When a government official first came to Hotasar in western India, the villagers shooed him away. He had come to tell them an engineer was on his way and the village would get its first electric light bulb within months. “Bring light? To Hotasar? It’s impossible,” they told him. Others had promised the same, but plans to electrify the village had repeatedly failed.

Hotasar, a small village of about 200 people in the Rajasthani desert, is very difficult to reach. In April last year, it was one of 18,452 Indian villages without electricity. In the past few months, that number has fallen to 12,100 under a flagship programme launched by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Despite protests from environmentalists, who say extending coal-powered electricity to India’s 400 million energy-poor people will cause enormous environmental damage, the ministry of power has pressed on with Modi’s ambitious plan. Last week, India’s state-owned oil companies purchased major stakes in Russian oil and gas fields, amid fears that the electrification plan could trigger more energy shortages as demand explodes.

The last census, in 2011, showed that 75 million households in India were still living by candlelight. Under the country’s new electrification plan, every village will have 24-hour access to electricity.

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Akbar Pardeshi bought a television two weeks before electricity was due to come to his village. “It’s been sitting in my house for the last 15 days,” he says. “All the villagers put their money together so we could buy one second-hand.”

I arrive at the Pardeshis’ home just as the sun dips below the horizon, the night before the power company switches on their lights. Villagers walked for miles to greet me. Hotasar has never experienced electricity before. Some people have visited nearby towns and seen light bulbs and appliances, but few seem to grasp how exactly it works.

A rumour seems to have spread that the light will come when the lady from the city arrives. “We heard you were bringing light to the village,” one villager says to me. “Have you got it with you in your bag?” asks another.

Hussein, Akbar’s younger brother, tells me he dropped out of school after reaching year 5 because there was no light at home. “I failed two, maybe three times, because I would come home and there was no light to read the books. Then, eventually, my dad said, ‘What’s the point of going to school if you keep failing?’”

Going to the bathroom is a particular challenge, 10-year-old Katubai tells me as she shows me my bed. “We have to go in the open,” she says. “It’s scary. Sometimes there are animals, like snakes or dogs.” Female villagers in India are vulnerable to attacks and sexual violence in such circumstances.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A girl studies by candlelight in Phillaur. The government wants all India’s villages to have electricity within two years. Photograph: Shammi Mehra/AFP/Getty Images

The Pardeshis’ first mobile phone came in 2010. The villagers gathered in the courtyard of the family’s home; pressing buttons, turning it over, they tried to understand how it worked. Now almost everyone in the village has one, though sometimes the signal is so bad, they have to climb trees to hear a voice.

Hussein shows me how the family charge their phones. He doesn’t know quite how it works, but he knows that it stops working if there are clouds in the sky. “Our mobile phones get energy from the sun,” he explains.

All the villagers have similar solar panels in their homes. They were handed out by the government, but can’t do much more than charge a phone or a small torch battery.

Despite India’s economic boom, a succession of governments have failed to develop basic infrastructure and welfare programmes. It means that while many people can afford phones and cars, they still don’t have basic facilities such as toilets or electricity. Previous governments have attempted 12 electrification programmes in rural India; none has succeeded in lighting up Hotasar or similar villages.

Vishal Singh, a government official responsible for overseeing the electrification programme in 126 villages in the wider Jaisalmer district, says: “There were no maps, landmarks or boundaries here. We went out into the field ourselves and marked out the areas that needed electrifying.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man and child sit beneath a light powered by energy from a solar power microgrid in Dharnai, Bihar. Photograph: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

He takes me to a household a few kilometres off the road, in the desert. “There are only a handful of people living here,” he says, “and we’ve gone out of our way to make sure that no corner of the country is left without power.”

On the day the electricity is scheduled to start, the Pardeshis talk about what they’ll purchase for their house. “We’ve got to buy a fridge and an air conditioner,” says Hussein.

“We should build a proper house,” volunteers Akbar, his brother.

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The Pardeshis’ grandfathers and great-grandfathers grew up in this house made of sand and straw. As with many of Hotasar’s villagers, the family are nomads and rotate between homes as the climate changes. With electrification, however, aspirations to stay in one place could finally become reality, transforming their way of life. Some villagers have already started building brick and concrete homes in anticipation of electric power. “In 10 years this whole village is going to look like a city,” Hussein says.

Vinod Sharma, a project manager from the electricity company that has the contract for the Jaisalmer region, says: “The government is backing us properly this time. Other plans got delayed in the past because there wasn’t real will or commitment. Now, if I make one phone call for materials, they’ll arrive here the next day. They’ve set targets and if we don’t meet them, the company pays a fine. So we’re working as fast as we can.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A village near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India. Photograph: Alamy

As the sun sets, the waiting finally comes to an end. The electrical engineer, Mojeem Khan, turns on the first light bulb. A small cheer erupts from the small crowd, and sweets are distributed. A set of Christmas lights comes, changing from green to blue to white. The boys run to the sockets to charge their phones.

The TV comes on and men gather around, flicking from channel to channel: a Punjabi comedy, a Bollywood film from the 90s, the news. “We’re going to sit here and watch TV all night,” one of the neighbours says.

Lalibai, in her early 20s, stays outside her bedroom staring at the light. “I’m feeling scared of the light bulb,” she says. “I’ve never seen it before.”

Singh says many villagers have similar reactions. “Before we set up any electricity poles, our first job is telling people how electricity will help them. Many of them think the bulbs will electrocute them or start fires. They used to tell us to go away – they thought the electricity would destroy their homes.”

Taiji, the oldest member of the household, who can’t see in the dark, happily touches the faces of the girls sat at her feet in the courtyard. “I can see you all now,” she says.

Khan, the electrical engineer, stands outside the courtyard of the house. “I love my job,” he says, watching the villagers celebrate.