How India’s financial capital shrunk protest sites, turned down protesters’ volume https://questionofcities.org/how-indias-financial-capital-shrunk-protest-sites-and-turned-down-protesters-volume/
Bombay, later Mumbai, has seen huge historical protests. Its protest sites were many – Chowpatty, Hutatma Chowk, Kala Ghoda, Gowalia Tank Maidan (now August Kranti Maidan), Jambori Maidan, Azad Maidan, Dadar station. All of them witnessed massive demonstrations and protests over the years including the landmark railway union strike and textile mill workers’ strike in the 1970-80s. In the post-liberalised Mumbai, democratic spaces for protests have been shut down or simply shrunk, as in Azad Maidan.
“This interaction between the public and protestors was the life-blood of these protests. They knew that the roads would be blocked and they would have to wait for some time on the road, but that is how democracy functions…The nature and cause of the protests underlined the choice of space,” points out Dr Mamta Mantri her book Cities and Protests: Perspectives in Spatial Criticism