Badhaai ho means congratulations. In the film of that name, released in October 2018 and directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, a middle-aged mother becomes pregnant. Her grown sons are deeply embarrassed and distance themselves from their parents and their social circles. Relatives, friends and neighbors gossip about the family and mock it.
Corona Wali Gali
During the pandemic the Ministry of Health issued a guide on the stigma around Covid-19. It listed what stigma leads to: “People concealing symptoms,” “Hesitancy in seeking medical care” and “COVID-19 cases not being reported, or reported late.”
In September 2020 The Tribune reported that residents of Amritsar avoided Covid tests. “Getting a positive report of a RT-PCR or rapid test means neighbours would come to know of your health sooner or later,” one said. Another recalled: “A street in our locality was referred to as ‘Corona wali gali’ after a family tested positive.”
Part of the Right to Life
On May 13, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India. The petitioners had challenged Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which make defamation a crime. The court held that criminal defamation is not an excessive restriction on free speech. It held that reputation is “an inherent component of Article 21,” the article of the Constitution that protects the right to life.
Burking
“‘Burking’ or not registering cases is widely prevalent in the police machinery today,” IndiaSpend wrote in 2017. It studied theft in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. Only 6 to 8 percent of theft victims there filed a First Information Report. “The remaining 92-94% are not reflected in any official record.”
In 2013 the Supreme Court ruled in Lalita Kumari v. Government of Uttar Pradesh that registering such a report is mandatory for a cognizable offense. In November 2025 the news agency IANS reported, citing sources, that complaints made by calls to the Delhi police control room were not being turned into reports “in an attempt to project lower crime rates.”
Pretend It Was Performing
In September 2018 Raghuram Rajan, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, sent a note on bad loans to the Estimates Committee of Parliament. When a project stalled, he wrote, banks would often extend the loan “by making additional loans to enable the promoter to pay interest and pretend it was performing.”
What the City Says
In the Uttara Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama asks his companion Bhadra and his friends what the people of the city are saying. “What do they say of Sita, Bharata and Lakshmana?” Bhadra repeats the talk of the city, in Dutt’s translation: “What pleasure can his heart experience in possessing Sita, whom Ravana formerly held in his lap, having borne her away by force?”
Two chapters later, he orders Lakshmana to take Sita away to a hermitage.
Photographs in the Newspaper
In March 2013 Business Today reported that “banks have decided to publish in newspapers photographs and details like names and addresses of wilful loan defaulters.” The State Bank of India acted first, with notices on five defaulters in Delhi.
What Will People Say
Log kya kahenge? What will people say? A WION editor wrote in 2025 that this one line “is enough to make people do things they don’t want to do.”
Naak kat gayi. The nose was cut off. Disgrace.
Saat pusht ki naak katna. The nose of seven generations is cut off. In the Rekhta dictionary: the honor of the whole family is lost.
Riding a Tiger
On January 7, 2009, B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, wrote to his board. He admitted that the company’s books showed cash and bank balances of Rs 5,361 crore, of which Rs 5,040 crore did not exist. “It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,” he wrote.
In July 2010 his lawyers told a court that he had never written the letter.
The Parrot
In one of the Akbar and Birbal tales, Emperor Akbar’s pet parrot has died. No courtier dares to tell him, because he has ordered that anyone who brings news of the parrot’s death will be hanged. Birbal goes to the emperor and says: “Jahanpanah, your parrot is neither eating anything, nor drinking anything.”
When Akbar asks whether the parrot is dead, Birbal replies: “I did not say it. You said it.”