One of the main reasons Narendra Modi scored such an overwhelming victory in last month’s general election is also one of the least recognised: India is far more urban than it likes to think.
According to official statistics, not to mention India’s nostalgic idea of itself as a country that “lives mainly in its villages”, more than 30 per cent of the population is urban. But that wildly underestimates the true number. If “urban” India is defined by population density and includes former “villages” whose life has been turned upside down by roads, the internet, satellite television and the availability of non-farm jobs, more like 70 per cent of citizens are living something approximating “city life”.
Mr Modi, the new prime minister, realised this. He tapped into the sense of aspiration that this rapid urbanisation has engendered. The paternalistic Congress party did not. It continued to talk to the villages, having failed to recognise that it was addressing a dwindling constituency.