India, May 9 -- On the fourth of May, three sitting Chief Ministers lost power and a film star became the likely next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The vocabulary that surrounded these results was, as always, ceremonial: "mandate," "popular verdict," "historic upheaval," words that imply an electorate exercising considered judgment. That courtesy is not incidental to electoral democracy; it is load-bearing. Without it, the ceremony would be required to account for itself more honestly.

Mamata Banerjee, who had governed West Bengal for fifteen years, lost her own seat at Bhavanipur as her party was routed by the BJP. MK Stalin lost his own Kolathur seat to a TVK debutant. In Kerala, the CPM yielded after a decade of consolidated dominance...