The Indian Members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies

This project aims at developing a database of the Indian Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs), the assemblies elected at the state level throughout the Indian Union. This database is bound to become a reference for the quantitative/qualitative research on Indian political personnel.
Five dimensions will be explored:

1. Gender and religion belonging of elected representatives
2. The emergence of political dynasties
3. The local networks
4. The impact of the positive discrimination policy
5.  Corruption and criminalisation

It is intended to build on the results of the collaborative work that has already been accomplished by researchers of the CSDS (New Delhi), CSH (New Delhi), CERI and the CDSP in the years 1999-2008. This team of researchers has collected socio-demographic data regarding the Members of the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament) who have been elected in the Hindi-speaking states and the Members of the Legislative Assemblies of 16 of the largest Indian states between 1952 and 2007.
The caste background of these elected representatives has been the key variable of this first phase of data collection. Consequently, the edited volume that has resulted from this collective endeavour has focused on caste issues. This book has been published in the prestigious series of Mukulika Banerjee, “Exploring the Political in South Asia”. After the book came out, the data have been processed by the CSDS and the CDSP, two institutions which are gradually making them available to the public.

Complete description of the project