Ramdev’s example of the व्यक्ति – व्यक्तित्व dyad is in this class.Īlso read: Ramdev Baba: Icon of ‘New India’Ī simple rule of grammar is that such words that enter modern Indian languages unchanged from Sanskrit (तत्सम/tatsam) can take the -त्व / -tva suffix. Two more easy to understand examples are: अस्तित्व (astitva), existence, derived from अस्ति (asti), the third person singular of the verb to be in Sanskrit and महत्त्व (mahattva), greatness or importance, from the adjective महत् (mahat), big. That’s how we get तत्त्व (essence, element) from तद (that) + -त्व = ‘that’ness/essence. The ‘-त्व’ (‘-tva’) प्रत्यय (suffix) in Sanskrit transforms any word into a neuter abstract noun. It’s nerdy, I know, but it’s not un-entertaining. If you have read this far, I beg your indulgence just a little bit longer. To understand why we can laugh at Ramdev, and not laugh with Ramdev, we will need to take a short lexical/etymological/grammatical detour. And the joke turns on the actual artifice and utter poverty of the discursive universe of Hindutva. The joke is on them, and on Ramdev, not on Gandhi. But that’s because, in general, they are just about as knowledgeable about the rules of word formation in Sanskrit as Ramdev is. I guess a lot of Hindutva enthusiasts would find this just as hilarious. He finds it hilarious that Gandhi, according to him, should not find it possible to understand something as basic as this. Ramdev’s send up of this ‘distinction’ involved him saying that the relation of Hindutva to Hindu is as natural as the relation of the word ‘ vyaktiva’ to ‘ vyakti’. I recently came across a video in which the yoga teacher and entrepreneur Baba Ramdev is regaling a Hindi language TV anchor (Aman Chopra of News18-India) with a short grammar lesson that he thinks demonstrates the soundness of Hindutva.

Baba ramdev yoga books in hindi pdf