chamcha

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”).

Noun

chamcha (plural chamchas)

1. (India, colloquial) A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey.
   • 1989. Stuart Auerbach. Washington Post. (Mar. 26) “Nehru and His Nation”

     M J Akbar has been called a chamcha to the Gandhi family, and some of that slavish devotion shows up in his uncritical acceptance of Nehru’s government-dominated economic program and the erosion of the country’s grass roots political structure as a result of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

   • 1994. William Dalrymple City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi (Dec. 1) “Glossary” p. 340:

     Chamcha Sycophant (lit. ‘spoon’). 1997. Ghulam Nabi Azad. India Today (June 23) p. 13: I have my own standing in the party. I cannot be anybody’s chamcha (stooge).

   • 1997. Sudhir Vaishnav. Times of India. (Aug. 24) “A very political exercise”

     Several hangers-on. They are available aplenty everywhere in the country and are often known in the local market as Chamcha.

   • 1998 January 17, “In Praise of Chamchagiri”, in P.S. Sharma Times of India:

     No doubt, the United Kingdom also had their sycophants—toadys, bachhas, jholichuks and hukkabardars—but chamchas of the modern vintage they had none. Chamchas are a breed apart.

   • 2004. Krishnakumar. Midday (Mumbai, India) (Sept. 21)

     Leaders’ chamchas get lucky”: All three have pulled strings in their respective parties to get Assembly poll tickets for their puppets and close confidants, better known in political parlance as chamchas.

Related terms

• chamchagiri (meaning spooning or sycophancy)