They are called jhandis – these colourful flags flying atop bamboo poles in the front yards of Hindu–Caribbean homes. They are not adornments, but are ritually raised and planted on the Earth as a symbol of victory to a deity that was worshipped in pūjā; they personify the deity and are therefore equivalent to a mūrti or sacred object of worship; they also constitute the axis mundi that connects individuals to three worlds. These jhandis are annually renewed and cannot be uprooted or relocated. In the Caribbean or West Indies, these jhandis are some 15–20 feet tall and located in the northeastern corner of the yard. In urbanized spaces, including American space, they may alternatively be located inside apartments or outside on small terraces (2–3 feet tall) and if placed in yards they are shorter (3–5 feet tall); they all look like dwarf replicas of their Caribbean antecedents.

While the word “jhandi” (the feminine of the taller jhanda) is associated with pennants, streamers, newspaper banner headlines, lags on poles and so on, for Caribbean Hindus, a jhandi only refers to a ritually consecrated bamboo pole lying a colour-coded lag that is raised and planted on consecrated earth after ritual worship called a pūjā. All other flags on poles (e.g. national flags) are simply called flags. A jhnadi's colour denotes the divinity that was worshipped. For example, a red flag says that Hanumān or Durgā was worshipped.