Ink & Paper

For seven decades, one commission has presided over one of the greatest human experiments on Earth: the Indian election. Ex-chief election commissioner SY Quraishi’s recent compilation of essays is a unique assessment and celebration of its evolution

- Arun Janardhan

The SY Quraishi-edited The Great March Of Democracy: Seven Decades Of India’s Elections was nearly a decade in the making. A collection of essays that was initiated when Quraishi was the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) from 2010 2012, it was revived recently and arrived this spring, appropriately ahead of India’s 2019 general elections.

“It needed more articles, so I wrote to more people, and all immediately said yes. As CEC, my success rate (with writers) was 50 per cent; as former CEC, it was 100 per cent,” he says, laughing. With 27 essays, including one from the editor, the book is divided into four parts, breaking down the Election Commission’s foundation, evolution, perspectives and the future.

Dressed in a kurta-pajama in a Mumbai hotel room, the amiable 71-year-old, who believes he was the first Muslim from Old Delhi to get into the civil services, often refers to the EC as “us” as he talks about the book, working on elections and playing music with Sharon Prabhakar.

Who did you seek out to contribute to this book?

The idea with this book was to celebrate our democracy and to commemorate Indian elections. I wrote to election experts and eminent citizens: Ratan Tata, for example, is a citizen, a voter and a financier. The actor Kabir Bedi, the banker Naina Lal Kidwai and Ela Bhatt of SEWA, were some others. We wanted them to write on different aspects of the elections. We wanted TN Seshan (CEC from 1990-96) to tell us how he transformed the Commission. There is also a chapter on Seshan himself by [Christophe] Jaffrelot.

Which are your favourite essays?