Abstract
Since the first issue of 2022, we have been including specially planned sections/articles in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. As explained earlier, while the journal ordinarily also devotes to analyses of various aspects of India’s politics, the completion of 75 years of independent and democratic existence does require a more critical and focused look at the Indian polity and overall political experience of the past more than seven decades. This is also an occasion to revisit analyses of ideas, histories and institutional processes. Therefore, we are continuing with this practice of devoting a special section to the discussion of one particular aspect of India’s politics.
In the present issue, we are happy to present a special section discussing what all we know about the ‘Indian Voter’. As the Introduction to this special section argues, the Indian Voter is an enigma. Nevertheless, Lokniti’s available data sets from 1996 Lok Sabha elections as well as the rich pre-1990s data from the Data Unit of the CSDS make it possible for scholars to attempt some generalizations. Papers in this special section have tried to do precisely that. Rajeshwari Deshpande and Sandeep Shastri, both members of our editorial management team, helped in bringing together these papers for the special section. Rajeshwari Deshpande has also extended valuable help in contextualizing the papers through the section Introduction. We thank both of them for this. It is hoped that the special section will generate more nuanced discussions about voting patterns and theorizations about various demographic and political factors in explaining Indian politics.