Sadar Bazar

This guide to Sadar Bazar in Agra traces the market from its start as a Mughal-era supply hub for the royal army, through its formalization as a British cantonment trading zone, to the wave of Partition refugees who rebuilt their businesses here after 1947. It follows how that rebuilding turned Sadar Bazar into one of India's largest wholesale markets, and touches on the tension between its scale and its 2015 flagging on the US Notorious Markets list. Listen for the names behind the lanes of cosmetics, textiles and hardware as you walk them.