India, Aug. 31 -- For the second day in a row, Mumbai ground to a halt as over 25,000 Maratha protesters surged into the city on Friday, answering the call of activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who began an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan.

The scale of the mobilisation-allowed under extended police permission-paralysed arterial roads, swamped railway stations, and left commuters trapped in hours-long traffic snarls across South and Central Mumbai. Offices in Fort, Nariman Point and Lower Parel wore a deserted look as workers from the suburbs either logged in from home or abandoned the commute altogether.

By noon, the city's lifelines had collapsed. The Eastern Freeway-normally a swift gateway into South Mumbai-was reduced to a parkin...