What made the 1952 elections unusual?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country.
Option (1) Test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country. — Correct. The first general election was also the first big test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy had existed only in prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and North America, where nearly everyone was literate.
Option (2) Only 15 % of citizens were eligible to vote. — Incorrect. India adopted universal adult franchise: every adult citizen could vote, and the electorate was huge.
Option (3) Like in Europe, voting rights were not given to women. — Incorrect. It was the other way round: many countries in Europe had not yet given voting rights to all women, while India gave the vote to all adults, women included.
Option (4) Communalism was a continuing phenomenon. — Incorrect. Communalism means politics that sets one religious community against another; India had just seen it in the violence of Partition. But it was not what made the 1952 election unusual: that was the vast size of the electorate and the fact that democracy was being tested in a poor and illiterate country.
NCERT (2025-26): “Challenge of building democracy … It was not just the size of the country and the electorate that made this election unusual. The first general election was also the first big test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy had existed only in the prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and North America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women.…” |