sarkar
/səːˈkɑː
/noun Indian
A man who is in a position of authority, especially one who owns land worked by tenant farmers (often used as a form of address): could they bluff the sarkar into paying for fertilizers for land never cultivated?...
- By not installing sufficient power capacity, the sarkar has actually saved much-needed public funds for essentials like paying itself its own salary.
- Whether left, right or centre, successive sarkars have devised no less devious ways than did the British of depressing the incomes of people in the farm sector and of siphoning off economic surplus from rural areas.
- ‘Our sarkar has left and there is another there, now,’ he said in innocence.
Origin
From Persian and Urdu sarkār, from sar 'chief' + kār agent, doer.