News > From festival to spectacle: Delhi’s Phool Walon ki Sair loses its grassroots soul

From festival to spectacle: Delhi’s Phool Walon ki Sair loses its grassroots soul

The origin of the "Phool Walon Ki Sair" or "The Walk of the Flower Sellers" festival dates back to the early 19th century when Mughal queen Mumtaz Mahal vowed to walk barefoot and offer a chadar (sacred cloth) at the shrine of Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and a canopy at the Yogmaya Mandir if her son, sent to exile by the Britsh, ever returned. But although the festival has sustained over time, many now worry that it has lost its original charm.