‘Elections in India are a modern innovation’

The new Constitution of India provides for what is called adult franchise. In the opinion of many, this step is not merely revolutionary but is fraught with great danger.

Elections in India, for all practical purposes, are a modern innovation, although it is stated that in ancient India there were sabhas and samitis and kin were elected, but all those traditions simply ceased to exist for centuries.

The article appeared in the Hindustan Times on January 26, 1950. The writer was a freedom fighter and India’s first public works, mines and power minister.

The various Government of India Acts that were passed in course of the 19th and the 20th centuries gradually widened the franchise. A small beginning was made in the 80s of the last century. Then the India Council Act of 1893 brought peoples’ elected representatives in provincial as well as central legislatures. The Government of India Act of 1919 further widened the franchise. Under the Government of India Act of 1935, 10% of the population roughly was enfranchised. There was differential franchise both in terms of property and in terms of religion and sex. Three crores of people were enfranchised. Two general elections were held under that act--one in 1937 and the other in 1946. The percentage of people who exercised their right to vote hardly exceeded 50% in any province and the overall percentage was about 40%.

In Europe this development is entirely modern. For, although the ancient world had its democracy, notably in Greece and, to some extent, in the Roman Republic, the forces which have determined the democratic trend of modern times were absent then. The older states have carried electoral reforms which have led to either adult or manhood suffrage; while the newly established states almost invariably wrote into their Constitution a clause bestowing universal suffrage irrespective of sex. India is thus following the example of all the modern states.

It is evident that India could not have acted otherwise. The Preamble of the Constitution vests sovereignty in the people and it guarantees equality of status and of opportunity. There cannot be any discrimination between citizen and citizen.

(The article appeared in the Hindustan Times on January 26, 1950. The writer was a freedom fighter and India’s first public works, mines and power minister.)