A suitable choice

The 30th-anniversary edition of Vikram Seth's landmark novel A Suitable Boy is a timely reminder of India's nascent democratic aspirations

In 1951, the newly independent Indian state conducted its first general elections, described by historian Ram Guha in India After Gandhi (2007) as “a massive act of faith with few parallels in the history of mankind”. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s government seemed to be in a tearing hurry to conduct elections as soon as the country gained freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. A new Constitution was made effective in January 1950; in March the same year, civil servant Sukumar Sen was appointed the country’s first election commissioner; and in April, Parliament passed the Representation of People’s