Dear readers,

Protests and movements have been weapons for change in society. They may not always yield the desired results but their relevance has not diminished, even in our cities where they are seen mostly as disruptions to daily life. There have been a spate of protests across India’s cities in the past few weeks, each of which tells a story of dissent, of resistance, by different groups of people. Mass movements stir governments but protests signal that people will not take things lying down. This edition of Question of Cities focuses on protests and movements in cities and how city spaces are used as protest sites—the many fights for ecology in Mumbai-Thane, workers’ struggle in Panipat, Goans raising voice as one against land conversion law, and Dehradun rising for its trees.

Resistance and protests have always defined the character of cities and shaped city-making. Protests seem to be thinning out in cities across India but it may have more to do with how the governments, the judiciary, and the media invisibilise them. The protesting masses across India draw inspiration from small wins despite being  increasingly framed as undesirable, even anti-national. Utopian futures in cities may be a dream but cities – and city-making – are nothing without the culture of resistance and protests, writes QoC Founding Editor Smruti Koppikar in the lead essay. Read it here.

Across Mumbai and Thane, individuals and groups have been coming together to resist ecological damage by the authorities in the name of development. Undeterred by governments and the courts, they have been fighting in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai against projects like the Versova-Bhayandar coastal road extension, opening eco-sensitive zones of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the Internal Ring Metro project and more. What kind of a city do we want, is the question protesters ask, a multi-crore question that sees no answers coming from those in power, writes architect-visualiser Nikeita Saraf. Read it here.

Nearly 30,000 workers of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited refinery in Panipat, among India’s largest refineries, went on a sit-in protest in February. They demanded the global standard of an 8-hour shift, salary payments on time, accountability from the company and contractors for workplace accidents, and basic facilities such as toilets and drinking water within the refinery. Multimedia Journalist Ankita Dhar Karmakar’s ground story explores the hows-and-whys of the protest, including how it relates to the city, how the workers live and work, and what this means for workers in general. Read it here.

Goans, who have seen their fields and orchards turned into commercial areas, came out in hordes to protest the amendment Section 39A to the Town and Country Planning Act. It allowed for easier land conversion of paddy fields, orchards and no-development zones to commercial use. Protesters used city spaces from Azad Maidan, streets and pavements to government offices and outside ministers’ homes to push for its cancellation. QoC’s Associate Editor Shobha Surin sheds light on the continuing resistance against Section 39A, the casino ships in Panaji and more. Read it here.

In the past few years, Dehradun went from being a salubrious hill city to having summer temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, floods and landslides. Thousands of trees were felled for massive infrastructure projects. Locals call this large-scale devastation of nature ‘green slaughter’. Environmentalists Ravi Chopra and Anoop Nautiyal from Dehradun speak about the people’s movements in this once dreamy destination. Anthropologist Dr Sonali Gupta, from Kullu, talks about making academic research accessible to protesters. Read it here.

Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, is grappling with waste management — a crisis visible in every overflowing drain, every littered riverbank, and every hillside stained with plastic. As the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026, comes into effect from April 1, and the Char Dham season soon begins, Anoop Nautiyal, a concerned citizen who lives in Dehradun, writes an open letter to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand with five concrete, actionable points to make the city cleaner and the authorities accountable. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read why Bengaluru is the least polluted city in India; how expats’ mad scramble to leave Dubai reflects 2022 Hong Kong; Manila’s plastic-choked Pasig River is on the way to restoration; war and climate change worsen Iran’s water crisis; LA promises climate-friendly, transit-first Summer Games.

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Thank you, 
Team QoC 
March 20, 2026