Jantar Mantar, the site of democratic expression in Delhi, falls silent

Nearly 300 years ago, it was conceived as a scientific observatory to study the movement of celestial bodies. Yet, over the decades, the stretch became synonymous with the articulation of dissent.

The last of the defining campaigns Jantar Mantar saw was the June 2026 Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protest against NEET-UG paper leak which ended with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in rare success for an agitation.

The shift happened in October 1988 when farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait led a massive mobilisation at Boat Club, and nearly five lakh farmers descended on its exerting pressure on the then Rajiv Gandhi’s government. The scale of the agitation forced the authorities to restrict mass gatherings at the site.

As the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid movement intensified about the same time, restrictions around Boat Club were tightened and Delhi had to spot a new protest location. Jantar Mantar, not too far from Boat Club, was chosen.

The history of organised protests at Jantar Mantar is mostly traced to 1993. There was initially no specific law or declaration notifying Jantar Mantar as the official protest venue. The location weighed in its favour: close to Parliament and government offices with limited access points making large gatherings easier to control.

Delhi’s Home Minister Ashish Sood, who was Delhi University Students’ Union president in 1988-1989, remembers the time when he led a protest first hand.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Sood said, “It was 1993 when there was a protest against government’s policies and I was leading students at Jantar Mantar.” Sood said demonstrations had earlier moved from a chowk on Akbar Road to Boat Club and eventually to Jantar Mantar.

The Jantar Mantar arrangement was eventually formalised through the Delhi Police standing order on January 31, 2003, which stipulated that the site won’t house more than 5,000 people and prohibited vehicles to the venue.

The importance of Jantar Mantar grew dramatically over the years. From political demonstrations and farmers’ movements to campaigns by civil society groups and Anna Hazare’s 2011 anti-corruption agitation, Jantar Mantar voiced people’s angst, serving the cause of democracy.

It was in 2017 that the status quo at the site was first strained. Residents of Jantar Mantar Road moved the National Green Tribunal, complaining of prolonged protests, noise, garbage and bottlenecks along the road. The NGT ordered authorities to stop agitations and loudspeakers at the site and shift protesters to Ramlila Maidan but the order was challenged before the Supreme Court.

In July 2018, the top court rejected a blanket prohibition on peaceful demonstrations at Jantar Mantar, upholding the right to peaceful protests under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) while recognising that reasonable restrictions could be imposed to protect public order and citizen rights.

Instead of an outright ban, the court asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to frame a mechanism to regulate demonstrations.

But time today came a full circle with the police citing the centrality of Jantar Mantar to ban it as a protest area. This when globally several central sites continue to house dissenters – from London’s Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square, New York’s Union Square, Washington’s National Mall in Washington and Paris’ Place de la Bastille.

Jantar Mantar itself dates back to 1724, when Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh-II built the Delhi observatory as part of a series of astronomical observatories. What began as a place to measure the movements of the heavens later acquired an altogether different role.