Agreements Archives - understand-culture

Family Arrangement

On January 21, 1976, the Supreme Court decided Kale and Others v. Deputy Director of Consolidation. The judgment set out rules for family arrangements, the settlements that relatives make among themselves. One of them reads: “The family arrangement may be even oral in which case no registration is necessary.”

The Court also described its general approach. “The Courts have, therefore, leaned in favour of upholding a family arrangement instead of disturbing the same on technical or trivial grounds.”

Fifty-Fifty

After the Maharashtra assembly election of 2019, the Shiv Sena and the BJP disagreed about what had been promised. The Sena said that Amit Shah had assured Uddhav Thackeray, at his home Matoshree in Mumbai, that the two parties would share the chief minister’s post. Sanjay Raut of the Sena said: “our only demand is that things should work according to what has been decided earlier.”

On October 29, 2019, Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP said: “The Shiv Sena was not promised CM’s post for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was formalised before the Lok Sabha polls.” Amit Shah later said: “I don’t make promises in closed rooms.”

The Family MoU

In June 2005 Kokilaben Ambani announced a settlement of ownership issues between her sons Mukesh and Anil. When the brothers later fought over gas supplies, the case reached the Supreme Court. In May 2010 the Court found that “the Ambani family MoU dividing the gas was not binding, both legally as well as technically.”

A few weeks later the two groups “cancelled all non-compete agreements” between them. The cancellation, they said, “will provide enhanced operational and financial flexibility.”

Credit at the Corner Shop

At a neighborhood kirana store, regular customers often buy on credit, udhaar. The shopkeeper writes the amount in a ledger, the bahi khata, and the customer pays later. Khatabook, an app founded for “replicating India’s bahi khata, or book of accounts,” reported “over 10 million monthly active users” in 2021.

Business Today asked shopkeepers how they get neighbors to pay their dues. One of them, Sushil Tripathi, explained why he does not press: “They might get offended if we ask them to pay the dues and move to another kirana store.”

Brothers

On April 29, 1954, India and China signed an agreement in Peking. Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai, Indians and Chinese are brothers, “was the catch phrase for India-China diplomacy in the 1950s,” according to the Indian think tank Gateway House.

The relationship later broke down, “ultimately leading to the Sino-Indian war in 1962.”

Rishta and Roka

Rishta. A relation by blood or marriage. The Rekhta dictionary also gives a second meaning: a marriage proposal.

Roka. The ceremony in which two families accept a match. The Indian wedding-wear brand Manyavar describes it as “a pre-wedding ritual that signifies the formal announcement and acceptance of a marriage alliance between two families.”

A Tacit Understanding

In 1972 Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signed the Simla Agreement. As the Indian scholar A.G. Noorani notes, under the agreement the Line of Control in Kashmir “was not accepted as an international border proper.”

P.N. Dhar, who was present at the talks, later wrote in his book that the two leaders reached an understanding at the last minute. “The tacit understanding, no doubt was that gradually the Line of Control would emerge as an international border. But this remained only a tacit understanding.”

The account is disputed. Abdul Sattar, the other surviving witness to the talks and later Pakistan’s foreign minister, “flatly rejected the claim,” Noorani wrote in Dawn in 2012.

Assurances

When an Indian minister tells Parliament “The matter is under consideration” or “I shall inform the Hon’ble Member,” the words count as an assurance. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs defines assurances as statements “in the form of promises, undertakings or other such forms of expressions.” Each House has a Committee on Government Assurances, “a watchdog that tracks promises and undertakings made by ministers on the floor of the house,” as The News Minute describes it.

In December 2025 the Rajya Sabha committee listed 699 unfulfilled assurances in its 79th report. “These 699 unfulfilled assurances are by 53 ministries.”

A Firm Promise

Pakka vaada. A firm promise. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as a word or a pledge whose fulfillment can be fully trusted.

Pakki baat. A settled matter, a firm undertaking.

Never Delivered

In 2019 the US company Narvar studied e-commerce in India. The Indian startup site OfficeChai reported its finding: “One out of every three cash on delivery orders in India is never delivered.”