From Rejection to Mandate: Electoral Gender Quotas in India

This chapter traces the evolution and persistence of electoral gender quotas, focusing on India's transformation from categorical rejection to constitutional mandate. Early women's movements opposed reservations, viewing them as incompatible with formal equality and too closely associated with caste-based reservation policies. Drawing on constitutional debates, government records, and other primary sources, I show that quota adoption required the intersection of egalitarian pressure and strategic elite incentives. The chapter then addresses persistence and three reasons why quotas are rarely withdrawn despite being designed as temporary measures. First, quotas fail to eliminate root causes of discrimination; Second, attitudinal change requires longer time horizons than anticipated; and Third, implementation creates new political constituencies that render withdrawal costly. India's trajectory -- comprising women's mobilization, political upheaval, and expanding caste-based reservations -- culminated in the 1992 local quota laws. With nearly three decades of implementation easing the entry of approximately 700 million women into local political office, India provides a model case for understanding gender quotas and their consequences for women's descriptive and substantive representation.