Bharat Bandh

So work has been called off tomorrow and not to observe the 4th of July:

On account of the nation-wide bandh (shut-down) declared on Monday, July 5, 2010, by several political parties, all offices of ThoughtWorks India will be closed on that day. To compensate for July 5, 2010, ThoughtWorks India offices will be working as per the given schedule:

Gurgaon, Pune, B1, B2, Studios - Will be working on Saturday, July 10, 2010
Chennai - Will be working on Saturday, July 17, 2010 (as there is a devcamp external event planned in the Chennai office on July 10)

We are doing this to safeguard safety of all ThoughtWorkers, as there is a likelihood of incidents of violence on that day. We recognise the inconvenience that this is likely to cause, but we believe this is the best option given the situation.

So Bandh is a Hindi word that means "closed" -- it's now used to mean a form of protest used by political activists in some countries like India and Nepal. During a Bandh, a political party or community declares a general strike. This one has been called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protest the recent fuel price hike. The expectation is that the general public stays in their homes and strikes work -- mainly affected are shopkeepers, who are expected to keep their shops closed, and the public transport operators of buses an cabs, who are supposed to stay off the road and not carry any passengers. There have been instances of large metro cities coming to a standstill. The Supreme Court of India tried to "ban" bandhs in 1998, but political parties still organize them. The state with the maximum bandhs in India is West Bengal controlled by the Communist Party of India -- the average number of bandhs per year is 40-50 ranging from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

Bandh's can get violent -- although not expecting much of a problem here in Bangalore. Earlier this week the Maoists called a 48-hour bandh in five states. In the state of Bihar on Wednesday, Maoists stopped a jeep, kidnapped the driver and chopped his head off for daring to defy their bandh call and carry a wedding party.

In Kolkata (West Bengal), private airlines (everything except for the state run Indian Airlines) will not fly in or out of the city for 12 hours because of the bandh.