Polling in India: Triumph of tech

EYE CULTURE

- KUMAR ABISHEK

With India headed for elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, it's worth remembering that the concept of electoral democracy is not Greek to the country and it predates Western influence.

Between the 7th century BCE and the 4th century BCE, the Indian subcontinent was home to ganasanghas (republics), such as Shakya and Licchavi, where governance was conducted by a council of representatives elected by the populace.

Then voting was primarily done by a show of hands. Between the 8th and 16th centuries, southern Indian kingdoms had an electoral system to elect members of sabas, under which villagers wrote their preferred candidate's name on a palm leaf and dropped it in a pot.

This democratic tradition has evolved over centuries, with the largest and arguably oldest democracy now leading the world in the use of technology in electoral voting processes with electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATS).

But let's give credit where credit's due: Americans, particularly George Gallup's quota-selected polls in 1936, led the scientific conduct and study of opinion polls and elections in general. Also, in 1952, for the first time, computers were brought in to help predict the outcome of a Presidential election, with UNIVAC rightly forecasting a landslide victory for Republican Dwight Eisenhower.