI contributions is the Polymath Archive, an anti- capitalist initiative providing free access to a virtual library of BIPOC authored texts for sexuality professionals. This work directly intervenes in curriculum equity by dismantling financial and racial barriers to knowledge and shifting dominant frameworks toward perspectives of the global majority.
Nishita's DEI commitment also extends into institutional advocacy within AASECT itself where she has worked to strengthen ethical accountability around cultural appropriation and support the prevention of spiritual colonization particularly in relation to tantra traditions. The awards committee is thrilled to honor Nishita Rao with this recognition and firmly believes she is more than deserving of this award. Congratulations.
My Response:
"I accept this award but do so with necessary clarity. Too often in organizations recognition is used as a substitute for structural change. It is used to quiet dissent, to perform inclusion, while maintaining exclusionary practices and to turn marginalized identities into institutional alibis. This award shall not silence us. Our work is not a performance for anyone's comfort. I accept this award not as an endorsement of where the institution stands today but as a reminder of where it should stand. I'm going to quote Abhay Xaxa's poem. Abhay was an Adivasi indigenous Indian and he says,
I am not your data, nor am I your vote bank,
I am not your project, or any exotic museum object,
I am not the soul waiting to be harvested,
Nor am I the lab where your theories are tested. I refuse, reject, resist your labels,
your judgments, documents, definitions,
your models, leaders and patrons,
because they deny me my existence, my vision, my space.
Today we live in a space wherein the state defines who is legible and who is not. We need to dissent. In closing I'd like to quote Dr. Ambitkar's mandate: Educate! Agitate! Organize! Thank You."
Afterword- You want my essence, but not my body
You want my knowledge
but not the responsibility it comes with
You want my experience
but not the pain that shadows it.
You need my aesthetics—
my bangles,
my jhumkas,
my chappals,
my dupatta,
my mehendi—
But you don't want to see me wearing them.
You want my voice—
oops, no
You want me to sound the way you think I should sound.
You see my Dadi apply haldi on my wound,
You patent our Turmeric.
You see my Appa toil the fields of paddy,
You patent our Basmati.
You see the Baba on the hill, meditating and philosophizing,
You turn him into a commodity, sold at $2000 a workshop.
You want my essence but not my body.
My skin makes me an unpadh
my hair unkempt, multiple piercings,
me eating with my hands makes me a gawar.
My books, my Dida's stories, my people's experiences—
merely tools in the hands of the White man.
Meanwhile, he authors my textbooks.
My thoughts stripped of their essence,
sanitized, commodified,
a retail price slapped on its back.
You in the three-piece-suit—
what prevents me from calling you a thief?
you waltz as if the world's your ballroom
burnt bodies, scrambled minds, enslaved tongues
you scour the ends of the Earth to find me
but its not I who lights your fire
my words, chants, drums, breath, dance,
colors the path you journey
yet it is not I who lights your fire.
You need my essence but not my body.
— Nishita Rao, May 7th 2026
Where do we go from here?
I don't know. I suppose you can ask the descendants of the colonizers — What determines the fate of my people's faith?
Ali, S. H. (2025, December 29). Mini-Israel in India: A Jewish enclave or strategic infiltration? Paradigm Shift. https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/israel-india/ Ambedkar, B.R. (1942). All India Depressed Classes Conference [Speech]. Anupreeta Das, The Prada Sandal That Led to Cries of Cultural Theft in India, The New York Times (Jul. 9, 4:39 PM), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/world/asia/india-prada-sandal.html Bhowmick, A., Deb Roy, S., & De, M. (2021). A brief review on the turmeric patent case with its implications on the documentation of traditional knowledge. NDC E-BIOS, 1, 83–88. Das, S. K., & Cohly, H. H. P. (1995). Use of turmeric in wound healing (U.S. Patent No. 5,401,504). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Dürckheim, K. G. von. (1960). The Japanese cult of tranquillity (E. O'Shiel, Trans.). Rider & Company. Dürckheim, K. G. (1978). Erlebnis und Wandlung: Grundfragen der Selbstfindung (Erw. und überarb. Neuausg.). Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag. Dürckheim, K. G. (1992). Der Weg ist das Ziel: Gespräch mit Karl Schnelting in der Reihe "Zeugen des Jahrhunderts“ (I. Hermann, Ed.). Lamuv. Government of India, Geographical Indications Registry. (2018, August 9). Geographical Indications Journal No. 109. Intellectual Property India Jamil, U. (1998). Biopiracy: The patenting of basmati by Ricetec (Working Paper Series No. 37). Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy – South Asia & Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Kullu. (2015, August 19). Himachal: Probe continues against Kasol café that denies entry to Indians. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/himachal-probe-continues-against-kasol-cafe-that-denies-entry-to-indians/story-8VhF2kQ2fbih9LEE2MmUDM-amp.html Larson, R. (1984). Stable Anti-Pest Neem Seed Extract (U.S. Patent No. 4,556,562). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Nawaz, M. S. (2026, March 6). Row over 'barring of Indians' at kirtan festival in Rishikesh ashram. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/row-over-barring-of-indians-at-kirtan-festival-in-rishikesh-ashram/articleshow/129126866.cms Prada Spring/Summer (2026). Menswear Show. https://www.prada.com/ww/en/pradasphere/fashion-shows/2026/ss-menswear.html Rao, N. (2025). Primary Incident Log: Cultural Appropriation and Spiritual Colonization of Tantra within Sexological Organizations (2023-2025) [Data set]. N. Rao Publications. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19800687
Rao, N. (2025). Fact Sheet (Is Your Tantra Colonized?). N. Rao Publications. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19385793
Rao, N. (2025). Redacted Email Correspondence Regarding Cultural Appropriation [Data set]. N. Rao Publications. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17637161 Sarreal, E. S., Mann, J. A., Freund, R. M., Sood, S., & Siddiq, E. A. (1997). Basmati rice lines and grains (U.S. Patent No. 5,663,484). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Xaxa, AF 2020. “I am not your data.” Translated to “Não sou seu dado” by A. Borges. AGITATE! 2: https://agitatejournal.org/article/i-am-not-your-data/
