Long distance: India’s protest sites drift from power centres

Urbanists and activists say this is changing not just where citizens can make their voices heard, but also how public spaces are used.

Vinay Sreenivasa spent three years fighting the restriction of protests in Bengaluru to a single, low-visibility ground: Freedom Park, the site of a former central jail in Gandhi Nagar. So, when flash protests erupted across Delhi last week — small groups marching through Connaught Place, Sansad Marg and Dilli Haat INA, with some even attempting to reclaim the barricaded stretch of Jantar Mantar after it was denotified as a designated site — the lawyer-activist who runs the Campaign for the

Activists hold placards with slogans reading 'Reclaim Jantar Mantar', 'Rollback SIR', and 'Gyanesh Kumar Must Resign' during a protest march organized by Justice Morcha from the Press Club of India to Jantar Mantar, (PTI)