A BOOK REVIEW OF:

An Undocumented Wonder: The Great Indian

Election

Author: Dr SY Quraishi
Publisher: Rainlight Rupa,
434 pages

ABOUT AUTHOR
Dr S.Y. Quraishi served as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India from 30 July 2010 to
10June 2012. He has also served as a Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. He
completed his Masters degrees from St. Stephen's College in Delhi before joining the Indian
Administrative Service in 1971. He is also the author of the book Social Marketing for Social
Change.

Quraishi is a former chief election commissioner of India, and at the very outset, An
Undocumented Wonder lays the scale of the challenge faced by the ECI every five years; with an
electorate currently comprised of 814 million voters who cast their ballots over a month in a
nine-phase poll, it is the ECI that bears the sole responsibility for ensuring all citizens are able to
participate in the elections, putting in place the logistics required for carrying out such a massive
exercise, and regulating competition between parties and politicians with a view towards
providing as free and fair a battleground as possible.
ABOUT
Elections are no less than a grand extravaganza of any democratic country. And being the largest
democracy the whole world looks on to the general elections of India. To ensure a fair and
unbiased election the Election Commission is formed. Now a day with the invention of EVMs
elections have become a lot easier than before. A modern day man can’t imagine how hectic and
cumbersome the first general election was? Dr. Quraishi in his book described all the difficulties
the election commission faced and how they overcame those hurdles to make India take its first
step towards democracy.

Most of the chapter touches on a different theme relating to India’s elections, ranging from the
history of the ECI, its efforts to enfranchise disadvantaged communities, the role of technology
and the media, and ongoing issues and problems, An Undocumented Wonder makes ample use
of both anecdotal and documentary evidence to illustrate the lengths to which the ECI has gone
in its efforts to make elections work.

Thus, we are told about how an entire polling booth, complete with six staff members and an
electronic voting machine, was set up on an estate to ensure that the single person living there
would be able to cast his vote on election day. We are informed that the ECI routinely engages in
all manner of outreach in attempts to promote voter awareness and education, implementing
projects to get young people interested in elections while also placing a special emphasis on
getting women to come out and exercise their democratic rights (with the provision of female
polling officers and faster-moving female queues in polling booths being a part of this process).
We are also provided with pages and pages of documentation detailing the sometimes
extraordinary and often indefatigable attempts by the ECI to investigate and prosecute
individuals accused of violating electoral law.

The overwhelming sense one gets while going through An Undocumented Wonder is that the
ECI and the election commissioners that head it are driven by a strong sense of purpose and a
deep commitment to the cause of democracy in India. Near the beginning of the book, Quraishi
devotes considerable space to outlining how the ECI’s mission and, indeed, its raison d’être is to
defend and expand the democratic values enshrined in the Indian constitution. While this might
be true, and Quraishi’s account of the conduct of his colleagues and predecessors certainly lends
credence to the idea that the ECI possesses a strong democratic ethos, it would be a mistake to
underestimate the part played by the ECI’s institutional moorings in allowing it to play the
substantive role that it does in India’s elections.

The last chapter, titled Reflection and Afterthoughts, raises topical issues and proffers a few
suggestions to improve the quality of democracy. Particularly heartwarming are the author's
views on 'compulsory voting' — he argues in favor of millions of daily wage earner who cannot
forego their day's wage 'in exchange for the luxury of voting'. He also questions the practicality
of punishing a voter if he fails to show up at the polling booth.

CONCLUSION
An Undocumented Wonder is a comprehensive yet accessible read, and is quite possibly the
single most exhaustive account of the history and activities of the ECI. Quraishi’s meticulous
attention to detail is also, however, one of the book’s few shortcomings; while it makes for
fascinating reading if one happens to be interested in psephology, it is unlikely to be particularly
engaging for the layperson. Similarly, while the book painstakingly documents the minutiae of
the Indian electoral process, it often does so at the expense of a more analytical account of the
problems and issues faced by contemporary democracies. Thus, while it does a good job of
identifying the corrosive effect money has on democratic politics, it does a less convincing job of
defending the first-past-the-post electoral system. This, however, is a relatively small issue given
that the main aim of the book, namely recounting and explaining the success of the ECI, is
achieved with unqualified success.

An Undocumented Wonder… is far from being a boring read. Quraishi's breezy style, peppered
with an occasional dose of humor, helps the reader negotiate effortlessly through an architecture
of facts and figures, which is a must for a book of this nature and scope. It's lot more than a mere
textbook for those who seek to decode the magic of Indian elections.

By:
Shivasish Biswal
Roll no: 170103063