The 6000 Chandni Chowks Solution

To understand why cities matter to the rural poor, consider the case of Bhoju, who runs a tea shop on the footpath opposite my nearest market. It is a busy tea shop, and I daresay he sells over a thousand cups a day. Maybe more.

How many cups of tea would Bhoju sell if he had opened his tea shop in his native village in rural Bengal? Not more than 50 cups a day, and that is an optimistic estimate.

There are others like Bhoju here. There is Parimal, who sells cigarettes. Would his daily turnover be higher in a village?

Then there are these rickshaw wallahs, all migrants. One confessed that he had not visited his village for 10 years. Why?

Yet, when I plead the case for economic freedom for all street hawkers and vendors, they unitedly raise an objection: Where is the space?

This is a valid objection, but only in the context of socialist New Delhi, which is a huge city that does not possess a Central Business District.

My response was to point to history. Is it not true that the Mughals built Chandni Chowk – a huge big market place directly opposite the Emperor’s fort? In such a huge market, would there not be enough room for all hawkers? They agreed.

And what about the Brits? Did they not build Connaught Place in a design modeled after the city of Bath, which is a beautiful city that I am fortunate to have visited? Have the socialists built a single great market-place in New Delhi? The answer is a loud “No.”

I doesn’t matter where you go in socialist New Delhi – all the markets are pathetic. Small, dingy, dirty, overcrowded, with no space for the street economy. What hope is there for the street economy if there is no street?

So let us go back to our vision statement: We aim to be a nation of over 1000 free trading cities and over 5000 such towns. We must have huge markets in each. That is, 6000 Chandhni Chowks. And we must invite the rural poor to participate in these urban markets and make far better economic achievements therein. With 6000 Chandni Chowks, there will be enough space for all the street hawkers and vendors that will turn up.

And what about New Delhi?

I continue to maintain the position I had expressed in a ToI article 5 years ago: that the government of India should move out of this city. They must move to a remote small town, and that should be the government’s own town.

This would free up Rajpath – and this extremely wide street could become the new CBD. The “raj” would now be of the market, and all the government buildings lining the street would become supermarkets.

This would also free up Shantipath – the diplomatic district, for all these diplomats would also have to shift to the small government town that would now host our The State. Shantipath could then become a great office district – and “shanti” would prevail through international commerce, not statist diplomacy.

Brand New Delhi.

Brand New India.

(You can read my old article on this subject here.)

Boom Shankar!