In the beginning, laws were about laying the Republic’s infrastructure. As it matured over the years, laws reflected the sophistication of its superstructure. If a law passed in the early years was meant to realize the basic promise of holding free and fair elections, a recent one was designed to make the system more transparent and accountable. The evolution of laws tells its own tale about the 70-year-old Republic. 1. Fleshing out democracy The Election Commission of India was constituted on January 25, 1950, just a day before the Constitution came into force. It is no coincidence that the Indian republic’s first major legislative measure was to implement its Constitutional commitment to usher in the universal adult franchise. What has fleshed out the world’s biggest ever experiment in democracy is a set of two laws bearing the same name, which was borrowed from Britain, the Representation of the People Acts 1950 and 1951. While the 1950 Act laid down the procedure and machin
Pachisi, Chausar, Chopad or popularly known as Ludo is an ancient Indian game, which per some historians Mughal Emperor Akbar was addicted to and used to play with real people instead of plastic buttons or plastic statue miniatures, the game has now become a strategy game and are taught at business schools. On August 29, 1891, Alfred Collier had applied for a patent in England, claiming that a board game, which he named Royal Ludo, was his invention. Since then the game became popular worldwide by the name we know today. Later on, the British Royal Navy converted it into a board game called ‘Uckers’. According to some historians this board game of Ludo or pachisi originates in India as far back as 3300 BC. The exact origins of this legendary game though seems uncertain, but some earliest proofs of this game comes from the historic Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, where the board game was depicted in the form illustrations on the wall. This seems to suggest that Ludo was an Indian creation.