Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a rare defeat last week after a bill to reserve one-third of seats in the lower house of parliament for women failed to get enough support.

The bill was paired with another piece of legislation that would have set in motion the process of redrawing India’s electoral map, increasing the size of the lower house from the current 543 seats to as many as 850.

Women currently comprise about 14% of the Lok Sabha (the lower house). The Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organisation of national parliaments, ranks India 147th in the world in terms of women’s representation.

The idea of reserving seats for women in parliament has enjoyed broad support across Indian politics, but its implementation has always met with problems.

This time, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to fast-track the bill while bundling it with the other bill to redraw parliamentary districts based on population – and the opposition baulked. It claimed the former was a Trojan horse to smuggle in the latter.

Why is redistricting so problematic?

That redistricting process, known as delimitation, was originally intended to ensure each citizen’s vote carried roughly equal weight. However, it has been a highly charged........

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