The Fight Over Who Counts in India

Oct 24, 2026 11:00 AM UTCPhoto-Illustration by TIME (Source Images: Money Sharma—AFP/Getty Images, Sonu Mehta—Hindustan Times/Getty Images)Asim Ali is an Indian political analyst and a columnist for The Telegraph, a newspaper based in Kolkata. Oct 24, 2026 11:00 AM UTCIn A Fine Balance, one of the finest novels about modern India set in the 1960s and 1970s, Rohinton Mistry powerfully conveys a sense of the social meaning of the vote for the Indians at the bottom of the ladder. Narayan, a Dalit tailor, insists on marking his own ballot in an upcoming election instead of allowing an upper-caste landlord’s men to vote on his behalf.Dukhi, his father, warns him against it. “It is still my right,” Narayan replies. “And I will exercise it in the next election, I promise you.”Dukhi urges him not to risk his life.“Life without dignity is worthless,” Narayan replies.I have been rereading Mistry’s novel over the past few weeks as a series of protests has turned October into a month of fierce battles over the integrity of India’s elections, the accountability of its institutions, the right to protest, and the soul of its democracy.A nascent Gen-Z movement, Cockroach Janta Party, which organiz...