Delhi Police have said that Jantar Mantar, the protest ground located close to parliament, will no longer be a designated protest site. The announcement this week marks the likely end of a long tradition that has seen Indians gather on a narrow, tree-lined road beside the 18th century astronomical observatory for more than three decades.
The move follows a large protest earlier this year led by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a collective that describes itself as not a political party and that began as a joke. Tens of thousands of people turned up to demand the resignation of federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later stepped down. Police barricaded Jantar Mantar soon afterwards, and last week a CJP march to the site, this time calling for the resignation of India’s election chief, ended in a police crackdown.
Protesters directed to costlier sites far from parliament
Protesters have now been sent to three other locations. Two of them are far from parliament, while the third, the sprawling Ramlila Ground, is often booked months in advance. Unlike Jantar Mantar, which is free, all three charge tens of thousands of rupees a day.
Delhi Police said it acted after the Supreme Court suggested identifying alternative sites with adequate infrastructure. Critics, however, argue that the change could push protests beyond the reach of ordinary Indians, further from the seat of power and into venues that many cannot afford.
When a reporter visited the area this week, yellow barricades blocked both ends of the road, and hundreds of paramilitary personnel stood guard with batons in hand. Nearby, uniformed men sat in shops drinking tea or looking at their phones. One shopkeeper at a shop without police presence declined to answer questions.
How a royal observatory became a protest ground
Jantar Mantar was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in the 1720s and was once better known as a tourist attraction than as a place for political dissent. Its role as a protest site began in 1993, when the then-Congress government stopped demonstrations at the Boat Club lawns opposite the old parliament.
Historian Harleen Kaur has traced how, from the 1960s onwards, successive governments introduced rules that moved protests in Delhi further from parliament. In a 2023 paper, she wrote that Jantar Mantar, situated 3km from Parliament House, allowed the government to contain protesting crowds at some distance from Parliament House and the prime minister’s residence.
Despite these restrictions, the road saw many sustained protests. Farmers, students, grieving parents and ex-soldiers have gathered there, holding placards and shouting slogans. Not every protest made headlines, but for many people it was a place to turn to when other doors had closed.
In 2017, the National Green Tribunal cited a lack of infrastructure and complaints from locals in ordering that Jantar Mantar be shut down for protests. A year later, the Supreme Court overturned that decision, citing the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly guaranteed under the constitution.
Activists recall years of camping and solidarity
Rachna Dhingra, an activist with the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, camped at Jantar Mantar with hundreds of others for around five months in 2008. They were seeking government agreement to demands including a commission to allocate resources for rehabilitation schemes for survivors of the 1984 gas leak disaster. During a scorching summer, they held press conferences, met politicians and chained themselves to railings opposite the residence of then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Dhingra said the site also brought together Tibetans protesting against China, activists opposing the displacement of people by large dam projects, and lone protesters who had travelled from their home towns with nothing but a placard. “It can be lonely to protest but that place became a home for so many of us,” she said.
Dipa Sinha, an academic associated with the Right to Food campaign, said the site had helped shape landmark laws, including a rural jobs guarantee scheme, the National Food Safety Act and the Forest Rights Act. Sustaining protests, however, was difficult. Dhingra said the group sheltered under tarpaulin sheets when it rained, used public toilets nearby and visited local gurdwaras to freshen up.
Dhingra said that in recent years she was told no one could stay overnight when she tried to protest at Jantar Mantar. “Where do you go with hundreds of people who have travelled all the way to the capital to protest?” she asked.
Debate over the future of Jantar Mantar
Mary E John, a gender studies scholar, said that before 1993 she attended protests at the Boat Club on issues ranging from workers’ rights to women’s issues and matters of international significance. She described the protest culture of that time as one in which demonstrations were part of everyday life. When the Boat Club lawns gave way to Jantar Mantar, she said, the space felt “claustrophobic”.
Other recent movements, including farmers camped at Delhi’s borders and the sit-in at Shaheen Bagh against a citizenship law, were not confined to a single site. Even the 2012 anti-rape protests spread beyond Jantar Mantar, reaching close to the Indian president’s heavily guarded complex.
It is not clear what the future holds for the site. The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging its removal as a protest site. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and CJP leaders have said that Jantar Mantar belongs to the people and will be “reclaimed”. For now, the site is quieter than it has been in decades.
