The rise of India’s new middle class
With a month to go before the results of India’s elections are announced, Sam Bowers takes a look at the country’s newest demographic — its growing middle class.
India’s vivacity and dynamism are undeniable from the moment you arrive. Following economic reforms in the early 1990s, the country has undergone enormous growth and witnessed incredible changes. One of the most noticeable has been the growth of the “new” middle class. Estimates and definitions of its size vary greatly, but some predict that it could make up around 40% of the population in the next decade.
Although it may be vast, India’s middle class is far from homogenous. Using it as a votebank presents politicians with a challenge. Much of the current election talk focuses on pro-poor policies, yet there are also plenty of promises of prosperity, which especially appeals to the middle classes.
The opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (currently chief minister of Gujarat state) may be controversial for his accused role in 2002’s Gujarat riots that left over 1,000 dead, but he is better known for his hand in his state’s economic growth, something which he promises to bring to the rest of India. His use of social media in the run-up to the election was widely publicised, and while I do not agree with his Hindu nationalist politics, his innovation in communication is easily reaching the middle classes, and may put his party well ahead of others in the race for votes — especially from its well-off youth.
Cath Kidston, Waitrose, farmers’ markets: just a few things we might associate with being middle class in contemporary Britain. Of course, in India it’s a little different, and status symbols range from owning a television to driving a new Mercedes, yet both are based on patterns of consumption. This is something that makes this middle class new, that they are distinct from the previous generation, who were groomed by the British colonial administration to be middlemen between the ruling power and the “unwashed masses”.
The character of this new middle class and its globalisation-bred blend of western and Indian values is constantly debated. Supporters portray them as a large, attractive market for foreign investment, and symbols of growth that can exercise choice through consumption — something easily visible in the constant throng of customers in any McDonald’s. Others highlight the negative social and cultural effects of consumerism and the vulnerability bred by constructed values. The new middle class is a group that reflects a social standard associated with globalisation, and is prominent in public and political notions of what others should aspire to.
Too little attention has been paid to the middle classes beyond consumption. With newfound affluence and growth also come risk and pressure. An ever-rising and demanding population threatens to overwhelm India’s already fragile and stressed public services. Type II diabetes and lifestyle-related illnesses also jeopardise the position of many in this new middle class (one can’t help but notice that most men have at least a little paunch). More sedentary lifestyles (office jobs, for example) and a taste for fast-food is leading to the need for more spending on healthcare, something which is becoming both a signifier of this new social stratum, and an expense that pushes many back into poverty.
The darker side of this new middle class comes in its identity politics. There has been a declining social responsibility of the Indian middle class and its gradual abdication of a broader responsibility to poorer people. Something key to their identity is forgetting about and distancing themselves from the working class. We’re used to seeing pictures from cities across the developing world of skyscrapers next to shanty towns, illustrating the huge inequality between rich and poor, but this phenomenon is becoming increasingly common lower down in the social hierarchy. You don’t have to stray far from any middle class colony to find a slum (in fact, I can see one from the roof of my house as I write this). After all, the people who do the jobs the middle class have risen above still need to live nearby.
Identity therefore is becoming not just about what the middle classes buy, but also how they differ from and exclude other classes. High-rises and colonies may have immaculate interiors and driveways, but you can almost guarantee that there will be a heap of festering garbage on a patch of wasteland nearby. It is also vital to make sure that others know if you’re middle class. Go to any shopping mall and you will find numerous young men posing for photos with sunglasses, one hand on their hip, the other on the chin, pouting before a snazzy backdrop to use online.
While this is happening in a distinctly Indian way, is it really so different from how the British middle class functions? Recently we have witnessed the demonisation of the working classes in the UK, who are seen by the middle classes as an homogenous group of chavs and benefit fraudsters. Politicians tell us that the middle classes are the “hard-working people”. Ultimately the politics of India’s newly prosperous class are defined by distinction and forgetfulness, and are all too familiar.
Originally published at abstractmag.com on April 15, 2014.
