The Indian middle class has grown rapidly over recent years, and constitutes a significant proportion of the global workforce, as well as a substantial market for consumer goods, given India’s status as one of the most populous countries in the world. However, the growth of India’s middle class is not merely an economic phenomenon. This volume, containing nineteen essays, an editorial introduction, and a foreword by Lord Meghnad Desai, therefore examines the role of the Indian middle class in the country’s economic development, as well as in social, cultural and political change. The Trajectory of India’s Middle Class brings together diverse lines of thought on the relationship of the middle class with society, the economy and the state during the colonial, post-colonial and current eras. It investigates the middle class’ complex role in political democracy and governance by examining how it interacts with the state, influences the market, and dominates political articulations and social relationships. The volume also focuses specifically on the social, political and economic articulation of the middle class with regard to historically marginalized social groups such as the Dalits, the tribal communities, and the religious minorities. This book will be of interest to economists, political scientists, sociologists, social anthropologists and historians, as well as to specialists in current affairs.

Who exactly are the middle classes in India? What role do they play in contemporary Indian politics and society, and what are their historical and cultural moorings? The authors of this volume argue that the middle class has largely been understood as an ‘income/ economic category’, but the term has a broader social and conceptual history, globally as well as in India. To begin with, the middle class is not a homogeneous category but is shaped by specific colonial and post-colonial experiences and is differentiated by caste, ethnicity, region, religion, and gender locations. These socio-economic differentiations shape its politics and culture and become the basis of internal conflicts, contestations, and divergent political worldviews. The authors demonstrate how the middle class has acquired a certain legitimacy to speak on behalf of the society as a whole, despite its politics being inherently exclusionary, as it tries to protect its own interests. Further, perceived as an aspirational category, the middle class has a seductive charm for the lower classes, who struggle to shift to this ever elusive social location.

It explores the formation of India's rural middle class, which rests on a complex, and often contradictory, set of processes that began unfolding with growing industrialisation in rural areas. It examines its composition, characteristics and social identification from the perspectives of three major class theorists: Marx, Weber and Bourdieu.

Long plagued by poverty, India's recent economic growth has vaulted it into the ranks of the world's emerging powers-but what kind of power it wants to be remains a mystery. Cautious Superpower explains why India behaves the way it does, and the role it is likely to play globally as its prominence grows. --

Today India's middle class numbers more than 250 million people and is growing rapidly. Public reports have focused mainly on the emerging group's consumer potential, while global views of India's new economy range from excitement about market prospects to anxieties over outsourcing of service sector jobs. Yet the consequences of India's economic liberalization and the expansion of the middle class have transformed Indian culture and politics. In India's New Middle Class, Leela Fernandes digs into the implications of this growth and uncovers--in the media, in electoral politics, and on the streets of urban neighborhoods--the complex politics of caste, religion, and gender that shape this rising population. Using rich ethnographic data, she reveals how the middle class represents the political construction of a social group and how it operates as a proponent of economic democratization. Delineating the tension between consumer culture and outsourcing, Fernandes also examines the roots of India's middle class and its employment patterns, including shifting skill sets and labor market restructuring. Through this close look at the country's recent history and reforms, Fernandes develops an original theoretical approach to the nature of politics and class formation in an era of globalization.In this sophisticated analysis of the dynamics of an economic and political group in the making, Fernandes moves beyond reductionist images of India's new middle class to bring to light the group's social complexity and profound influence on politics in India and beyond.Leela Fernandes is associate professor of political science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

In This Powerful And Insightful Critique, The Author Examines The Evolution Of The Indian Middle Class During The Twentieth Century, Especially Since Independence.

Images of religious extremism and violence in Pakistan—and the narratives that interpret them—inform global events but also twist back to shape local class politics. Ammara Maqsood focuses on life in Lahore, where she untangles these narratives to show how central they are for understanding competition between middle-class groups.