A century of constituency delimitation in India

Constituencies are de jure apportionment of space for the purpose of electi ng representatives of people living in the territorial limits of a democrat ic state. The elected representatives represent not only the people but als o their respective segments of territory, the constituencies. These two - t he land and the people - and the prevailing law of the country provide the basis for constituency boundaries and their delimitation. The laws concerni ng constituencies can have two dimensions. The first is related to the laws of enfranchisement as to who among the population have the right to vote. This gives the total number of erectors and the number of representatives t o be elected. The other aspect of constituencies is the actual drawing of b oundaries and enclosing people within the constituency framework. This is i ndeed a sensitive issue for several reasons. First, a lack of understanding of the human geography of the area can divide up people who may in effect lose their representation or voice in the legislature. Second, the division of space into constituencies can be so organised that it may carve out eit her a safe support base for a party or a candidate, or create a combination of societal forces which are opposed to a particular party or candidate. T his task should be assigned to impartial and non-partisan persons. Thirdly, a new boundary can change the pattern of electoral representation in the l egislature. The degree of involvement of those who are largely to benefit f rom it varies from country to country according to its electoral laws. It v aries from the largely neutral British case through slight party involvemen t in New Zealand to the total party involvement in the USA (Gudgin, G. & Ta ylor, P.J. (1979) Seats, votes and the spatial organisation of elections (p . 11), Pion Ltd, London). In South Asia, it varies from Sri Lanka where the Delimitation Commission consists purely of persons who are entirely out of politics, to India where the Delimitation Commission comprising of three p ersons (two of whom have generally been judges of the Supreme Court and Sta te High Courts, and the third member has been the Chief Election Commission er, ex-officio) associates in its deliberations nine politicians of differe nt political shades in each state. Of these, four belong to the Lok Sabha ( lower house of Indian parliament) and five to the Vidhan Sabhas (lower hous e of state legislatures) (Chandidas, R. (1971) Electoral system and politic al development. In: L.M. Singhvi et al., Elections and electoral reforms in India (p. 114). Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. New Delhi). But the Commission's verdict is final and can not be challenged ev en in the Supreme Court. In spite of the involvement of politicians, there have however been no or little reports of gerrymandering in India because o f the constitutional safeguards. Nevertheless, it is also a fact that no st udy of the actual delimitation of constituency boundaries and its effect on electoral outcome and the geography of representation in India could be ca rried out due to the secrecy and non-availability of delimitation commissio ns' reports on the actual considerations for delimitation of constituency b oundaries. Even though concepts of democracy, representative institutions, limitations on the arbitrary powers of the rulers, and the rule of law were practised in ancient India, and some of the representatives bodies like Gram Sanghas, Grant Sabha or Panchayats have survived up to now (Kashyap, S.C. (1994) Ou r constitution (p. 7), National Book Trust of India, New Delhi), the experi ence of electoral participation in a representative democracy in this count ry is hardly one century old. In fact, the twentieth century in India could be termed as the century of transformation from being subject of a British colony with no right to elect their own government to the largest democrac y in the world. The electoral experience of India can be divided into two p arts: selective enfranchisement in the colonial period and universal adult enfranchisement in independent India. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.