many hindi words have been adopted by the english language from time to time - chotta hazari, bada khana, bandobast and so on.
i am particularly interested in such army - police services related words which may not be in use now but were acceptable say a generation before. could anyone list a few?

is doolally tap Hindi, or something else?

-joe (doolally) friday

thanks - didnt come across that before - it is, when doolali is read as deolali. that leads me to jungle which is common to both languages.

Hi aitrivra
I'm not familiar with any of your examples. Please translate for those of me who missed them. thanks

Like Zed, I'm not familiar with any of those expressions, Aitrivra. And jungle as a verb, is that hinglish, too?

jungle as a verb???
Is that the opposite of garden as a verb?

Yikes! I totally misread aitrivra's second post....

I'm with the others here. What dialect of English has taken your examples?

I thought khaki but AHD says it's through Urdu from Persian. Juggernaut is from the Hindi jagganath.

sorry - i should have clarified that many hindi words originate from urdu and hence have arabic or persian roots - another set originates from sanskrit.

many of the english words derived from hindi / urdu etc. have been imported during the Raj and some have gone out of common use. Indian (English)language Press, the Indian Army, and the Anglo-Indian community do continue to use several such words

khaki / khakhi though its origin arabic is a hindi / english word as well. Thanks for putting me on that one.

jungle (n) [Origin: 1770–80; < Hindi jaṅgal < Pali, Prakrit jaṅgala rough, waterless place] (source: dictionary.com)too is a colonial import, and meaning remains same in both hindi and english though the origin appears contradictory.

Bada khana was the army description of the regimental dinner ( tr. big dinner)under the British rule. It remains an accepted phrase in the indian press - ‘Crime Branch Mumbai is Having Finals of Sports followed by a Cultural program and Bada Khana at Police Gymkhana, Marine lines, Mumbai today i.e. on 12-04-2006. Commissioner of police shall preside over the function.’
(that brings up Gymkhana as another hinglish word)

Chota hazari is a breakfast as in http://www.trigger.net/~auballan/HeadmastersDiary.htm
1905, 10th August
The night preparation has been slightly lengthened and the master-on-duty now supervises all the meals except chota-hazari, being responsible for order, marching in and out etc.

bandobast: Bun´do`bust
n. 1. System; discipline.
He has more bundobust than most men.
- Kipling. taken from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bandobast