Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Anglo-Ind.) noise; uproar; commotion; bedlam.

1863		All the Year Round (London) 8 Aug. 574/2: [E]ven at the taking of Mooltan, there wasn’t such a gol-mol (I am again talking Hindostanee – I mean, in pure English, ‘row’) as when about two hundred of the native fellows began to break into the jungle of raus-trees and korinda-shrubs, firing matchlocks, yelling like fiends broke loose, rattling metal pans, and blowing horns.
1877		A. Allardyce City of Sunshine II 106: ‘The Gossains are excellent people, and there is nobody that I respect more than Ramanath; but the boy has made such a gol-mol (uproar) about religion that there is a risk in having anything to do with him.’.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 296/1: Goolmaul, and sometimes Goolmool, s. A muddle, confusion. Hind. gul-m?lkarn?, to make a mixture or mess.
1892		Wkly Reporter: Appellate High Court XX 1/2: Kshan Chunder and others of the witnesses also say that, in consequence of their having recognized certain of the prisoners, one RoghooNath Roy, a neighbour, who had come up on hearing the gulmul, was sent off immediately.
1906		S.J. Duncan Set in Authority (1919) 64: ‘She is very sorry for the golmal, that one’.
1934		R.C. Goffin ‘Some Notes on Indian English’ S.P.E. Tract No. 41 21: Thirdly, there are pure Indian words, heard everywhere in Anglo-Indian society, but scarcely outside. Examples are: [...] basha, burra din, dustoor, gharry (tikka gharry), golmal.
1946		B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya Feathers and Stones 212: Even as the ‘golmol’ is going on in my room, I heard a bigger and louder cackle outside in the verandah and felt obliged to quit my spinning and adjourned out of doors.
1965		B.L. Singh Autobiog. 180: Cases of irregularities and golmol in the matter of accounts were brought to the notice of educational authorities.
2005		J. Suraiya in John Entry From Backside Only (2007) 117: My head is eating circles and circles over all this golmal about new Oxford University Press (OUP) Advanced Learner’s Dictionary having Indlish (ie Indian-English) wording.