The bandh this past Monday sent one's mind racing back to the time when the first recorded bandh of Delhi took place. It was in early 18th century that the shoe sellers of the Capital closed their shops and forced others shops in Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid areas to remain shut also. The bandh was effective for three days and eventually the Emperor himself had to intervene to restore normality. A bhatiyara or dhabaowner opened his shop on the second day on the earnest entreaties of poor people who were on the verge of starvation as no eatables were available and even the kabab-roti sellers had disappeared from the streets, along with the khomchawalas who sold chaat, dal-sev, patti and the fruit vendors. The brothels too were closed as the dancing girls refused to entertain customers.
The bhatiyara slew a sheep and began to sell the curry and tandoori rotis to a large number of customers. Some soldiers of the royal court also joined in. But the rioters got wind of it and raided the shop. The bhatiyara was beaten black and blue and only escaped death when his wife and daughter threw themselves on him, pleading with the rioters to spare the man.
The bandh was the results of a riot involving shoe sellers and a jeweller. The story is worth retelling: in the words of the late Mohammed Mian Akbar, a well-known shoe merchant of Ballimaran. There was one fatality in the riots and the grave of the man killed was built overnight in the middle of the riot-torn street. It stayed there for several days until passions cooled down and the man as reburied in a graveyard.
The cause
During the reign of Mohammed Shah a peculiar incident took place in Delhi which has come to be known as the shoe sellers' riots. It was on March 8, 1729 that a famous jeweller of Chandni Chowk, Sukh Karan, was on his way home after meeting the Emperor at the Red Fort. As he passed the shoe sellers' street a cracker fired during the celebration of a festival damaged his clothes. Sukh Karan remonstrated with the revellers and then sent his men to discipline the shoe sellers. But they were outnumbered. Word reached the Emperor, who was fond of Sukh Karan because the ornaments made by him pleased his concubines.
Though a drinking party was on at that time in the Rang Mahal, the Emperor's nod was enough for some of his attendants to go to the aid of Sukh Karam. A big fight ensured and a stone struck one of the Emperor's courtesans, who was on her way back to Chawri Bazar, where the dancing girls stayed those days. Her accompanist hurled his tabla. It broke the head of a shoe seller. Gossip says the matter come up in the Diwan-e-Am the next day. The courtesan who had been struck by a stone and lost a tooth was the prime witness and the shoe sellers were punished with a fine. The sentence was as ingenious as it was frivolous. They had to supply shoes free of charge to every member of the harem for a full year.
The shoe sellers' preceded the pigeon sellers' riot that spread to the grain sellers. But one wonders how Sukh Karan, a dandy of his times and fond of fancy shoes eventually made up with the shoe sellers.
And also whether they were able to supply shoes to the large number of harem inmates. Or did they win over the Emperor and escape with a lighter penalty? But surely the favourite courtesan's missing tooth must have long irked the colourful Mohammed Shah (Rangila Piya). This Delhi bandh mercifully was free of such hassles.
