Written by Ornit Shani, an academic at the University of Haifa, this vital work of scholarship documents the making of the world’s largest democracy. The book tells the story of the daunting administrative and social challenge that India undertook after Independence – to prepare electoral rolls on the basis of universal adult franchise. Indians became voters before they became citizens, Shani argues, writing that by the time the Constitution came into force in 1950, the groundwork for electoral democracy was already laid down. A fascinating account of how a country was united through the right to vote, Shani comprehensively brings a rarely-discussed subject to light.