Summary information

Study title

Database regarding the North Indian MPs since 1952

Creator

Jaffrelot, Christophe (Sciences Po, Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CERI), CNRS)

Study number / PID

doi:10.21410/7E4/QMTP8C (DOI)

en.cdsp.ddi.NorthIndianMPs (CDSP)

doi:10.21410/FK2DFS3TA (DataCite)

Data access

Information non disponible

Series

Non disponible

Abstract

This database is a unique achievement to which we are happy to give you a free access. It covers the members of the lower house of the Indian parliament (the House of the People or Lok Sabha) who have been elected between the first general elections of 1951-52 and the fourteenth ones in 2004 in the Hindi-speaking states (Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand). Many of these states did not exist in 1951-52. We have done as if they did by pooling together the constituencies which were to form them in order to make inter-temporal comparisons possible. For each Lok Sabha MP, this database provides their surname, first name, constituency, state of birth, party, gender, date of birth, religion, caste, level of education, and occupation. These data draw from the Election Commission publications, the website Who's Who in Lok Sabha [the only website I found today is the Parliament of India, Lok Sabha, https://loksabha.nic.in/]. and individual interviews with the MPs themselves or party old timers. Such a database can only result from a collective endeavour. It was initiated by Christophe Jaffrelot who collected most of the data year after year from the mid-1990s onwards. Elisabeth Theunissen, Cyril Robin, Virginie Dutoya, and Zuheir Desai played a major role successively over the last fifteen years. These data have been analysed in two books dealing with the growing presence of the low caste groups on the Indian political scene: Christophe Jaffrelot, India's silent revolution - The rise of the lower castes in North Indian politics (New York, Columbia University Press, 2003), and Christophe Jaffrelot, "Introduction", in Christophe Jaffrelot and Sanjay Kumar (eds), Rise of the plebeians ? The changing face of Indian legislative assemblies, New Delhi, Routledge, 2009.

Methodology

Data collection period

1998 - 2010

Country

India

Time dimension

Longitudinale

Analysis unit

Individu

Universe

This database records all the Lok Sabha MPs elected in the Hindi belt. It does not take into account bye-elections. Except for a few exceptional cases such as the Bhopal gas tragedy, which resulted in the postponement of the general elections in this city, or when one candidate has been elected in more than one constituency, the MPs on file are those who were elected during the general elections. As a result, its population is slightly smaller than the list of Lok Sabha MPs drawn up by the Parliament of India. This is also due to some missing values, especially in the double constituencies of the 1950s.

Sampling procedure

Univers complet / dénombrement complet

Kind of data

Numeric
Text

Data collection mode

Compilation / synthèse

Access

Publisher

Sciences Po, Centre de données socio-politiques (CDSP), CNRS

Publication year

Non disponible

Terms of data access

Non disponible

Related publications

  • JAFFRELOT, Christophe, India’s Silent Revolution. The Rise of the Lower Castes in North Indian Politics, New York, Columbia University Press, 2003, 505 pages.
  • JAFFRELOT, Christophe, KUMAR, Sanjay (eds), Rise of the Plebeians? The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies, New Delhi: Routledge India, 2009, 530 pages