Pagri

The poor labourer was at first somewhat astonished, and frightened by this sudden metamorphosis, but soon overcoming the new feeling, he carefully tied the ruby in his pagri or turban, and returned home […]

'People look at my pagri and you can kind of tell from the way they look and behave and from their body language. My pagri gives me away and I feel that people react strangely to it. Some people laugh at you because of your pagri. Others say, "You are wearing a nice hat," or something like that. Fellow students don't know a thing about the Sikh religion […].'

2016, "Sidhartha," "Takeover battle begins at 2 of Abhey Oswal's cos," The Times of India, Business, 8 April, 2016, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Takeover-battle-begins-at-2-of-Abhey-Oswals-cos/articleshow/51736234.cms Pankaj claims to be the legal heir citing that he was made to wear the "pagri", which he saw as a sign that the Oswal family recognized him as the main heir to head the business.

I recognized the eldest Miss Copleigh, because she had a pagri round her helmet, and the younger had not.

A pagri was a form of "illegal payment" that had developed to circumvent colonial rent restrictions. Landlords demanded a large lump-sum payment in lieu of the low monthly rent, and this also made it very difficult for refugees without means to rent houses in the city.

Simply defined, it means a landlord letting a ‘tenant’ use his property – forever in most cases – after receiving a “pagri,” an amount that is a little less than the prevailing market price. In return, the tenant pays a nominal monthly rent and stays on the premises for years on end without any fear of eviction. The property remains in landlord’s name and he continues to pay taxes on it.