The ‘new middle class’ in India is upwardly mobile, educated mostly in English and works in professional, technical and/or managerial careers. It is connected to global networks of consumption, consuming global brands and aspiring toward lifestyles of conspicuous consumption. The identity of this class is defined by its participation in global commodity chains. The market defines the identity of the middle class, as a site of identity formation, expression and aspiration. Also salient within the new middle class are several strata, The hightest stratum is occupied by the white collar corporate mid-tohigh level managers who actively participate in transnational capitalism. What connects these various groups in the elite class is a common vision of the nation-state narrated in the miracle of the market. The articulation of the market as the centre of India’s economic growth and development is the overarching anchor for the various discourses of the policy-making and implementation. The middle class in India make up a segment of India’s elite. They participate in the consumption culture of India. This culture is enabled by rapid reforms and punctuated in the rise of urban hubs of belonging. Belonging in this is recrafted in the story of consumption and lifestyles. Here consumption is equated to development and modernisation.
The new middle class in India is hugely active in:
