India won its freedom in 1947. While it deliberated a constitution, its geography itself was uncertain. Princely states held over 40% of its territory and terms of merger were being negotiated.It was in such conditions, that constituent assembly took a bold decision. It decided that in independent India, every person will have an equal voting right. Without any conditions. This was not yet the norm in the world. Britain gave women an equal vote only in 1928. French women first voted in 1945. Black Americans in the South could not vote freely until 1965. Swiss women waited until 1971.The decision was audacious in itself. It looks more astonishing when we ask who “everyone” was. About 85% of them could not read or write. Nearly 90% were desperately poor. Very few had ever voted for anything. About one third had been subjects of princely states till recently. Millions more had just crossed over from West and East Pakistan, with no home and no records in the new India.It was into these hands that Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Constituent Assembly placed the young democracy and the future of independent India.Many said it was doomed. A respected Madras editor called it the biggest gamble in history. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) journal Organiser was certain that Nehru “would live to confess the failure of universal adult franchise” in India. A leadership that had never governed was handing power to a people who had never chosen a government. To the sceptics it was a double whammy. The Congress was not afraid. Its leaders had been tempered in the freedom struggle, and their thinking had been shaped by the Karachi Resolution of 1931, which pledged adult suffrage. They trusted every citizen with the reins of the new nation: rich or poor, literate or not, whether he had stood for independence or for the Raj, for democracy or for his maharaja.Nehru, as the first prime minister, was determined that the constitution should work and that democracy should take root. The Election Commission was set up, and a senior civil servant, Sukumar Sen, became the first chief election commissioner. Nehru wanted elections by the spring of 1951. Sen asked him to wait. The Prime Minister waited.The world remembers the result. The first general election of 1951-52 was free and fair. Nehru led from the front. He was the unchallenged leader of the country and could have ruled without asking. He asked.Remember what kind of country India was. It was fledgling and administratively fragile. It had just lived through Partition and its massacres, and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It was still absorbing the princely states, which covered two-fifths of the map. It had fought a war in Kashmir and sent its army into Hyderabad. Its economy was ramshackle. In that country the Election Commission enrolled every adult, more than 17 crore of them. Nothing like it had been attempted anywhere in the world.Also read: ECI Restricts Electoral CCTV Access Citing ‘Overwhelming Demand’, But Admits Zero Records In RTIHow? The Commission did not ask the people of India for papers. Most had none. It did not ask them to fill forms. Most could not read. It did not summon them before officers and tribunals. They had no money for the journey. It did not ask them to come forward and prove that they were genuine voters. Most did not yet know what voting looked like. The enumerator came to their door. Partition refugees were put on the roll on a simple declaration that they meant to stay.Had the first Commission insisted on papers, the first election would have flopped. Democracy would have been nipped in the bud. “We, the People of India” would have failed at its first test. Had it insisted on proof of citizenship, everything would have collapsed. Who could have verified the papers of refugees, or of the former subjects of more than five hundred princes?So Nehru’s government and Sen’s Commission chose the right priorities. They set out to enrol voters, not to judge citizenship. And they set out to teach. Nehru travelled some 25,000 miles in nine weeks and spoke to about 3.5 crore people, a tenth of the country.The illiterate voter couldn’t not read the names of candidates and parties. So Election Commission came up with innovative idea of elections symbols. The caste and community dominance would not allow casting of individual votes. So the idea of indelible ink on finger came up. Lakhs of personnel were trained into conducting booth level polling. Temporary infrastructure was created to deliver ballot boxes. Ships to camels and elephants were pressed into service.Also read: After Days of Unprecedented Police Action on Citizens, PM Modi Says India ‘Mother of Democracy’When it was over, Nehru wrote that his respect for the “so-called illiterate voter” had gone up, and that his doubts about adult suffrage were gone.If India stands today as a democracy, it is because that Commission and that Prime Minister had their priorities right.One knew that its job was to add voters, not to eliminate them. The other knew that his job was to establish democracy, not to use power to capture more power.The present Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be judged against that record. In June 2025 the Commission began a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the rolls. Now the voter must return a form by a deadline or fall off the draft list. Those who cannot be traced to an old roll must produce documents. Aadhaar was accepted only after the Supreme Court ordered it. More than 13 crore names have gone from draft rolls across the country. In Delhi, one name in three was missing.The Supreme Court has upheld the Commission’s power to do this. But power is not purpose. Sen worked under the same constitution and read it as a command to include. Gyanesh Kumar read it as a power to exclude.Set the two side by side and the verdict is clear. Sen went looking for voters. His successors go looking for papers. Nehru built India’s democracy and its institutions. Modi stands atop their ruins.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.Gurdeep Singh Sappal is Permanent Invitee, Congress Working Committee.