Status Updates From India After Gandhi: The His...

India’s first general election was, among other things, an act of faith. A newly independent country chose to move straight into universal adult suffrage, rather than–as had been the case in the West–at first reserve the right to vote to men of property, with the working class and women excluded from the franchise until much later.

Bhakti in religion may be the road to the salvation of a soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship. ~Ambedkar

The world over, the rhetoric of modern democratic politics has been marked by two rather opposed rhetorical styles. The first appeals to hope, to popular aspirations for economic prosperity and social peace. The second appeals to fear, to sectional worries about being worsted or swamped by one’s historic enemies.