(in India) the act of closing shops or suspending work, esp in political protest
Word origin
C20: from Hindi hartāl, from hāt shop (from Sanskrit hatta) + tālā bolt for a door (from Sanskrit: latch)
hartal in American English
(hɑːrˈtɑːl)
noun
(in India)
a closing of shops and stopping of work, esp. as a form of passive resistance
Word origin
[1915–20; ‹ Hindi harṭal, var. of haṭṭāl, equiv. to hat shop (Skt haṭṭa) + tāl locking (Skt tālāka lock, bolt)]This word is first recorded in the period 1915–20. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: collage, decoder, stockpile, supernationalism, takeout
Examples of 'hartal' in a sentence
hartal
Hartal did not impact the number of emergency room visits in 6 out of 7 health centers assessed.
Aasems Jacob, Heidi Weiss, Aju Mathew 2016, 'The Impact of General Strike on Government Healthcare Delivery in Kerala State inIndia', Journal of Environmental and Public Healthhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8096082. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)