Electoral Participation and Political Choice Among Muslims
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203796 |
| Author | Mohd. Sanjeer Alam |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
Electoral Participation and Political
Choice Among Muslims
Mohd. Sanjeer Alam1
Abstract
Muslims are the largest minority group in India. As a minority group, their electoral participation and
expression has drawn wide religious attention of scholars. However, much of the discussion around
Muslims’ electoral participation and political preference is either based on speculations or on sketchy
field studies. This article, drawing upon large scale representative surveys, analyses Muslims’ electoral
participation and choices since 1990s. It argues that inferences about the community’s electoral behav-
iour at the national level are misleading. Its electoral behaviour can better be understood by locating
them in politically differentiated contexts.
Keywords
Community development, empowerment & participation, Indian democracy, policy, political & practice
contexts
Introduction
At the centre of the political processes in democratic systems are electoral participation and choices.
While these two key elements of political processes have drawn wide attention of political scientists, the
questions of how minorities (racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and so forth) organize themselves politi-
cally; participate in a variety of electoral activities; express their political preference and what tends to
influence their political behaviour have long been an integral part of political behaviour research in
socially plural democracies. There are, at least, two different yet intertwined reasons for academic inter-
est in these questions. One, social division along the ethnic (or the majority–minority) axis may be
potentially an important source of political fault lines. This, in turn, could lead to internecine conflict or
warfare, and hence impede smooth functioning of democracy. Two, the degree to which minority groups
participate in various forms of electoral activities may be a robust indicator of their sociopolitical inte-
gration as aloofness of minority groups (from electoral processes) is not only the sign of their political
alienation but also of exclusion from a wide variety of opportunities that are normally available to the
members of wider society. Neither is good for the health of democratic polity (Saggar, 2009).
Original Article
Studies in Indian Politics
11(2) 289–303, 2023
© 2023 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/23210230231203796
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
1 Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, India
Corresponding author:
Mohd. Sanjeer Alam, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi 110054, India.
E-mail: Sanjeer.alam@gmail.com
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