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.

This volume explores the emergence, evolution and definition of the middle class in India. As a class created as the interpreters between the colonial rulers and the millions whom they governed in the pre-Independence era, the Indian middle class has existed in congruence with the state, occupying vital positions in state administration. Since Independence, this middle class underwent major sociological change as they live independent of the state, which affected their social, economic and political position, reaping benefits of liberalisation and globalisation through education and employment. An otherwise internally differentiated and heterogeneous group, the new Indian middle class often unifies itself to shape socio-political discourse that affects politics and policymaking, from domestic to international affairs. This volume analyses this class phenomenon through a close study of a new metropolitan middle class in India – the software professionals, emblematic of the 'new India’. It discusses this emerging class as a political category and their engagements with the state, democracy, political parties, issues of gender, basic necessities and social justice. Further, it discusses their social action and ‘middle class activism’ for issues such as environment, cleanliness and corruption, particularly highlighting its presence in the private sector and electronic media. A fresh perspective on India’s political milieu, this volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, modern Indian history, political science, economics and South Asia studies.

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.

Indian Politics and Political Processes explores the key ideas, foundations, continuities, major shifts and challenges to the state and democracy in modern India. The book presents an in-depth analysis of recent issues and challenges confronting the Indian state and politics. Presenting a comprehensive account of the major trajectories of Indian politics, this book introduces the readers to the existing literature and enables them to think critically about major issues and institutions of politics and democracy. The chapters engage critically with the historical antecedents, major debates, and recent developments. The book also elaborately deals with issues such as populism, religious movements, minority rights, health, and the environment, which are often ignored or side-lined in the available literature on Indian politics and political processes. The book will be useful to the students, teachers and researchers pursuing courses in political science, South Asian Studies, and international/global politics and economics. It will also be an informative read for those interested in contemporary South Asian politics.

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.

This revised and updated new edition of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India concentrates on India as it emerged after the economic reforms and the new economic policy of the 1980s and 1990s and as it develops in the twenty-first century. It presents new developments and advancements in the research literature and includes discussions of the major political change in India since the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. This Handbook contains chapters by the field’s foremost scholars dealing with fundamental issues in India’s current cultural and social transformation. This new edition also contains six new chapters on topics not covered by the first edition, such as changes caused by the Hindu majoritarian political ideology, the Hinduization process in the northeast of India and contemporary Dalit and Adivasi literatures. Following an introduction by the editor, the book is divided into five parts: Part I: Foundation Part II: India and the world Part III: Society, class, caste and gender Part IV: Religion and diversity Part V: Cultural change and innovations Exploring the cultural changes and innovations relating a number of contexts in contemporary India, this Handbook is essential reading for students and scholars interested in Indian and South Asian culture, politics and society.

The first global history of the middle class While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture was by no means exclusive to Europe. The Global Bourgeoisie explores the rise of the middle classes around the world during the age of empire. Bringing together eminent scholars, this landmark essay collection compares middle-class formation in various regions, highlighting differences and similarities, and assesses the extent to which bourgeois growth was tied to the increasing exchange of ideas and goods. The contributors indicate that the middle class was from its very beginning, even in Europe, the result of international connections and entanglements. Essays are grouped into six thematic sections: the political history of middle-class formation, the impact of imperial rule on the colonial middle class, the role of capitalism, the influence of religion, the obstacles to the middle class beyond the Western and colonial world, and, lastly, reflections on the creation of bourgeois cultures and global social history. Placing the establishment of middle-class society into historical context, this book shows how the triumph or destabilization of bourgeois values can shape the liberal world order. The Global Bourgeoisie irrevocably changes the understanding of how an important social class came to be.

This book examines commodity consumption both as an ongoing problem for capital and a complex mediator of the post-Cold War political economy. Comor assesses consumption as a core but contradictory nodal point in contemporary world (dis)order developments arguing that capitalist consumption facilitates efforts to rule through consent.

About the Book MICHIEL BAAS BRINGS ALIVE A WORLD OF MEN SCULPTING BODIES, REDEFINING MASCULINITIES AND CONFRONTING THEIR VULNERABILITIES IN THE GYMS OF URBAN INDIA. The gyms of urban 'new India' are intriguing spaces. While they cater largely to well-off clients, these shiny, modern institutions also hold the promise of upward mobility for the personal trainers who work there. By improving their English, 'upgrading' their dressing style and developing a deeper understanding of the lives of their upmarket customers, they strategise to climb the middle-class ladder. Their lean, muscular bodies—which Bollywood has set the tone for are crucial to this. Diverging from an older masculine ideal represented by pehlwani wrestlers, these bodies not only communicate (sexual) attractiveness, but also professionalism, control and even cosmopolitanism. With the gym aspiring to be a safe space for women, trainers must also find a way to break with the toxic masculinity that dominates life outside. Yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Class barriers are less permeable than they appear. The use of bodily capital to breach them is more fraught with danger than one might anticipate. And the profession is riddled with pitfalls and contradictions. Michiel Baas has spent a decade studying gyms, trainers and bodybuilders, and finds in them a new way to investigate India. He walks us through the homes and workspaces of these men - yes, they are almost all men - to bodybuilding competitions and also into their most intimate worlds of ambitions, desires and struggles. An unusual study of an unusual subject, Baas unveils a fascinating world, hidden in plain sight.