New Delhi, June 28 -- A few years ago, after yoga became a public spectacle of important but unfit men performing what they claimed were asanas, a minister went into shavasana, or the 'corpse pose,' and dozed off. He had to be woken up. Not that the poses they were doing before that were more strenuous.

When India says 'yoga,' its bar is very low. It means mild stretches and breathing exercises. People trying to touch their toes, impeded by paunches, or sitting in lotus position, inhaling, exhaling and looking as though they are doing something philosophical. And this is what India and some of its regional governments are trying to promote in government offices and schools in the name of yoga.

Many fear they are being coerced into yoga....