The first general election in India was not only remarkable due to the country's vast size and electorate, but it also served as a significant test for democracy in a nation grappling with poverty and illiteracy. Until then, democracy had primarily thrived in prosperous regions like Europe and North America, where literacy rates were high. Furthermore, several European countries had yet to grant voting rights to all women. In this context, India's bold experiment with universal adult franchise was perceived as a daring and risky endeavor.
Critics expressed skepticism about the viability of conducting elections in a country with millions of illiterate citizens. An Indian editor referred to it as "the biggest gamble in history," while a British member of the Indian Civil Service claimed that recording the votes of illiterate people was an "absurd farce." Despite these doubts, the elections had to be postponed twice and ultimately took place from October 1951 to February 1952. Although commonly referred to as the 1952 election, the majority of the country voted in January 1952. The entire process of campaigning, polling, and counting took six months.
The election witnessed high levels of competitiveness, with an average of more than four candidates vying for each seat. Encouragingly, more than half of the eligible voters turned out on election day to cast their votes. The results of the election were accepted as fair, even by the losing parties. This successful democratic exercise in India defied the expectations of critics. The Times of India asserted that it confounded skeptics who believed that adult franchise was too risky, while the Hindustan Times proclaimed that the Indian people conducted themselves admirably in the largest experiment in democratic elections worldwide. Observers outside of India were equally impressed, and the 1952 general election became a landmark event in the history of global democracy. |
