Kolkata's Gobindapur Rail Colony squatters are ready to engage in civil disobedience in their fight to avoid being summarily evicted next week, according to his report from The Statesman.
Though I can certainly imagine what the words mean, if anyone out there is fluent in Hinglish (Hindi-influenced English), could you please help me pin down the exact meaning of the two things the squatters say they are going to do: rail roko and dharna.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
"Rail roko" comes from "rokna," which means "to stop" - that is, they plan to stop or disrupt the trains. My Oxford Hindi-English dictionary says that dharna means "sitting constantly at the door of a person whose attention one is demanding (as that of a debtor, or of one from whom a favour is sought)." It can also mean picketing, and it has a religious use parallel to its secular meaning.
Many thanks, David, for the great clarification. I continue to suffer from having given up on learning Hindi.
Post a Comment