Sunil K. Choudhary, India @75: A Changing Electoral Democracy (Aakar Books, 2024), 340 pp., ₹995.

The year 2024 was marked by celebrations of the most awaited festival of democracy, especially elections across the globe. These elections ponder issues from development discourses to political contestations, from populist manifestations to democratic orientations in different parts of the world. In India@75: A Changing Electoral Democracy, esteemed psephologist Professor Sunil K. Choudhary presents a gamut of diversities and complexities in the special context of India’s democracy. Elections provide a critical space to manoeuvre and analyse the changing political realities. This enables the participation of diverse stakeholders while opening new avenues for development and governance. To supplement the discussion about the changing nature of electoral democracy, Choudhary presents a cinematography of 75 years of Indian democracy. His literature on Indian politics in the discourse of democracy and politics can be signified as the new grammar of Indian polity. In this book, one learns about the trajectory landscapes reoriented with transformations encapsulated through new dimensions, directions and developments witnessed in electoral polis. The book is an empirical study of the electoral nature of 17 Lok Sabha and 408 State Assembly elections held so far. Choudhary unfolds the significant characteristics of the democratic process, highlighting new conceptualisations by identifying and categorising diverse innumerable typologies. The book consists of 14 chapters, divided into five parts, each reflecting the evolving orientations of political democracy. more..