By Aatif Ammad
Delhi: Speaking softly, Qasim Khan, 65, recalled how he came to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh in the 1980s in search of work. For years, he worked as a tailor. In 1997, he moved to the teeming, residential-cum-industrial area of Khayala in west Delhi and set up a small jeans manufacturing unit.
He has run it ever since in what was once a village that merged into the city, living amid the urban chaos, rutted roads and physical discomfort.
When he first arrived, said Qasim Khan, Khayala Market had barely a dozen shops. Over time, migrants—mostly Muslims from nearby districts in impoverished Uttar Pradesh—began settling in the area and opening denim units.
What started as a quiet corner of West Delhi gradually grew into a bustling manufacturing hub.
Today, Khayala—widely known as the Jeans Market—has nearly 3,000 dealers who manufacture, supply and sell denim products across India and even to Sri Lanka. Manufacturers source denim fabric from Gujarat and convert it into finished jeans in Khayala’s workshops.
Qasim Khan said the market’s foundations were laid by Muslim migrants who arrived early and built the initial units. Their early entry helped shape the ecosystem, and throughout the early 2000s, the market expanded rapidly, becoming one of the country’s largest clusters of jeans manufacturing. In 2021 the ministry of urban development recognised Khyala as an industrial area needing redevelopment.
Although Muslims remain the dominant presence because they built the trade here first, Hindu and Sikh entrepreneurs also operate units in the market.
For Qasim Khan, business ran smoothly for decades—until the 2024 Delhi elections. That was when Khayala became a political talking point for Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
‘Jeans Jihad’
In June 2025, sections of the Hindi media referred to the case as one of “jeans jihad”.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.