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Thousands of political parties will participate in the upcoming election for the House of People in India. This is the largest democratic event in history. The election will span 29 states and seven federal territories from April 11 to May 19. In a country where at least a quarter of the population is illiterate, how can people ensure that they choose the correct party at the polling station?

Simple: They recognize its symbols.

Of course, this applies to large national parties, such as the National Congress of India marked by the hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party represented by the lotus, or the Bhujan Samagi Party (BSP) represented by the elephant, or something like Well-known parties such as Delhi and Punjab’s Aam Aadmi party conform to the ideology of ordinary people and use the broom as a symbol of choice. But for many local political parties participating in elections, it is particularly important to have an identifiable logo. These parties usually only participate in a few polls.

Enter gas cylinders, letter boxes, pillows, and many other symbols inspired by common objects that can be snatched by those willing to participate in elections.

The Election Commission proposes all the symbols and publishes them on the official list, from which political parties can choose their favorite.

This has been the practice since the first election in 1951-52, when the Election Commission designed it to ensure that the vast majority of the illiterate population (when the British leave, only about 16% of Indians can read and write) can vote with confidence The Election Commission decided that it would be better to use images of commonly used items and hired a draftsman MS Sethi to draw them.

From envelopes to cricket bats to teapots, Sisi portrays his image in a peculiar and simple style familiar to Indian voters. He continued to do this for 40 years, until his retirement in 1992. His work remains the cornerstone of the great Indian election machine.

As of 2015, the new party can suggest up to three symbols, together with clear pictures and descriptive names, from which the election committee can choose one to assign. According to the Election Commission, these symbols cannot depict animals, nor can they be public or religious symbols.

Not only did Sisi continue to add symbols during his four years of service, but the committee added images after he left. Many appear to be drawn from a standard clip art collection; others look like photographs briefly printed with an inkjet machine (unsurprisingly, many of them are leftover symbols that were not captured in this election).

Sports are also important, such as javelin throwers, football players and cricket batters.

Many fairy tale animals in India-peacocks, tigers and camels, oh my goodness-however, they are not in the mix: once they are included in the list of symbols, it is clear that after environmentalists complain that political parties are marching their politically After symbolizing the habits of animals, they were deleted. assembly. Only the elephants and lions of the BSP-used by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (Goa), the People's Democratic Party of Hill State (Meghalaya)-and the tigers of the All India Advance Group (West Bengal) are still on the list.

However, these symbols are not just another clever solution, because they want to get as many of the 900 million voting population as possible to vote. They are not just another lovely iteration of the quirky visual aesthetics that has influenced Indian educational posters or road signs for decades. These symbols are chapters in a modern story and record India’s journey from a place where the easily identifiable object is a sedan chair to a place where laptops and CCTV cameras are commonplace, enough for all parties to snatch and compete in the most remote corners of the country. .

The entire series continues to evolve, showing what has survived the test of time and is still familiar to people when this country enters a new era and new millennium, and is ready to meet it: the perfect trapezoidal ladies wallet Mayawati docet, for decades , The same goes for room coolers and trolleys; will laptops in 2086 be as recognizable as trolleys today? The answer will be online—assuming the Internet still exists—and it can be downloaded from the Election Commission’s website.

Explore more available symbols here:

Read Quartz's coverage of the 2019 Indian election here.

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