gherao

{{Short description|Form of protest, typical of India}}

Gherao, meaning "encirclement", is a word which denotes a tactic used by labour activists and union leaders in India; it is similar to picketing. Usually, a group of people would surround a politician or a government building until their demands are met, or answers given.{{cite book |last1=Bandyopadhyay |first1=Ritajyoti |title=Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781009109208 |isbn=9781009109208 |s2cid=250200020 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/streets-in-motion/2D42F4BF0D2086A1DBB254A5120ACB42}} This principle was introduced as a formal means of protest in the labour sector by Subodh Banerjee, the PWD and Labor Minister in the 1967 and 1969 United Front Governments of West Bengal, respectively.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7QI4eOM18cC&q=Subodh+Banarjee,+west+bengal&pg=PA28|title=West Bengal's Jyoti Basu: A Political Profile Page 27|first1=Surajit Kumar|last1=Dasgupta|first2=Surajit̲a|last2=Dāśagupta|date=December 19, 1992|publisher=Gian Publishing House|isbn=9788121204200|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.boloji.com/diary/kolkata/013.htm|title=Populist Governance|access-date=2009-05-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418042211/http://www.boloji.com/diary/kolkata/013.htm|archive-date=2009-04-18|url-status=dead}}

Owing to its popularity, the word “gherao” was added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in 2004. Page 598 has the entry: “Gherao: n (pl. gheraos). Indian; a protest in which workers prevent employers leaving a place of work until demands are met; Origin: From Hindi” and Subodh Banerjee was referred to as the Gherao minister.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article263.html|title=A Defiant Rebel - Mainstream Weekly|website=www.mainstreamweekly.net}}

Gherao was being used by farmers against government buildings in the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.{{Cite web|last=Talwar|first=Gaurav|date=8 December 2020|title=Farm protests: AAP holds protest march to gherao CM's office, stopped by police {{!}} Dehradun News - Times of India|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/farm-protests-aap-holds-protest-march-to-gherao-cms-office-stopped-by-police/articleshow/79612372.cms|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=22 December 2020|website=The Times of India|language=en}}