New Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tila has got a facelift or is losing its original vibe—it all depends on how you define cool. For decades, it was an intimate, hippie, touristy hangout serving dollops of pop Buddhist grunge. Today, it’s all gentrified. Construction is on steroids.
On weekends, a Majnu Ka Tila visit is almost like walking into a crowded mall.
“A decade ago, MKT (Majnu Ka Tila) was a much more peaceful place. It felt like a hidden treasure that not many knew about. But now, we see the place is not just filled by Tibetans or Northeasterners but all kinds of people. It was once in the periphery, now it has become the center,” says Ulupi Borah, an international and strategic studies expert who got acquainted with the place during her college days in the late 2000s.
Majnu Ka Tila, colloquially referred to as MKT or MT, is a small piece of land in north Delhi that was allocated to Tibetan refugees in the early 1960s after their arduous escape from Tibet via Arunachal Pradesh. Today, it brims with tall buildings, saddled next to each other. New construction in the area suggests more new restaurants, cafes, guest houses, or shops will pop up in a few months.
In the vicinity of the settlement, are neighbourhoods that struggle to boast of proper buildings, fancy shops, or quaint eateries. MT shines in comparison to its markedly poorer neighbours. Its transformation into a commercial hub is a story that goes back a little over two decades. But unlike most tales of gentrification that usurp the original inhabitants, MT was for Tibetans and continues to be.
Its labyrinth of narrow lanes – most of them laced with shops on both sides – is a testimony to the success that Tibetans living in India have earned through their hard work. The intimate space of under 4 acres, comprising 365 houses, is packed with a 60-year-old history of a community that was forced to start from scratch on the banks of the Yamuna.
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Time travelling to MT’s past
Karma Dorjee, a social worker and president of the Resident Welfare Association, says that the land was given to Tibetans by the Indian government in 1963. The allocation also meant that they had to exist in a liminal zone, as far as official documentation was concerned. In June 2006, the residents received a court notice indicating that the settlement was to be demolished under the Delhi government’s road expansion and Yamuna River beautification plan.
The court order was avoided in 2012 and late Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit christened it New Aruna Nagar, a name that didn’t stick in the local parlance.
“The case of other unauthorised colonies is different, people have occupied land. In our case, we didn’t occupy but the government made us settle here. We didn’t have any written documents so it used to be counted as an unauthorised colony. In 2019, we became an authorised colony under the PM-UDAY scheme,” Dorjee says.
One of the watershed moments for the locality happened before the Asian Games of 1982, which was hosted in New Delhi. Dorjee, now in his 70s, was among the original settlers of the area and has seen MT evolve before his eyes – from being a JJ colony to people constructing three-four-storey buildings.
“At the time the government told us to build pucca houses. And by the 2000s, the entire colony consisted of them,” he explains. The other pivotal moment was in 1997 when the community banned the making of ‘chang’—an alcoholic drink made of barley, millet or rice.
“We banned selling of chang because it was a labour-intensive process that wasn’t profitable. Those who came to drink it were involved in antisocial activities. They would mix it with other alcohol, making it more potent. Once we banned chang, this market became more upscale,” Dorjee says.
While MT might have been known for selling chang before its ban, it wasn’t the only thing people survived on. The spirit of entrepreneurship ran deep among the Tibetans.
“From 1963-1997, people would sell chang, momos, thupka, and chowmein during summers. They dealt in the sweater business during the winter,” the RWA president says.
College students have frequented MT since the time its residents were still living in jhuggis. “Students from Chandigarh also used to come,” Dorjee says, with a glint of pride.
He notes that the colony is not only self-sufficient but also employs Indians.
“Most of the people employed in the shops here are Indians. Because of our colony, at least 800-900 locals are getting employment, from the people pulling carts to rickshaw pullers, auto drivers and cab drivers. Then there are fruit and vegetable sellers,” he says.
Although a St. Stephen’s college alumnus, from the early 1990s, said students rarely went to MT because “back then there was nothing here, it was just a dirty colony.”
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MT’s feather in the cap – AMA Cafe
If the commercial ascent of MT needs to be charted based on one tangible factor, AMA Cafe stands as a glistening tower of entrepreneurial success. It started its operations in December 2013 with a staff of 10-12 people from a humble single floor, with a capacity of not more than 20 customers. Today, as it stands at the threshold of completing a decade, the cafe has expanded to four floors and has 80 to 90 people as staff.
“The menu of the cafe expanded to include continental cuisine when the second floor opened in June 2015. By December 2016 the third floor opened and the fourth floor the year later,” says one of the staff at the cafe.
While the expanding floor scape of AMA is symbolic of MT’s mercurial commercialisation, the demography of the cafe’s consumers suggests the eating hub is expanding beyond students and foreign tourists.
“Ours is a family-friendly cafe and these days we see more locals visiting. Initially, our cafe had foreign tourists as well as students at an almost equal ratio. But these days, with the waiting time becoming very long, students probably try other options,” the staff says.
Even without easy access to AMA Café, MT remains a sought-after destination for many tourists, mainly those leaving for Buddhist pilgrimages.
“MT is like a transit camp. Whether it’s people from the US, Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and all the southeast Asian countries, all the Buddhist tourists who come to India first arrive here. They stay here for 2-3 days and then leave for pilgrimage, such as Dalai Lama’s monastery in Dharamshala,” Dorjee says.
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A bond as old as time
For most students of Delhi University’s North Campus, a visit to MT is a rite of passage.
Meghali Das, a 32-year-old Ph.D. scholar at Delhi University, has been frequenting the place since her undergraduate days at Shri Ram College of Commerce in 2010. Calling it her ‘comfort zone,’ she recounts how the proximity of MT from North Campus made it a ready option.
“The food was good and friendly on the budget. Back in the day, the crowd was much less. The eating places would mostly have Tibetans, students, people from the northeast or foreigners,” she says, noting that these days she sees people from all walks of life visiting the locality.
Das laments the fact that some of her favourite places at MKT, Coffee House and Nepali restaurant Ama Thakali, closed down during the lockdown. But she is also glad that old gems like Busan, a Korean restaurant, and AMA Café remain. And the never-ceasing possibility of discovering a tucked-away café or a new restaurant always lurks around the corner at Majnu Ka Tila.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)