Ode to Jantar Mantar: How Delhi’s ‘Marketplace of Grievances’ Brought Dissent to the Doorstep of Power | Today’s news
Jantar Mantar in central Delhi is no longer an officially designated venue for protests and demonstrations in the national capital.
The Home Ministry instead designated three new protest sites in Delhi: Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground.
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The decision comes at a time when opposition parties, civil society groups like the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and student organisations, including the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), staged protests and marches around Jantar Mantar.
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Delhi Police has identified Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in Shahdara as new locations for protests and demonstrations. Revised procedures for holding assemblies at these locations were to be issued separately.
Its central location, less than two kilometers from parliament and key government offices, helped the protesters to bring their grievances to the attention of political power. It also provided space for citizens and groups to voice their concerns and generate public pressure.
Jantar Mantar was designated as a protest site in 1993. The move followed the gathering of over five lakh farmers at the Boat Club in 1988 and the subsequent ban on gathering there.
The Delhi Police Command said the decision followed the recommendations of a Home Ministry committee that was looking into alternative venues. It identified Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground as substitutes.
No. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled against a blanket ban on protests in Jantar Mantar and the Boat Club area, subject to rules on how the protests were organized and how many people participated. The Delhi Police later de-notified Jantar Mantar as the designated protest venue.
Jantar Mantar, originally an 18th-century observatory, would rather ring bells of dissent. The venue is significant because it brought public dissent to the watchful eye of political power.
Located in central Delhi, close to Parliament and key government offices, it has become one of India’s most famous sites for protests, sit-ins and hunger strikes. And its importance goes beyond geography: for decades, it has offered citizens, farmers, workers, students and political groups a platform to voice their grievances and put pressure on those in power.
Groups that would otherwise seek political attention would gather here, raise slogans and bring their concerns to public debate. From social activist Anna Hazare’s hunger strike in 2011 to the famous Tamil Nadu farmer skull protests, Jantar Mantar has been synonymous with public demonstrations for decades.
How Jantar Mantar became a site of protests
Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital has been the official site of protests since the 1980s. In front of this site, protests took place at the Boat Club, in the heart of the capital, closer to the North Block, South Block and Parliament.
But in October 1988, over five thousand farmers, led by farm manager Mahendra Singh Tikait, gathered at the Boat Club. A few years later, in the early 1990s, when the country was gripped by the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid movement, the Congress-led government, already shaken by farmers’ protests, banned the gathering at the Boat Club.
Jantar Mantar was finally designated as a protest site in 1993. The site was ideal for crowd management as the two main entry and exit points were more manageable.
Read also | Delhi’s new protest sites share one thing – distance from the corridors of power
Over the years, the stretch of road connecting Tolstoy Road with the Ashoka Road roundabout has become the only place in New Delhi where Section 144 has not been imposed.
Angle of the National Green Tribunal
In October 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) moved the Supreme Court to ban protests at Jantar Mantar after some residents of the area alleged that they had to endure noise and unsanitary conditions.
The tribunal asked the authorities to move the protesters to an alternative site, Ramlila Maidan, about 4 km away. Ramlila Maidan is now one of the three protest sites officially announced.
In issuing these directions, the tribunal cited three reasons: there is no executive order designating Jantar Mantar as a “place of protest”; it is designated as “Residential Area” in the Delhi Master Plan; and agitations caused noise pollution.
However, in July 2018, the Supreme Court ruled against a complete ban on protests in the Jantar Mantar and Boat Club areas, subject to regulations governing their organization and number of participants.
Prominent protests
Among the most prominent demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in recent times was the one by the country’s top wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in 2023.
Olympic medalists Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia led the months-long sit-in, accusing Singh of sexual harassment and demanding his arrest. The protest attracted national attention and became one of the most watched public agitations in recent years.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) recently staged a massive protest against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Jantar Mantar over the paper leak. Pradhan eventually resigned in July.
In April 2011, social activist Anna Hazare started a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar for the Jan Lokpal Bill. Three months later Hazare resumed his fast and as the crowds overgrew the road. This time the venue was Ramlila Maidan. Anna Hazare is believed to have played a role in the ouster of the Manmohan Singh government by the Congress-led UPA.
Indebted farmers from Tamil Nadu protested here for 40 days between March and April 2017, demanding ₹40,000 crore package for drought relief, debt waiver and establishment of Cauvery Centre’s board of trustees. They staged dramatic protests, including using skulls, holding dead rats in their mouths to indicate that they would be forced to eat rodents if the situation worsened.
Jantar Mantar is a centrally located stretch of road near the Delhi Lutyens Zone. The site is less than two kilometers from Parliament, North and South Blocks, making it an even more prominent and strategic location for those who want their message to be heard.
The Prime Minister’s official residence on Lok Kalyan Marg is also not too far away, as are major markets and key ministries. Not surprisingly, Time magazine in 2008 described Jantar Mantar as a “marketplace of grievances”.
A “marketplace of grievances” is a metaphor for a space—political, social, or public—where different groups and individuals bring their grievances, frustrations, perceived injustices, and demands, often competing for attention, recognition, or redress.
Time magazine described Jantar Mantar as a “marketplace of grievances”.
Simply put, it’s a place where everyone has an air grievance and different groups compete to have their grievances heard and resolved.
In politics, it refers to the space where political parties, communities and interest groups highlight their grievances to mobilize support or pressure on the existing government.
