A flood of farmers led by Mahendra Singh Tikait in 1988 and the security concerns following the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 pushed the Congress government to restrict mass protests at New Delhi’s iconic Boat Club lawns. In 1993, Jantar Mantar emerged as the capital’s new square for dissent. Nearly 33 years later, the BJP-led Centre has redrawn Delhi’s protest map.
The lawns near India Gate once hosted some of independent India’s biggest protests, until a massive protest by farmers in 1988 and the post-Babri security climate prompted the Congress government to restrict gatherings there. Jantar Mantar became the new square for dissent. Now, the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP)-led Centre has redrawn Delhi’s protest map again after nearly 33 years.
For decades after Independence, it was the Boat Club lawns in the heart of New Delhi where India’s discontent came face to face with politicos. From political rallies to farmers’ agitations, the mass stretch along what was then Rajpath offered space for lakhs of people within sight of the country’s most powerful institutions.
But that proximity, once the source of its political symbolism, eventually became its biggest liability. The lawns near India Gate, Parliament and the government’s administrative nerve centre began to be viewed as a security and crowd-control challenge.
The 1988 mass protest by farmers led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Mahendra Singh Tikait and the 1993 Babri Masjid protests made Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s Congress government prohibit large gatherings at the Boat Club, pushing Delhi’s protest culture towards the narrower, more manageable stretch of Jantar Mantar.
Now, that history has acquired renewed relevance this time by the BJP. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi-led Centre, has denotified Jantar Mantar as Delhi’s designated protest site, shifting the permitted venues to Ramlila Maidan, Burari and the CBD grounds. The decision has now redrawn the geography of dissent in the national capital.
The journey from Boat Club to Jantar Mantar, and now to the newly designated grounds, is a reminder that the protests in the capital have always had a state trying to the limits of public assembly.
WHEN BOAT CLUB AS DESIGNATED PROTEST SITE BECAME TOO BIG TO CONTROL
Before Jantar Mantar became synonymous with demonstrations, the Boat Club lawns were Delhi’s principal protest square. Their expansive grounds allowed large crowds to assemble, while their location placed protesters within sight of Parliament and the executive establishment.
The site’s defining moment came in October 1988, when BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait led a massive farmers’ mobilisation in the capital. According to a report in The Indian Express estimated the gathering at around five lakh people. Farmers arrived with tractors, bullock carts, cattle, charpoys and cooking arrangements, transforming central Delhi into an encampment. Tikait was considered the most powerful Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh.
Their demands included higher sugarcane prices and relief on electricity and water dues. The agitation, which lasted several days, disrupted traffic and brought the machinery of the government face to face with an unusually large rural mobilisation. Then the Rajiv Gandhi-led government was confronted with a movement whose scale made it difficult to ignore.
The episode demonstrated the political power of a mass occupation, but it also exposed the administrative challenges of allowing prolonged gatherings in a sensitive area. Om Prakash Mishra, a former IPS officer who served in the Delhi Police, told The Hindu that the Boat Club lawns offered room for both protesters and police to manoeuvre, including space for retreat in the event of police action. Yet the scale of the Tikait agitation raised concerns about the disruption that such gatherings could cause around the capital’s power centres.
THE 1993 BABRI AGITATION: THE YEAR WHEN CAPITAL’S PROTEST MAP CHANGED
The 1988 occupation did not immediately end the Boat Club’s role as a protest venue. Political rallies continued there, including demonstrations against price rises. But the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid movement and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 intensified security anxieties in the capital.
In February 1993, the PV Narasimha Rao government moved to prevent large gatherings at the Boat Club, with authorities citing security and public-order concerns. The traditional protest ground was effectively closed to the kind of mass mobilisation it had witnessed for decades.
In 1993, after the Babri issue, the BJP had a rally scheduled. According to the New York Times, more than 1 lakh troops, policemen and paramilitary troops were deployed to form a human wall to prevent protesters from reaching the Boat Club ahead of the rally.
Jantar Mantar emerged as the alternative. Then PM Rao did not issue a formal ordinance or an official declaration naming it Delhi’s designated protest site. Instead, the shift took shape through police and administrative practice. From around 1993, Jantar Mantar Road became the principal permitted venue for demonstrations in central Delhi, with larger gatherings often directed elsewhere.
The location offered a compromise. It remained relatively close to Parliament and the government’s offices, keeping protesters within reach of the political establishment. But its narrower stretch and limited entry and exit points made crowds easier to contain and regulate than the vast Boat Club lawns.
Over time, Jantar Mantar acquired the identity of Delhi’s dissent square. Protesters travelled from across the country to demand justice, press for policy changes and draw attention to grievances that had gone unheard. Many demonstrations at Jantar Mantar faded without much notice, but some became defining moments in the country’s political life.
