Quotes of the Day

In the wealth of nations, Adam Smith wrote that the U.K. was "a nation of shopkeepers." Today, that comment aptly describes a former British colony: India. It's home to about 12 million mom-and-pop retailers. But India's shopkeepers, or at least those in New Delhi, are under siege. In a series of rulings this year, the Supreme Court has ordered some 44,000 stores, restaurants and small hotels around the capital to be shuttered or demolished because they break zoning regulations.

Commercial activity in most of New Delhi's residential areas is forbidden, but the restrictions have been ignored for decades as the city struggled to accommodate an exploding population. In recent years, however, civic groups fed up with haphazard development petitioned the Supreme Court to enforce the law—and won. But the clean-up campaign could inconvenience customers, disrupt neighborhoods, and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. One of them is Vijay Sehgal, 47, proprietor of a wristwatch shop that is slated to be closed. "I don't know what I'm going to do," says Sehgal, "and it's not just me. I have eight staff members, all married. We're talking about 30 or 40 people who depend on this store. How will any of us eat?"

To fight back, the city's traders have organized strikes and protests, some of which have turned violent. Given their numbers, however, their most useful tool might be the ballot box. Local, state and federal politicians, worried that the clean-up will hurt them at the next election, have filed legal challenges against the Supreme Court's decision, and plan to propose new legislation that would allow some merchants to keep their shops. Smith also wrote that the U.K.'s "government is influenced by shopkeepers." That seems equally true in today's India.

• Simon Robinson
• India's shopkeepers in New Delhi are under siege