The Indian Constitution guaranteed universal adult franchise from the moment it came into force. In a country with inequalities and divisions based on caste, gender, language, and ethnicity, this was a radical move that speaks of the vision of the founders.

Yet, the process by which universal suffrage became a reality remained shrouded in obscurity until recently. The credit for bringing to light the fascinating process of the preparation of the first electoral rolls in independent India goes to Dr. Ornit Shani who, on the basis of her painstaking original research, wrote the award-winning book, How India Became Democratic.

In this episode, we're joined by Ornit Shani to speak about her book, The insights and revelations about Indian democracy we get from the process by which electoral rolls were first prepared and why, perhaps, there's more reasons to be optimistic about India's democracy than we think.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.