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India’s New Middle Class Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform Leela Fernandes |
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$67.50 Cloth |
Inside the emergence of India’s rapidly expanding middle class. 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 has written an impressive and ambitious analysis. Her approach is highly nuanced, consistently reminding the reader of the diversity within middle-class experiences and the variety of practices (discursive, civic, consumption) through which a new normative national standard of a consumer-citizen has been costructed. Fernandes has presented a sophisticated, original and imaginative appraisal of Indian middle-class politics, and why they matter.” —Pacific Affairs “India’s New Middle Class is an important book because it gives one an appreciation for the theoretical and empirical complexity involved in defining class in a country like India during this historical moment. It is thus important reading for a sociology of neoliberalism.” —Contemporary Sociology “Leela Fernandes’s work makes an important contribution to the study of middle classes in contemporary India, as well as to the field of comparative political economy in general. If for nothing else, the author deserves applause for this insightful peep into the politics of India’s new middle class. Students of development studies will find the study valuable.” —Development and Change Leela Fernandes is associate professor of political science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. 320 pages | 13 halftones, 1 line art, 9 tables | 5 7⁄8 x 9 | 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Historical Roots of the New Middle Class Conclusion |
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$22.50 Paper