universal adult franchise

Universal adult franchise means every adult citizen gets exactly one vote, of equal value, regardless of caste, religion, gender, wealth, or education.

• India adopted this from the very first general election in 1951-52 — a striking choice at the time, since only about 14% of Indians were literate, and some argued voting should be restricted to the literate.
• Many older democracies took a much slower, more grudging path: women in Switzerland, for instance, only won the vote in 1971 — decades after Indian women had it from day one.
• Before Independence, only around 13% of Indians could vote at all, so extending the franchise to every adult was a genuinely radical act of faith in ordinary citizens by the Constitution's framers.
• The word "universal" is doing real work here — it rules out property, income, or education tests that many other countries used for years to keep large groups of people from voting.
• Universal franchise isn't just a rule about ballots; it's what makes elected representatives answerable to everyone, since any citizen who feels let down can vote them out next time.