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 ...
In the course of India's transformation to market capitalism, the use of unfree labour has increased dramatically. Hidden behind the glamour of accelerated growth in production, and visible signs of wealth, is the poverty and vulnerability of large segments of rural and urban workers. This volume analyses the historical, social, economic, technical, and political fabric of bondage, while highlighting the continuity between the past and the ...