No apathy for politics among the Indian electorate

This factoid from an article on Six myths about Indian elections on the BBC News website was an interesting eye opener:

In advanced democracies, as you come down the various tiers - from national to local elections - the turnout of voters goes down.

In India, it is exactly the opposite: the turnout in federal elections tends to be around 60%, in the state elections it is around 70% and when it comes to village council elections it is anything upwards of 80%