Baksheesh
Baksheesh (from
Etymology and usage
Baksheesh comes from the Persian word بخشش (bakhshesh), which originated from the Middle Persian language.[2]
The word had also moved to other cultures and countries. In the
Types
- beggars solicit alms by crying "baksheesh, baba!".[3]
- Tipping: This does not correlate with the European system of , baksheesh is often requested on top of fares to taxi drivers, and as service charges to waiters, doormen, shopkeepers, garage attendants, and many others employed in service-sector jobs.
- Outright endemic corruption, for instance, a member of the police force, a migration or customs officer, or any other type of government official may be swayed from legitimately or illegitimately arresting, issuing a fine, or imposing a tax on someone by a suitable payment of baksheesh which would constitute a bribe, whether it was offered to the official or requested by the official.
In literature
When American mythologist Joseph Campbell travelled on his maiden visit to India in 1954, he encountered pervasive begging which he called the "Baksheesh Complex".[4]
Mark Twain, after riding through the Biblical town of Magdala in 1867, makes note of his encounter with beggars and the term bucksheesh in his published work The Innocents Abroad: "They hung to the horses' tails, clung to their manes and the stirrups, closed in on every side in scorn of dangerous hoofs—and out of their infidel throats, with one accord, burst an agonizing and most infernal chorus: 'Howajji, bucksheesh! howajji, bucksheesh! howajji, bucksheesh! bucksheesh! bucksheesh!' I never was in a storm like that before."[5]
Leo Deuel, a writer on archaeology, sardonically described baksheesh as "lavish remuneration and bribes, rudely demanded but ever so graciously accepted by the natives in return for little or no services rendered".[6]
See also
- Fakelaki, "little envelope"
References
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2013-01-27.
- Dehkhoda dictionary.
- ISBN 9780805086768/ Pg 104
- ISBN 978-1-57731-237-6.
- ^ p. 505
- ^
Deuel, Leo (1966). Testaments of Time; the Search for Lost Manuscripts and Records. New York. p. 367.
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External links
- From Baksheesh to Bribery: Understanding the Global Fight Against Corruption and Graft edited by T. Markus Funk and Andrew S. Boutros, Oxford University Press,