In a field experiment among pen wholesalers in Chennai, buyers were matched at random with sellers. Buyers matched with a seller from their own ethnic group received a discounted price.
The sellers did not ask these buyers for smaller advance payments, however. The researchers concluded that the discount came from preference for the group, not from greater trust.
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.
On February 2, 2021, a member of Parliament asked about revising the income limit for the “creamy layer” among the Other Backward Classes. The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment replied in the Lok Sabha.
The “proposal for revision of creamy layer limit for OBCs is under consideration of the Government,” he said. The answer gave no date and no decision.
In February 2026 the Delhi High Court refused bail to a man accused of breaking a promise of marriage. After a relationship, he allegedly refused to marry the woman because their horoscopes, or kundalis, did not match.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma held that “the subsequent refusal to marry on the ground of non-matching kundalis” raised doubts, at first sight, about whether the promise had been genuine.
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.