Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the country's main International Yoga Day celebrations from Kolkata's Red Road on Sunday, as India marked the 12th edition of the observance alongside celebrations planned or already under way in roughly 190 countries around the world.
This year's theme, "Yoga for Healthy Ageing," focused attention on yoga as a habit that can be sustained across a lifetime, supporting physical strength, mental health and emotional steadiness into old age. The Kolkata event got under way in the early morning hours, drawing thousands of participants on the ground while many more followed online from elsewhere in the country. West Bengal officials had spent days preparing for the gathering, with participants rehearsing in advance and the state arranging for a crowd in the tens of thousands, making it among the largest single Yoga Day events held anywhere in India this year.
Beyond Kolkata, state leaders ran their own events in parallel. In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took part in a session at the Jhansi Fort complex, while in Mumbai, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis joined residents for a round of asanas, telling attendees that regular practice helps people cope with the stress of everyday life. President Droupadi Murmu took part in a session of her own in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, and in the capital, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta joined a large group of practitioners near the Blue Lake in the Asola-Bhati area. Delhi Police also ran sessions of their own across the city, centred at their headquarters.
India's armed forces and paramilitary units marked the day too. A senior army officer due to take over as vice chief joined a session in Delhi, while a border police battalion held yoga sessions on the banks of Pangong Tso in Ladakh, against the backdrop of the Himalayas. Some celebrations took less conventional forms — in Vadodara, Gujarat, one group practised yoga underwater, and a separate group of women took part in a water-based session at a local swimming complex.
Internationally, the day's events are still unfolding as the sun moves westward. The United Nations held its own observance at its New York headquarters earlier in the week, organised jointly by India's diplomatic mission and the UN Secretariat, drawing diplomats and international staff. In Times Square, a daylong public session led by H.R. Nagendra, president of Bengaluru's SVYASA University and one of Modi's own yoga instructors, was under way as of Sunday afternoon local time, turning the pedestrian plazas into an open-air yoga studio.
Further U.S. events were still to come. In Austin, the Consulate General of India was set to host a free public session on the Texas State Capitol lawn beginning at 6 p.m. local time, featuring guided yoga, a peace meditation and live music — an event organisers said has drawn more than 5,000 participants in past years. Similar evening sessions were scheduled in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and at Morrisville Community Park in North Carolina, among other U.S. locations, with most set to begin only as the local afternoon turned to evening.
Several European countries, including Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, Austria and the Czech Republic, also organised their own observances, while Indian missions abroad coordinated events at nearly 2,500 locations worldwide, involving more than 210 Indian diplomatic posts in total.
Speaking at the Kolkata event, Modi described the day as one of the world's largest shared community gatherings, telling the crowd that yoga cuts across boundaries of age, religion and nationality, and helps build mental resilience alongside physical fitness.
