Last week in an upmarket part of Delhi, where apartments sell for millions of dollars, I came across a household where both the poorly paid staff and the owner had voted for Arvind Kejriwal, the former engineer-turned-politician, who is now the new chief minister of the Delhi capital region — India's most urbanized state.
This was not an unusual sample by any means. The urban poor toiling at the lowest levels of Delhi's economy preferred Kejriwal, as did the affluent class that longs for a technocratic government and a smoother integration into the global economy.
It does indeed seem that a fresh episode in Indian — and Asian — politics began last month with Kejriwal's victory. Rising on a wave of disaffection with the corruption and inefficiency of established political parties, his Aam Aadmi ("Common Man") Party adds an Indian dimension to a worldwide phenomenon: the emergence of external challengers — ranging from Beppe Grillo, a comedian, in Italy to Imran Khan, a sportsman in Pakistan — to entrenched political elites.