Separate electorates
Also called: Communal electorates · Topic: Elections and the Electoral System · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Election and Representation"; Class 11, Ch 10 "The Philosophy of the Constitution"
Meaning
Separate electorates were an election system in which only voters of a particular community could elect that community's representatives. The British began them for Muslims in 1909 and extended them in 1919 and 1935. Critics said they divided voters by religion and caste. The Constituent Assembly rejected them. It chose joint electorates, in which everyone votes together, with reserved seats for some groups. In a reserved seat, all voters vote but only candidates from that group can stand.
Example
The Communal Award of 1932 offered separate electorates to the Depressed Classes. The Poona Pact of the same year replaced this with reserved seats in a joint electorate. In 1949, Tajamul Husain called separate electorates "a curse to India".
Don't confuse with
- Reserved constituencies: here every voter in the area votes, and only the candidate must belong to an SC or ST. Under separate electorates, only the community's own voters could vote.