Paper short abstract:

Drawing from interviews with Ayurvedic practitioners and beauty entrepreneurs, this paper examines ethnicized traditions, practices, and commodities and the ways they confront Western liberal discourses of multiculturalism as well as aesthetic productions of a global India sanctioned by the state.

Paper long abstract:

Ayurveda is marketed as one of the oldest indigenous medical systems of the Indian subcontinent, dating back thousands of years. It includes a set of aesthetic practices, commodities, applications, and traditions geared toward longevity and holistic health that can be seen by the burgeoning of Ayurvedic wellness and beauty industries in Los Angeles represented by spas, clinics, retreat centers, credentialing courses, and skincare and makeup lines. In this paper, I explore this growing industry, set within and against the backdrop of “multicultural” Los Angeles, where Ayurveda circulates as a challenge to the identity politics some participants believe is endemic to Americanness through claiming Ayurveda as holistic, universal, and spiritually-bound. At the same time, Ayurveda gets firmly lodged into the mechanics of the market and gets tethered to the desires of neoliberal autonomy and neoliberal multiculturalism. This is evidenced by the recent growth of Ayurveda beauty companies founded by South Asian and South Asian American entrepreneurs who utilize the lexicon of diversity and representation to authenticate their businesses as grounded in "realness" and embedded in a racial or ethnic genealogy tracing back to India. Drawing from interviews with South Asian and South Asian American Ayurvedic practitioners and beauty industry representatives based in and out of Los Angeles, I examine these entangled racial formations that draw on representation, belonging, and authenticity to either extend or challenge Western liberal discourses of multiculturalism as well as productions of a global India sanctioned by the Indian state.