gherao means A protest in which a group of people surrounds a politician, building, etc. until demands are met. It carries an Arena rating of 1485, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
gherao is pronounced /ɡɛˈɹaʊ/.
Why “gherao” is a great word
A protest tactic in which a group of people surrounds and detains a person in authority or occupies a building until their demands are met. From Hindi *gherāv* ('encirclement, siege'), from *ghernā* ('to surround, encircle'). Unlike a picket, which dissuades entry from a perimeter, or a siege, a prolonged military operation against a fortress, a gherao is a civilian act of immediate, intimate coercion. It is the sudden human wall that traps a manager in his office, the silent occupation of a factory floor that halts all machinery, and the tense ring of bodies around an official's car—a distilled, physical assertion of power by the powerless, where the demand for justice becomes a physical barrier.
Etymology
From Hindi घेराव (gherāv, “encirclement”).
noun
- A protest in which a group of people surrounds a politician, building, etc. until demands are met.“They had done a gherao and trapped the manager in his office for a whole day.”
verb
- To surround for this purpose.“One day the city magistrate asked the army for help to curb a protest march by women Congress workers who had threatened to gherao the officials in the divisional office.”