raj

noun

1. (South-Asia, uncountable)Reign; rule.
2. (broadly, historical)A system of government where authority is exercised by a specific group.

   “Licence Raj; Mafia Raj; Goonda Raj”

   “After Gandhiji's Ram Raj, which lived and went with him to the wilderness, it was Goonda Raj everywhere[...]There was nothing that the goonda did not manpiulate. He turned community development blocks into chips of self-aggrandisement. Panchyat Raj was the Pentagon of Goonda Raj.”

   “Concern that the license - permit quota raj was stifling growth focused on the drop in the rate of growth in industry after 1965...”

name

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, historical, uncountable)Ellipsis of British Raj, the period of colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent by the British Empire between 1858 and 1947.

   “during the Raj”

2. (countable, historical, proscribed, uncountable)The whole period of British influence or rule in the Indian subcontinent from the 1600s to 1947.
3. (countable, historical, uncountable)A surname.
4. (countable, historical, uncountable)A male given name.
5. (India, abbreviation, alt-of, historical)Abbreviation of Rajasthan.
6. (historical)A diminutive of the male given name Rajiv.