dharna

noun

1. (India, countable, uncountable)A sit-in.

   “ln December 1974, Morarji Desai, gave a threat of staging a dharna inside the Lok Sabha chamber. ln June 1975, Morarji Deshmukh, the Jana Sangh leader, stated that there had to be a Delhi Bandh to compel the Prime Minister to resign.”

2. (India, countable, specifically, uncountable)A fast undertaken at the door of an offender, especially a debtor.

   “[…] house-tax having been imposed on the natives during Lord Minto's government […] the Brahmins resolved to try the virtue of a dharna; […] The local government was exceedingly perplexed; for, besides the risk of hundreds perishing, there was the certainty of a famine, from the cessation of agricultural labour if the dharna continued.”