Word.ws English Dictionary

bhapa

bhapa noun: a general pejorative term for Khatri Sikhs.

Noun

bhapa (plural bhapas or bhape)

  1. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) a general pejorative term for Khatri Sikhs
  2. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) used by Jatt Sikhs to single out non-Jatts, especially Khatri Sikhs, usually out of a false sense of superiority
  3. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) used by Sikhs to denigrate other Sikhs for excessive loyalty to India (especially if they or their ancestors fled Pakistan during Partition) and friendliness with Hindus
  4. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) denigrates Sikhs living in Delhi, often in combination with the previous definition
  5. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) used by Hindus to taunt the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, mainly Sikhs from Delhi
  6. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) used by Hindus to tarnish non-Khatri Sikhs as disloyal to their caste due to their belief in Sikhi; usually accompanied by an accusation of Sikhi being a "Khatri cult" (referring to the background of the Sikh gurus): falsely alleging that non-Khatris were and still are being taken advantage of by others as a result of abandoning caste consciousness
  7. (India, North, South-Asia, derogatory, offensive, slang) used by Hindus as a catch-all anti-Sikh slur, but with general casteist undertones unlike most other such slurs

Forms of bhapa

pluralbhapas
pluralbhape
alternative formbhappa
alternative formbhappe
alternative formbhaapa
alternative formbhaape

Origin of bhapa

From Punjabi ਭਾਪਾ (bhāpā, “father, elder brother”). The term originated in the Potohari dialect of Punjabi spoken around Rawalpindi, and was brought to India by Sikhs, particularly of Khatri background, who fled the 1947 Rawalpindi massacres which occurred prior to Partition. This history continues to form the background of this word as used today.

Questions about bhapa

What does bhapa mean?
Bhapa means a general pejorative term for Khatri Sikhs.
What part of speech is bhapa?
Bhapa is a noun.
What is the plural of bhapa?
The plural of bhapa is bhapas.

Words near bhapa in the dictionary

  1. bhangmeters
  2. bhangra
  3. bhangramuffin
  4. bhangras
  5. bhangy
  6. bhapa
  7. bhapang
  8. Bhar
  9. Bharadwaj
  10. Bharadwajs
  11. bharal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bhapa (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bhapa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bhapa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.