Middle-Class Values in India and Western Europe

Middle-class Values in India and Western Europe discusses the distinctive attributes of the middle classes in France, Germany and India. The construction of new norms of respectability is a universal feature of the middles classes, though their rhetoric has varied in different societies. Drawing on historical experiences in both western Europe and colonial India, the contributors to this volume try to understand the common inheritance of these newly emerging middle classes and the social and political impact they have had on their societies of origin. Each study is based on detailed research and combines both theoretical and empirical material. The book is divide into three sections. The first section, ‘The Rise of the Middle Class in India and Western Europe’ has three chapters and they dwell on the middle class and secularization; the middle classes in twentieth-century India; and the values of the middle classes in Germany. The second section, ‘Class Formation in the Twentieth Century’ contains four essays which discuss the character of the Indian middle class; middle-class values and the creation of a civil society; the ‘Grand Ecoles’ in France; and the changing social structure of the German society and the transformation of the German bourgeois culture. The last section, ‘Values and Orientations’ consists of five papers on the Indian middle class and explore the cultural construction of gender in urban India; the Dalit middle class; the political orientation of the middle classes; the politics of the middle classes and their shifting class values.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction The Rise of the Middle Class in India & Western Europe 1. Middle Class and Secularization: The Muslims of Delhi in the Nineteenth Century 2. Merchants, Entrepreneurs and the Middle Class in the Twentieth Century 3. ‘Bürgertum’ and ‘Bürgerlichkeit’: A class and its Values Class Formation in the Twentieth Century 4. The Social Character of the Indian Middle Class 5. Middle-class Values and the Creation of a Civil Society 6. The ‘Grandes Ecoles’ in France: from Republican to Meritocracy to Noblesse d’Etat 7. The Changing Structure of German Society and the Transformation of German Bourgeois Culture Values and Orientations 8. Middle-class Formation and the Cultural Construction of Gender in Urban India 9. Dalit Middle Class Hangs in the Air 10. Changing Political Orientations of the Middle Classes in India 11. Politics of India’s Middle Classes 12. Middle-class Values and the Changing Indian Entrepreneur

About the Author :
Imtiaz Ahmad is former Professor of Political Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Helmut Reifeld is India representative at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, New Delhi.