'The Great March of Democracy' tells the story of how India holds elections

The book underscores the point that 'election studies' make for a full-fledged subject in their own right, and can be a rewarding enterprise

India’s mighty dance of democracy has begun with the announcement of the elections. Predictably, eyeballs have moved to this mother of all reality shows. This is the season when political debates dominate conversations and news-based programmes move to the top of the entertainment menu. S Y Quraishi’s book couldn’t have been better timed.

It is a welcome addition to India’s incredible electoral hype so full of suspense and surprises. In fact, if you took the element of surprise out of the elections they would turn into a damp squib. Who would ever be excited if the results were a foregone