Jaan-pehchaan means knowing people and being known by them. A study by Berger, Barnes, Konwar, Singh and colleagues surveyed managers at more than 300 companies in India.
It describes three parts of the practice: pehchaan, recognition, len-den, give and take, and bharosa, trust. Together they shaped how satisfied companies were with their business relationships and how long they planned to keep them.
On February 12, 2014, Narendra Modi, then the BJP’s candidate for prime minister, launched Chai pe Charcha, “discussion over tea,” at a tea stall in Ahmedabad. About 1,500 people gathered there. The video campaign covered 1,000 tea stalls in 300 cities.
Modi called a tea stall “a footpath Parliament.”
On May 14, 2023, the 136 newly elected Congress members of the Karnataka assembly met to choose a chief minister. Two leaders wanted the post. The members “unanimously passed a resolution to authorise All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge to choose the new leader of the party.”
In Rajasthan in December 2018 the Congress members had passed a single-line resolution leaving the choice to Rahul Gandhi.
In India a side-to-side movement of the head often answers a question. Wikipedia’s article on the head bobble says that “most frequently it means yes, or is used to indicate understanding.” It can also take the place of a thank-you.
The meaning depends on context. “An unenthusiastic head bobble can be a polite way of declining something without saying no directly.”
In his book The Power of Saying No, the author Ashutosh Garg writes that in India subordinates “may find it particularly difficult to say no to superiors.” In collectivist cultures, he adds, “saying no directly is often avoided to preserve harmony and maintain relationships.”
Instead of refusing, he writes, an Indian may say sochte hain, “we will think about it.” Governance Now published an excerpt in February 2026.
In a column in The Tribune, Lakhinder Jit Singh Vohra wrote: “Instead of saying no, we are taught to nod our head and take it.”
In India, he wrote, “everything is a yes, even when everything is meant to be a no.” A refusal arrives as an assurance, such as “200 per cent it will be taken care of.”
Bas paanch minute. Just five minutes. In its video series Desi D, The Quint jokes about Indian stretchable time and about people who “say they are just five minutes away” when they are not even ready.