Q1.
Based on the given facts and figures, imagine the strength of Indian democracy.
Answer
Start from the printed figures, then work out what each one costs to achieve. These are the chapter's own numbers, from pages 137 and 149:
| What the chapter prints | Figure | What it takes to make it true |
|---|---|---|
| Population | over 140 crore | A single electoral roll covering every state, union territory and remote habitation |
| Registered voters (2024) | over 96.8 crore | Registering, verifying and updating names for nearly a hundred crore adults |
| People per Member of Parliament (2019) | about 25 lakh | One representative answering to a constituency larger than many countries |
| Languages of election | 22 scheduled languages, plus several others | Ballot material, instructions and symbols prepared in every one of them |
| Polling stations | more than one million | Staff, machines and security in mountains, forests, deserts and islands — “In some cases, polling stations are created even for a single voter” |
| Registered political parties | over 2,800 | Many viewpoints competing peacefully within one set of rules |
Now do the arithmetic the box invites. Using only the chapter's own figures:
Voters per polling station (average)
= 96.8 crore ÷ 10 lakh
= 96,80,00,000 ÷ 10,00,000
= about 968 voters per polling station
= 96.8 crore ÷ 10 lakh
= 96,80,00,000 ÷ 10,00,000
= about 968 voters per polling station
Share of the population on the electoral roll
= 96.8 crore ÷ 140 crore
= 0.69 (approximately)
= roughly 69 out of every 100 people are registered voters
= 96.8 crore ÷ 140 crore
= 0.69 (approximately)
= roughly 69 out of every 100 people are registered voters
The first number explains how a country of this size votes in a single day: not by one enormous operation, but by a million small ones of about a thousand voters each. The second explains what “largest democracy” actually measures — not the population, but the number of people whose consent is asked for.
What Fig. 6.6 adds to the numbers: the chapter's own reading is that India's democracy “stands out for its scale, depth, and inclusiveness”, and that what makes it “living” is “its diversity and citizens' active engagement”. A single-voter polling booth is not efficient; it is a statement that the electoral roll is not an average but a list of individuals, every one of whom is entitled to vote. The election symbol serves the same purpose for a voter who cannot read — the system changes to fit the citizen rather than requiring the citizen to fit the system.
Check it yourself: the chapter's per-MP figure is from 2019 and the voter figure from 2024, so do not combine them as if they belonged to the same year. When you quote a statistic, quote its year with it — that habit is what separates evidence from a slogan.