Communities as Vote Banks: Elections in India

Indian plurality is unique in the world. No other country can boast of having so many races, religions, castes, cultures, languages and regional diversities within its boundaries as India can. This plurality, while providing a very chequered and rich socio-cultural scenario, also impinges a few tensions that often lead to violent clashes. Since India is also the largest democracy in the world, its diversified society also influences the electoral scenario.

This book compiles research papers by social scientists to analyze the electoral behavior of communities constituted on the basis of religion, caste and region. It also presents a critique of the role of media during elections, emphasizes the need to use latest technological devices to increase the involvement of the electorates, and proposes necessary and practical reforms in the process of elections to ensure better representation.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan)

Zaheer Ali is Mumbai-based academician, freelance journalist and social activist. Presently, he heads the Centre for the Promotion of Democracy and Secularism (CPDS) that is essentially committed to disseminating values such as secularism, democracy, justice, and equality. Besides contributing several research papers to leading publications, he has also written and edited several books on socio-political and literary themes both in English and Urdu.