THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, 23 September 2007 — Two shop owners and five policemen were injured when a protest against big retail stores turned violent in southern India yesterday.
Some 100 shopkeepers demonstrated in the city of Kozhikode in Kerala state to protest the opening of dozens of Western-style air-conditioned supermarkets, which they say threaten their business.
“The police will not be able to crush our protest through violence. We are fighting for our livelihood,” T. Nasiruddeen, president of the Kerala Merchants and Traders Coordination Committee, said.
Police said the protesters had turned violent. “We caned the violent mob to disperse them,” said police Commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay.
The communist state government promised earlier this month to ban the entry of retail giants into the state.
But in the past few months, several supermarket chains have opened a few dozen stores in the state as opportunities in retail grow.
The Kerala government has not said what it will do about the presence of existing retail chains but the traders said they want the licenses canceled.
It was the third such big protest against organized retail stores in the country this year.
