Present a sociological review on the ‘new middle class’. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- A new middle class has emerged throughout the world, which is unique in the sense that it is marked by the individual’s capacity to consume global iconic objects, renowned sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander has said. The new concept of this class is characterised not by its participation in the production process but by its capacity to consume.
- The emergence of the new middle class is an interesting development in the era of economic liberalization in India. In a celebrated study of the Indian middle classes, B.B. Mishra has suggested that the members of the educated professions, such as government servants, lawyers, college teachers and doctors, primarily constituted the bulk of the Indian middle classes. He also included the body of merchants, agents of modern trading firms, salaried executives in banking and trading, and the middle grades of peasant proprietors and renters under this category. This notion of the middle class has continued for years for the purpose of examining the role of the middle class in contemporary India.
- It has been argued that in the early years of the Independence material pursuits of the middle class were subsumed in a broader ethical and moral responsibility to the nation as a whole.A restraint on materialistic exhibition in a poor country was the ideal reflector in the character of the middle class.
- Changes have, however, occurred in the basic character of this class. Pawan Varma, for example, in his book The Great Indian Middle Class has initiated a significant debate on the declining social responsibility of the Indian middle class. It is in this context, that the idea of new middle class has been made popular in India.
- The current culture of consumerism has given rise to the new middle class. The economic liberalization initiated in India in the 1990s portrays the middle class as a sizeable market which has attracted the Multinational Corporations (MNCs), images of the urban middle class in the print media and television contribute to the prevalence of images of an affluent consumer.
- The spread of the consumer item such as cell phones, cars, washing machines and colour televisions has also consolidated the image of a new middle class culture. Advertising images has further contributed to perception.
- The new middle class has left behind its dependence on austerity and state protection. The newness of the middle class rests on its embrace of social practices of taste and consumption and a new cultural standard Thus, the “newness” of middle class involves adoption of a new ideology rather than a shift in the social basis of India’s middle class.
- Critics of this new middle class have pointed out the negative effects that middle class consumerism holds in the terms of environmental degradation and growing indifference towards socioeconomic problems of the country. However, proponents of liberalization have projected this new middle class as an idealized standard for a globalizing India.
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