Dhaka has a cold. But Kolkata’s traders are the ones sneezing.

“It is not like we can return to India any time soon. At least, I cannot,” said Begum, whose visa is expiring soon; her husband’s tourist visa remains valid for four more years. “We have bought a substantial amount of whole spices, which we usually pack during our visits here. We have also bought shawls, cakes, and chocolates for our children and grandchildren,” added Begum. In the week that the couple spent in Kolkata, she also paid a quick visit to a private hospital to address a neurological problem.

Through the decades that they have visited Kolkata, they have always stayed in and around this area. “This time, the hotel rates had gone down from the earlier ₹1,200 to ₹800, which was a surprise,” said Islam.

Actually, there is nothing surprising in the lower rates. With tourist footfalls plunging in the wake of the crisis in Bangladesh, hotels in the area have been running empty. The slowdown began last July, when an anti-quota stir rocked India’s eastern neighbour. The government fell on 5 August, and Sheikh Hasina, then Bangladesh’s Prime Minister, fled the country to take refuge in India. And with that, relations between the two countries went into a tailspin.

Tensions between the two countries escalated when the Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das was arrested in a sedition case. Protests and clashes broke out in Bangladesh and India called on the country to protect all minorities.

Recently, the interim government in Bangladesh, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, said it would seek the extradition of Hasina and would call for a global intervention if necessary.

The aftershocks of the earthquake in Dhaka are being felt the most in Kolkata.

In central Kolkata, Marquis Street, Free School Street, Sudder Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, and Kyd Street have come to be known as ‘Mini Bangladesh’ thanks to a steady influx of tourists from that country in the past few decades.

But these markets now wear a sombre look. Amid Bangladesh’s political turmoil and India’s ongoing tension with its neighbour, the air has been sucked out of these commercial hotspots, with tourist footfalls down to a trickle. Traders in the area are struggling to keep their businesses going.

Things have come to this pass in just a few months. Figures released by the ministry of tourism show that between January and June 2024, India received the highest number of tourists from Bangladesh (21.6% of all tourist arrivals, or 1,032,129 tourists), followed by the US (17.6%). In June 2024 alone, Bangladesh accounted for 28% of all foreign tourists. But by December 2024 that number had plunged to 6%, with the Indian government curtailing visas to Bangladeshi nationals.

The Indian government has been issuing only emergency visas and those for medical purposes to Bangladeshi citizens. An advisory on the website of Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC), Bangladesh, says, “In view of the current situation, IVAC is currently processing only a limited number of visas of emergency and humanitarian nature. For other pending applications, we are returning the passports keeping in view that many applicants may need their passport back for other needs. You may wish to apply afresh once the IVAC returns to normal operations after the normalization of the security situation.”

A report by credit rating agency CareEdge Ratings showed that Bangladesh accounted for around 50-60% of India’s medical tourism flow till about 2023.

Traders hit hard

Zahoor Ahmad is one of those whose fortunes have taken a hit from the unrest in Bangladesh. Ahmad, who owns a Kashmiri shawl and apparel showroom in central Kolkata, has been trying to come up with new ways to keep his old business afloat. For the first time in 21 years, he even set up stalls at two fairs: Poush mela in Shantiniketan and Gangasagar mela on Sagar island.

“In the almost two decades that I have had a shop here, I have never considered putting up stalls elsewhere. It is a flop show now…We have to find ways to survive this,” said Ahmad. The Srinagar native has made Marquis Street his home for almost two decades now.

“How do we cope with a loss of this scale? The electricity for my showroom of two floors comes up to ₹30,000 a month, and maintenance is in addition to that. My accounts show that this season, I have achieved only 20% of the total sales I had achieved in other years,” he added.

It may be extremely difficult for traders to reorient themselves to serve tourists from other parts of the world, said Fuad Halim, who is affiliated with the political party CPI(M), and also a council member of the Iran Society. The society is a forum for those interested in Iran’s heritage and culture.

With West Bengal sharing a 2,200-km-long border with Bangladesh and a shared culture and history, it has always attracted Bangladeshi tourists. Wherever there is a border crossing in the state, infrastructure has come up to cater to people who are coming in from Bangladesh.

Things are no different in Kolkata, far from the border. “When it comes to Marquis Street and Free School Street, for example, there is an entire micro environment that has developed to cater to Bangladeshi tourists,” said Halim.

According to an internal assessment conducted by traders’ associations in the area, there are around 15,000 families dependent on business from Bangladeshi tourists. Many businesses have either gone under or are on the verge of shutting shop.

Talking about how the markets have evolved over the decades, Iftekhar Ahsan, founder of Calcutta Walks, a Kolkata-based sightseeing tour operator, said, “These areas in central Kolkata have always been popular with backpackers. It had a very different vibe back then.”

But over the past 30 years, the area has changed. “Airconditioned rooms and Bengali food eateries started coming up in the area. It is usually a busy zone, one that has evolved over the decades to cater to the needs and demands of Bangladeshi tourists. Whenever they do not come to these streets, they wear a forlorn look,” said Ahsan.

According to an internal assessment conducted by traders’ associations in the area, there are around 15,000 families dependent on business from Bangladeshi tourists.

Services by Shyamoli Yatri Paribahan, which runs air-conditioned buses between Kolkata and Dhaka, are almost non-existent, with just one bus making the journey once in two weeks with five-six customers. “Earlier, we had three 40-seater bus services scheduled to run thrice a week. These buses have international permits, which means we cannot run them elsewhere. We have run into a complete loss. We have so many people dependent on us for employment…it is a big responsibility,” said a representative of the company.

Kamruddin Mallick, owner of a hotel and clothing showroom, observed that the primary purchasing power lies with tourists. “When people come for treatment, they are already stressed due to the medical condition. The purchasing power remains with people typically on tourist visas,” he explained. With tourist visas suspended, traders doubt if their situation will improve anytime soon.

Even if the political situation changes, businesses are still likely to suffer severe setbacks, he added. “I had already stocked up for winter. But we did not receive any tourists, and sales were almost nil. In the winters, we only keep woollen items,” said Mallick. “If the model of clothes change next year, then we will suffer another bout of losses—an item priced at ₹1,000 will be sold for ₹200 if the style changes the coming year.”

Home away from home

Arup Majumder, a Kolkata-based social-cultural anthropologist, told Mint that people initially started staying around the New Market area because their relatives would reside there. “The mosques, and eateries would be in close proximity. It was easier for people to come in and adjust to the culture,” he said. “When people come now, they find it familiar. They know where to access local SIM cards, bus tickets, and other essentials.”

While relationships between the two countries remain strained, traders have done their best to make the tourists feel at home. Hyder Ali, general secretary of the Free School Street Traders Association, said that trust was the key foundation of the longstanding relationship between traders in the area and tourists coming in there for decades.

“When we speak to tourists here, they tell us they feel so comfortable…it is a second home to them. There are so many anecdotes where tourists have told us they just enjoy a cup of tea in earthen cups here or feel safe to hang around till midnight strolling in the area,” said Ali. “With time, traders from other parts of India have adapted…you will see they speak in Bengali to make tourists feel at home,” said Ali.

But some tourists feel they would want to wait out the situation before they return, even if they have valid visas. One of them, who came to join his wife who was undergoing in vitro-fertilization (IVF) treatment at a facility in the area, said there were ‘more questions’ than usual at the border. “My wife’s IVF round has been successful. We will return to Bangladesh with all the required medicines. We will be in touch with doctors through video consultations,” said the man, who did not want to be identified.

He was joined by his sister and the duo picked up Kashmiri shawls. “We are picking up a few things for ourselves. We plan to wrap up the Kolkata visit and do not plan to return till things settle down,” she said. “There is a lot of news going around…there is tension between the two countries. We do not know what to believe and what not to at this point.”

Waiting to exhale

S. Rahman, who owns a bookstore his father originally set up, expresses mild irritation as a tourist repeatedly bargains with him over the price of a postcard. “Why are you bargaining? One postcard costs ₹20 and not ₹10,” he emphasized before returning to the conversation on how the area is reliant on Bangladeshi tourists.

“The market will come alive when Bangladeshi tourists return to the area. It is almost dead now. They shop a lot and keep this area alive,” said Rahman.

Jayati Ghosh, development economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, pointed out that India has huge potential with its South Asian neighbours when it comes to protecting trade and livelihood opportunities. “South Asia has a huge potential for trade and employment generation. We produce goods that are in demand across the region and vice versa,” said Ghosh. “Unfortunately, the geopolitics is such that there is a trust deficit among our neighbours.”

“There is a need to understand that not having good relations with neighbours does not just have political implications; it also has massive economic implications,” Ghosh added. “We need to protect existing livelihoods, and informal trade and employment generation in a country where employment is already in crisis.”

With the political stalemate, several businesses in the area are either delaying staff salaries or laying them off.

Mohammad Intezar, who owns a forex agency, travel agency, hotel, and restaurant in Marquis Street, said he has already been forced to lay off 25% of his staff across businesses. “From next month, this will go up to 50%. This is a crisis point for us.”

Ajay Gupta, who has owned a restaurant, Best of Guptas, at Free School Street for the past 40 years, said there was a delay in paying employee salaries. In addition to tourists, who were primary customers, there was also a secondary business: traders and workers in the area, who would eat at these joints. “They have no income now, and hence no spending power. We have run into delays with salaries of our staff but managed somehow,” said Gupta.

In addition to the regular menu, the restaurant also caters to the specific needs of the medical tourists from Bangladesh and offers bland food for patients.

“Earlier, this area was thriving…there was traffic movement. Look at the situation now…you can figure out where we are headed,” said Gupta.

On every street, traders are eagerly waiting for relations between India and Bangladesh to normalize, and for the markets to get back to business as usual.