On one of India’s longest train rides, ongoing election divides passengers

 

The 22-car Thirukkural Express appears to be a microcosm of India, carrying passengers from different social groups and religions, with wide-ranging ambitions and grievances.

The 2,900km (1,800-mile) journey from passing  capital New Delhi to Kanyakumari in the south is one of the longest train rides in India, through cities, villages, scrub forests and deep ravines.

The 22-car Thirukkural Express appears to be a microcosm of India, carrying passengers from different social groups and religions and with wide-ranging ambitions and grievances – from migrants crammed into sweltering no-frills cars to well-heeled families luxuriating in air-conditioned sleeper cabins, and everyone in between.

Passengers can also be divided by their politics, a topic at the top of their minds as the world’s most populous country holds its mammoth general election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a rare third term.

India’s economy has grown rapidly under Modi, but the strong-arm tactics he has deployed to push his Hindu-nationalist agenda have sharpened religious divisions in the country of 1.4 billion people – roughly 200 million of whom are Muslim – and raised fears of a slide from secular democracy towards religious autocracy.

Many passengers who bought the cheapest tickets available are domestic migrants. Sitting on steel benches, standing in doorways, or lying on the floor, they travelled between the thriving capital and villages in the countryside, or to other cities, in search of work.

Pardeep Kumar, a bespectacled man who runs a food stall in New Delhi, said the ruling Modi government isn’t doing enough for the poor.

Like millions of Indians scraping by in the informal economy, Kumar has felt the sting of rising food prices. He appreciates the 5kg (11 pounds) of free grains he receives every month from the government, part of a programme to alleviate poverty and help large numbers of the unemployed.

But he would prefer the government focus more on improving education and providing better healthcare.