In this episode  we spoke to Rahul Verma and Ornit Shani on Indian elections. The elections in the world’s largest democracy are often described as a dance of democracy. Here are some statistics just to give you a scale of the vast logistical exercise that is the general election. In 2019, 619 adults voted in 1 million polling booths in 543 constituencies. Ornit and Rahul took us on a fascinating journey from the first general election to recent elections, exploring how the first electoral rolls were prepared, the logistics of the process and how Indians make voting decisions.

 

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Reading list:

1. Adam Auerbach etal., Rethinking the Study of Electoral Politics in the Developing World: Reflections on the Indian Case https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/85802/1/Auerbach_elal2021_postprint.pdf
2. Association for Democratic Reform https://adrindia.org/
3. Kumar, Sanjay and Palshikar, Suhas and Shastr, Sandeep and Swaminathan, Siddharth and Krishnaswamy, Sudhir and Jayadev, Arjun (2018) Politics and society between elections. Technical Report. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
4. Ornit Shani. How India became democratic, 2018.
5. Ornit Shani, Women and the Vote: Registration, Representation and Participation in the Run-Up to India’s First Elections, 1951–52 South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Volume 44(228), 2021
6. Pradeep K Chhibbe and Rahul Verma. Ideology and identity: The changing party systems of India. Oxford University Press, 2018.

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Producer: Nikkethana K

Sound Mixing: Lakshman Parsuram

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome