India+GI-1

India Government Investigation 1



//Nallakkan S. Arvindand Shohini Ghosh// //Graduate students at the University of// //Washington. Both grew up in the city of Madras, although Shohini is originally fromCalcutta. Here// //they describe howelections are held in India.//

During election times, India is like no other place in the world. Banners hang on every street. Posters can be seen everywhere. Campaign slogans blare from loud speakers. The loud sounds can be heard constantly. New laws were passed that say that the loud speakers must be lowered to a certain level. They must be turned off at 10 p.m. However, the sounds can still be heard throughout cities. Every political party holds huge rallies for their supporters. They often pass out food or blankets to everyone who attends.

Things have improved a lot in the last ten years. The key to the change has been awareness. The people of India are very interested in the news. They are always discussing political issues. When people can’t read,often one person who can read will read the newspaper out loud to a group. Then they discuss the issues. Every newspaper, even in rural areas, contains a lot of news about the rest of the world. They don’t focus only on local news.

The most important factor that helps promote awareness is thetelevision. For example, in one state,the government ordered that every village must have at least one television. People can watch programs in their own languages. Political parties know how important television is, and most have created their own cable TV stations.

(Retrieved fromDemocracy in India: A project of the World Affairs Council & FUITS, TheSeattle Foundation)

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