In July 2023 Ajit Pawar split the Nationalist Congress Party and broke with his uncle, Sharad Pawar. On November 14, 2023, Diwali Padwa, the Pawar family gathered at Govindbaug in Baramati. Sharad Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar all attended. It was the family’s first gathering since the split.
The next day Supriya Sule celebrated Bhau Beej, the festival of brothers and sisters, with her cousin Ajit.
Many Indian colleges and universities ask new students for a character certificate. In 2021 Mahatma Gandhi Central University asked for “A Character certificate from the Head of the Institution last attended.”
For private candidates, a Delhi college gives a specimen to be signed by a gazetted officer: “Certified that Mr. / Miss … is known to me for the last three years. He / She bears a good moral character.”
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.”
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.”
In Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), the warrior Kattappa kills Amarendra Baahubali. Kattappa has sworn loyalty to the rulers of Mahishmati. “Bound by oath to serve the kingdom, Kattappa helplessly lures Amarendra” to his death. The order comes from the rulers, Sivagami and Bhallaladeva.
Before the second film, the question “Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali?” had been “on everyone’s mind since 2015,” The News Minute wrote.
The Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, tells the king to examine his ministers “by offering temptations.” Book 1, chapter 10, is titled “Ascertaining by Temptations Purity or Impurity in the Character of Ministers.”
In one test, the minister is told: “This king is unrighteous.” In another, he is urged to murder the king “in view of acquiring immense wealth.” In a third, he hears: “The queen is enamoured of thee.” The translation is by R. Shamasastry.
Saakh. In the Rekhta dictionary: reputation, repute, goodwill, credit.
Izzat. Honor, respect, esteem, dignity, reputation, good name.
Naam paida karna. To create a name. In the dictionary’s Hindi definition, to gain renown and become famous.
“The most important class of credit Instruments that evolved in India were termed Hundis,” the Reserve Bank of India writes in its history of payment systems. One kind, the sah-jog hundi, was “payable only to a Sah or to his order.”
The RBI explains who that was. “A Sah was a respectable and responsible person, a man of worth and substance who was known in the market.”
Haath sar par rakhna: to put a hand on someone’s head. The Rekhta dictionary gives “patronize” and “show affection, kindness.” Its Hindi entry adds to become someone’s patron, murabbi banna, and to be their helper.
Pahunch: reach. Rekhta gives “access, entrance, admittance.” Its Hindi entry adds sampark, prabhav, contact and influence.
In April 2016 the Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill against social boycott. The law, enacted in 2017, is “An Act to provide for the prohibition of social boycott of a person or group of persons including their family members.” Scroll reported that Maharashtra was “set to become the first state in the country to criminalise social boycott.”
Caste councils impose such boycotts. In Rajasthan, the practice is “commonly referred to in local parlance as hukka-pani band or haath band,” the end of sharing a hookah and water.