Discuss the importance of the Right to Vote to Indian citizens. How this right was granted to the people of England after Chartered Movement?

i) Importance of Right to Vote to Indian Citizen: Universal adult franchise or the right of every adult to vote is one of the foremost rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. It means that we cannot be governed by anyone other than the people we have ourselves elected to represent us. This right is a radical departure from the days of colonial rule when ordinary people were forced to submit to the authority of colonial officers who represented the interests of the British Crown.

(ii) Britain and Expansion of Right to Vote: Generally United Kingdom is called mother of modern democracy. But in the beginning in Britain, not everyone was allowed to vote. Voting rights were limited to property-owning people. Chartism was a social movement for parliamentary representation in England. In 1839, more than 1.25 million people signed the People's Charter asking for universal male suffrage, voting by ballot, and the right to stand for elections without owning property. In 1842, the movement managed to collect 3.25 million signatures, a huge number for a tiny country. Yet, it was only after World War I, in 1918 that all men over 21, married women, women owning houses, and women university graduates over the age of 30, got the right to vote. When the suffragettes (women activists) took up the cause of all adult women's right to vote, they were bitterly opposed and their movement violently crushed.