Google India, India's First General Election

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Worked on project INDIA KI UDAAN with GOOGLE INDIA to celebrate 75th Independence Day of India, it was a challenge to imagine the India in 1947 since there is very less footage of the first general election.

The project describes unity and harmony of India and how the largest democracy overcame all the challenges that it faced at the first ever general elections. I feel delighted any honoured to be part and contribute to this project.

Key illustration

Despite attaining Independence on August 15, 1947, the first election took place only in 1951. For the years in between, India was a constitutional monarchy under King George VI, with Louis Mountbatten as the Governor-General.

Independent India’s first general elections were held between 25th October 1951 and 21 February 1952. It was a humongous exercise in which a sixth of the world’s population was going to vote, making it the largest election conducted in the world at the time.

Parliamentary constituencies had to be finalized based on the census data, which happened only in 1951. Then there were the issues of designing party symbols, ballot papers, and ballot boxes for the uneducated population of the country.

There also were polling stations to be built and spaced out properly, and efficient polling officers had to be recruited and trained‌.

There were nearly 1874 candidates and 53 political parties, of which 14 were ‌national. These included the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Socialist Party, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, and Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, among others.

The first, among many challenges, was the sheer population of India, 360 million then. India adopted universal adult suffrage when the Constitution was enacted, and this made 173 million people above the age of 21 people eligible to vote.

However, 85% of this eligible population could not read or write. In this, the task of identifying, naming, and registering voters was a big challenge.

India's heroes who contribute in First genaral election!

Jawahar Lal Nehru wanted the general election to happen in the spring of 1951, and his haste was understandable. India had waited for over three years for this new dawn of democracy to finally begin.