India shuts down iconic Delhi protest site after three decades

For more than three decades, a stretch of road in central New Delhi was where Indians came to be heard, staging rallies to press their demands and hold those in power accountable.

Trade unions, retired soldiers, anti-corruption campaigners, women’s rights groups and student activists all protested beside the capital’s iconic 18th-century Jantar Mantar observatory, drawn by its location near the city’s commercial heart and the seat of political power.

But this week, the country’s most recognisable stage for public dissent officially lost its status as an authorised protest venue, prompting concerns among activists over shrinking democratic space.

“Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified,” Delhi Police said in an order issued Monday.

The youth-led group has mobilised thousands to take to the streets over a revision to electoral rolls that critics say could disenfranchise eligible voters, months after separate protests over exam irregularities forced the education minister to resign.

‘Spirit of resistance’

Jantar Mantar, meaning an instrument to calculate in Sanskrit, is designed for the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye.

The roughly 1.6-kilometre (one-mile) street next to Jantar Mantar became synonymous with protest after being designated a demonstration site in 1993.