1.2. Objectives of our founding fathers

Our founding fathers conceived of a representative parliamentary democracy as the most suited to our ethos, background and needs. They advocated equal participation of all the adult citizens in the democratic process without any discrimination. At that time, the makers of the constitution did not require much debate to decide that all adult citizens (having attained 21 years of age) will be entitled to vote in elections irrespective of education, caste, race, religion or gender. This criterion was subsequently revised and brought down to 18 years of age.

In comparison with other older democracies, this was probably the first time anywhere that adult suffrage was implemented at one go rather than incrementally. Given the state of our nascent republic, universal adult franchise was a bold and ambitious political experiment and a symbol of the abiding faith that the founders reposed in the agency and wisdom of great masses of the country.