Election symbols: Silent messaging plays a big role in Indian politics
Indian elections get underway this Friday with polling booths thrown open for us to pick members of the 18th Lok Sabha. As voters scan the list of candidates on electronic voting machines, looking for which button to press, we can safely assume that party symbols will catch their attention before they can read the names of people in the fray. In many cases, that will be the only cue needed for a vote to be cast.
The use of easy-to-identify symbols goes back to India’s early years of low literacy. While over three-fourths of all adults are now classified as literate, the value of these symbols has not diminished. It may even have gone up in recent elections marked by the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), given that many electors see a vote for the ruling party as a vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
For such voters, spotting the BJP’s lotus symbol on ballots is what matters. The same advantage may also work for opposition parties. The Congress’s hand symbol, for example, could also attract votes by means of a visual cue, without names needing to be read.
Symbol salience is the equivalent of brand recognition, clearly, which explains the prominence given to these icons in party publicity material. As with all symbols, though, the symbolism of party insignia is also open to interpretation. The BJP’s lotus offers vast scope for a semiotic study.
As a flower, it can cue thoughts of a bloom in fortunes, for example, which squares rather well with its campaign theme of development and aim of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) by 2047. As a particular type of flower, known for sprouting rapidly across a pond of water once it takes root, it also evokes a sense of expansion. Comments on the party’s
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