Partition and Khan Market
Delhi’s Khan Market hit CNN recently as one of the world’s most expensive retail zones, though much cheaper than Fifth Avenue:
Delhi’s relatively few legally zoned retail spaces such as Khan Market are becoming ever more valuable… It is precisely the market’s closeness to some of Delhi’s most expensive residential streets that has seen rents swell…
Many well-paid foreign diplomats, journalists and other expats live close to Khan Market in leafy gated neighborhoods, alongside Indian politicians and wealthy business executives. Foreigners and well-groomed Indians head to the market’s cramped grocers to pick up a few items, shop assistants trail behind carrying their baskets…
Swarovski, the Austrian crystal company, had been trying to get into Khan Market for more than three years before it bagged a tenancy here in April. The company pays 350,000 rupees ($7,830) a month in rent for 434 square feet (40 square meters) of shop space… [One shopkeeper says] he could make much more money giving up his mostly low-value businesses and renting out the spaces to foreign luxury brands… [Link]
In a nod to its origins, Khan Market recently hosted an exhibition of Margaret Bourke-White’s harrowing Partition photos:
Khan Market was once known as a “resettlement” hub, where refugee traders from Pakistan were offered storefronts. [Link]
… it was built by the government in 1950 as a rehabilitation project, housing businesses of Hindu refugees fleeing from what is now Pakistan during the partition of the subcontinent… [Link]
Jabberwock tells me that the market’s a popular writer hangout for the free wifi at the upstairs Market Café. When I visited on Republic Day, it was nearly deserted, and only chains were open. It’s not as slick as the newer malls sprouting throughout Delhi, but it’s got atmosphere:
Some of the surrounding streets:
on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007, 12:07 am in Photos, Travel › 
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Manish…I have to admit it.
“Where heck do you have time to post so many blogs??…of course, they are interesting and unique…especially the pictures! Do you have a place on a web, where you post all your pictures??”.
btw..Are you on a ‘pleasure trip’ to India?
oh this made me so nostalgic! “khan” (as we called it) is one of those places where you can get your groceries and window shop - the bookshop is an institution and apart from hi-end products, you can go get your watch fixed or eat yummy chaat or the yum soups at china fare.
Try this link.
You could say that, I suppose!
These pictures are truly amazing - loved them. I lived not too far from Khan market back in the late 70s and early 80s. It was a sleepy little place with a handfull of small stores that would often be closed for extended lunch breaks. I learned typing there in a little typing school/photo copier place that was on one side of this market.
If you have the time, also check out Bengali Market. Is Nathu’s still there?
Your photos make me miss India so much. It’s the sunlight in your photos-the sun and the shadows in your pictures.