印度大选再启，那熟悉的紫色印记又成为民众参与的标志。这种特殊的“选民墨水”不仅有效防止舞弊，还成为印度民主实践的独特象征。自1951年起，这种墨水的秘密配方就未曾改变，它见证了一个个历史性的投票时刻，也映射出印度对公平选举的执着追求。

India’s massive, twice-a-decade exercise in democracy is once again leaving its mark on the country’s people, in the form of purple-streaked index fingers.

印度每十年两次的盛大民主实践，再次在该国人民的食指上烙下了紫色的印记。

The Election Commission uses indelible ink, or “voter ink”, to prevent fraud or duplicate votes. Once a voter arrives at the booth to cast their ballot and has their ID verified, the ink is painted across the top of their left index finger, leaving a stain that can take up to two weeks to wash off.

为了确保选举的公正性，防止舞弊或重复投票，印度选举委员会采用了独特的“选民墨水”。选民在通过身份验证并成功投票后，他们的左手食指会被涂上这种特殊墨水，留下的印记可能需要两周的时间才能消退。

It may be rudimentary, but the method has been so effective that it’s been in place for more than seven decades.

尽管这种方法看似简单，但其效果却十分显著，且已沿用超过70年。

“Right from the prime minister to the most common person, everybody flashes their (marked) finger,” said K Mohammed Irfan, managing director of Mysore Varnish and Paints Limited (MVPL), the state-owned company that exclusively makes and distributes the liquid to polling booths across the nation.

印度南部城市迈索尔的国有涂料公司Mysore Paints & Varnish的总经理K Mohammed Irfan表示：“从首相到普通民众，每个人都会展示他们那（标记过的）手指。”这家公司为全国各地的投票站生产和分发这种特殊的液体。

“From celebrities to film stars… (it has become) a mark of democracy that I think is synonymous with elections,” he told CNN in a video interview.

K Mohammed Irfan在接受CNN视频采访时进一步表示：“无论是名人还是电影明星，这已成为民主的标志，我认为它已然成为选举的代名词。”

More than 960 million people are eligible to vote in India’s election, the world’s biggest. And workers at the company’s factory in Mysuru, a city in southwestern Karnataka state, have spent months preparing nearly 2.7 million ink vials, its largest order to date.

印度选举是世界上规模最大的选举，拥有超过9.6亿的合格选民。为了应对这一庞大的需求，该公司位于卡纳塔克邦西南部城市迈苏鲁的工厂员工，耗时数月准备了近270万个墨水瓶，这是他们迄今为止接到的最大订单。

The orange containers were filled and carefully packed for distribution ahead of this year’s elections, which are underway and end June 1. Each vial contains enough liquid to mark approximately 700 voters.

这些橙色的容器被精心装满并包装，以确保在今年的选举结束前（6月1日）能够顺利分发到各地。每个墨水瓶中的液体足够为大约700名选民进行标记。

The key to the ink’s literal staying power? A tightly guarded formula which has remained unchanged since 1951. “Indelible ink serves no other purpose,” said Irfan. “We only manufacture the required quantity.”

那么，这种墨水为何能如此持久不褪色呢？原因在于其自1951年以来一直保持不变的严格保密配方。Irfan解释道：“这种不灭墨水没有其他用途，我们仅根据需求生产相应的数量。”

While Irfan says the company is “bound to secrecy” when it comes to the ink’s exact composition, it does contain the chemical compound silver nitrate, which causes a purplish stain when it comes into contact with skin and is exposed to sunlight.

尽管Irfan表示公司对墨水的具体成分“负有保密义务”，但他透露其中确实含有硝酸银这种化学物质。当它与皮肤接触并在阳光下暴露时，会产生紫红色的痕迹。

When newly independent India held its first-ever general elections in 1951 and 1952, organizers turned to the idea of using indelible ink to mark voters, in efforts to ensure a fair ballot.

1951年和1952年，新独立的印度迎来了历史上的首次大选。为了确保投票的公正性，组织者决定采用这种不褪色墨水来标记选民。

“In a country where there was no systematic registration of births, or identity documents, and with millions of people on the move as refugees, the question of how to prevent impersonation and double voting was a source of great concern,” said Ornit Shani, author of “How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise.” Some officials thought the method would take too much time and complicate the voting process, according to Shani, but public opinion eventually won out.

《印度如何成为民主国家：公民权与全民选举权的形成》一书的作者Ornit Shani指出：“在一个缺乏系统出生登记或身份证件的国家，数百万人作为难民四处流动，如何防止冒名顶替和重复投票成为了一个重大议题。”尽管一些官员认为这种方法会耗费过多时间并使投票过程复杂化，但公众舆论最终占据了上风。

“Combined with the practice that all voters, irrespective of their caste, class and religions would stand in the same line, (having to wait) for their turn to have their finger marked (before they) cast their vote, further contributed to making concrete and visible the core value of the equality of the vote,” Shani said in an email to CNN. “One man, one woman, one vote.”

沙尼在给CNN的一封电子邮件中表示：“所有选民，无论其种姓、阶级和宗教信仰，都会站在同一条队伍中，等待轮到他们标记手指，这种做法进一步体现了‘一票在手，平等在握’这一核心价值。”

编辑 | ETTBL商务英语翻译