Ramdev (born Ram Kisan Yadav[a]; between 1965—1975), known also by the prefix Baba, is an Indian yoga guru,[8] businessman[9][3] and brand ambassador for Patanjali Ayurved.

[20] Ramdev, originally named Ramkishan Yadav, was born between 1965 and 1975[1][2] in Haryanvi family in Alipur village of Mahendragarh district of Haryana.

[28] At a young age, yadav was drawn to the writings by Dayananda Saraswati that he quit the government school where the curriculum was a leftover of the education policy introduced by British politician Babinton Macaulay.

[27] At the age of fourteen, he moved to Kalwa to attend a gurukula and studied under one of his principal gurus, Acharya Baldevji.

[30] In Kalwa, he studied the Sanskrit language and literature, Hindu philosophical and religious texts, and traditions of yoga and asceticism.

[31] After completing his studies in 1992, Yadav traveled to Haridwar to stay at the Kripalu Bagh Ashram under the guidance of Shankardevi Maharaj.

[33] On 5 January 1995,[34] Balkrishna, Ramdev, and Acharya Karamveer founded Divya Yoga Mandir Trust, which was set up at the Kripalu Bagh Ashram in Haridwar.

[33] Patanjali Ayurved is a consumer packaged goods company, based in Haridwar, that was started by Ramdev and Balkrishna in 2006.

[48][47] Patanjali has also been surrounded by controversies regarding working conditions where Ramdev and Balkrishna are treated like gurus whose feet must be touched each time they enter an area.

[59] In March 2018, 92 scholars of various different castes and backgrounds were initiated by Ramdev as sanyasis, or renunciants, at the Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar.

[61] The sanyasis initiated by Ramdev studied Hindu scriptures for at least seven years at Patanjali Yogpeeth and a number of them have advanced degrees from universities.

[60] In 2006, Ramdev was invited by Kofi Annan to deliver a lecture on poverty alleviation at a United Nations conference.

[62][63] In October 2014, he was one of the nine personalities invited by the Prime Minister Modi to participate and promote the message of cleanliness when Swachh Bharat Mission was launched.

[65] In 2014, Ramdev announced that Bharat Swabhiman would contest some constituencies in the general election of that year and form alliances with some other parties.

[66] It was at this time that he voiced his support for Narendra Modi to become the next Prime Minister of India, and he signed nine pledges with BJP leaders on institutional and cultural reforms.

[69] Relatedly, Ramdev announced he would go on an anshan hunger strike at Ramlila Ground in Delhi, on 4 June 2011, to pressure the government to root out corruption and repatriate black money.

[18] A week before the scheduled fast, the government set up a committee, headed by the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, to suggest steps to curb black money and its transfer abroad.

[75][76] Ramdev tried to escape capture by disguising himself in women's clothes but was eventually arrested and flown back to his ashram in Haridwar and banned from entering Delhi for 15 days.

[104] Their case was taken up by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions CITU, affiliated with the Communist Party of India Marxist CPI(M).

[3][104] Karat produced what were claimed to be the prescription and cash receipts for the samples, which were obtained from the Trust's hospital medicine counter.

Dr Jaswant of the Resident Doctors Association at AIIMS told that the "language of (Ramdev's) letter is not an apology".

[117][118] The day after the launch, a criminal complaint was filed against Ramdev and his partner, Balkrishna, in Muzaffarpur court by a social worker for misleading and putting the lives of a large number of people at risk.

[121][122] The Government of Maharashtra banned the sale of Coronil in the state, citing that the World Health Organisation had not certified the medicine.

[121] On 18 August 2022, Delhi High Court told Baba Ramdev not to mislead people against modern medicine after questioning the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and to avoid making any claims other than what is deemed official about Patanjali's Coronil.

[130] The IMA also demanded the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan take action against Ramdev and prosecute him under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to save lives.

[134] He courted sharp criticism from the medical community when he claimed that, "[d]octors should not fall ill at all if allopathy is all powerful and 'sarvagun sampanna' (having all good qualities)".

[15][134] IMA's Uttarakhand division sent a defamation notice to Ramdev and expressed that they would demand ₹1,000 crore (equivalent to ₹11 billion or US$130 million in 2023) if he didn't issue an apology.

[102] On 3 June 2021, the Delhi High Court refused to issue an injunction against Ramdev, noting that his comments fall under the right to freedom of speech and expression.

[138] In March 2017, Ramdev said at an event in Rohtak that he would have beheaded people who refused to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai if there was no law, but backtracked his statement a month later.