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India Votes: Special reports on the 2009 parliamentary elections in the world's largest democracy
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“What struck me most was it is amazing that in this country of a thousand different Indias, people still manage to live in such relative harmony and function as a democracy. I think we do not give Indian voters the credit they deserve. I realise that I am guilty of it as well, being cynical and pointing out all the problems with this democracy and the corruption. Of course it exists, it is endemic. But at the same time, the fact that over 700 million people can go to the polls and do so in a largely peaceful fashion, all across the country, with divisions based on linguistics, culture, religion, economic, politics.”
Karishma Vaswani on reporting on the Indian elections
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Post-Election Analysis: Why everyone called it wrong
Villages devoid of young men in modern India
Mother Teresa's Calcutta, India's Kolkata
The Great Indian Migration: From the provinces to Mumbai and back again
What it means to vote in India
There simply isn't just one Mumbai
Mumbai: The City of Indian Dreams
Delhi to Gujarat: Encounters with Indian democracy on the BBC Election Train
Gujarat: At the edge of its religious chasm
Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Roti-and-dal issues in diamond central
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Post-Election Analysis: Why everyone called it wrong
On Saturday May 16th, India's ruling Congress Party was kept in power, winning an astonishing 262 votes, its best results since 1990. Just ten votes short of the 272 needed for a parliamentary majority, it will be able to govern without the need to make deals with regional parties. The markets responded with a resounding 17 percent surge in share prices, its biggest one-day-gain in three decades. Yet this was a victory margin none of the pundits saw coming.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
- INDIA VOTES
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- India
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- Definition: Culture
- Economy and Economics
- Geopolitics and Strategic Relations
- Of Government and Politics
- Social Injustices and Poverty Report
- Society, Class and Division
- People in Government and Politics
- Bengal
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Mother Teresa's Calcutta, India's Kolkata
It is best known to outsiders as Calcutta where the famed nun Mother Teresa set up her Missionaries of Charity to serve the dying in the city in 1950. Since then, the city has been renamed Kolkata and is witnessing a transformation in its political landscape. The state of West Bengal where it is located has been a traditional stronghold of India's Communist Party. That now may change, as the party and the state find themselves at the crossroads of tradition and progress.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
The Great Indian Migration : From the provinces to Mumbai and back again
A certain dedication to the family that propels millions of rural Indians to leave the comfort of home for the city. They send back money and sometimes along with it, the seeds of a revolution.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
What it means to vote in India
The freedom to choose their government was a hard-won victory from the British for the people of India more than 60 years ago. Today, they still go to surprising lengths to honour that right, as Karishma Vaswani learns when she goes voting with a Mumbaikar.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
There simply isn't just one Mumbai
Karishma Vaswani shows theasiamag.com the highlights of this astounding metropolis of 18 million and makes sense of the economic spectrum of people who call this city home.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
Mumbai: The City of Indian Dreams
If there is an Indian Dream, Mumbai is the place where locals believe it will come true.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
Delhi to Gujarat: Encounters with Indian democracy on the BBC Election Train
Karishma Vaswani looks back on the first leg of the journey on an Indian train, and the people she met.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
Gujarat: At the edge of its religious chasm
In 2002, the Indian state of Gujarat was the scene of the communal mob violence that saw tit-for-tat attacks between Hindus and Muslims. NGOs put the death toll at up to 2,000. As Gujaratis go to the polls on April 30, how far will religion figure in this divided state?
theasiamag.com catches up with Soutik Biswas, the BBC's India editor, who is in the state, for a sense of the sentiment on the ground in Gujarat.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
- INDIA VOTES
- FOCUS: INDIA
- India
- Definition: Culture
- Of Government and Politics
- Religion and Practices
- Social Injustices and Poverty Report
- Society, Class and Division
- All about Leaders
- People in Government and Politics
- 2002 Gujarat Riots
- As India Votes 2009
- BJP
- Congress Party
- Gujarat
- Hinduism
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- Nahendra Modi
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