India's elective list — an employee picks two or three from many.
India publishes two holiday lists. The gazetted list closes offices for everyone. The restricted list — sometimes called optional — is longer, and an employee may take a small number of days from it, typically two or three, chosen to suit what they observe.
The design solves a real problem. A country with this many communities cannot close for every festival without closing most of the year, and cannot ignore them without excluding most of the population. The restricted list gives official standing without imposing observance.
Operationally these are the days that thin an office while every calendar reports it open — and because the choice is individual, no calendar can predict who will be absent.
Gazetted is compulsory and universal. Restricted is elective, from a longer list, up to a personal allowance.
Optional holiday is the general idea. Restricted holiday is India's specific implementation of it, with its own list and allowance.
See also gazetted holiday · optional holiday · observed but open · public holiday
We do not hold India's restricted list. It is a real gap and one of the clearest cases of a day that empties an office while closing nothing. See what we hold.