Definition of "gup"

Should this lull continue much longer, the consequence will be, that the security of some mercantile houses, for some time on the wave, will fail; and, if we credit the gups in the bazar, the crisis is rapidly approaching.

1842 January, “Asiatic Intelligence – Bombay: State of Trade and Credit”, in The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia, volume 37, number 145, London: Wm. H. Allen and Co., page 42

Bazaar “gup,” too, speaking with the tongue of a lying jade on the eve of the expedition, had so added to the deadliness of the Abor reputation that one party of able-bodied men became panic-stricken when they realised the nature of the work before them, and disappeared in a night!

1912, Angus Hamilton, chapter 7, in In Abor Jungles: Being an Account of the Abor Expedition, the Mishmi Mission and the Miri Mission, London: Eveleigh Nash, page 138

The young man faithfully delivered what Jinnah called “the gup”—the day's gossip — and tried vainly to extract a newsworthy quote from the League leader.

2015, Nisid Hajari, chapter 8, in Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, pages 178–179

A chupen is a liaison agent between the section of the village which he represents and the gup (an elected head of a block of villages). […] The gups and maangi-aps have been a central feature of Bhutanese village life since the 17th century. The gup has traditionally been an intermediary between the community and the state.

1996, Dasho Yeshey Zimba, “Bhutan: Three Decades of Planned Development”, in R.C. Misra, M.A. Ramakant, editors, Bhutan: Society and Polity, Indus Publishing Company, published 1998, section 2, chapter 12, 179

The next stop was the house of the gup (the village headman), who was once the reputed strongman of Merak, famous for being able to lift a young bull yak and place it on his back.

2006, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan, Penguin Books India, part 3, chapter 13, 173