India, April 12 -- Every democracy must periodically redraw its electoral map to reflect population change. In India, this process is known as delimitation. On paper, it is a routine constitutional exercise. In reality, the next delimitation-due after Census 2027-will be the most consequential redrawing of political power since Independence. It will redefine how seats are distributed in the Lok Sabha and how India understands fairness, federalism, and regional balance.

The Constitution originally mandated delimitation after every census. But this principle has been suspended for nearly half a century. The inter-state distribution of Lok Sabha seats has remained frozen since 1976, based on the 1971 Census, to ensure that States were not p...