Hindi is the official language of India, with English recognized as an associate official language. Before independence, India was part of the British Empire, and contact between the two cultures led to the borrowing into English of a number of loan words. The word dekko, literally `look!' in Hindi, entered English through British army slang in the 19th century. It remains restricted to British slang, especially in the phrase take/have a dekko at, meaning `have a look'. It can be contrasted with a couple of phrases with similar meaning - have a shufti at and do a recce, which also entered English via military contact with other cultures [See Arabic]. The word pukka derives from the Hindi word for `firm' or `mature' and is found particularly in Indian English and British English. It has a range of meaning in these two varieties; applied to a person it means `genuine' or `socially acceptable', and applied to a thing it means `right' or `real'. For example, a pukka chap, a pukka way, a pukka job. The meaning of wallah in British English derives from a misunderstanding of the Hindi word -wala which is equivalent to the English suffix -er, as in teacher, producer. It was thought by non-native speakers to mean `man'; this has influenced its modern meaning in British English of a person involved with a specified thing, particularly in their employment, e.g. a policy wallah, an company wallah, a personnel wallah.