Page 60 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Leap of Faith Journey of Indian Elections

Official delegation from Indonesia on a visit to India to observe the conduct of general elections in conversation with the CEC in New Delhi, 1952
The global significance of India's elec ons could be
fathomed from the wri ngs of Chester Bowles, the US
Ambassador to India (1951-53). Bowles, a liberal thinker
and diplomat, arrived in India a few months before the First
General Elec ons. He believed that the best solu on for
Asian countries, would be a benevolent dictatorship like
that of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey. However, a er seeing the
world's largest elec ons from close quarters, Bowles had a
change of mind. During the elec ons, he travelled to
several parts of India, and le an eminently readable
account of his visits in ‘Ambassador's Report’ (1954).

Bowles on seeing the elec ons felt it was me to revise
“our pessimis c, and somewhat arrogant, assump on that
democracy is prac cal only for highly developed, educated
people”. He changed his assump on that Asia needed a
series of Ataturks as a prelude to democracy. “How does
any na on prepare itself for self-government except by
An aged voter casting his vote in Rajasthan self-government. The only way to learn to swim is to swim”.

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