{"id":2888,"date":"2014-07-23T11:58:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T11:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2023-09-08T09:12:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:12:38","slug":"path-of-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/path-of-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Path of Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
For three decades, the road behind Jantar Mantar has hosted protests of all kinds, giving voice to those fighting to be heard. Yet many of these protests have not seen fruition.<\/div>\n
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BY NEHA DIXIT<\/div>\n
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On\u00a0April<\/span>\u00a015, four girls came to Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Aged between 13 and 18, they are from a Dalit community in Bhagana village in Hisar, Haryana. On March 23, they had gone to a field near their houses to relieve themselves. That evening, they were kidnapped and gangraped by members of the Jat community, to teach a lesson to the dissenting Dalits\u2014who were demanding equal redistribution of government land and challenging feudal structures\u2014in the village.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Over the last two months, the villagers have waited in the hope of redress but to no avail. Today, over 100 families from the village have joined them in a sit-in at Jantar Mantar. Time and again, their tents have been dismantled and they have been asked to leave.<\/div>\n
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Situated on the Sansad Marg of Lutyens\u2019 Delhi, Jantar Mantar is a conglomeration of 13 astronomical buildings in red sandstone. From a distance they look like the elements of a child\u2019s geometry box\u2014built in different shapes and sizes surrounded by trees\u2014in central Delhi\u2019s typical style. The road behind this massive observatory is where people from all over arrive to register their protest. Although the protest space isn\u2019t part of the observatory, it\u2019s widely identified by the name of the famous monument\u2014Jantar Mantar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The lane is roughly half a kilometre long, barricaded at both ends by police personnel, both men and women. It was famously used by Arvind Kejriwal to launch the Aam Aadmi Party. Many\u00a0December<\/span>\u00a016 rape protests were also organised here. In the past, Tibetans in exile, anti-Telangana protests, the Maruti Workers\u2019 Union, the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement\u2014all have staged a demonstration here to demand national attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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You can tell a lot about a protest by the crowds that stream away from Jantar Mantar. Sometimes they\u2019re\u00a0khadi<\/em>-clad, sometimes they\u2019re young, sometimes they head to the temples. Tonight, it\u2019s the kind of crowd that fills\u00a0restaurants and bars<\/span>. A group of ten 20-something interns and media students have come for a Jantar Mantar walk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Anuj Gupta is leading the group of protest tourists. He tells the others, \u201cWhen you come for a protest, you have to take care of the clothes to wear, things you carry. Always bring a face-mask and tissues and don\u2019t carry a wallet. Wear shoes that you can run in. Cargo pants are best: you can carry a camera, notebook, phone, small water bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
According to the Delhi police, 1,530 people have been permitted to demonstrate at Jantar Mantar since the December 16 protests erupted in Delhi last year. Each protest is distinguished by the name it acquires\u2014Damini, Bhagana, Bhasha, Kerala, Babaji, Kejriwal. Each term has its own nuanced history, like the etymology of a loanword that\u2019s drifted in from an unknown island.<\/div>\n
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It is a soup that constantly simmers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I<\/span>n 1719, Sawai Jai Singh\u2014a Rajput ruler appointed by the Mughals\u2014was witness to a noisy discussion in the court of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah \u201cRangeela\u201d, the grandson of Aurangzeb. The debate raged on how to make the astronomical calculations required to determine an auspicious date for the emperor to start a journey. Jai Singh thought the country needed to be educated on the subject of astronomy; as a result, five observatories were built at Delhi, Mathura, Benares, Ujjain and Jaipur.<\/div>\n
Built on the outskirts of Shahjahanabad\u2014the New Delhi of its time\u2014the stated purpose of the Delhi Jantar Mantar was to achieve this purpose, and accurate observations to compile Zij, the yearly calendars in the Mughal empire. Readings from the instruments at Jantar Mantar were meant to be used at sunrise, sunset or noon: important times for everyday religious rites. The instruments were also used to measure positions of celestial objects especially at the juncture of seasons and the solstices, all important times in the yearly religious rites.<\/div>\n
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Jantar Mantar has continued this tradition in the last 26 years. It has served as a metaphor for issues that needed to change their trajectory. It predicts the planetary positions for the way issues are received and how they percolate; whether interest in these issues will live or die.<\/div>\n
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F<\/span>or 40 years after Independence, Boat Club at Rajpath\u2014next to the Parliament and India Gate\u2014 was the official protest venue in Delhi. It was used by former prime minister V. P. Singh several times before the final implementation of the Mandal Commission report.<\/div>\n
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Hell broke loose for Delhi\u2019s power elite when in\u00a0October<\/span>\u00a01988, Mahendra Singh Tikait\u2014the popular farmer leader from western Uttar Pradesh and the doyen of mass protests\u2014occupied the stretch from Vijay Chowk to India Gate for over a week. Five lakh farmers, Hindus and Muslims alike, joined him in converting Rajpath into a parade ground for tractors, and the manicured lawns lining Rajpath as grazing grounds for their cattle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cDelhi was brought to a halt. For a week, all you could see was either farmers defecating in the India Gate lawns or driving tractors from one end to the other. They broke all street lights and cooked food at Vijay Chowk. They milked cattle in front of the Parliament. The stench of cattle shit became unbearable by the day,\u201d recalls Ram Bharose Nagar, 53, a head constable with Delhi police, who was then posted at Vijay Chowk and is now on the Jantar Mantar police beat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Tikait, who passed away in 2011, had submitted a 35-point charter of demands that included higher prices for sugarcane and waiving of electricity and water charges for farmers. After a week, the Rajiv Gandhi government had to bow to these demands. Plenty of people in the power corridor were against the sit-ins and protests, with a view that it disrupted daily life and damaged the already shaky economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Following Tikait\u2019s\u00a0chakkajaam<\/em>\u2014putting a halt to daily traffic in protest\u2014a legislation was passed to shift the protest venue two kilometres from Boat Club to Jantar Mantar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Tucked behind the Jantar Mantar monument\u2014on a road that leads to the Connaught Place market\u2014the protest space is away from any government building or centre of economic importance. The message was clear: protests can go on but must remain invisible to the public eye, with minimum chances of a spill-over. Since then, it has become a kind of living museum, an open-air theatre of dramatic but unfinished political and social change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In\u00a0February<\/span>\u00a0this year, the Delhi police placed an advertisement in newspapers: \u201cWant to protest? Book a spot at Jantar Mantar. For gatherings of over 5,000 people, book Ramlila Maidan\u201d. The Delhi police spokesperson, Rajan Bhagat, said, \u201cThis ad has been issued to convey the message that we are not against anyone holding a protest; in fact, they are welcome, but a proper procedure needs to be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n