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Political Representation in India: Ideas and Contestations, 1908-1952 maps extensive and wide-ranging debates, marked by contestations and strident demands on political representation in colonial India. Further, it explores these themes during the Constitution-framing process. These debates, previously overlooked, are significant for they helped shape the institutional structures of political representation in the form of the electoral system of Indian democracy. It assists in providing an answer to why and how independent India came to adopt its current electoral system characterised by the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system. It also analyses how and why the alternatives to FPTP, primarily any form of proportional representation, were rejected.
Moreover, the book simultaneously provides a rich and detailed description of how communities, and religious, caste and ethnic categories came to be defined as their demands for political representation were conceded. It also briefly deals with the issue of delimitation of constituencies during the colonial and the immediate post-independence period.
List of contents
1. Introduction
2. The Idea of Political Representation
3. The Development of Representative Institutions in India
4. Claims to Political Representation
5. Methods of Political Representation
6. Delimitation and Electoral Qualification
7. Conclusion
About the author
Abhay V. Datar is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, People's College, Nanded (affiliated to the Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded). His research interests include the political and social history of modern India and modern Maharashtra, electoral politics in India and Indian political thinking.
