[Reader-list] sunday book market faces closure.

[Anand Vivek Taneja]

dear All,

the latest update from daryaganj.
The sunday book bazaar does not face the threat of closure anymore. 
my first impression, as soon as i got there (around twelve) was that
the bazaar was as busy as it had ever been, and everything was back to
normal. this was more or less confirmed later.

Moyukh Chatterjee and I met at the Sunday book Bazaar today, and spoke
to three shopkeepers he knows. what follows is an account put together
from the three brief narratives. it all fits in very well with lalit's
and ravi's intervnetion about the 'decongestion plan' and with
shivam's 'publisher conspiracy theory'.

here goes - 

the beginnings - 
the whole issue started about a month back, with the clearing of the 
sunday kabaadi bazaar - across the road from the southern part of the
red fort, next to the parade ground. (apparently all part of the
decongestion plan!!!) the immediate provocation offered by the mcd was
traffic clogging and accidents caused by the part of the sunday book
bazaar which has spread at right angles to the netaji subhash marg
onto asif ali road. apparently that part of the market has a different
union from the 'original', as it were.

the upshot of it all was that the eviction notices were served, and
the booksellers were asked to vacate, and set up shop at velodrome
road, behind the new secretariat, from where jhuggis had recently been
cleared. the booksellers were supposed to pay 7,500 rupees each to the
mcd to confirm their new 'squatting rights'. many did so. (currently
they pay 100 rupees a wek to the MCD.) this money has so far not been
paid back.

Last Sunday -  
there was a half hearted seller turnout at the Book Bazaar, becuase of
the rain and uncertainity. those who set up shop didn't bring all
their stock. the police tried to enforce the mcd orders, but the
presence of camera crews, media people, etc; along with students
having a firld day doing vitriolic on site interviews (will you give
us the money to buy books?) ensured that nothing happened. by
afternoon, the booksellers confidence had soared, and they were sure
they'd be back next week.

Last Week - 
last week saw much 'middle class outrage' (as reflected in the
voluminous postings on this list!), much media hype (everyone
mentioned khushwant singh's statements in support of the book bazaar)
) along with political pressure (vijay goel's name was mentioned).
there were two meetings between the bookseller's union, and the mcd.
there was much fussbudgetry about 'properly' registering the union;
but in these meetings, the 'real' issue emrged. apparently, many
publishers had complained about the growing volume of pirated (as
opposed to second hand/remaindered)  books sold  at the book bazaar,
and how this was eating into their profitability. some sort of
settlement was reached, and today, there were no 'pirated' books on
sale.
(imho, pirated books are not the mainstay of the book bazaar anyway,
unlike say, the connaught place pavement booksellers. at any rate,
business did not seem to be affected today!)

this sunday - 
early in the morning, policemen once again asked those who were
setting up shop to vacate. the 'pradhan' of the booksellers union
spoke to them, and told them that they'd already reached a setllement
with the mcd. no further bother after that, the sunday Book bazaar
almost back to normal.

However, I find it interesting that unlike the Sunday Book Bazaar,
there was barely a murmur about the removal of the kabaadi bazaar,
which has a different (and i assume, largely lower class) clientele. 
perhaps it's only my being a sketchy skimmer of the morning papers,
but i did not know about the removal of the kabaadi bazaar till i read
about it in the context of the book bazaar.  the kabaadi bazaar/chor
bazaar has already been removed once, from the back of the red fort,
adjoining the ring road, to the much more congested front. the land
where the bazaar used to be set up has been made into an enclosed park
(where i never see people) as part of jagmohan's riverside devlopment
plans. now it's ben removed again, to rather a rather inhospitable
territory for trade. i think there's about a kilometre's walk from the
nearest bus stop, and it's tucked away safely from all traffic and
people flows.

it is humbling to realise that the book bazaar has been saved largely
becuase of the 'class' of its patrons.
now that the sunday book bazaar has been 'saved', perhaps the dharna
on the 7th will/should focus on the plight of the chor/kabaadi bazaar.

Cheers,
Anand

On 7/1/05, lalit batra <lalitbatra77 at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> 
> dear all,
> 
> i agree with ravi that we have to read mcd's decision to close down
> daryaganj book market in a larger context. 'decongestion' and
> 'beautification' of old delhi is an agenda which is at least 73 years old.
> but in recent times it seems to have acquired an urgency which was not
> there earlier, at least, not since 1940s.
> the draft master plan for delhi-2021, for instance, designates the entire
> walled city, walled city extension and karol bagh as a 'special area' in
> need of extensive 'redevelopment' to ensure 'modern services and
> amenities' and create 'parking and open spaces'. the proposed
> redevelopment plan entails shifting out wholesale markets and industrial
> units, allowing transferable development rights and higher floor area
> ratio and redesigning street pattern in such a way as to basically ensure
> that 'all roads lead to metro stations'.
> for daryaganj area 'comprehensive redevelopment schemes with conservative
> surgery as a planning tool' has been proposed. it seems the first limb to
> go in this surgery is the sunday book bazaar.
> 
> lalit batra
> 
>  --- Ravi Agarwal <ravig1 at vsnl.com> wrote:
> 
> > dear all,
> >
> > It may be useful to also see this in light of the new plans for 'old'
> > Delhi,
> > and its 'decongestion' and beautification,' as have been appearing in
> > the
> > press over the past months. This may not be isolated and could be
> > followed
> > by other evictions/ demolitions.
> >
> > ravi
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Lawrence Liang" <lawrence at altlawforum.org>
> > To: "Untitled 3" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 12:04 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] sunday book market faces closure.
> >
> >
> > > Hi all
> > >
> > >
> > > Just to follow up on Ravi's suggestions, I am thinking aloud on the
> > kinds
> > of
> > > strategies that one may think of. One of the usual strategies,  if one
> > sees
> > > past judicial strategies when it comes to asserting rights of street
> > > hawkers/ vendors has been a right to life and right to trade argument.
> > And
> > > again apart from a few 'sympathetic'  sweet nothings, the SC has
> > generally
> > > rejected these fundamental rights arguments.
> > >
> > >
> > > It however be interesting in terms of a campaign to argue, apart form
> > a
> > > livelihood argument, an argument of a violation of freedom of  speech
> > and
> > > expression. Since the SC has held in favour of right to information,
> > it
> > > would be useful to start thinking of the question of infrastructures
> > of
> > > information in addition to the question of access. This can also be
> > > pursuasive given that a large number of the book sellers sell basic
> > text
> > > books. While the question of the link between infrastructure and
> > freedom
> > of
> > > speech has thus far been used only by large media players (the Indian
> > > express case argued that costs of news print can affect freedom of
> > speech),
> > > how  do we start using these arguments to speak of infrastructures for
> > > common people?
> > >
> > >
> > > I am also interested in looking at the connections between these urban
> > > cleansing programs and the question of the emerging  regimes of
> > > information, such as copyright. I am not sure if there is a linkage
> > that
> > is
> > > being made here , or any pressure that is asserted by say, the Indian
> > Boo
> > > Publishers Association, because a few years ago I was in a   meeting
> > > organised by the IBPA and one of the things that they were advocating
> > was
> > > stringent action against street book sellers.
> > >
> > >
> > > Lawrence
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 6/28/05 3:08 PM, "Ravi Agarwal" <ravig1 at vsnl.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Dear all,
> > > >
> > > > I will  be happy to participate and / or help in taking this
> > forward. We
> > > > should consider a range of options, including legal remedies, media,
> > street
> > > > protest, letters to mcd...but first we must also we should ask the
> > street
> > > > book sellers what their view on this is.....
> > > >
> > > > ravi
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "shivam" <shivamvij at gmail.com>
> > > > To: "Anand Vivek Taneja" <radiofreealtair at gmail.com>
> > > > Cc: "Reader List" <reader-list at sarai.net>;
> > <chapatimystery at googlegroups.com>
> > > > Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2005 4:06 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] sunday book market faces closure.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > They did the same in Mumbai recently. What, just what, is wrong with
> > > > these guys? Sarkari monsters who work at the "municiopal
> > corporation"
> > > > seem especially berserk. "Municipal corporation(s)" have special
> > teams
> > > > to withdraw the menace of cows and rabid dogs from the city. These
> > > > teams are equipped with a huge van and nets and what not. I suggest
> > > > establishing a paralell municipal corporation (with maoist help from
> > > > nepal, if you please) and putting our cattle-catching team after
> > these
> > > > sarkari monsters.
> > > >
> > > > May I float a conspiracy theory? Has the MCD been requested,
> > > > pressurised, bribed by Daryaganj's publishers and booksellers into
> > > > doing this?
> > > >
> > > > sv
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 6/25/05, Anand Vivek Taneja <radiofreealtair at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >> Dear All,
> > > >>
> > > >> Woke up to the horrifying news in this morning's Hindustan Times
> > that
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > www.shivamvij.com
> > > > _________________________________________
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