With India’s 15th General Election currently underway, political anthropologist Dr Mukulika Banerjee of University College London sets out to discover how the country manages to defy apparently insuperable odds to deliver an efficient and effective democratic process that is admired across the world.

She talks to Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi, political analyst Yogendra Yadav and veteran British psephologist Dr David Butler as well as many voters around the country – from paddy farmers in West Bengal to slum dwellers in Mumbai.

The Indian general election is the single biggest organised event in the world, with 714 million voters, 800,000 polling stations, 7 million election officials, and 1.2 million electronic voting machines.

The 40 minute documentary will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm, Tuesday 12 May 2009 and repeated,l 5pm Sunday 17th May.
Producer Mukti Jain Campion.