ABSTRACT
Indian elections comprise the accumulated experiences of India's political past. For rural Indians in north Bihar that history is imbued with the memory and stories of the Freedom Movement. This chapter discusses the way in which the Parliamentary Election of 1989, as it was played out in three constituencies of north Bihar, not only built upon the politics of the Freedom Movement, but reconstructed the meanings of that politics based on the changing culture of north Bihar. Most narratives portrayed the Freedom Movement as an earlier model of rural democracy and, following from that, they portrayed democracy as an ongoing political struggle. Five key features of the 1989 campaigns in north Bihar reveal their preindependence nationalist roots. These are: public demonstrations of mass support; the role of teenagers' boys and popular culture; claims of official corruption and calls for local self-government; appeals for unity of divergent interests; and the impression of "muscle power" in politics.
