India’s New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform

Since the 1990s, the middle class in India has been substantially transformed in size and character. This educated workforce–commonly thought to be between 325 to 350 million–now threatens its counterparts in the US and Europe. The new middle class is shaping contemporary politics in India in distinctive ways, symbolizing the emergence of a wider national political culture hinged on an identity based on consumption. This study marks a departure from existing studies on the middle class that have either focused on estimating its size or approached it through the lens of consumption. Fernandes analyses the political processes that have linked the middle class to consumption and given it a pro-liberalization orientation. It then moves beyond these connections to examine the internal differentiations within this class, thereby challenging the thesis that the middle class benefits uniformly from the policies of economic liberalization. Fernandes argues that such an analysis deepens our understanding of the political dynamics of economic reforms. According to her, this middle class is not ‘new’ in terms of its structural or social basis. Rather, its newness refers to the production of a distinctive social and political identity that represents and lays claims to the benefits of liberalization. Simultaneously, the construction of this social group rests on the assumption that other social segments can potentially join it. This creates conflicts between those who constitutes this group and those who aspire to be a part of it. This book demonstrates that the anxieties, responses, and practices that these fissures produce, constitute the daily substance of contemporary democratic politics. Based on quantitative data, archival and secondary sources, and qualitative interviews, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political economics, and globalization studies.