dasturi

plural dasturis · alternative dustoor · alternative dustoore · alternative dustooree · alternative dustoorie · alternative dustoory · alternative dustore · alternative dustury

1. IndiaA commission or duty charged by an agent; a kickback.

   In all dealings between natives there is invariably a species of extortion, a sort of dustoory, which is given in all money transactions.

   1832 February, Langford Kennedy, Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company, volume III,25

   1 more example

   By dint of much pleading and cajolery they persuaded the old zemindar to add their money to the sums that he annually deposited with Mr Burnham: for this privilege they were content to pay the Halder estate a ten-percent dasturi on the profits […].

   2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 85