The Middle Class in Neo-Urban India [1 ed.] 1032248378, 9781032248370

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The Middle Class in Neo-Urban India

This book critically examines the new middle class and the emergence of neo-urban spaces in India within the context of rapid urbanisation and changing socio-spatial dynamics in urban areas in the country. It looks at class as a socio-spatial category where class distinction is tied to and manifests itself through the space of the city. With a detailed ethnographic study of the national capital region of Delhi, especially Gurugram, it explores themes such as class subjectivity, morality and social beliefs; life inside gated enclaves; family and everyday practices of class reproduction; and the process of othering and exclusivity, among others. Class identity, vulnerability and hierarchy influence the actions and motivations of the middle class. The author studies the nuances and socio-political fractures stemming from the complex dynamic of class, caste, religion and gender that manifest in these neo-urban spaces and how these shape the city and community. Rich in empirical resources, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, ethnography, urban sociology, urban studies and South Asian studies. Smriti Singh is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and associated with The Urban Research Lab at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology–Delhi (IIITD), India. She has earned her doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She is a Fulbright-Nehru scholar (2015–2016). Her research focuses on questions of Urban space, community, and identity.

The Middle Class in Neo-Urban India

Space, Class and Distinction

Smriti Singh

First published 2024 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 Smriti Singh The right of Smriti Singh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-24837-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-59477-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-45486-1 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

To Maa, who has taught me how to walk, how to walk tall and how to keep walking. And Aru, the source of all my strength and weakness

Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Introduction

viii ix xi 1

1 Intersection of Class and Space

27

2 Distinction, Othering and Exclusivity

65

3 Constructions of Self and Identification

100

4 Cosmopolitan Subjectivity, Morality and Social Beliefs

131

5 Family and Everyday Practices of Class Reproduction

164



Conclusion: Towards Socio-spatiality of Class

211

Bibliography Annexure I Respondent Profile Index

234 258 262

Illustrations

Maps 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Growth of city: urbanisation through decades.  Changing administrative spread in Gurgaon.  Gurgaon district map, showing original villages that have since been urbanised Gurgaon district map (detailed)

38 40 44 46

Images 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10

RWA Notice inside Gated Enclave RWA Notice at Gated Enclave Entrance Playhouse inside Gated Enclave Tennis Court inside Gated Enclave Private paved streets inside gated enclaves Security screening at the entrance to a gated enclave Visitor’s gatepass issued at the entrance of the gated enclave Intercom at the building entrance in a gated enclave Camera outside the door of a residence Facility management services maintain the premises of gated enclaves

70 71 76 76 77 79 79 82 83 89

Preface

“It is never about the obvious things . . . the inlays show what they (people and fake branded bags) truly are”. —Respondent.tx1

I see proliferation of ethnographies on the Indian middle class as one of the effects of post-liberalisation in India. Post-liberalisation middle class was seen as a disjuncture in scholarly discourses on middle class. Scholars agreed there was something that set the new Indian middle class apart from the post-independence Nehruvian middle class or colonial middle class. Market and consumption became the default frameworks for understanding the changed character of the middle class, and so, this work began as an attempt to do an ethnography of the middle class in the millennium city–Gurugram. Gurugram was finalized as the field site for the study because it was being heralded as the champion of post-liberalisation opening up of markets. It was celebrated as the first Indian city that was truly global. The work I had undertaken was focused on studying the educational aspiration and practices of the new middle class in Gurugram. However, fieldwork considerably shifted the idea from being about studying a group that has been defined to studying the ways in which the group was forming and formulating itself. The importance of the city became clearer with every passing day. This was a space that was in flux. Class identity and consciousness was far from finished and finalised unlike what was being highlighted by other works on post-liberalisation middle class in India. It was not something shaped by abstract national discourse uniformly either. It became clear through the first few months of being in the field that middle-class identity for post-liberalisation middle class was tied to the fractures produced by the interaction of global circuits of capital with national, regional and local dynamics. Space became integral to understanding the contextual character of the post-liberalisation middle class. The book contains insights based on the responses and life-history narratives of respondents, recorded and transcribed with their consent. These interviews along with informant interviews,

x Preface

interactions with HUDA officials on and off the record, documents and participant observation of homes, neighbourhoods and city helped build the insights. These were further strengthened by informal interactions with guards, people in the old Sadar Bazaar market, Gurugram, in shared autos and other public means of transport in the old city area. The interactions with people centred broadly around the changing landscape of the city and its disparity. The respondents were approached through snowballing from personal networks and online solicitation through social media. Nobody in an immediate social circle has been included in the sample. The criterion for identifying the sample was that the individuals identify themselves as middle class and live in gated enclaves. Interviews happened in a variety of settings. Homes were the most preferred place, but interviews also were taken in and around parks and recreational areas of the gated society and other places like café and/or, in odd cases, places of work. Since homes were important sites, at least one of all interactions happened at the homes of the respondents. Even though the sample remained limited, the depth of the data allowed for insights to be developed with some confidence. Given the depth of the data, the patterns could not be dismissed as spontaneous or fleeting. The book does not contain actual names, and all identifying information has been removed or changed to protect the privacy of my respondents. The urban form and its inherent fractures are critical to understanding class distinctions among the post-liberalisation middle class. What this book hopes to highlight is how the axis of distinction for the middle class is not random or spontaneous. The axis of distinction draws upon existing habitus accumulated through generations and the specific fractures it encounters contextually and temporally. The dominating “upper” castes (savarna) diversified their capital and land entitlements for preferential access to education and opportunities emanating from it. However, in the context of Gurugram, where a majority of them arrived as migrants (without a foothold or land entitlements), they found themselves competing with those who had a stronger claim to land and comparable material means. Given the comparability of other axes, the only viable axis of distinction remained “embodied capital”, urban sophisticated-ness and education, which became the axes of distinction for the migrant middle class in Gurugram. What this finding has the potential to shape is more invested research into contextual dynamics that shape class distinction and inter-class relations across different contexts. It opens up the possibility of studying the performance of new middle-­classness as contextually and temporally embedded—as responsive to the specific contexts in which it emerges or gets embedded. As time progresses, perhaps the two contesting groups will incorporate some elements of the other. This book is the product of five years of labour and almost a decade of dialogues punctuated by meditations. The insights and analysis recorded here should be seen as a trigger to think ahead and beyond in explorations of class in South Asia and other similar contexts.

Acknowledgements

This book is a product of scholarly labour but also of meditation, rumination, deliberation and a lot of doing nothing. If not for this book, I would not have appreciated the importance of taking time, silences and pauses when doing scholarly work. As for the dialogues and deliberations that have enriched this work, I owe my heartfelt gratitude to a village of people, all of whom have contributed to the publication of this book in various ways and in different capacities. First and foremost, I am thankful to all my respondents who have so generously agreed to welcome me into their homes and lives. The long duration of interviews and life narratives has brought to me so many stories that I cherish and draw strength from. Among those that must be thanked foremost is my supervisor Prof S. Srinivasa Rao, ZHCES, JNU, who has been generous, kind, yet uncompromising with his demand for excellence. He has consistently provided the much-needed guidance in direction and pace, without which this research would languish. I would like to extend my deepest regard to the library staff at Central Library, JNU; Library, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies; Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan, University Library at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, and IIITD Library for their support. In extension, I would also like to express my gratitude to IIITD, Delhi, for the institutional and research support, without which it would be difficult to imagine this book in its present form. I would also like to thank the staff and officials at HUDA and TCP offices, Gurugram, for their support and help. I owe thanks to all my informants: Ashutosh Dixit, CEO United Residents Joint Action, Dr Laveesh Bhandari, Indicus Analytics Pvt. Ltd., Mrs Latika Thukral, co-founder iamgurgaon, Mr  Dinesh Khanna, independent photographer, who agreed to meet me and help me understand the peculiarities of the city and its development. I  would in continuation like to thank Mr ­Narendra Kumar, Assistant Town Planner, HUDA, Mr Sanjey Roy, S­ enior Vice-­President, DLF Ltd., Mr Rajeev Talwar, Managing Director, DLF Ltd., Mr Jayant Erickson, and General Manager Business Development, DLF Ltd., for sharing their knowledge and helping me gain a better understanding of the story of Gurugram.

xii Acknowledgements

I am also thankful to Dr  Gayatri Nair for pushing me to take the first steps in getting this work published and also helping me initiate the process. I cannot imagine this book to have taken the shape it has taken if it were not for Dr  Praveen Priyadarshi, who has helped sharpen the insights with his wise questions and discussions over generously funded tea. I would further extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr Manohar and Titiksha Shukla, who have been a constant source of support, love and grounded scholarly deliberations. I owe gratitude to my first-ever copy editor and general troubleshooting expert Arnab Majumdar, who generously agreed to help proofread my thesis draft and help with Photoshop edits at embarrassingly short notice. This list cannot be complete without a mention of Dr Sankha S. Basu, without whose wisdom and humour, this project would have succumbed to my anxiety, stubborn self-doubt and extremely badly timed existential crises. Lastly, I  owe my heartfelt gratitude to Malyaj, who has been a source of strength, support and comfort. He has helped sharpen the arguments with his unrelenting and sincere provocations and questions. His cognitive, emotional and physical labour has supported my scholarly work over the past eight years, and I  cannot thank him enough for the way he lovingly labours for us and our child day after day. In the same vein, I must thank all the women whose labour has allowed me the luxury of time to engage in research and writing alongside domestic and childcare responsibilities. I am deeply indebted to my mother, who inspires strength, courage and perseverance. She has taken her crushed dream of getting a university education and used it as fuel for the dreams and ambitions of her daughters. I must also acknowledge, in this moment of validation, the invisible advantage of my caste entitlements, which have come at the cost of labour and suffering of people I would never know; and have in more ways than one made this feat possible.

Introduction

I stand in front of tall yet minimalistic, grey electronic gates flanked by high walls on either side, running as far as my eyes can see. Trees are lined up on the other side of the street, which seems like the boundary wall of a different property. An intercom is installed where the gate meets the boundary wall on one side. It is at the end of an extended steel appendage protruding outwards from the guard room. I press the button labelled “security” on the intercom and wait. The guardhouse looks like a cemented box with a single sliding window for interface with outsiders. A  voice through the intercom asks me what I want. I start speaking and am interrupted by the voice that reminds me to press the mic button while I  speak when I  notice a camera positioned directly at me on the wall of the guard house. I follow the instructions and tell the voice that I am meeting someone inside the gated enclave. A uniformed guard appears at the window. He looks at me curiously, perhaps suspiciously, and says that no resident has notified the guards of an impending visit. I give him the flat number, and he takes it and goes inside to make a call from a landline kept on a table on the other side. I can look through the window that the guard room opens inside the compound of the gated enclave and has an electric fan and a desert cooler, which is running, a chair and table next to a wall and a couch. The street outside is narrow. It runs along the length of the front wall and merges into the road outside with more traffic bustle. The guard returns, says that my visit has been confirmed, and presses a button that makes the electric doors slide. I  enter the compound and am faced with a tall glass façade of a building with broad balconies overlooking the empty space near the entrance, where I stood. I asked the guard if all expected visits were to be notified in advance. He said, “that or we ask for the flat details and take the vehicle number. Nobody come through this gate on foot”. “Is there another gate?” I ask out of curiosity, imagining that I  have mistakenly appeared at a gate meant for vehicle entries. The guard stretches his left arm wide and says, “That side. It is a smaller gate that is closer for those coming in to work from the slums nearby”. I  finished the day’s interactions with the respondent that day and greeted the guard DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-1

2 Introduction

before leaving. I returned back to the enclave a few more times to talk to the respondent, each time on foot. The guard’s suspicion has eased, but he still seems bemused whenever he spots me. On one occasion, after about a 2-hour-long interaction (all interactions lasted about 2–2.5 hours) with the respondent, I made my way to the gates again to be greeted by the same guard again. He waits for a little before inquisitively asking, “What is the purpose of your visits?” followed without waiting for my response with, “Are you a masseuse?” It was clear that to his observational gaze, my classed and gendered body was at odds with the manner in which it should have reached these gates. In retrospect, I realised that the wide gates were flanked by an intercom system that looked like it was the right height for it to be accessed from the car’s driver’s seat. This is not the first time I have been interrupted for being “on foot”. The entitled tone of the guards is also not new and, at this point, familiar. The scepticism of guards, as one respondent highlighted in a different incident, comes from the guards thinking, “you’re not one of these people”. You’re a class-other or at least a “misfit”. It became clear that my walking was symptomatic of my conflicted socio-spatial class identity. I was failing at performing class in spatially and contextually relevant ways. It was clear that my classed and gendered body was at odds with the codes of existing and accessing the space of this city and neighbourhood. Walking was clearly not the order of being middle class in New ­Gurugram. New Gurugram defined a way of being a middle class that my Delhi middleclass upbringing couldn’t match, despite Gurugram being presented as an extension of Delhi. Walking on the long stretch roads of Gurugram positioned me most definitively as a class-other in this space—as someone unfamiliar with the ways to be a middle-class woman. This observation positioned class practices firmly outside of mere objective markers of class and suggested that class culture and class practices may be spatial. Embodying objective markers of class can position one as near belonging but not as an “insider”; my fieldwork dawned upon me the realisation that there were spatially appropriate ways of performing class. Near-belongingness to a class marker may perhaps position one as “not underclass”, but clearly, there are ways of doing class that the local population of the middle class has come to define and be defined by. The story is not about cultural practices of class that are spatially relevant, nor is it about spatially mapping a culture that defines class; the story is one of space shaping that culture and being shaped by it. The fact that I did not fit neatly into the middle class in Gurugram despite my middle-class upbringing became sociologically significant for me as an urban ethnographer. It raised questions like, if the middle class of one context is different from the middle class of another, what is space’s significance in shaping everyday class cultures? What is the relationship between relational class cultures and space? Can a class be studied as a socio-spatial category in the Indian context? How do space and class shape each other? What does

Introduction 3

the category of space bring to the study of class in the Indian context? These, among many similar questions, have come to define the core focus of this book. Gurugram is one of the many new urban centres on peri-urban fringes that have come to define post-liberalisation India, and this book argues that the story of India’s post-liberalisation urbanisation is the story of India’s post-liberalisation middle class. The Indian Middle Class In India, the difficulties of defining the empirical size and objective boundaries of the middle class are complicated due to the interaction of the middle class with other axes of inequality, like caste, gender, region, religion and language (Vincent and Menon, 2011). Therefore, the economic basis of studying class through the variables of income and assets (material basis) alone does not provide an authentic and justifiable understanding of the changing character of the middle class either (Heiman et al., 2012). The middle class has also been the key to understanding and theorising about democratic politics and liberal economic policies in the Indian context. It is credited with an active role in the anti-colonial movement in the early twentieth century (Sarkar, 1989; Chakrabarty, 2000; Joshi, 2001) and has been the focal point for all discussions surrounding the politics of the masses since the anti-colonial struggle to electoral politics in independent India (­Sangari, 2002; Sarkar, 2001; Deshpande, 2003; Jaffrelot and van der Veer, 2008). In academic discourses, the terminology of “middle class” gained currency in the Indian context through historians who highlighted that the early middle class in the Indian context was a class of people associated with administrative jobs (Sarkar, 1997). The middle class was distinct in that it was neither as entitled as dewans nor directly engaged in manual labour. Similarly, in post-independent India, the middle class came to represent the aspirations of the nation and the vision of Nehruvian leadership (Mazzarella, 2005; Joshi, 2012). Scholars identify this group of people characterised as the public sector middle class, composed of state administration and bureaucracy (Mazzarella, 2005; Rudolph and Rudolph, 1987). This group particularly benefitted from the expansion of state administration and ­public-funded higher education (Rudolph and Rudolph, 1987). The renewed interest in the middle class in the Indian context, as in other developing societies, came about in the light of an “epochal shift” brought by policies of economic liberalisation (Gooptu, 2013). It is believed that the economic liberalisation policies have ushered in a host of changes that have contributed to the character of the emergent middle class. According to Leela Fernandes (2006: p. 90), associated “in structural terms with the expanded ‘new economy’ service sectors and private sector professional workforces”. The new middle class has equally been read in and through its consumption practices (Nijman, 2006; Brosius, 2010; Palackal, 2011; Ganguly-Scrase and

4 Introduction

Scrase, 2008) that are markedly different, credit based but globally oriented as opposed to the consumption practices of the old middle class. Srivastava (2015) and Upadhyay (2011) read ideology through the consumption practices of this new middle class. However, as later scholars argued, consumption, by itself, could not be understood as the defining characteristic of the middle class (Heiman et al., 2012). Scholars studying the middle class in India have also employed the framework that has popularly come to be termed as the cultural turn to class analysis (Dickey, 2000, 2002, 2012). Cultural turn to class analysis centers the Bourdiuesian understanding of culture to the study of social class, giving primacy to symbolic over purely economic relations. Cultural turn to class analysis centers class in terms of differing conditions of existence and dispositions resulting from differences in conditioning and inheritance of capital and power. However, most of such an effort has returned to familiar grounds of consumption by talking about lifestyle in terms of consumption or in relation to occupation (Jaffrelot and van der Veer, 2008; Säävälä, 2010; Radhakrishnan, 2011; Belliappa, 2013). The cultural turn to class analysis in the context of the middle class in India has emphasised systematic and consistent class consciousness that makes someone middle class—in other words, what Radhakrishnan (2009), Donner (2011) and Dickey (2012) refer to as “middle-classness”. Middle-classness is an idea that is understood as a culturally specific position and set of subjectivities articulated through the shifting axes of gender, nation, race, caste, ethnicity and empire (Heiman et al., 2012: p. 7). In extension, middle-classness as a set of subjectivities may relate to what Srivastava (2012) highlights by arguing that “middle classness is a moral and ethical claim to being a specific kind of person” (p. 57). He argues that such a claim has to do nothing with the income and wealth categories but is an act of self-identification with performative quality in that it can construct and perform an identity. Liechty (2003) provides further support for the position. He argues that “the experience of class is bound up in ways of doing and being practice and performance, then the outcome of doing and being- the product of class-cultural practices- is cultural space” (Liechty, 2003: p. 255). The middle class must therefore be situated by way of practices, routines, ideas, values, subjectivities and meanings associated with middle-classness within a cultural space. It is of significance for an urban ethnographer to study how middle-classness is co-constitutive of its context. Most “attempts to measure the middle class are themselves representational practices that have contributed to the creation of symbolic boundaries of the new middle class” (Fernandes, 2006: p.  34). These symbolic ways of identifying and fencing who would be considered middle class reflect an unstated consensus to keep faithful to the traditionally identified variables of education, occupation, income and assets (Wright, 2000). From the above review, it is also clear how one narrative of India’s middle class has been

Introduction 5

dominated by frameworks of occupation, education and assets giving us the popular category of the public sector salaried middle class and the post-­ liberalisation consumerist-nationalist middle class. A  different framework of the political-symbolic lens has allowed for the possibility of classifying middle classes as colonial, Nehruvian and, more recently, new middle class. However, the story of India’s middle class references spatial forms throughout. Each of the major shifts in the character of the middle class has coincided with major shifts in urbanisation in India. Space and its relationship with the middle class appear tangentially in most narratives as references to the context that merely acts as a backdrop. The emergence and character of spatial forms of colonial urban centres, post-independence urban centres and post-liberalisation urban centres could potentially provide a useful lens for understanding the cultural practices of the middle class in India. Among the most notable efforts of a spatialising class has been Mark Liechty (2003), who makes the most compelling case in favour of spatially situating classness. His arguments point to the contextually specific character of class stratification that cannot and must not be compromised by class analysis. Liechty (2003: p.  255) argues that class is a locational idea that requires mapping one’s class and class “others” in geographical and social space. He simultaneously cautions that one must be mindful of the fact that these cultural practices of locating class in effect also produce cultural locations (both conceptual and physical). Such an approach is different from the one taken by Srivastava (2012) and Brosius (2010), who look at how the middle class is performative in its consumption of certain kinds of spatial forms (Akshardham temples, malls, gated enclaves). The existing research in the Indian context, with the exception of Dickey (2000, 2002) and, to some extent, Säävälä (2010), does not attempt to situate the emergent middle class in space. More recently, Aslany (2019) has explored the idea of the rural middle class. Aslany’s work maps class onto a pre-existing context of villages in India. Even when contextually situated, the class has not been studied as co-constitutive of the space. While it is beyond the scope of this book to examine in detail different colonial urban forms (small towns, big cities and villages) and different postindependence urban forms in relation to the cultural practices of the middle classes, this book will focus on the neo-urban (post-liberalisation urban forms) and its co-constitutive relationship with its middle class. Neo-urban India has redefined the ways to be middle class, and a large part of that story lies in the gated enclaves that have come to define middle-class living in these places. Even though many of my respondents reported that this was their first time living in a gated enclave, the space of gated enclaves had come to define middle-classness in the neo-urban cities. At this point, it was clear that spatial forms were defining and were being defined by the class. The question was, why and how did it come to be?

6 Introduction

Urban Form and the Middle Class Urbanisation in the Indian context and its co-constitutive relationship with the middle class is definitely an interesting direction to explore. While it is difficult to provide a precise and specifically accurate historical-­genealogical account of the co-constitutive relationship between the middle class and urbanisation in India, some broad trends can be highlighted to serve the broad argument of this book. From what is known and published about colonial urbanisation, the cities first developed by the British colonial administration had two features that appear distinctly. One, the “native” part of cities and the “white” part of cities and. two, port cities that served as “nerve centres for colonial exploitation”, that is, port centres from where raw materials were shipped to Europe (Kundu, 1983). These urban centres galvanised a nationalistic character of the middle class in colonial India. The first provincial cities acted as intermediaries between hinterlands and Europe. The development of major port cities and basic transportation infrastructure discouraged the development of hinterlands (Kundu, 1983). The port cities were not as strongly connected to rural areas as to the places in Europe. There were other smaller cities that had a longer historical trajectory of urbanisation but came to lack the capitalistic infrastructure that bears continuity with current urban forms, so I  would focus on the main trend despite Kundu (1983) clearly highlighting the existence of secondary urbanisation trends. If one is to consider the ways in which these spaces came to be produced alongside the colonial middle class, one can see how the tensions shaped a colonial middle class. How the middle class in different parts of the city felt about the colonial administration that they could see and interact with so often is not accurately known, but from the broad trends, it appears like the spaces the colonial urban middle class occupied did shape and get shaped by their middle class. Urban colonial centres of the time fostered the most direct contact with European administration, whether as petit bourgeoisie in the native part of the city/oriental Bazar, intelligentsia getting educated at higher education institutions in these cities or officials working at colonial administration. Based on which section of the colonial middle class one considers, historians note that colonial middle class was influenced by either European ideas on and politics of nationalism (its disconnect with hinterlands) or status in a hierarchy which looked down upon hinterlands and those who worked with hands (Sarkar, 1989; Chakrabarty, 2000; Joshi, 2001; Sarkar, 1971). These sections of the colonial middle class were still dominated by upper castes. Urban colonial Indian middle class and their relationship with the colonial administration co-constituted the colonial urban form. It shaped colonial cities into the dual character that they had, the native part of the city and the European part of the city, the unplanned and unstructured, and the planned and structured, respectively, and the duality and contrast shaped the character of the colonial middle class.

Introduction 7

Post-independence urbanisation in India was sluggish, and there were conscious efforts from the newly established Indian state to address stagnating urban growth through large-scale public sector projects. Large-scale public sector projects and industrial townships drove urbanisation in early post-independent India. In existing urban agglomerates, private sector investments dominated the expansion of urbanisation alongside expanding the public sector job sector (Kundu, 1983). Historians have associated the middle class of this period with public sector employment and publicly funded higher education in urban areas (Rudolph and Rudolph, 1987; Joshi, 2012). State-driven urban development and licensing restrictions on trade defined the restrained character of the middle class of this period. The urban form was shaped by the aspirations of an upper-caste middle class that wanted its share in the Nehruvian vision of nationalist modernity through embodying restraint and discipline (Mazzarella, 2005). The dual character of the city did not fade away, and the city was seen as a space that accommodated different, sometimes contrasting, spaces alongside. In addition to planned townships, unplanned middle-class neighbourhoods being regularised were not uncommon. However, the big projects rarely connected with their surrounding areas. Most big industries are produced for national consumption and not local ones. This widened the gap between rural and urban areas. For the urban form and to the urban middle class, the national imagination was a closer reference than the neighbouring areas (Deshpande, 2003). Among the urban middle class, historians have noted that the desire for urban sophistication bred a fondness for English education and a desire to dissociate (even if just posturing) from community-based identities that they’ve associated with a cultural project (Joshi, 2012) of launching “India” to its rightful place. A similar vision was associated with the new urban forms emerging that represented the picture of modern India. The urban form and growing middle class driven by state-led initiatives have reflected the state’s political vision of “India” (Deshpande, 2003). In the absence of a comprehensive account of the relationship between the urban form in independent India and India’s middle class, one can speculate based on the ideological agreement between the urban form in independent India and the middle class that space and identity can be seen as being interlinked. Although the above analysis is a retroactive attempt at relooking the relationship between different phases of urbanisation in relation to different periods of the growth of the “Indian middle class” as co-constitutive, it does argue for a case. The story of the production of Indian urban forms and the Indian middle class could offer an insight into the co-constitutive relationship between space and class. Urbanisation in India since the 1980s has caught a lot of scholarly attention. Scholarship on expanding/transforming the middle class in India has also flourished. These two recent developments in the Indian context have caught the attention of scholars, practitioners and policymakers worldwide.

8 Introduction

Both these developments have been studied individually and independently; however, the relationship between the two has not received scholarly attention so far. Post-liberalisation policies have been linked to both the breakneck pace of urbanisation in India and the expansion/transformation of the middle class. The post-liberalisation middle class has been studied extensively but only vaguely connected to the global circuits of capital and post-liberalisation urbanisation. This work argues that in order to study the post-liberalisation middle class in India, it is essential to spatially situate them in the related post-liberalisation emergence of neo-urban contexts, that is, the peri-urban fringes that have recently become major cities. In light of this, the work focuses on the middle class living in gated enclaves in the “new” Gurugram. This is done with the broad aim of looking at the class as a socio-spatial category, a classness (consciousness/subjectivity) embedded in and contextualised through space. Any transformation of the class then should be contextually situated in the context of space being formulated through the interaction of global networks of flows with local sociospatial dynamics, creating new forms and patterns of inequalities. Gurugram, heralded in the media as the millennium city, epitomised post-liberalisation urbanisation and is also a place where the middle class has been active and, in the fore, to demand active participation in urban restructuring (such as a biodiversity park, amphitheatre, road safety, sanitation and water). Therefore, New Gurugram serves as the perfect setting to study the post-liberalisation middle class. Secondly, it also looks at the post-liberalisation middle class through a Bourdieusian lens, capturing not just their relationship with their space but also how their habitus is informing their relationship with their space and how the fractures emerging from their relationship with their space is defining their notion of self, consciousness and parenting. The complex interaction between the space and the class is explored through the following: 1. What macro/global processes and local socio-historic processes shape the formation of space in the neo-urban context of Gurugram? 2. What fault lines/social fractures emerge from this process, and how do they shape social class and class distinction among the middle class? 3. How does this consciousness/subjectivity of the middle class manifest itself in the city? 4. How does this socio-spatial dynamic shape the class distinction, in effect shaping everyday practice and everyday experience of class among the middle class in neo-urban Gurugram? Central to addressing both of these questions is locating the historical transformations of the city space and identifying existing fractures and how they interacted with global networks of flows to produce specific class dynamics of context.

Introduction 9

While the discussion is focused on the middle class and urban centres, it would be myopic to think other sections/divisions/classes didn’t have a coconstitutive role. The discussion here is limiting itself to exploring one thread of possibly many such threads of the co-constitutive relationship of identity and space. Neo-Urban Indian Middle Class Post-liberalisation urbanisation in India has a distinct character that sets it apart from previous patterns of urbanisation. While urbanisation in the Indian context has been a mix of large-scale, planned, state-led, and smallerscale, unplanned, plot-type private development happening simultaneously, the planned (mostly state-led) real estate development has almost always outpaced the private plot-type development (which was also regulated by the state auctioning residential plots) in some cases. State infrastructure like streets, sewage systems and water supply, for the most part, outpaced planned/unplanned private real estate development despite the fact that urban real estate development has mostly been speculative in India. Most previously known patterns of urbanisation led by the state were challenged by post-­ liberalisation urbanisation in India, especially on peri-urban fringes of already bustling cities. These new urban spaces, a product of post-­ liberalisation urbanisation, are what in the book has been referred to as neo-urban. India’s post-liberalisation “urban revolution” (Ghertner, 2014: p.  1559) is triggered by foreign direct investment in real estate and construction following a relaxation in a 40% cap on foreign ownership given by the government. India’s urban revolution has meant that there has been a rapid influx of surplus capital in real estate, resulting in the production of capitalist space through privatised modes of urbanisation (Subramaniam, 2011; Shaw, 2005; Gururani, 2013; Ghertner, 2014) on the peri-urban fringes of major cities (Ghertner, 2014; Subramaniam, 2011). This kind of urban development is urbanising areas previously used for agriculture and associated activities and at the fringes of urban and rural areas. These peri-urban fringes with their rural local bodies for administration, fewer bureaucratic obstacles for land deal approvals, and larger land holdings were conducive and favourable for large-scale real estate projects. The neo-urban spaces in India are characterised by a lagging state infrastructure being outpaced by large-scale private real estate projects. Neo-urban spaces are built over acquired agricultural lands that have peripheral proximity to megacities (Narain, 2009; Aijaz, 2019), making these peri-urban areas a favourable site for India’s urban revolution. With increased changes in landuse patterns, occupational patterns and an increase in population density, these peri-urban areas get classified as urban (Chatterji, 2013; Aijaz, 2019). Breakneck urbanisation of areas through privatised modes of urbanisation

10 Introduction

over spaces characterised by rural local administration has resulted in uneven geographies superimposed upon existing socio-spatial dynamics. These create fractures that define middle-class identities as much as characterising the neo-urban contexts. Gurugram is one such story of peri-urban development that has come to represent an emboldened and emerging new middle-class spatial identity (Cowan, 2015). These neo-urban spaces are a spatial materialisation of social-political processes of global capitalism and, therefore, distinctly classed phenomena, unlike earlier forms of urbanisation in India. They offer a curious insight into how global circuits of capital and macro processes associated with neoliberal capitalism interact with local spatial, historical and socio-political dynamics to produce socio-spatial transformations that shape these neo-urban contexts. Peri-urban fringes like Gurugram, Cyberabad and Whitefield are perfect examples of this kind of post-liberalisation neo-urban context. While the expanding middle class in India has been linked to “periurbanisation” (Alsayyad and Roy, 2006; Ranganathan, 2013; Aijaz, 2019; Chatterji, 2013; World Bank, 2013), this has been done in a rather limited scope of populating it. The rapidly changing urban landscape in peri-urban fringes has been associated with “new employment opportunities in high-end services that demand or accommodate quintessentially middle-class occupations” (Davis, 2010: p. 242). The peri-urban context meets the quintessentially middle-class desire to stay close to many amenities the city offers to reproduce class status (Karsten, 2003, 2007; Lilius, 2014). Socio-Spatial Classness To service the core argument of this book, it is important that the determinants of class membership be clarified. The deep disagreement on the criteria and boundary of the middle class in the Indian context has necessitated that any work on the middle class clarify its criteria of considering individuals as belonging to the middle class and how this can be situated vis-à-vis the spatial context it is situated in. Research done in London in the early twentieth century had already highlighted that the objective measures of determining social class do not account for the popular recognition of that social class. Therefore, social class must be understood as culturally defined (Rowntree, 1902; Booth, 1903). Social class must, thus, take into account cultural and popular ideas about being a social class. The cultural turn to class analysis emphasises the need not to study class as a fixed position with causative properties but rather as a culturally defined system of relative positions. There have been attempts even later (notably Goldthorpe and Hope, 1974) to capture the culturally defined nature of the class by asking respondents to help comprehensively formulate a consolidated idea of the social class hierarchy. In line with the above changes, elsewhere, there has been a shift from a structuralist approach to

Introduction 11

thinking about the middle class as a product of objectively defined criteria of education, income, occupation and assets in South Asia too. Scholars, most prominently Liechty (2003) and Dickey (2000, 2002, 2012), have inspired the cultural turn to class in South Asia. The cultural turn to class analysis has gained currency, at the turn of the millennium, among English scholars trying to study class as something more than just objective classificatory criteria (Savage, 2000; Savage et al., 2001; Savage, 2005; Devine, 2005; Savage et al., 2005b). It has fundamentally challenged the way in which the middle class has been identified and studied. The middle class is increasingly being situated in relation to a sense of middle-classness (Radhakrishnan, 2009; Donner, 2011; Dickey, 2012). That is, it has been approached by way of practices, routines, ideas, values, subjectivities and meanings associated with middle-classness within a cultural space. Many other works also broadly situate themselves within the Bourdieusian framework (Säävälä, 2010; ­Radhakrishnan, 2011; Fernandes, 2006). Middle-classness, therefore, becomes the way in which the middle class needs to be situated culturally. This makes it imperative to engage with what middle-classness might mean vis-à-vis theorisation on social class. Middle-classness loosely draws upon the idea of class consciousness in the weaker sense. As opposed to the Marxist strong sense of class consciousness, the weaker sense of class consciousness does not hold inherent revolutionary potential (Thompson, 1978). The stronger sense may draw upon Marxist-Leninist arguments about the awareness among members of a class, that “class” indeed is the critical axis of social life and that “true” class consciousness is tied to a political critique of capitalist society and a radical transformation of social structure (Thompson, 1978). By contrast, class consciousness in a weaker sense (similar to what Lenin calls Trade Union Consciousness) has no inherent claim of any revolutionary potential, but simply that it is a major organising feature of social life. In this sense, class consciousness becomes relevant to the culturally relevant ways of doing and being middle class, in the way people make sense of themselves and their actions. This makes class consciousness performative instead of arising out of class membership. The proposition here is that the over-privileging of institutions and structures poses a limitation with regard to the theorisation of class consciousness (Devine and Savage, 2005). Thinking about class consciousness as a culturally relevant way of doing and being class makes belonging to a social class a performative claim. Privileging of culturally relevant ways of being and doing class is a departure from the Marxist-structuralist position about the meaning of class itself since, in the Marxist-Structuralist approach, class is a precondition to class consciousness. This performative potential of middle-classness allows for self-identification to be the significant criterion by which people are middle class. Highlighting the cultural aspects of the class as being performative is in no way threatening to the social ontological basis of class or its salience in shaping experiences. Additionally, even though

12 Introduction

Liechty writes that “the product of class-cultural practices (of the middle class) is cultural space” (Liechty, 2003: p. 255), it may hold merit for us to re-examine the role of the class-cultural practices and space. Bourdieu’s ideas on habitus and field theory provide a useful way of situating the relationship between cultural practices and cultural space. Habitus is best understood as “a system of durable and transposable dispositions” that builds upon past privileges (Bourdieu, 1972: p.  261). Bourdieu highlights differences between primary (childhood habitus) and secondary habitus (acquired later in life) (Bourdieu, 2000), which becomes significant in the case of understanding how class and space function for the middle class in India. Bourdieu argues that habitus and field are homologically intertwined, similar in structure and origin but different in function and appearance. That is, the space and habitus operate on similar principles even though they may appear “befitting” of each other organically. Such an approach makes a departure from the familiar trope about class using forms of capital as a determinant of distinction. This is not to argue that forms of capital are not crucial to understanding social class. The paper instead positions itself to highlight the conditions under which a certain kind of capital (embodied capital, in this case) becomes the axis of claiming class distinction and what role space has in the choice of capital invoked for the purposes of claiming distinction. Such a position bases itself on Bourdieu’s idea of “dispositional philosophy of actions” (Bourdieu, 1998: vii) in field theory. He writes about dispositional philosophy, potentialities inscribed in the body of agents and in the structure of the situations where they act or, more precisely, in the relations between them. This philosophy is condensed into a small number of fundamental ­concepts- habitus, field, capital—and its cornerstone is the two-way relationship between objective structures (those of social fields) and incorporated structures (those of the habitus). Important points from the above thesis are (1) the dispositional philosophy of action is the common thread tying the trinity of field, capital and habitus (homological unity); (2) it emphasises potentialities inscribed in the bodies of agents and structures, meaning neither the agent nor the situation is unilateral in determining the axis of class distinction. What plays out in a specific context as the basis of distinction is one of the many possibilities that exist and the possibility that emerged through the interaction of the agent and context. It is then the interactions or the relationship between the two that would contextually determine which among the many possibilities of disposition will be played out in the formulation of distinction. Therefore, the interaction of habitus and context becomes important to determine what (among many potentially inscribed in the bodies of agents) would become the axis of distinction. Massey foregrounds this kind of social

Introduction 13

interaction by introducing to it a more comprehensive understanding of spatiality. Massey (1994) argues that social space is a complex mesh of interlocking and articulating nets of social relations. These social relations that interact at particular locations produce “place”. These places then formulate the dynamics of identities that play out in relation to other identities through what Bourdieu calls “reciprocal externality of positions” that shape “mutual exclusion or distinction of the position which constitute it” (Bourdieu, 2000: p. 134). Bourdieu’s ideas (2000, 2008a) suggest that physical and social space operates on similar principles of the reciprocal externality of positions. He writes, “Social agents, and also the things insofar as they are appropriated by them and therefore constituted as properties, are situated in a place in social space” (Bourdieu, 2000: p. 134). Social class, then, is a shared mode of being and a “we-ness” undercut by “otherness” (Ball, 2003: p. 176, Deshpande, 2006: pp. 211–212) and a sense of boundary, however contextual and shifting, that fixes unities (Anthias, 2005: p. 30) where the associated relational power struggles also get marked on physical space (Savage, 2011). Bourdieu’s field theory, in this way, offers the possibility of operationalising relational strategies central to Massey’s (2005a) theory on spatiality. The dialectical characteristic that Massey talks about is synchronous with Bourdieu’s idea that “Fields present themselves synchronically as structured spaces of positions (or posts) whose properties depend on their position within these spaces and which can be analysed independently of the characteristics of their occupants (which are partly determined by them)” (Bourdieu, 1993a: p. 72). He argues that there is a co-constitutive relationship between the situation (objective structures of the field) and dispositions tied to habitus. This relationship between habitus and field shapes the capital that would be mobilised towards consolidating the distinction of a social class. In this thesis lies the essence of the class being a socio-spatial category and co-constitutive nature of field and class identity. It uses Bourdieu’s field theory to understand the Indian middle class in neo-urban contexts. About the Study Ocejo (2013) argues that ethnography as a methodology is not just a matter of supervision and practice but also reflective engagement with practices and strategies employed during fieldwork. Owing to the breadth and depth of data required for an ethnography, the methodology involving sampling and data collection strategies, methods employed, and practices developed must be reflected upon for their sociological significance. The research work that went into the making of this book was conceived as an ethnographic work on the cultural practices of the new middle class. It began with an acceptance of the political-symbolic lens of categorising the new middle class of post-liberalisation India. In this line, then I turned my attention to Gurugram as the field of my study since the transnational

14 Introduction

corporate jobs symbolic of the new middle class were concentrated in the New Gurugram. Gurugram offers the connectivity of a metropolitan city (about 32 km from Delhi and 12 km from Indira Gandhi International Airport) and boasts of employment opportunities in the booming corporate and service sector (Narain, 2009). I started frequenting Gurugram since mid-2013, generously taking recommendations from fellow passengers, auto drivers and rikshaw drivers about what else I  should see and where else I  should go to “see” the real Gurugram, as much as collecting newspaper listings of events and news about Gurugram. These suggestions took me from the Sadar Bazar in Old Gurugram to Cyberhub, the Post Office, District Courts and Sheetla Mata Temple, among other places. The contrast between Old and New Gurugram was stark. To understand the patchwork that Gurugram felt, I  reached out to informants, iamgurgaon’s founder members, major real estate developers, town and country planning office and mini secretariat, gathering information and insights into understanding the story of Gurugram. Getting access and information from bureaucracy and real estate corporations was the most challenging part of the work, despite being more structured and localised. These people helped me understand the ways in which the transformation of Gurugram can be understood and approached. Alongside this, a review of secondary data was carried out simultaneously. Together these resources and insights have contributed to building an understanding of the story of urban transformation in the city of Gurugram. As I  grappled with the information I  collected about how the city had evolved and shaped itself, the processes that led it to its present appearance and the fractures that emerged from it, I  simultaneously began the second phase of the fieldwork. The second phase was fraught with its own set of challenges. The first challenge of studying the middle class always is to be able to operationalise who could be considered middle class (Davis, 2004). Davis follows this by suggesting that a second and associated challenge of this operational definition is that the people who the researcher may qualify as the middle class may not see themselves as middle class (Davis, 2004). Therefore, she suggests that it is good to have objective and subjective criteria supporting each other. Guided by the theoretical and scholarly work, it became clear that occupation and income could not be considered good criteria for studying the socio-spatialness of social class. Therefore, I decided on two-step criteria to identify respondents. The first was to use the Bourdieusian approach of self-identification or self-ascription as better determinants of social class. Bourdieu argued that boundaries of social class are contingent on social practices rather than abstract objective criteria (Bourdieu, 1984). Further, Bourdieu’s rejection of the Weberian idea differentiated between the material and non-material basis of class. This prompted the study to adopt criteria that combined spatiality and residence

Introduction 15

in a gated enclave with self-identified middle class to identify respondents. Gated enclaves were the most peculiar development that stood in contrast to the plotted development of Old Gurugram. Srivastava, in an article in India Today Magazine (August 14, 2010), illustrates the origins of “gated community” in the Indian context while highlighting that Gurgaon exhibits this phenomenon drawing from the example of Delhi’s “gating” of its residential complexes. Such an endeavour is guided by principles of “spatial purification”. He writes: The “gating” of Delhi’s residential localities began around the mid-80s and was carried out under the banner of RWAs in different parts of the city. Well-off citizens barricaded public thoroughfares, citing “security” concerns, and produced privatised spaces. These actions were not exactly legal, but neither the state nor civil society organisations questioned them. The gated communities of Gurgaon and Bangalore have simply extended and reinforced such ideas of separation. (Srivastava, 2010) Gated enclaves have also been pitted as the stronghold of Gurugram’s professional middle class (Cowan, 2015).1 The respondents became the focal point of understanding the gated community. They provided insights about the gated community and therefore occupied the dual position of informants and respondents. That is, playing the dual role of responding to specific questions and actively highlighting context and cultural rules in a naturalistic enquiry (Sanchez, 1997; Spradley and McCurdy, 2008). Once I  identified the criteria, I  addressed the third methodological challenge highlighted by Davis (2004), which suggests that the middle class be examined “through analysis of how they work”. The dominant method used for data collection has been a semi-structured interview focussing thematically on questions pertaining to being middle class; city; neighbourhood; routines, practices and discipline; education: routines and practices, and some questions pertaining to children (for those respondents who had children). This was supplemented with a detailed questionnaire geared towards building the profile of the respondents and supplemented by a detailed narrative to build life history. Life history narrative (a bit like the life history method) proved an efficient way of approaching the life account of a person, in whole or in part, that is evoked by the person in retrospect, collected by way of the oral or written form (Watson and Watson-Franke, 1985). It exhibits the potential to capture the micro-historic experiences of an individual within a micro-historic framework (Hagemaster, 1992). Within life history, narratives that were collected were arranged by the respondent against a timeline set by them up to the current time. The themes and templates used to build this narrative about one’s life were also consistent and deeply significant to the stories being told. It captured the

16 Introduction

complexity of human experience and subjectivity because of its capacity to tell and revisit events (Webster and Mertova, 2007). The sample consisted of 27 individuals (basic profiles provided in Annexure I), and the sampling technique used was snowball sampling and purposive sampling. The respondents were contacted either through referral by a social contact of the researcher or through referral of the respondents themselves. This somewhat betters the possibility of getting the initial acceptance wherein the scope and nature of research are communicated, apprehensions of the respondents attended to and assurance of confidentiality communicated. Such an initial interaction helped in acquiring consent. Respondents all varied in their job profiles and were not uniquely associated with post-liberalisation job profiles in information technology or associated sectors (Fernandes, 2006). The sample included university teachers, school teachers, hospitality industry, startups, IT professionals, researchers and private real estate. All except Jahanvi, who worked as a consultant, were employed in salaried jobs. Of all respondents 17 were between the ages of 25 and 35; 6 in the age group of 35 and 45 and 4 were between the ages of 45 and 50. The youngest respondent was Rishabh (27) and the oldest was Mona (50). There were some variations among concerns/preferences surrounding children’s play area and education among respondents but such concerns were not unique to an age group as much as it was to the age of respondents’ children. The data collection was completed in three parts. In the first part, a respondent was requested to capture, by way of a narrative, his/her life history. This part required variable time, with each respondent usually running through days in recollection and narration. Such a process also helped strengthen the rapport. Since narrations were dominantly led by the respondent, while the researcher continued to probe for details and explanations wherever needed, the data emerging could be looked upon as less influenced by the nature of the questions. The data that emerged from these narrations were then studied for patterns, tropes and templates employed towards recollection. The contextual frames within which recall is structured have sociological significance. How we remember what we remember is significant for the socio-cultural contexts that inform the templates that are employed. A starting point that was provided to respondents was to begin by talking about their parents and their experiences as children. At this point, respondents were not exposed to questions from the interview schedule. Following this, in the second part, the respondents were asked questions from a semi-structured interview schedule. These questions were further customised with other helpful questions framed from what had emerged from their specific narratives. Such a process helped me understand in a nuanced manner the motivations, influences and subtext of responses. Throughout this elaborate process, the researcher maintained a field journal, noting observations, research experiences, interactions and incidents that happened

Introduction 17

off the record. In the concluding part, respondents were requested to fill out a questionnaire that was meant to gather the information that would be used to build their profiles. This step was kept at last since information such as caste background were sensitive matters for a number of respondents, and it required a higher amount of trust and rapport to approach such a matter; even then, in some cases, respondents seemed highly apprehensive about disclosure. The key to “getting in” and getting responses rests in a nuanced understanding of some unconventional strategies, tools and practices. Considering my respondents were spatially situated in gated enclaves, with low inter-­personal social interaction across neighbourhoods and fear of impending crime characteristic of gated enclave living (Caldeira, 2001), one faces a challenge in terms of understanding how to locate and acquire consent from individuals. It was not easy to gain access for observation into gated enclaves. Further, the control and disciplining of the space are such that any unfamiliar person is seen as a threat. However, the split side of this panicked and guarded living was that the middle class in gated enclaves were welcoming and warm once they could trust people. The respondents were usually candid and spoke freely, perhaps because of a felt lack of organic connections with new people. Curiously, after the first few denials, it became clear that the only most consistent social contact happens and is maintained through virtual media and social networking sites, allowing flexibility of response time in social exchange and at one’s convenience. Hence, an authentic self needed to be virtually referenced. Social media pages and professional networking pages were especially critical to creating an authentic persona that the middle class could trust. The first few refusals to talk were followed by Mudit (who agreed to participate in the study later) asking why I have no social media pages and that if I am indeed who I say, why can’t I be found on any of the pages linked to my alma maters. I suggested I carry my ID card for his first interaction. He seemed unconcerned about the actual ID and repeated that people would be discouraged from interacting with you if they couldn’t independently reference you as authentic. It became clear that a virtual persona was critical to establishing authenticity. This becomes a convenient way of keeping up with the lives of others who one feels are part of one’s social group. Consequently, self, as established through performance on social networking websites, becomes an important tool for verifying and referencing an individual’s authenticity. Personal or professional profile pages on networking websites are that it is used to judge a person’s similarity or dissimilarity with oneself. The information listed on virtual space is used as a determinant of whether one feels hostile or neutral towards another person. The self as presented in virtual space forms an aspect similar to appearance, clothes and other aspects that are read and carefully crafted in order to produce a “similar yet distinct” effect. For the purposes of data collection, a profile on a professional network website that was used by most respondents was built.

18 Introduction

Sharing and divulging information about oneself and one’s routines and movements often trigger a sense of anxiety. Such anxiety was usually associated with the threat to property or prestige. Information regarding one’s past (required for narrative), one’s routines, schedules, work places and family were viewed as threatening and required consistent maintenance and reinforcement of rapport. In most instances, this issue was also resolved through maintaining a regular presence on social networking websites, keeping respondents added to the loop and keeping oneself virtually available to the gaze of the respondents. Such an effort required a careful screening of information about the researcher that may influence, produce a bias or create distance, possibly hostility. There was a careful screening of things like political views, opinions and reflections while the process of data collection was underway. Another easy way to do this was to use “check-in” and “watched” features on social media websites. It kept my profile active, often taking suggestions from their profiles about movies to watch and places that one could go. While tracking and targeting the sample population solely via virtual social networks wasn’t fruitful, social networking sites played a crucial role in earning consent. The presence of virtual space, while in many cases worked as a reassurance of authenticity, it did nothing to ease the stranger’s anxiety (the feeling of being vulnerable in divulging information to the stranger). A note detailing the research helped; it was, however, far more contingent on the nature of referrals to earn responses. In many cases, respondents failed to generate leads for other respondents, and in some cases, leads after an initial consent backtracked despite having referenced through a common known individual, and the researcher was not really able to get consent from new respondents. The immediate contacts of social contacts of the researcher (who could themselves assure authenticity by vouching to know the researcher directly) were more responsive. In many cases, immediate contacts of the researcher’s social contacts often directed them to their social contacts in turn (the third tier of contacts). Consent and Establishing Identity and Authenticity Establishing the authenticity of identity is crucial for rapport building. While many participants sought to verify the researcher’s institutional affiliation claims by inquiring about the university and the work, at least three respondents, at various times during the process of data collection, requested to see the university ID card. Some respondents even insisted that the researcher demonstrate what could be “drawn” from their responses during the interview, an effect of researching dynamic and intelligent subjects. The helpful response, in this case, was that the research would only look at recurring patterns and trends that cannot be drawn without placing responses of all

Introduction 19

individuals against each other. This must be seen in the context of what Ocejo (2013: p. 149) identifies as social barriers between ethnographers and their participants. While he lists race, ethnicity and gender as some, what is being argued here is that social barriers may not necessarily be identitybased. Social barriers may also be perception-based; for instance, appearance may be crucial to gaining trust and getting in with a population that draws its distinction in the manner of dressing or language (discussed in detail in the subsequent section on reflexive notes). Similarly, social barriers may be attitude based or emerge from knowing about social research or scepticism about research in general. The fact that the participants are educated middle class, there is a kind of reflexive knowledge about academics and/or the confidence to engage with it, which resulted in this kind of responsive inquiry. On many occasions, during interactions about their life narratives, the participants, by the end of their narrative, turned around and sought to know about the researcher. A helpful way to resolve this challenge was to state broad facts about names and places. Doing this not only eased scepticism but also perhaps established some trust and a sense of mutuality essential for rapport building. There is a desire for accountability and entitlement attached to being educated and capable of understanding, scrutinising and participating in moderation of the research instead of their responses only. Evident in “off” the record conversations was a desire to understand the researcher’s perspective and actively moderate it by reflecting on their responses for what they may be analysed for. Their awareness, scepticism and moderation became a challenge for data collection in terms of the need to evade the researcher’s influence on the psyche of the participants. The participants would often engage in the reflective practice of looking at themselves from the researcher’s positionality and scrutinising themselves through projected ideas about the research study. Sometimes these were overcome through an initial or intermittent explanation of the scope of study and highlighting that the study is interested in patterns across individuals and not to one specific individual. However, it has been helpful to be open to questions about oneself and the study throughout the process as a way of reassurance. This was achieved by reminding respondents after every meeting that a voice recorder was used if they had questions about the research or about anything else. This produced the assurance that exchange is more or less bilateral and mutual. Such a feeling produces more confidence and assurance among respondents. In view of the increased pressure on time and variable work hours, it was difficult to approach individuals, seeking their time for an introductory conversation. High focus on productivity and deadlines combined with a general sense of suspicion towards unfamiliar and a threat of sharing information at times caused an initial introductory meeting to turn futile or even be perceived as hostile. This threatened the future correspondence between researcher and respondent, detrimentally. There were multiple instances where respondents

20 Introduction

would either cancel hours before a meeting was scheduled or seek to see at very short notice. The demands of pending work/deadlines were often quoted as reasons for cancelling even weekend meetings. It was useful to visit the field every day at a given time. This allowed scope to realise an opportunity for a meeting that was not scheduled. Information about a person is seen as sensitive knowledge, so sensitive that it calls upon intense measures to check and ensure the authenticity and identity of the researcher. However, such anxiety cannot displace the co-existing sense of time and desire for flexibility and deference of response. As a result, in most cases, the respondents have requested a detailed email explaining the study and sought a personal guarantee of the authenticity and identity of the researcher through social connections, in some cases, chains of social connections that may lie between them. For instance, in three cases of chained referrals, the approached respondents had enquired from previous respondents in depth about the respondent, the study and (curiously) whether they had themselves participated in the study or not. In cases of apex points, one faced greater problems in terms of overcoming initial apprehensions and suspicion. Overcoming these apprehensions and suspicion required considerable time and effort in providing assurance and often persuasion, which caused initial deference but proved helpful in acquiring consent. Getting a response, in fact, required an insightful understanding of weekdays and weekends, an important binary with respect to the salaried middle class in urban contexts. In accordance with the binary of weekends and weekdays, one is least likely to get a response on the weekend, while the likelihood of receiving a response, whether enquiry, query or consent, is lower on the apices of the week, that is, Fridays and Mondays. The highest possibility of trapping attention and receiving a response is on Wednesdays, which is the peak point of any week. While Mondays are seen as catching up, Tuesdays to Thursdays one is likely to be most productive, and Fridays are seen as tail ends. Communicating With Respondents The process of data collection is susceptible to obstacles that may emerge due to the feeling of vulnerability. The feeling of vulnerability is not just a deterrent at the stage where consent is sought. It can also re-surface during the course of data collection owing to an exchange of information that is seen as sensitive. These, in an occasional instance, may cause premature data termination. There were three such instances where respondents turned hostile after having provided initial consent to participate. What is of significance in this respect is to note that such a situation arises usually following the divulgence of information that is perceived as sensitive by the respondent. For instance, in one such instance, one respondent in a narrative described her growing up in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, and went on to talk about her

Introduction 21

marriage. In doing so, she mentioned about dowry that her parents paid, categorically highlighting that this is dowry and that it is an acceptable practice in Uttar Pradesh for caste Hindu boys to seek dowry. Upon being asked to elaborate on the matter a little more, she illustrated a number of cases that she knew of and then it was observed that at one point, she got conscious and dismissed further discussion on the matter. Following this meeting, the respondent dropped out of the study claiming a job change and the pressures of the new office. While it is plausible that her reason for dropping out may be the reason that was stated, the possibility of a sense of vulnerability cannot be dismissed. In most other instances, respondents got slightly jittery upon having divulged some information. However, at times reassurance of one’s benignity and a general empathy worked. In some instances, respondents, during the course of a series of meetings, requested the data collection process to change the mode from in-person meetings to telephonic conversations or proposed to answer questions through emails. It is important to highlight here that the basic character of emails and telephone, that is, the filtering of non-verbal communication and the possibility of response deference allowing moderation, discretion and time-lapse, is invariably likely to have a detrimental effect on data collection. Hence, such requests were responded to by expressing a desire to meet in person. Such meetings were meant for reassurance, and the use of recording devices was avoided. The respondents exhibited an intense feeling of intra-class competition and strained interaction with people who the respondents recognised as having similar stakes as themselves. This could be linked to difficulty finding and getting consent from respondents. There is also a pearl of collective wisdom that assumes and acknowledges a general lack of time and business. This is then accepted and readily attributed to explain why one cannot add to the chain referral system of sampling or why the referred leads couldn’t continue. Apprehensive Consent All respondents admitted that their neighbours and even friends do not share close organic bonding with the respondents and resent what they view as the degeneration of organic social bonds that provided social and emotional support. There is an emphasis on gates and doors in the architecture of middleclass urban living spaces. These work to restrict entrants and allow screening. The time delay that screening and entry through doors and gates cause, along with a pre-announcement of guest(s), enable the host to prepare both space and people for the guest(s). Consequently, consent from individuals required the researcher to reassure their insecurities and respect their desire to control their environment (who gets in and when) while building upon the lack of organic ties. Strong doubts and apprehensions were expressed about letting anyone inside the home space and one’s intimate psychological domain (childhood);

22 Introduction

however, there was also a sense of catharsis that was sought and relished. Upon being assured of anonymity, respondents spoke candidly; however, this aspect also made them conscious of their vulnerability in releasing sensitive information among people from the same class and seen as competitors from whom any intimate and sensitive information is guarded. About the People It is impossible to think that this study would have become what it was without the people who agreed to participate. Each house visited and each person talked to generously contributed their time and thoughts to make the study rich. However, it is important to remember that the study is in equal parts a reflection on who wrote/heard (elaborated in the next section), who spoke and who was conspicuous by absence. The sample selection criteria were self-identifying as middle class and being a resident of a gated enclave. This threw up a very distinct group of individuals who didn’t just identify as middle class but as educated middle class. The sample included but was not restricted to professionals working in the corporate service sector and their households. At least in two cases, the families had one of the two earning partners engaged in their own business while the other partner (women in both cases) was in service sector jobs. In three other cases, the family had only one earning member who was in business. Of these, all three families had a male as the sole earning member and the female partner attempted to launch her own business in one instance. Still, it had failed, while in another, the female had been working as a college teacher on a contractual basis but had quit during the interview in view of her doctoral thesis submission. In two cases of all five, the male member moved from a salaried job to business, while in all other cases, the first professional profile was of an entrepreneur. The sample population included but was not restricted to Information Technology (IT) professionals or corporate professionals such as managers. Among other prominent professions were teachers and college faculty, engineers and managers. Only two respondents were working in the public sector. The sample consisted of 27 individuals, and in most instances their immediate family members/spouses participated since the interviews usually happened at their homes. The small sample size is compensated for with the depth of data collected from each respondent. Despite a small sample size, the core thesis emerged from overwhelming convergence. The data exhibited saturation, and therefore despite a small sample size, the findings were significant enough to be considered representative of a trend. Further, the findings could be taken as evidence necessitating studying similarly situated phenomena of middle-class distinction among other rapidly urbanised neourban spaces near Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Introduction 23

The sample population was approached via various networks with parallel and non-intersecting apex points (i.e., the first person contacted was often not known to any of the existing participants and was independent of other initial persons of contact). Therefore, precariously low occurrence of certain profiles and identities in the sample are sociologically significant. Of the 27 respondents, only one was a Muslim; another’s spouse was a Muslim, and only one was a Syrian Christian. Strangely, there was only one Dalit respondent, but a statistically significant number, about five, belonged to the “intermediary castes”, which is a limitation attributed to the sampling technique used. However, considering snowball sampling was used, it also allows us to make some observations about the exclusion in social networks of the post-liberalisation middle class, caste reproduction within the class and, by extension, the relationship between caste and class. Dalit and Dalit Bahujan’s voices were conspicuous by absence, limiting the engagement between caste and class. However, the comparable caste backgrounds and associated entitlements meant that the symbolic capital from caste became comparable across the two groups of migrant and local ancestral communities, along with comparable material means. Only six had reported having belonged to second-generation settlers in Haryana. Of these, only three claimed Haryana to be their native place, but none of them was from Gurugram. Invariably, all respondents had come to settle in Gurgaon from a different place, within Haryana or from other states. Among all respondents, two belonged to Jammu and Kashmir, nine to Uttar Pradesh, one to Assam, five to Delhi, two to West Bengal, one to Kerala, one from Maharashtra and one from Rajasthan. Further, one easily found a respondent whose profile reflected an inter-­ religion marriage. The respondents with religious minority profiles were found via mutually independent single leads. This may be read as a signifier of a certain character of social interactions. It is of further significance to note that there is an emergent trend that the sample profiles communicate, namely, a statistically significant presence of individuals living in a flatmate setup, that is, unmarried men who have been college friends or childhood friends as well as unmarried women who were previously living in paying guest accommodations. Five individuals were living in this kind of setup. Although these unmarried friends and cohabiting individuals share a flat, in all instances, these individuals would have their own individual rooms within the flat. Reflexive Notes on Positionality In all fairness, all research is in equal parts the story of who did the research and what they asked. The researcher is implicated in the research they undertake by embodying the social encodings they’re trying to study. The fact that the researcher can be read by the people he/she interacts with influences what

24 Introduction

emerges from the research. Multiple reflections emerge from this exercise of reflecting on how who I am shaped what I studied. Whatever came through in this book emerged from an interaction between my socially encoded embodied self in interaction with similar selves. The shared similarity of basic appearance, embodiment, educational credentials and important vocabulary and language made it easier for me to strike a rapport. My middle-class upbringing provided the shared familiarity with the respondents, making it easier to appear non-threatening and generally not-prying. However, while my middle-class upbringing was comforting for my respondents, I also came across as not belonging in many ways. At the beginning of the introduction, I  had already highlighted that I began this work taking for granted my belongingness to middle-class status until I realised I was not doing class the way it is meant to be done in this context. Even though I was an insider, in that I shared the repertoire, a basic familiarity with the context of middle-class families, and a generally shared understanding of social protocols, I was in many ways a non-member. Combined with my middle-class appearance and mannerisms, my being a single woman positioned me as “in transition”, and so many respondents spoke to me from a position of someone better experienced in middle-class life. It was easier for my respondents to often take the position of an experienced guidance counsellor, helping me identify, record, understand and “learn” class norms. My own perceived identity as a middle-class savarna woman made some battles become especially easy. While my class status encodings made it easier for me to build a rapport and gain consent, my gender and caste identity made it easier for me to get invited inside the homes of my respondents. I cannot deny that my caste identity gave me privileged access to the homes of my respondents. It is plausible that a Dalit scholar attempting to study the middle class that is deeply savarna would not only find it harder to penetrate the social networks but also gain access inside homes. Similarly, while my gender identity was helpful in getting me entry inside the homes and made it possible for me to interact with women and men for sustained periods of time, it made my work with corporations and bureaucracy particularly difficult. As a woman, I found myself either patronised or deprioritised. Getting officials to take me and my study seriously was difficult. On multiple occasions, I was offered a dissertation-worthy insight that would save me the effort of going from person to person. Essentially, the language of an “outsider” who is familiar but not one of the people would be defined by the shared habitus. While such a language helps create familiarity and rapport, it also limits what is captured and described through themes and words. In extension, communication of findings of any kind is an exercise in oversimplifying complicated processes in a way that overestimates the clarity of what may be actually happening. Reflexively, studying middle class in Gurugram necessitated that I gain ­distance from my experience as middle class to think about it rationally

Introduction 25

(Guru, 2013). However, studying middle class, especially cultural practices within families, made me reflexively think about my own life, experiences of class, the salience of caste within class and similarities that could no longer be ignored once they presented themselves in a space where my mind was critically engaged. The book approaches class as a socio-spatial phenomenon by describing the dynamics that shape space and class at city, neighbourhood and home levels. The introduction situates the central theme of the book and its scope and provides an overview of it. The chapter briefly situates the theme empirically in the context of the middle class in India. It highlights the post-liberalisation changes in the Indian context and their impact on the study of class in India. It further gives a brief overview of the existing theoretical traditions of class analysis. The book situates the idea of looking at the class as a socio-spatial category, theoretically. Chapter 1 brings the analysis to the level of the city. It highlights the emergence of neo-urban spaces in the Indian subcontinent and the need to look at class as a socio-spatial category. The chapter provides an overview of spatial transformation and context to the changing sociospatial dynamics in Gurugram. It highlights how privatised urbanisation on the peri-urban fringes logically flowed from the existing socio-political fractures and policy loopholes in Gurugram. Yet, when this privatised urbanisation manifested, it marked a clear break from previous ways of socio-spatial organisation. It captures how space has been shaped by the global circuits of capital, national-level politics and local politics, all intersecting to produce fractures that shape the city and community. These transformations are critical to understanding how space and class shape each other. It formulates the argument on linking the post-liberalisation middle class to post-liberalisation urbanisation. It situates class distinction in the context of the fractures and tensions emerging from these simultaneous developments. It empirically builds the idea of class as a socio-spatial category. Chapter  2 explores the dynamics of space and class at the level of the neighbourhood. It looks at gated enclaves as spaces where class distinction is consolidated. It looks at gated enclaves as a safe base for the migrant educated middle class to consolidate its distinction through performatively shaping the spaces within gated enclaves in contrast to the “wilderness” outside. In their characterisation of gated enclaves, it is clear that the walls of gated enclaves serve as a physical marker of distinction and othering of class. The chapter further highlights how nuanced and relational class distinction is in its socio-spatial character. It highlights processes of “othering” not just with those outside the gated enclaves but those within too. When the migrant middle class finds itself not competing with the ancestral agrarian community for claiming the city space, they find ways of hierarchising claims even within the gated enclaves. Chapter  3 situates how the individual and the social interact. It looks at the middle class’ own understanding of their class position. It explores

26 Introduction

the trajectory and influences on their class position. The chapter builds an understanding of the nuances of class identity. It highlights the hierarchy and gradation of that middle class, even within the middle class. It further explores how the class “other” on either side of the class hierarchy is invoked to construct middle-classness. The chapter also engages with the idea that the vulnerability of middle-class status is sensitive to a system of assets and liabilities that involves the intergenerational transfer of class advantage and encourages compliance. It further highlights how assets and liabilities influence understanding one’s class position. Chapter  4 discusses the subjectivity, morality and consciousness among the educated middle class from the lens of the cosmopolitan self. It examines the ways in which the educated middle class make sense of the world and how they understand their own selves being perceived by an imagined collective conscience; and how this imagined collective conscience circumscribes their actions and practices. The chapter gives an understanding of the consciousness and motivations that shape the actions and cultural practices of the educated middle class. The chapter highlights how individuals relate to their own class community in the middle class and how they relate to other markers of identity like religion, caste and sexuality. It also provides a glimpse into the discourses that construct and sustain a sense of class distinction and the mechanisms by which middle-class individuals make sense of themselves. Chapter 5 highlights the dynamics of space and class at the level of homes and within families. It looks at how the distinction between the educated middle class manifests itself in terms of cultural practices, especially pertaining to childcare, socialisation and education of children. The chapter focuses on people (class subjectivities producing the templates for mother, father and child), values (that shape the middle-class individual’s upbringing) and practices. It highlights the idea that middle-classness can be looked upon as a “life project”. The life project holds the individual as the focal point of all investing, planning, actions and deliberation. Still, the project is collaborative, with the family and even kinship contributing to shaping it. The conclusion reflects on the significance of the findings and what they mean for class analysis in the Indian context and specifically for the neourban context. Note 1 Retrieved from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/couture-communities/0/108783. html Accessed September 21, 2013.

Chapter 1

Intersection of Class and Space

“A city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time”. —Patrick Geddes (1904: p. 108) “People here carry big guns and small tempers”.

Introduction After three months of fieldwork observations, some differences between the city space of New Delhi and the city space of New Gurugram stood out. Much of Gurugram is still large swathes of land, and the roads in Gurugram can run for kilometres before they could be interrupted by a traffic signal. As a result, drivers are extremely comfortable cruising at a speed of 60–80 km/hr on many stretches, again, extremely unusual for older cities in India and very common for the neo-urban spaces (similar experience in Electronic City, Bengaluru). On one cold January morning during my fieldwork, I was being driven in a three-wheeler by a middle-aged man, in a rust-coloured jacket and black pants, who had wrapped his face tightly with a muffler, save for his eyes. We covered a long stretch of Vikas Marg at a speed that left me clutching my bag with one hand and a metal guard behind his seat with the other. We made a head-spinning turn from Vikas Marg onto Nirvana Central Road when we were intercepted by the traffic cops. My immediate assumption was we were stopped for over-speeding. I said, “We are stopped for over-speeding?!”. The driver plainly replied, “No! for the uniform!” tugging lightly at his jacket. The cops said the man could not drive without his uniform on. I was dropped on Nirvana Central Road somewhere near a playschool with a board that said it’s being shifted to a new location. I couldn’t tell where I was, nor which direction I had to go or how far I was from my destination. I could only see cars zipping by at high speed. I decided to hike some distance in the hope that I  would find another for-hire service nearby. I kept walking on a lone road flanked on either side by under

DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-2

28  Intersection of Class and Space

construction site screen in distance and vast empty swathes of dusty land. I saw the entrance to “The Hibiscus”, a residential gated enclave on my right and stopped. The elaborate gated entry had fountains flanked by entry and exit ways. On the outer edges of entry and exit, ways were marked by statues of white elephants (trunks curled outwards and up). The entrance had manicured hedges and palm trees. I  was struck by the sheer contrast. The Hibiscus was from its immediate surroundings. Four or five guards stood at the entry, and I could see them watching the lone woman walking down the road (there was absolutely no other person walking at 10 a.m. on a Thursday on that road). I decided to approach them for help with directions. The youngest of the guards stood at the entry point while the others watched from the guard room. I approached the young man and asked for directions. He shook his head and said he was new. I pointed to his fellow guards in the guard room and asked, “Would any of them know?!” One older gentleman emerged at this point and approached us. He said he was older but still couldn’t help me with the directions. I let out a sigh. At this point, the older man asked me who I was and why was I “walking” down the road “alone”. I’ve never been asked this question for walking in broad daylight, so I was amused. I said, “what do you mean?!” He just casually responded that, “You don’t look like someone who ‘needs’ to walk, why are you on foot?! This is Gurgaon, where do you think you will reach?!” I was suddenly reminded of the day I had to meet another of my respondents, and he insisted he picks me up from the metro station. I  wanted to immerse myself in the field, so I resisted and wanted to reach his place on my own. When I reached his gated enclave, I was met with suspicious looks and piercing questions about my reason for visit, how I knew the respondent, my address and phone number, my ID card, how long would I be, and so on. In a conversation, I commented about the strict discipline of the place, and he said it wasn’t because of security; it was a matter of “morality”. I was a “middle-class looking” woman entering the enclave on foot. My embodied class status and gender were at odds with my spatial practice. I was “odd” in trying to walk in the city to reach my destination. He explained nobody just walks from one place to another on foot. One couldn’t travel on foot in ­Gurugram. Cars were the way “middle-class” moves in the city. He explained that in many places, the city is still under construction, and roads often are deserted, with long stretches flanked by dusty fields on either side, unfit for walking even in broad daylight. The streets are not well-lit, and public transport is unreliable. Combined with the fact that I am a woman (and everyone knows the city isn’t safe for lone young women), my “walking” could be read as anything from a stupid act of boldness to one casting doubtful aspersions on my character. The threats perceived of an act of walking in the city alone reveal a lot about the identities and their relationship with space. Spaces have a character; their histories and their politics shape and are shaped by social relations and identities. This mutually constitutive

Intersection of Class and Space 29

relationship between identity and space sediments into the common sense of the city-living—the unstated norms that one understands as part of belonging, an idea that has previously been described as “metropolitan habitus” in the context of London (Butler, 2002). Given contexts, identities and social relations are all spatial in nature, it then becomes imperative to understand the dynamics that shape the three and their interrelationship. The two developments that have been independently studied in the Indian context as representing the post-liberalisation change, that is, the “new” Indian middle class and the new wave of urbanisation in India tied to increased foreign direct investment in real estate (characterised by dynamism and dysfunction) (Yardley, 2011) need to be read in consonance to understand either of the changes better. Urbanisation Trends in India Urban space has been undergoing massive change within neoliberal globalisation across the world (Taylor, 2007). Urban spaces and urban population are expanding at an unprecedented rate (UN, 2014). Urban restructuring lately has witnessed a shrinking of the role played by the nation-states’ active participation of global corporations, empowered by relaxation of land use regulation policies (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010; Gururani, 2013; Debroy and Bhandari, 2009). These changes have led some to suggest that cities and their suburban peripheries have become “institutional laboratories” for neoliberal policy experiments (Brenner and Theodore, 2002). Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the character, pace and extent of urbanisation in developing countries, especially in South Asia. It has been argued that the “urban millennium” is also the age of southern urbanisation (Roy, 2014: p. 14). Urbanisation in India following the post-liberalisation has assumed a breakneck pace (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010) complemented well by a commensurate steroidal rise in urban population (UN, 2014). The phenomenal yet haphazard growth of urban spaces and population in the Indian context makes it critical to the study of urban spaces and urban phenomena (Suzuki et  al., 2010; UN-Habitat, 2016). It is important to accurately capture, at this juncture, the neoliberal urban restructuring in India and its impact on socio-spatial dynamics. India’s “urban revolution” is not tied to an expansion of already existing cities. Instead, it is the urbanisation of its peri-urban1 fringes (Ghertner, 2013; Gururani, 2013; Searle, 2016; Subramaniam, 2011) through relaxation of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) restrictions for the real estate and construction sectors (Ghertner, 2014). Peri-urban spaces are characterised by rural local bodies; peripheral proximity with megacities; and dominance of agriculture and agriculture-based activities (Narain, 2009; Aijaz, 2019), making them an ideal fit for privatised modes of urbanisation (Subramaniam, 2011; Shaw, 2005; Gururani, 2013; Ghertner, 2014). Rural local bodies ensure that the approvals for land deals are not caught in a complicated bureaucratic

30  Intersection of Class and Space

chain. Further, relaxed regulatory restrictions such as building approvals are attractive to private real estate developers’ profit motive (Chatterji, 2016; Sood and Kennedy, 2020). Neo-urban spaces emerging on peri-urban fringes like Whitefield, Electronic City, Gurugram and Cyberabad have a peculiar character as urban spaces. These, among other such neo-urban contexts, are characterised by their location on the peri-urban fringes, bending or relaxing of state land use regulations, highly specialised infrastructure tied to IT/ITES, unplanned growth alongside planned spatial expansion largely dominated by private real estate conglomerates, a slagging development of public infrastructure, a welcome presence of MNCs, gated enclaves, uneven spatial development, territorial inequality and socio-spatial polarisations. As a result, these “global urban regions” are seen as representing neoliberal globalisation’s “selective first worlding” of urban spaces (Banerjee-Guha, 2010). The neo-urban spaces on peri-urban fringes have been linked to the other significant post-liberalisation development—an expanding middle class (Alsayyad and Roy, 2006; Ranganathan, 2013; Aijaz, 2019; Chatterji, 2013; World Bank, 2013). The specialised infrastructure linked to IT/ITES and MNCs opens up the possibility of “new employment opportunities in high-end services that demand or accommodate quintessentially middle-class occupations” (Davis, 2010: p. 242). Peri-urban meets middle-class desire to stay close to many amenities that the city offers (Karsten, 2003, 2007; Lilius, 2014). Gurugram similarly exemplifies India’s neo-urban where privatised modes of urbanisation, an expansion of corporate service sector employment opportunities and a massive influx of migrant middle class have shaped the urban space, social dynamics and fractures (Ranganathan, 2013). The private real estate lobby in Gurugram’s urbanisation effectively played the role of an “interlocutor” between the global circuits of capital and local socio-­ political dynamics. The real estate company DLF actively mobilised local caste dynamics to acquire land in Gurugram, to eventually build specialised infrastructure that appealed to the global taste, absolutely sanitising it of local dynamics (Chatterji, 2013: p. 277). The process has resulted in tectonic shifts in the prevalent-dominant agrarian social structure that determined economic, political and social relations (Cowan, 2018) that formed the basis of organising socio-spatial dynamics of the city. The shift was largely driven by a massive influx of migrant middle class that is integrated into global circuits of capital. The argument being made here is twofold; one, the neo-urban spaces should be integral to understanding the “new” middle class of India. The neo-urban spaces are conspicuous for the sudden shift from rural to urban landscape, rural to urban administration, and rural to urban habitus in the memory of space and society. Such a sudden change has to bear upon the people who had claimed the space as theirs before and those who are claiming it as theirs now. In some ways, this sudden shift produces fault lines, if

Intersection of Class and Space 31

not conflicts and contestations. These fault lines emphasise differences as the basis of distinction. This distinction is necessary for those seeking to claim the city as theirs since it privileges their claim over the city. Secondly, the politico-economic and historical trajectories of the urban space are integral to the understanding of socio-spatial dynamics that inform class, its practices, its continuity and transmutations. When one considers looking at the city as both a physical as well as a social space, it becomes imperative to connect it with the ideas about the space as well as with the system of dispositions of the social group being studied. From a Bourdieusian lens, one could look at the city space as the field and study the mutually constitutive relationship of class habitus (­Butler, 2002). City, then, is both a physical and social space through which the particular aspects of the habitus of a class are consolidated, reproduced and manifested. Bourdieu argues that humans all occupy some physical space. The site or field can be defined as the point in physical space where the individual situates himself/herself either as localisation or from a relational point of view (Bourdieu, 1999: p. 123). Bourdieu (2000, 2008) argues that physical space and social space both operate on similar principles of the reciprocal externality of positions. He writes, “Social agents, and also the things insofar as they are appropriated by them and therefore constituted as properties, are situated in a place in social space” (Bourdieu, 2000: p.  134). By virtue of the fact that class is a shared mode of being and a “we-ness” undercut by “otherness”, it is only imperative that the relational power struggles also get marked on physical space (Savage, 2011). The field, therefore, becomes “a kind of obligatory boundaries of the experiential context: a relational configuration endowed with a specific gravity which it imposes on all objects and agents that enter it” (Bourdieu, cited in Adams, 2006: p. 514). Bourdieu suggests that habitus and field should be looked upon in relationship to each other. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992: p. 127) highlight: The relation between habitus and field operates in two ways. On one side, it is a relation of conditioning: the field structures the habitus, which is the product of the embodiment of the immanent necessity of a field (or of a set of intersecting fields, the extent of their intersection or discrepancy being at the root of a divided or even torn habitus) On the other side, it is a relation of knowledge or cognitive construction. Habitus contributes to constituting the field as a meaningful world, a world endowed with sense and value, in which it is worth investing one’s energy. What Wacquant and Bourdieu (1992) highlight is that there is ontological complicity between the field and the habitus; that is, the field shapes which dispositions will be played up to claim distinction, and the distinction would in turn act upon the field to structure it.

32  Intersection of Class and Space

Habitus or the embodied phenomena are reflected not only in and through a way in which we think about the world but the bodily “system of dispositions” we bring to the field. These systems of dispositions would include “a way of walking, a tilt of the head, facial expressions, ways of sitting and using implements, always associated with a tone of voice, a style of speech and . . . a certain subjective experience” (Bourdieu, 1977: pp. 85–87). These dispositions invariably are shaped and defined by temporal forces of a given social context and are strengthened and consolidated through their expression in what Bourdieu (1977) calls “Field”, that is, “a particular social setting where class dynamics take place, for example, a classroom or a workplace, but it can also refer to more abstract and broader concerns” (Reay et  al., 2005: p. 27). Sociology has explored the idea of space and place as a critical dimension in understanding social identity and inequality (Lobao et al., 2007; Thrift, 1983, 1985, 1986). Thrift (2014: p. 15) notes that “investigations into the constitution of consciousness and subjectivity” has brought together geography and class. Still, geographical concepts of space and place are understood as distinct and binary concepts. Sociology has long understood space and place as distinct and binary concepts. The place is a specific physical location, while space is the abstract environment (Gieryn, 2000). However, later scholarship on the concepts of place and space challenge this neat binary and see the concepts as overlapping (Massey, 1994; Taylor, 1999). It is suggested that social relationships can be theorised using the concept of space at various spatial scales as well as for studying externalities of positions associated with distance (Massey, 1994; Taylor, 1999). That is, “Social relations always have a spatial form and spatial content” (Massey, 1994: p. 168), and conversely “space is socially constructed (and) . . . the social is spatially constructed too” (Massey, 1994: p. 254). Therefore, it is safe to argue that “the social and the spatial are inseparable and that the spatial form of the social has causal effecticity” (1994: p. 254). Space and identity, therefore, should be thought of as mutually constitutive (Massey, 1994; Thrift, 2014). At any given time, multiple identities within a given space are formulated alongside the spatiality of these identities. Massey (1994) argues that social space is a complex mesh of interlocking and articulating nets of social relations. It is these social relations that interact at particular locations that produce “place”. The specific character of the place is formed in part through the specific interaction and in part through the coming together with social relations. Such coming together of interactions and social relations produces new social effects (Massey, 1994: p. 168). Gurugram: Building a Neo-Urban Snowglobe The neo-urban spaces are ubiquitous for many reasons, the one most critical being the breakneck pace at which local fractures and existing socio-spatial

Intersection of Class and Space 33

dynamics are bulldozed to build spaces that are sanitised of imprints of local context and historicity. Such a process does not bury the existing socio-­spatial dynamics; rather, it creates fault lines that define the character of the urban space and the basis of community and identity of its residents. Gurugram illustrates this extremely well. The expansion of Gurugram city has been characterised as the urbanisation of peri-urban or urban areas that were adjoining the previously defined city limit (Narain, 2009; Yadav and Punia, 2014). Gurugram has particularly expanded since the economic reforms of the 1990s owing to a real estate boom facilitated by land acquisition from adjoining villages and relaxation of FDI cap in real estate and construction sectors (Ghertner, 2014). The land acquired has been used for the building of residential buildings, corporate houses, shopping malls, hotels and leisure places appropriate to the global aspirational living of an emergent middle class of the city. However, an important and striking characteristic of such a process is selective first worlding, resulting in an urban space where “modern high-rise buildings co-exist with village settlement areas” (Narain, 2009: p. 503). However, Brenner and Schmid caution that the study of urbanisation must not limit itself to focussing on settlement types; they highlight the need for the study of historical processes of spatial change and global capitalist development (Brenner and Schmid, 2014: p. 749). The socio-spatial story of Neo-Urban Gurugram can be understood through five interlinked and overlapping narrative threads; these are Geo-Political Boundaries, Legislations, Land Deals, Urbanisation and Settlement. The five come together to highlight the tensions and stressors that define the socio-spatial character of Neo-Urban Gurugram. These narrative threads are not distinct and are being drawn up by the author to highlight the fault lines that existed, how they shaped the transformation of the city and how new tensions and fractures emerged from these existing fault lines that have become critical to understanding the socio-spatial dynamics of Neo-Urban Gurugram and its middle-class. Geo-Political Boundaries According to Gurgaon District Gazetteer (1883), the town was known as Gurgaon Masani in the pre-independence era, named after the temple of Sheetla Mata that was then known as Masani temple. It is a temple built to honour the goddess Masani (goddess of Smallpox). The temple would host the Masani fair (Government of Haryana, 1883). An alternative reference to the name of the city can be found in the Gurgaon District Gazetteer, 1983, that relegates the name of the region to the dominance of sugarcane farming and jaggery (gur) production in the region that would translate to “JaggeryVillage” (Government of Haryana, 1983: pp.  186–187). According to the earliest documented town limits, Gurgaon town was spread over “the station of Gurgaon, the administrative headquarters of the district .  .  . the public

34  Intersection of Class and Space

offices, the dwellings of European residents, the Sadar Bazar, and the settlement of Jacombpura2” (Government of Haryana, 1883: pp. 142–143). During 1857, the local feudatory communities were invested in agriculture, while the dominant castes had established trade relationships with the British Service (Census of India, 2011). On May  13, 1857, the third light cavalry troopers attacked Gurugram. In October of 1857, Brigadier-­General Showers was sent with the objective of consolidating order and control over Gurugram. He was sent to defeat the resistance being put up by Meos, Gujars, Rangharas, Ahirs and “the rebel princes” (Census of India, 2011: quotes in original). Following the bitter battle between the locals and troopers, the British government refrained from taking any steps to develop the Gurugram region educationally and economically (Census of India, 2011). In 1861, the Gurgaon district consisted of Gurgaon, Ferozepur Jhirka, Nuh, Palwal and Rewari (Debroy and Bhandari, 2009: p.  8). Under the Minto-Morley Reforms of the Indian Councils Act, 1909, the District Boards and other local bodies of the Gurugram, Rohtak and Hisar were constituted into an electoral unit to elect a member to the Punjab Legislative Council (Census of India, 2011). During 1914–1918, people and resources from the region of Gurugram were mobilised to participate in World War II. In 1916, Ballabhgarh tehsil was taken from then Delhi and added to Gurugram (Debroy and Bhandari, 2009: pp. 8–9). However, following the introduction of the unfavourable Rowlatt Committee Report of 1918, the region witnessed reactionary disturbances, which continued as such until Independence. After Independence, Gurgaon then became a trade and administrative centre for the entire district of Gurgaon and continued to remain important. Meanwhile, in 1950, some parts of the Gurgaon district were lost to Rajasthan and some gained from the then Pataudi State and PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union). Gurgaon continued to be a part of Punjab until a separate state of Haryana was formed in 1966. In 1972, Rewari tehsil was moved in with Mahendragarh district. However, the most significant change that framed the urban development narrative of the region came about in the year 1979. In 1979, Faridabad district was formed, and some of the areas that were formerly in Gurgaon district were transferred to Faridabad. Gurgaon district, as it stands in its current form, has nine blocks (Tauru, Nuh, Pataudi, Nagina, Punhana, FirozpurJhirka, Sohna, Gurgaon and Farrukhnagar). The repeated reconfiguration of the district led to shifting administrative control and changing political boundaries that have indirectly contributed to shaping the story of the Neo-Urban Gurugram. The swift changes in political boundaries and administrative control led the native population to look at bureaucratic control as arbitrary and impermanent, strengthening, instead, the allegiances born out of membership to a caste or village. Similarly, caste and land ownership became the basis of power, control and status, producing a section of elites who claimed the geographical space as theirs and also determined how space was to be claimed. The argument is strengthened by

Intersection of Class and Space 35

literature that highlights the centrality of caste in local politics (Chatterji, 2013) in land acquisition during post-liberalisation (Donthi, 2014; Gururani, 2013; Singh, 2011). The primacy of caste allegiances becomes extremely important to understanding the social fractures shaping the space and identity in the city. The shifting political boundaries and administrative control may have contributed to establishing regional politics’ stronghold against the abstract political and bureaucratic authority. This is reflected in the disposition of the existing agrarian community that exercised dominance in Gurugram (Cowan, 2015; Cowan, 2018; Chatterji, 2013). Cowan (2015: p. 63) illustrates how the logic of the land is reflected in how the state utilises informal governmental logics to flexibly inscribe value to particular citizenships within a fragmented space, outsourcing authority to de facto sovereign actors. . . . As such, the exception emerges as a key mode of production in the city, through which competing sovereigns seek to impose territorial sovereignty over fragmented codependent spaces. The absence of any major cities and the dominance of rural politics had ensured “a strong caste-dominated structure” of the society (Yadav, 2000; Chatterji, 2013: p. 278). Jats dominate the political landscape, a conservative, landowning farmer community (Yadav, 2000). The other politically dominant and landed castes in Gurugram are Gujjars and Ahirs (Yadavs) (Chatterji, 2013). Caste affiliations have also played a critical role in politics and in land acquisition during its transformation into neo-urban (Donthi, 2014; Gururani, 2013; Singh, 2011). Legislation The significance of Gurgaon increased against its recognition as one of Delhi’s satellite towns. The Gurgaon district’s official website3 highlights Gurgaon city as “one of Delhi’s four major satellite cities and is part of the National Capital Region”. The city was identified as a “satellite city” of Delhi for the first time in the first Master Plan of Delhi, 1962. However, the Master Plan of Delhi4 recognised that (among all satellite towns), even till the mid-1960s, Gurgaon had remained a backward agricultural town, and so it had contemplated only modest growth for Gurgaon. Gurgaon had formerly been a trade centre for local agricultural products5. The Master Plan of Delhi, 1962, had conceptualised compact and orderly development in the satellite towns. To meet this objective successfully, a number of industries were started in these areas. Such a step was meant to boost economic infrastructure in the areas towards a systematic urban growth directed by state authorities. The Delhi Land Holdings (and Ceilings) Act, 1960, premised the Delhi Development Authority to control land acquisition

36  Intersection of Class and Space

and development within urbanisable limits of Delhi (including Gurgaon). However, this was overruled by the Urban Land Ceilings and Regulation Act, 1976, which recognised that the Delhi Metropolitan Area was a peculiar case, in that it consisted of satellite towns in two different states. Such a situation posed administrative difficulty. So, the 5-kilometre ring outside Delhi border was excluded from the provisions of this act (Gururani, 2013: p. 135). It is this recognition and exclusion which defines the urbanisation process of Gurgaon City. Key legislation that was meant to ensure that the urbanisation process in the state is controlled and orderly were diluted or manipulated to benefit corporate real estate interests. Three legislations that Gururani (2013) highlights are the 1963 Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act, second, the 1972 Haryana Urban Land Ceiling Act, and the third, the 1975 Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act. The act of 1963 was originally meant to ensure orderly urbanisation along with scheduled roads and in identified “controlled” areas. These controlled areas were to be developed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority. However, the definition of controlled areas was routinely manipulated to accommodate newer areas being acquired by private developers outside the defined boundaries of controlled areas abusing the provision in the act of “power of relaxation6” granted to the state. The entire process became so uncontrolled that by the “1990s, the boundaries of controlled areas became meaningless, and the entire Gurugram district was declared as one” (Gururani, 2013: p. 133). The 1975 act authorised “any owner desiring to convert his land into a colony shall make an application for it and pay the prescribed fee and conversion charged to the Haryana Urban Development Fund” (1975: p. 423 Quoted in Gururani, 2013: p. 134). This institutionalised the provision of “payment and permissions”, enabling private developers to change the land-use pattern. This was abused by converting large swathes of agricultural land to land designated for urban development. Combined with the exclusion of a 5-kilometre radius outside Delhi from the Land Ceilings Act of 1976, Gurugram was a haven for a privatised mode of urbanisation. Further, this act made the consent of gram panchayat or rural local bodies sufficient and decisive in the acquisition of land, establishing the trend of urbanisation overlooked by rural administration. Singh (2011) have highlighted how beneficial this clause of the act was for land acquisition by private developers since the rural administration could easily be swayed by invoking caste allegiances. Farmers were faced with a difficult situation on all sides. Given the precarity brought upon them by the three acts that were passed in 1963, 1972 and 1975. 1963 Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act posed an ever-looming threat that the state may at any time upon will declare their agricultural land in a “controlled

Intersection of Class and Space 37

area” and force them to sell the land to the state at the state-determined price. According to the Haryana Ceiling on Land Holdings Act of 1973, agricultural land could be declared “uncultivated or barren” upon remaining uncultivated for two consecutive years (which would not be very difficult, given the prevailing adverse conditions for agriculture), meaning unfair compensation for land and no possibility of negotiation. Therefore, the anxieties among farmers about the depreciation of their land’s worth drove them to accept the pre-emptive counteroffer of Mr. K.P. Singh of Delhi Land and Finance (DLF). Farmers and landowners were worried that their lands would be devalued if acquired by the state, while Mr. Singh offered prices for agricultural land, which in the region, were comparatively lower, anyway (Gururani, 2013; Haryana Government, 1973). Informants reported that, among many ways to pressurise the farmers and landowners into selling their lands, a prominent one was state agencies issuing legal notices for land acquisition at depreciated (through designating land uncultivated) compensation rates. At this point, the private developers stepped in with modest compensation rates, which appeared better deals to farmers and landowners than being coerced into accepting a lower price for compensation. After the developers had acquired enough land, the legal notices were withdrawn (Chatterji, 2013: p.  278). Farmers and landowners recognised that they had relatively more negotiating power with private developers than they were expecting to have with the state government. Hence, farmers and landowners were far more willing to strike deals with private developers (Prakash, 2015: p. 9). However, the land deals, seeming lucrative at the time, have since been looked upon negatively in retrospect by the ancestral agrarian community (Narain, 2009; Cowan, 2018). Scholars have documented the resentment among farmers about “collusion between private developers and state planning agencies to artificially lower land values” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 279). Urbanisation From the point of formation of the State of Haryana in 1966, the trajectory of urbanisation in Gurgaon could be divided into two phases. The first phase is characterised by the state authorities playing a central role in defining, controlling and supervising urban expansion. Planned development of urban areas was planned and overseen by Urban Estate Development of Haryana. The town that served as district headquarters came under the Urban Estates Department. The urbanisation in this phase was geared at setting up ­manufacturing industries (with a focus on automotive manufacturing) and generating employment as well as revenue from the secondary sector. This phase could roughly be situated between 1970 and the late 1980s. The time frame of the phase is identified on the basis of when most urban projects

38  Intersection of Class and Space

Map 1.1  Growth of city: urbanisation through decades. Source: Government of Haryana, Department of Town and Country Planning

characteristic of this phase were started/launched and not their culmination. Through changes in key legislatures during the decade of the 1970s, private real estate developers were allowed to partake in the urbanisation process. Following this, the late 1980s and 1990s ushered in what could be termed as the post-liberalisation urbanisation phase. At this stage, the preference for peri-urban Gurugram over adjoining Faridabad (which offered a better infrastructure base to build a new urban centre) can be understood through three key features of Gurugram. The first is that the size of agricultural landholdings on average in Gurugram was a lot larger than in Faridabad. When the “Green Revolution”7 was launched in India, Faridabad gained a lot from it through its geographical advantage while Gurgaon could not. Donthi writes: Due to chronic water shortages and an inhospitable climate, Gurgaon district—which is adjacent to Faridabad, but on the western side of the hills—was not an important part of Haryana’s early development efforts and was considered a backwater. Faridabad could enhance its agricultural productivity, while in Gurgaon, the prices for agricultural land dipped as a result of being perceived as less

Intersection of Class and Space 39

productive agriculturally and hence less worthy (Debroy and Bhandari, 2009; Gururani, 2013). Another factor that made Gurgaon attractive was that, since the formation of the Faridabad district, the district of Gurgaon came to be governed locally by a municipal council that was directly under the Chief Minister of the State while Faridabad had a Municipal Corporation. This significantly reduced the tiers of bureaucracy that one had to get approval for land acquisition. The Chief Minister could directly overlook all land acquisition deals from Chandigarh (then state capital) in the context of Gurugram (Donthi, 2014). In fact, the city’s Municipal Corporation was established as recently as 2008 and held its first elections in 2011 (Goldstein, 2015: p. 3; Gururani, 2013: pp. 134–135). This phase (the 1980s onwards) is characterised by private real estate developers spearheading the urbanisation process. This phase saw an expansion of the service sector (with an emphasis on the Information Technology sector), characterised by large-scale land acquisition and asynchronous development8 influenced heavily by the self-interest of the political and business elites (Gururani, 2013). The state-led urban development happened in and around the old town that served as district headquarters. Sectors 1–23, located on the right side of National Highway 8 (moving from Delhi towards Jaipur), are classified as Old Gurgaon. These colonies have largely been developed through a state-led urbanisation process. The state is responsible for the maintenance of roads and electricity, drainage and sewage in these sectors. The colonies developed were confined to areas around the old town’s bus terminal. These were Arjun Nagar, Bhim Nagar, Jacombpura and adjoining areas. The first sectors came about only in the 1970s. The sectors that were developed were Sectors 4 and 7, mainly as residential areas, and Sector 18 as an industrial area. These were still restricted to areas around the old town. The two exceptions to this cluster development are the Old DLF Colony (developed by DLF9, Sector 14) and Palam Vihar (developed by Ansals in Sector 21–23). Sectors 24–57 (with the exception of Sectors 31 and 38) have been developed post-1990, that is, in the post-liberalisation phase and have been built by private real estate developers. All these sectors lie on the other side of the national highway, that is, on the left side of National Highway 8, and constitute New Gurgaon. The urban socio-spatial landscape of Gurugram, therefore, is a patchwork consisting of: Production and consumption spaces for the burgeoning middle class and new economic elites are typically located in sanitised, high security, gated enclaves developed by corporate real estate firms, which, apart from distancing the local masses, also keep the local state a safe distance away— generating a new kind of spatial apartheid. (Chatterji, 2013: p. 277)

40  Intersection of Class and Space

The template of urbanisation in Gurugram has consolidated group identities of ancestral agrarian communities, and the new middle class through bringing them together in close proximity with competing interests (each claiming the city space) and comparable material means resulting in “fragmented space of competing, overlapping sovereignties” with “de facto sovereign actors”, seeking to impose territorial sovereignty over fragmented spaces (Cowan, 2015: p. 63). With the city administration split between rural panchayat areas, development authority areas, special economic zones and private townships, each with a different and often competing vision of city space, Gurugram faces the challenge of managing “peri-urban dynamics in order to reconcile differences between the existing rural population and the new urban middle class” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 277). The split is best captured by the election results of MCG in 2011, wherein all wards except one, “candidates with strong rural links, having caste and deep socio-political ties with the village communities, were elected” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 285). In the one ward that did not follow this trend, “middleclass voters came out in large numbers to elect Nisha Singh, an ex-Google executive, as an independent candidate” (ibid.). Caste and rural community ties were significant even in the 2017 elections of MCG.10 The demarcation between rural and urban within the city is very pronounced.

Map 1.2  Changing administrative spread in Gurgaon. Source: Government of Haryana, Department of Town and Country Planning

Intersection of Class and Space 41

Settlement While understanding the transformation of city boundaries and infrastructure under the process of urbanisation is important, it is just as important to understand the transformation from the settlement perspective as well. Gurgaon, up until the 1980s, served as a suburban area where land was available at affordable prices for the workforce of New Delhi, at a time when buying a property in New Delhi was beyond reach for most of the middle class. Gurgaon thus had for some time served as a “dormitory” (a living arrangement whereby residents were still dependent on New Delhi for employment, shopping and recreational facilities) to those who had migrated to New Delhi for jobs (Prakash, 2015: p. 4). However, over time, Gurgaon developed as a centre of economic sectors that produced employment opportunities for the skilled labour force (Prakash, 2015: p.  4). There has been simultaneous development of commercial, industrial, corporate, residential and retail real estate that has generated employment opportunities. It has also boosted economic activity in the region and contributed to gross domestic product, because of which the city, unto its own, became a favoured destination for migration among the skilled labour force. Settlement in Gurgaon, as it stands today, has come about in three waves. The first wave consisted mainly of people who worked in New Delhi and moved to Gurgaon (Delhi’s Suburban stretch) for residence. The second wave consisted of people who moved to Gurgaon because of their jobs in the newly set up manufacturing and automotive industries. The third wave comprised the settlers who moved to Gurgaon city because of the booming service sector that followed foreign investments and post-liberalisation urbanisation of Gurgaon (Counter-Urbanisation). The settlement pattern, when correlated with the city’s growth story, presents an interesting insight into the social dynamics, informing the distinction among the middle class in Gurgaon. The settlement waves happened within about four decades. Therefore now, “Three layers of the city’s history, rural-agricultural, industrial manufacturing and globalised IT–BPO services, now co-exist, generating new claims and conflicts” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 281) Mr. Jayant Erickson, General Manager of Business Development at DLF, highlighted that the first phase of urban development by the state attracted the attention of the businessmen from New Delhi seeking more space for expanding business while retaining proximity to New Delhi and the International airport (Field Interview: June 2014). Mr. Dinesh Khanna, a photographer and a resident of Gurgaon, also highlighted that this phase corresponded to what may be called the first wave of migration into Gurgaon city. He says that the first migrants into the city were people who were working in New Delhi but could not afford the high rent rates of residential properties in the Delhi neighbourhood. So, with the amount that they paid in rent, these people could afford to build their own houses in Gurgaon, and

42  Intersection of Class and Space

due to its proximity from Delhi, it offered the next best option (convenient and affordable) to living in Delhi and working there. He says, even though one may have to drive for 45 minutes to reach New Delhi, it was a viable and attractive option against renting residential property. He admits that he was himself among the first wave of migrants to Gurgaon city (Field Interview: February 2014). Mr. Khanna said, subsequently, after the expansion of Udyog Vihar and the initial development of corporate offices and IT-enabled offshore outsourcing companies, the second wave came in, which was dominated by those who lived in New Delhi or came from other places but were joining the workforce and found job opportunities in Gurgaon city. These people eventually realised that there was the option of living within walking distance of the workplace, and so they started to move into Gurgaon. Lower property prices only helped. The third wave comprised of people who specifically came in with the idea of living in Gurgaon and working here. These people who joined the workforce after 2005–2008 were coming to Gurgaon lured by the image of the city and the opportunities it had come to represent. Mr. Khanna also pointed out that each of these waves of settlers is distinct in their composition, age groups and kind of outlook too. The last wave of migrants is most aggressive in their claim over the city space as a resource. The other two waves of settlement into the city trickled in slowly, and so they did not challenge the status quo of the existing elites, the landed ancestral agrarian community. The last wave came in quickly and drew the greatest number of individuals into the city and quickly. There is no way to verify this claim, and even by his own submission, Mr. Khanna highlighted that the trend is not as clean and absolute as one may think; that is, there are people who may have come in for all kinds of reasons at all times. However, this is powerful rhetoric employed to understand the composition as well as the character of the population in Gurgaon. It helps to understand the associated social and cultural tensions that may arise from it. This makes it possible to identify three broad groups of people within the population of Gurgaon city. The first are those who Goldstein (2016: p. 15) calls “Gurgaon’s original or local ancestral agrarian communities” (LAAC). These are the people who have, through generations, lived in Gurgaon and traced their ancestral roots to the place. They understand assumed ownership of this land, that is, a claim over the space situated in the idea that one has through lineage been associated with the land. This claim is not contingent on any validation other than one’s own family history and associated understanding of one’s roots. Then there is the population that has slowly come in through the 1980s in the wake of the opening up of employment in the industrial sector as well as expanding state bureaucracy. This set of people came about in proportionally lesser numbers in comparison to the population that belonged to the

Intersection of Class and Space 43

previous group. The migration of people forming this group was relatively at a slower pace and gradual, and so their process of settling down here did not significantly perturb the existing social dynamics. The third group came about through the liberalisation phase. This group of people came in through an urbanisation process that is characterised by sudden and abrupt arrival in a significantly large number. These significantly large groups of individuals arriving from various parts of the country have come in to claim ownership over land, the acquisition of which is still a matter that many in the region are reconciling with at the time. This group does not include a migrant population that is resident of urban villages and urban slums of Gurgaon; since the group resident of urban villages and slums does not claim any ownership over the land, they inhabit and retain sight of transitory nature of their stay. The third group is largely middle-class individuals who have arrived in the city primarily driven by the educational training that makes them a skilled labour force in the service sector. The arrival of this wave of the population into the city has been directly driven by the macro-global circuits of capital. Through being gainfully employed in the globalised service sector, they’re exposed to the wider world and are far more integrated into the global circuits of capital and knowledge than the previous waves of settlers. These are individuals who have considerable purchasing capacity and entitlement to the space they inhabit by way of a legal-political framework. This group differs from the earlier settlers of the city, primarily in terms of their occupation, and in terms of their social and cultural experiences, and their understanding of the spaces that they inhabit. Their sole claim over the land they inhabit is mediated through legal contracts and legal property rights. This kind of legally enforceable claim differs significantly from morally tracing one’s ancestry and origins to a land and understanding one’s claim over the land inhabited in association with it. Gurgaon, therefore, presents a kind of an active site/scene for the study of different kinds of economic-cultural-social groups (with distinct habitus) through their ongoing active negotiations and reconciliation within the city space. It provides the context to study the mechanisms through which various groups structure and restructure the social, cultural and political space. It lays bare the formative ideas that shape specific kinds of habitus defining distinction and their classness. The Emergence of Class Distinction: Contesting Differences and Comparable Means As a result of the five narrative streams, we can understand how (1) a landed agrarian community organised around the relations of caste came to dominate local socio-spatial dynamics. Given quick changes in administrative and political control, the privileged local ancestral agrarian community

44  Intersection of Class and Space

Map 1.3 G urgaon district map, showing original villages that have since been urbanised Source: mapsofIndia.com

understood the state as an arbitrary abstract institution that did not determine spatial practices. The spatial practices and social organisation of the space were instead determined by the elites along the lines of caste and patriarchal control. (2) The legislations and land deals have caused resentment among LAAC against those who are benefitting exponentially more from land previously owned by the local ancestral agrarian community, while they feel they’ve been restrained to a pittance, in comparison. (3) A new section of the migrant middle class, significant in number, comparable in material wealth, and integrated into global circuits of capital came to occupy the city, imposing their claim on the city space while benefitting from the jobs built upon the disemplacement11 of formerly powerful LAAC. Therefore, this produced an urban landscape where formerly elite/privileged groups were being disemplaced by a migrant middle class as elites. The migrant middle class is seeking to change the social organisation of space and spatial practices to be more aligned with their habitus. They are challenging the socio-spatial dynamics that govern the city space. This new group of the migrant middle class understands that their life chances are linked to their ability to find footing in the city. Scholars have reported a mutual disregard and friction between the local ancestral agrarian community (LAAC) and the urban educated middle class

Intersection of Class and Space 45

(EMC). Scholars have highlighted that “the middle-class residents detest the presence of the rural enclaves” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 282). He reports a “trust deficit” between village areas and “educated elites” from enclaves. The latter feel that “the local rural people, many of whom became rich overnight by selling land, lack’ education, culture and social manners” (Chatterji, 2013: p.  284). He highlights from various respondent accounts that the groups have mutual disregard for each other with one curious element being played up—education. As one political activist put it, “High-flying people who live in these flats look down upon us as rustic, uneducated blokes. They don’t give us any respect. Our worlds are very different, though we live side by side” (Quoted in Chatterji, 2013: pp. 284–285). The migrant skilled labour force (brought to the city through being integrated into the global circuits of capital) finds itself in a context where their only social bearings are tied to their legally enforceable rights as citizens and as residents/owners of flats/houses/plots. This, combined with the realisation that their life chances are tied to finding their footing in the city, produces a sense of vulnerability and insecurity that is projected in their perceptions of the LAAC. On the other hand, LAAC reportedly feel cheated in retrospect, in that they feel that the returns they received from the land deals are nothing compared to the returns that land has been producing with the turn of the economy, which they can witness (Cowan, 2018). Yadav and Jat landowners who have been reduced to the status of rentiers in the urban villages are also resentful of how the basis of social-economic-political power of the elites has shifted, disemplacing those who were previously privileged (De Wet, 2008: p. 115). Cowan (2018: p.  1258) reports that the former landowners/now rentiers “complaint is .  .  . that jobs and work are providing social mobility where under previous circumstances it was precisely the withdrawal of labour from which caste-based social standing was derived”. The erosion of the existing basis of power is one of the many threatening changes that have plagued the agrarian and caste-based social structure in Gurugram. The breakneck pace of changes further has not given the beneficiaries of the previous social system the time to adjust or adapt. This tension is also evident from the crimes12 that were reported in the wake of the waning social dominance of the strongmen belonging to LAAC and those who can be identified as the migrant skilled and educated labour force. The crimes reflect a contestation between two groups trying to establish their moral order over a city space they see as their sovereignty. The existing bases of social order (caste, landownership and gender) are being challenged by a sanitised “civil” social order desired by the migrant skilled labour force. This migrant labour force does not have any roots or any historical, social bearing to the land which they have come to occupy. Their only claim on the city’s social and physical space is by virtue of their legal rights protected by the institutions of the state. They also don’t agree with or recognise the moral codes of caste and gender enforced by LAAC, causing

46  Intersection of Class and Space

Map. 1.4  Gurgaon district map (detailed) Source: mapsofindia.com

resentment. The migrating middle class has sought to shift the basis of social organisation from economic capital and political-symbolic capital to cultural capital. There is an open disregard for the brash machismo and misogyny that is perceived as associated with rural-feudal-caste-based sensibilities of the LAAC. One respondent, Mudit, explained this disposition of the LAAC, stating, “Stealing, for instance, would be seen differently by the local dominant farmer castes . . . than by the educated middle class, who would see this as a legal offence, eligible for intervention by law enforcement”. The local castes, he further added, perceive stealing as a challenge to their masculinity and strength, and therefore this usually leads to groups settling scores themselves.

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He highlights how the institutional authorities also recognise this and stay out of it because “this has been their usual ways of settling scores among themselves, the rule of the might”. He says that for local caste groups, the honour and reputation of the community and individual are of the highest value. He highlights that the LAAC and the migrants do not share a common ground since only one of the two sides believes in the sanctity of law, and this is evident from the situations where the two kinds of morality clash, for instance in cases of road rage, drunken brawls over girls at pubs and clubs and bars. Drawing a contrast, he claimed that the educated middle class, conspicuous through their preferred residence in gated enclaves (their spatial stronghold), “even if residents have issue amongst themselves, they’d rather call upon the RWA or guards to have it resolved, absolutely not getting into any kind of altercation, not even verbal, by themselves”. The disregard and hostility are evident from the way the migrant middle class characterises and talks about the LAAC. As Mudit puts it: In all the while I have lived here, I have seen all kinds of people. People who are coming out of the fanciest cars, wearing Rolex watches, but once they open their mouths, you know what class they belong to. . . . In Gurgaon, no matter what happens, don’t get out of your car and on the road, just quietly drive away. . . . People carry big guns and small temper and if a situation arises just quietly leave because even the police here is secondary to the Jats and Gujjars in Gurgaon. These people have no brain (rationality) or social sense, only loads of money to throw at every problem. They talk like they are straight out of their fields and, in fact, speaking from their fields through to Gurugram [suggesting the loud tone] (laughs) . . . they could well run someone over and get away with it by throwing 5–10 lakhs. They don’t care for civility or basic human values. Another respondent Karan narrated an incident of meeting a new person at a friendly cricket game between members from two different gyms. He stood at the far end fielding when he spotted a Hyundai Tucson (car) and asked his “gym-buddy” about it. His friend pointed to this boy who sat in the shed waiting for his turn to bat. He describes his appearance, “this guy wore white pyjamas and flip flops, not even track pants but pyjamas, had dishevelled hair, unkempt beard”. He then describes his manner of speaking as loaded with a “typical accent”. He commented, saying, “if you just asked him the spell Tucson, he would not be able to do even that, leave alone expecting him to pronounce it correctly!” Similarly, Rishabh narrated an incident when he went to meet a former college friend who was incidentally in Gurgaon. Rishabh saw her sitting across from a man who was sipping whisky from his glass at the Marriot Hotel. Rishabh discussed his suave appearance before commenting on his manner of speaking. He commented, “one could tell he may have

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cleaned up, but hasn’t helped him much . . . one could see he was fighting his Jat-Gujjar instincts even as his language failed him”. He further continued, “he offered to drive me back, and we sat in his car and to my utter amusement guess what came out of the radio- some typical Haryanvi song”. It’s important to highlight how the acknowledgement of an equivalent or even better material status and claiming distinction would happen concomitantly. Talking about the neighbours, Mona highlights the distinction of the migrant middle class, “Everyone here is very well behaved and well educated. You wouldn’t hear anyone using a cuss word or with a tu-tadak (informal local language pronouns for addressing someone)”. She highlights the “other” against whom a distinction is claimed. The “other” who she identifies as, “neo-rich, who talk like brass utensils being tossed together”, was described in the following manner: “These people talk like they have no regard for anyone, they have pockets full of money, and that is all that matters, but one can’t buy etiquettes from a market, now can they?!” She stresses the “loud-brazen pitch”, “awful words and violent tones”. Material wealth is highlighted as being at par and yet as she puts it, “being civilised is not just a matter of having money”. She sums up the others as people who “understand only the power of fist and bamboo staff”. The friction between the two, therefore, emerges in a context where a distinction is being formulated against a group whose wealth and assets (the material basis of class) are similar to, sometimes better than, the migrating middle class. In delineating a sense of urban sophistication associated with language, mannerism and subtle expression of wealth, the migrating middle class is seeking to increasingly distinguish itself from the local population that insists (according to almost all respondents in the study) on flaunting wealth. With an insistence on a subtle communication of one’s material comforts and insistence on the primacy of education and mannerisms as markers of distinction, the educated middle class is seeking to define themselves and their place in the city and social space. There is a clear discrediting of earlier bases of social organisation on the basis of economic and political capital in an attempt to establish a newer, more acceptable basis of claiming social power that is education, and associated sense of being cultured and sophistication of mannerism, attitude and language. In claiming a distinction against LAAC, educatedness becomes critical. Educatedness, in this sense, then, is everything that LAAC is not. Educatedness, in this sense, is not contingent on a specific educational credential and a specific kind of degree. It is everything that stands in clear contrast to the LAAC. This sense of distinction emphasises a language, manner, attitude, behaviour and conduct that is in clear contrast to the language, manner, attitude, behaviour and conduct of the LAAC. The distinction is embedded in the understanding among EMC that their claim to power is tied to their education. This education ensures their integration in the economy, global

Intersection of Class and Space 49

circuits of capital and an extension in the neo-urban Gurugram. The group holds central to its sense of itself, the pursuit of education and education as the basis of their economic and political power. It privileges institutional settings of state, law, politics, education and occupation over organically and contextually relevant dynamics of political and economic power. This othering is critical and informs the distinction of the middle class in Gurgaon as being the educated middle class. Consolidating Class: Gated Enclaves, Neo-Urban, Middle Class This differentiation and “othering” (spatially and culturally) feed into the need for the erection of gates as a way of marking one’s safe base, one’s territory. This may be looked upon as a way of spatially marking a stronghold towards consolidating caste distinction, which is in stark contrast to the perceived culture of the LAAC. The spatial marking of the stronghold helps consolidate the population group together as a class community (otherwise diverse in their culture and language and spread out in terms of their origins and arrival time) as a sizable group that is an assertive presence with lobbying powers. The preference for spatial boundaries/gated bounded enclaves is tied to consolidating a class distinction against LAAC. This class distinction is consolidated through closely guarded, sanitised, disciplined, exclusive spaces—access and membership to which is tied to purchasing power and a desire to mark oneself distinct in taste from LAAC (associated with plot-type residence/kothies). Gated enclaves in neo-urban contexts are a spatial manifestation of distinguishing oneself in contrast to what is seen as “crass” and “undesirable” (defined contextually). Gated enclaves emphasise property rights through enforced structures like walls and gates that work to mark territory and cordon off the larger “uncivilised” and “undesirable” sociality from entering inside. While all respondents recognised that there were local elites who had also bought flats in these gated enclaves but emphasised how largely the gated enclaves are dominated by the educated middle class. Respondents suggested that people living in gated communities are educated, at least with a bachelors, but often with a higher degree. Further, their projections of the social space of the city at large (described earlier) laid bare the glaring sense of distinction against LAAC, which it characterised as crass and inferior. Gated communities/gated enclaves, while variously described in different contexts, retain the basic characteristic of being residential areas marked off by walls and with secured entrances (Caldeira, 2001; Low, 2003; Blakely and Snyder, 1997b). Gated enclaves are “walled or fenced housing developments, to which public access is restricted, characterised by legal agreements which tie the residents to a common code of conduct and (usually) collective responsibility for management” (Atkinson and Blandy, 2005: p. 178). Gated

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enclaves/gated communities may not be a new idea to the national or even regional context. New Delhi has had gated neighbourhoods for some time (Vidyarthi, 2010). Both neighbourhood units and gated enclaves/gated communities are rooted in Clarence Perry’s 1920s idea of “community units”, emphasising the “benefits” of homogenisation by attracting “people with similar tastes and living standards” (Perry, 1929: p.  94). He looked upon neighbourhood units as a concentration of high levels of social capital, the coming together of people of similar tastes. The nature and character of gated communities in Neo-Urban Gurgaon, while is very different from gated neighbourhoods of Delhi (aimed at the Nehruvian vision of intermingling of differences), they definitely embody the homogenising vision of Perry. The gated enclaves specifically target the migrant middle class in two ways. (1) Through appealing to an existing understanding of exclusive spaces/gated neighbourhoods and gated living associated with elites in India13, among the middle class (Vidyarthi, 2010: pp. 80–81); as one respondent, Deepika, put it: The reason why we chose this neighbourhood was security because Samar travels usually and I work from home and so gated enclaves are the best and the most secure arrangements for us in a place like Gurgaon. Also, if you see, there is a big botanical garden across the front gate of the enclave, and there is going to never be any construction on that stretch of land, and our parents have been used to living in government bungalows with expansive spaces and lush gardens, here they get that chance to sit in the balcony and feel the same way. and (2) through advertising Perry’s vision of space/community marked by “a homogeneity that would facilitate living together and make possible the enjoyment of many benefits not otherwise obtainable” (Perry, 1929: p. 110). The gated enclaves advertise that gated living would facilitate access to a common pool of resources and infrastructures like manicured lawns, parks, swimming pool, lawn tennis courts, and so on within residential gated space with restricted access, something that is otherwise not attainable on the individual household basis for middle classes. The gated enclaves in Gurgaon have largely been developed by private real estate developers. There is a premium placed on the globality and superiority of architectural and interior designing, which is emphasised in the sales pitch. This is, in fact, an extension of a broader trend of alluding to “aspired globality” in names of various residential spaces and residential towers as well as office spaces and business districts. Some of the names of properties are Silver Oaks, The Hibiscus, Princeton, Belvedere Towers, The Pinnacle and so on. In fact, the insistence on a corporate-business-globality is so marked on the names of locational space that the names of stoppages that they are combined with names of businesses in titles of privately

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owned and operated Rapid Metro line Stations. Hence the names of stoppage points are Vodafone Belvedere Towers Station, IndusInd Bank Cyber City station, Micromax Moulsari Avenue Station. Vodafone, IndusInd Bank and Micromax conjoined to globality, alluding names of spaces such as Moulsari Avenue implicitly situate the idea of synonymy of globality with corporations. The integration of the neo-urban spaces in global circuits of capital is unmistakable. Similarly, gated enclaves in the neo-urban contexts emphasise their global, capitalist distinction and must be seen as the spatial manifestation of claimed distance and distinction from the local/ regional by the neo-urban middle class, that is, “as a reservoir of middleclass anxiety, aspirations and longings” (Heiman et al., 2012: p. 25). Residential towers and social spaces alluding to “transnational trends” all are set to appeal to a middle-class habitus (Srivastava, 2012: p.  64). Thus, these neo-urban gated enclaves and gated communities that are predominantly middle-class living spaces must be read in direct relationship to middle-class subjectivity. The neo-urban gated enclaves are classed spaces. These classed spaces are exclusive and premiere. The walled boundaries, gated and guarded entrances restricting entrance, a governing body that administers (formulates rules, presides over disputes) the gated enclave space, all appeal to neo-urban middle class’ desire for control, discipline and manipulation of physical space in accordance with class habitus. There is a conscious effort to produce and reproduce a social sphere under tightly controlled conditions within these gated enclaves (Srivastava, 2012: p.  58). This produces a class distinction that marks the neo-urban middle class apart from its regional counterparts and identified class-others. The order of controlled space of gated enclaves is further maintained by the resident welfare association/apartment owner’s association-RWA/AOA (the latter term alludes to a hierarchy within gated enclaves between those who own and those who are renting privileging the voice of the owners, through excluding tenants, in matters pertaining to governance and rules of the gated enclaves). In subtle and implicit ways, RWA organises and structures the social space within the gated enclave as well. There is an implicitly expected rhythm of interactions (in shared social space) that is not obviously stated but evident from situations where it gets disrupted, inviting intervention by the RWA/AOA. An intervention, though, only happens when the common rules pertaining to space and behaviour may get violated. RWA then ensures that the decorum of the enclave is not hurt by his individual activities. This ensured strict adherence to EMC habitus and values, enforced through an abstracted authority of RWA/AOA, presenting it a façade of neutrality and assuming legitimacy over the space through mandates and rules. This means that even those not belonging to EMC and, importantly, members of LAAC are domesticated through the order of the space (based on EMC habitus) enforced by RWA/AOA. Therefore, as Mudit highlighted, “it becomes especially hard to even spot if there are some

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neo-rich of Haryana staying in the premises because they wouldn’t want to violate the decorum and invite some action”. The need to consolidate a distinct identity among the educated middle class naturalises their preference for living in gated communities in flat/ apartment/condominium complexes. Living in gated enclaves is a way of securing themselves against having to compete with the local ancestral agrarian community for social and spatial entitlement. This is especially since the means adopted by the local agrarian ancestral community (perceived by the educated middle class) for settling disputes disadvantage the educated middle class. And, to this purpose, gates are useful tools since they secure the territory where laws consistent with educated middle-class habitus can be enforced by cordoning it off from the territory of the local community’s dominance. As Dinzey-Flores (2013) argues, “gates ‘freeze’ shameful ideas of separation . . . they keep out things that are embarrassing and not readily acceptable” (Dinzey-Flores, 2013: p. 5). “It gives the ‘privileged’ ‘psychological comfort’ and hinders redress” (Dinzey-Flores, 2013: p. 6). “[G]ates and walls establish and reinforce community boundaries and social permissions, they distribute power; they warn and discipline city navigators .  .  . determining and exemplifying a social hierarchy” (Dinzey-Flores, 2013: p. 21). Within these walls, the builders ensure that most daily needs can be met, reducing the required and expected amount of interaction with spaces outside of the walled area. The choice to live in a gated complex is as much resignation from having to acknowledge the rules of the LAAC governing the larger city space as an attempt to discredit how LAAC’s social norms disadvantage EMC’s claim over resources and social space. Gated enclaves, therefore, are a special case of manifestation of middle class’ distinction that works to reiterate that spatial distinction is a tactic employed towards structuring interaction with the other. This structuring of the space in gated enclaves is such as to allow the educated middle class to retain control up to the point that actual conflicts of habitus (incidents) become rare. The process through which the middle class has come to appropriate physical space (place) and formulated rules pertaining to social interactions within the space is reflective of its need to distance itself from the LAAC as a way of consolidating their distinction. Gates in the context of educated middle classes of Gurgaon, therefore, fulfil the following functions of (1) consolidating the migrant middle class in a context where dispersion may weaken the ability to secure a footing in the city dominated by social norms of LAAC, (2) establishing primacy of enforceable rights of property and securing it against the assumed moral right over space, (3) defining clear boundaries to establish spatial expression of contrasting identity culture for the educated middle class towards building a distinction of disposition, (4) imposing implicit rules of disposition and

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expectations of human behaviour within the gated enclaves to produce a kind of cultural exclusivity, (5) promoting a sense of elective belongingness,14 that is a sense of belongingness to the gated enclaves and city among those that have decided to move in and put down “roots” emphasising “choice” over fixity of LAAC and (6) creating a kind of infrastructural exclusivity/ restricting access to private-commons. Elective belonging is an interesting idea in this context. It is a feeling of belongingness that emphasises choice (of living in the city and gated premises) as signifying a greater level of attachment and investment in the city and gated enclaves. As one respondent, Nikita, pointed out how she and her husband fell ill at ease with the kind of customs she saw people observing while she was living in the Old Gurgaon area and how she couldn’t imagine her son growing up in a kind of culture shock and so she wanted to live in a neighbourhood that reflected her sense of self and ambitions. Elective belonging makes the chosen city/residential space a site for performing identity; for instance, Mudit explained his choice of living in neo-urban Gurugram: It is also a matter of keeping your reputation intact. I  mean, everyone looks at you in a certain way if you introduce yourself as a CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Even you look at yourself in a certain way, and even if one were to assume it doesn’t matter to you what others think, you’d want for yourself to be living appropriate to the way it is expected from a CEO to be living, right?! In its original invocation, elective belongingness emphasises that in a context where locals pose no cultural opposition to the incoming migrant middle class, the migrant middle class formulates a sense of belongingness through stressing their “choice”. The distinction is drawn against a group of t­ ransient-spiralists15 (Savage et al., 2005a: p. 45). In the context of neo-urban Gurugram, the migrant middle class faces hostility from the LAAC. Therefore, in this situation, the migrant middle class is not just distinguishing itself from locals and people they identify as having lower stakes in the city and gated enclaves/gated communities, but also from those who are renting living space in gated enclaves. The EMC recognise that they have more stakes, are more invested and have a higher moral claim in the city and the gated enclave/gated communities than the locals, as well as those who don’t own property in the gated enclaves but are living on rent. EMC’s social class distinction here becomes nuanced. It claims distinction from multiple class-others in different referential contexts. In the context of gated enclaves where the migrant middle class becomes a majority, there is a hierarchy of claims between those who own living spaces versus those who

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are renting them. Those renting the premises are seen as impermanent and inferior. Additionally, the EMC exercises a partial exit strategy to bolster their neighbourhood and city attachment (Andreotti and Le Gales, 2008). About partial exit strategy, Andreotti and Le Gales (2008: p. 130) write: [I]ndividuals belonging to the upper-middle classes can put into practise “partial exit strategies”, that is they can choose to withdraw from certain public organisations (schools in the public sector, for instance, hospitals) and to retreat from those organisations. With respect to the city, this means withdrawing from the use of the local space and from the social interaction at that level. The idea of the “partial exit hypothesis” in the context of EMC becomes distinct in that it is not simply an exit from public spaces and public resources. Instead, it is an exit from public spaces and public resources inspired by the reading of public spaces and public resources as spaces that facilitate confrontation with LAAC habitus. Public spaces and public resources are read as inferior for the fact that the social group one claims distinction against also has access to it. Manifesting Class: Claiming the City In the context of Neo-Urban Gurgaon, EMC formulates its distinction through drawing favourable contrast against those that one sees as different from oneself and exhibit competing claims over the city and its resources, the LAAC. The favourable contrast between local and existing forms of dispositions, seen as part of one’s distinct habitus, feeds into defining a kind of hierarchy between certain areas and kinds of living. Dispositions also get imposed on physical locations within the city. The distinction, divide and othering manifests itself in the formulation of spatial strongholds of these communities in different parts of the city. This leads to spatial differentiation made between “Old” (associated with the local ancestral agrarian community) and “New” Gurgaon and perceptions attached with them. Also, the othering of local ancestral agrarian community16 and distinction among the migrating middle class is based on the underlying argument that “class is more than just a matter of having money, it is equally a matter of dispositions17”. Vishal, a respondent, whose father had grown up in Gurgaon but shifted to Delhi and now lives in their own flat in Princeton Estate (one of the gated enclaves), points out, “the Jats and Gujjars thought they were smart in buying land in Old Gurgaon area to make their kothies (bungalows), not realising that the scales of urban development in about 20 years will tilt to this side of the highway (laughs)”.

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Another respondent, Sanjay, who has worked at the postal department in Gurgaon and lives in a flat in a gated complex, adds, now this side of the road you will barely see anyone who was born and brought up locally. . . . Even those who have come from other areas within Gurgaon district had only managed to come because they managed to get into one of these better-paying jobs and bought houses on this side of the National Highway. . . . When farmers had started selling their lands, the prices of land in Old Gurgaon also rose . . . but now you see all this fancy development on this site, and Old Gurgaon looks nothing in comparison. Old Gurgaon spatially came to be associated with the local ancestral (formerly agrarian) community that has earned capital through selling their lands, so much so that they could be called “nouveau riche” (Vasudevan, 2013). The Old Gurgaon becomes a spatial manifestation of the “other” against which a distinction is claimed. As another respondent, Deepika, puts it: You’d still find cows and buffaloes sitting right in the middle of a busy road and people struggling to find their way around them. You’d still see pigs roaming around .  .  . in any good city; you don’t find these things. Only Cybercity18 [area] . . . just because it can claim tall buildings, corporate work culture doesn’t make it a city, cause then you must only stick to staying within Cybercity. If you go to the other side of the highway, there you wouldn’t even get a feel of being in a city, there you’d feel you’re in a town, smaller cities. In this case, the juxtapositions of the city are being used to assert or magnify existing differences to form communities of choice (Massey et  al., 1999). Spaces are seen as representative of and an extension of the “other” inhabiting it. The distinction is claimed from everything associated with LAAC like local languages—tones, words, the pitch of voice, ways of dressing and disposition towards wealth and power. The distinction also features the way EMC talks about the space it identifies with the local ancestral agrarian community, that is, Old Gurgaon. Another respondent, Nikita, a teacher at an international school, talks about why she decided to not buy a home in Old Gurgaon, even though she was staying there on rent briefly before she moved into a gated complex built by DLF. She says, my husband .  .  . said he could buy a big independent house in Old Gurgaon . . . I wanted to live near a good school, and I wanted to live in a good neighbourhood so that my son doesn’t experience a culture shock between his school and home environment. I couldn’t be happier . . . at

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least we are living in a good gated neighbourhood, where ­everyone is educated and well mannered. I really wanted that for my son, and even for us, we’re not like them. They’re really conservative, and I would stand out in the whole neighbourhood for not wearing my scarf over my head and covering my face, which felt weird, like living in a village. The city space had always been a site of contestation and confrontation between the two groups; reported incidents and crimes attest to this. EMC, through repeated encounters, understood that the city space disadvantages their habitus over the habitus of caste-based feudal and rural habitus of the LAAC, enforced through brute force. EMC, therefore, makes concerted efforts to shift the city’s privileged habitus (of LAAC), in effect shifting the legitimated ways city space is claimed. There is a concerted effort to reclaim the physical and social space of Gurugram by the EMC in ways that privilege their habitus and privileges their class distinction. The act of outlining and defining legitimate and acceptable ways of claiming the city space, in effect, displaces through delegitimating/interiorising the claims based on other forms of habitus (of LAAC). EMC has been shifting the acceptable habitus of claiming the city space through what Jane M. Jacobs calls “active placemaking events” (Massey et al., 1999: p. 107). Massey argues that active placemaking events are reconstruction of spaces and places within the City . . . (as) an active part of the reordering of the wider relations within which the City is set, and the aim was that the local reconstruction would respond to—and hopefully even influence—the remaking of the wider relations. (Massey et al., 1999: 107) The educated middle class mobilises its statistical strength, lobbying with institutions of law and administration, collective wealth and community organisations to further its objective. The claims on the physical and social space manifest themselves through initiatives that seek to manipulate, control, discipline and structure space. Exhibiting claim over the physical and social space in an attempt to shift privileged habitus of the space consolidates the group’s coherence as well as distinction. This is facilitated through various civil society groups like resident welfare associations (RWAs), citizen’s forums and community initiatives. These bodies act as a strong lobby in fostering EMC’s role in disciplining, controlling and claiming the city space. Invariably the justification provided is to make the city more habitable, welcoming and safe. By defining their narrow, classed interest as public interest, their project of “urban revanchism” privileged the middle class’ claim on the city’s space (Smith, 1996; Mitchell, 2003; Gooptu, 2011). However, unlike its original employment, this revanchism

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in the newly urbanised peri-urban fringe is not against a poor class-other; rather, it is against a “class-other” with comparable material means. IamGurgaon Initiatives such as “IamGurgaon” are a conscious attempt to invoke a less historically, locally embedded sense of identity and instead of an attempt to shift or redefine the temporal claim of residence as the primary basis of identity and belongingness. This displaces the earlier bases of identity rooted in caste, ancestry and lineage as the basis of claiming the city space. The geographical and spatial transformation and refiguring of city space are complemented by a parallel redefining of what may constitute authentic claims to the city space. The name of the initiative (a declaration/statement) could be the signification of a claim over the city by looking at the city as an extension of oneself. For EMC, citizenship and residence can be the only bases upon which social organisation could be achieved. All the other axes would be fractured and not consistent across the group. Hence, when it comes to expressing and exhibiting rights upon the city and social space of the city (by migrant educated middle class as opposed to the local ancestral agrarian community), it is only logical to expect those to be on the basis of residence and disposition. This “revanchism” is not inclusive; for instance, information and notifications about organised events are sent out through electronic communications (to voluntary subscribers). Such efforts are targeted at the population which understands and appreciates transnational ideas and virtual solidarities. Latika Thukral, a 49-year-old former Vice President at a nationalised bank, has been one of the three people who have pioneered the “IamGurgaon” movement. In an interview (June  2014), she narrated how, while on a sabbatical from her job, she realised that she couldn’t look past the “problems” that are plaguing Gurgaon. She highlighted the massive civic mismanagement, ecological damages and threats, the lack of proper sewage networks and scarcity of water, the slacking law and order situation and improper and insufficient basic city infrastructure like pavements and street lights. She added that it was the realisation of these issues and the need to produce a better city for their children that triggered her and two of her friends to begin a social initiative that sought to change the way the city was. “IamGurgaon” thus took shape in 2007 and presently has membership from “residents, the administration, corporate organisations, schools, RWAs, NGOs and developers” who seek “to effect change and make a true ‘Millennium City’ ” (Source: IamGurgaon.org). However, the initiative that has support from various partner corporations conspicuously lacks the presence or participation of any labour associations, worker organisations or local panchayats

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from neighbouring urban villages. In fact, one could safely argue that the entire initiative of “IamGurgaon” is upper middle class and middle class in terms of its member profile, and the presence of RWAs lays support to the claim. In terms of government, the website claims that among partners, there are also “administrators”, but there is no mention of any official profiles that may officially be listed as a representation of the state. The presence of state representation, even if through euphemisms, should be read in two ways, that is, one as the state’s agreement and support extended to middle and upper-middle-class political communities that seek to reconfigure space, as an expression of their rights on city space. Second, the state’s representation is a way of legitimising the middle-class habitus as the privileged, implying the claims based on which will be seen as authentic. Through the expression of their environmental and ecological concerns along with civic issues and issues of sustainability being raised, the political profile of such associations may appear akin to those of Urban Local Bodies, although it may not reflect the concerns of all sections of people. In fact, a very good example of how Iamgurgaon is a concerted effort by EMC towards claiming the city space could be the IamGurgaon initiative called Raahgiri. Raahgiri, in its very conceptualisation, transcends the local and national boundaries and actively references itself in an educated middle class that is both integrated into global circuits of capital and has global exposure19. Latika points out that they dug up the concept from an event that was being organised by the name of Cyclovia in Bogota, Columbia. Raahgiri seeks to claim social space while forging community integration. The initiative seeks to generate awareness about the need for safe and effective public transport as a solution to traffic chaos, road safety and other related issues. However, the very physical act of cordoning off a section of roads to organise an event dominated by an educated middle class should be read as a performative act of establishing one’s claim and an exhibitioning of power. Raahgiri also enjoys strong backing from the local administration of Gurgaon—MCG, PWD, HUDA and Traffic Police. The event entails ­blocking a stretch of road for public traffic on a pre-decided Sunday between 6:00 AM and 12:00 noon. Participation is registered online, although theoretically, the event remains open for anyone who would wish to participate on the spot. This is unlike its inspiration which references its origins to obesity-related issues, non-sociability among city residents and the need for belongingness to the city. Although Latika clarifies, the original purpose of Raahgiri was to introduce to people alternate modes of transportation in the forms of cycles and to raise awareness . . . also the traffic police of Gurugram would organise campaigns for road safety and regulations at the event.

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The initiative remains a huge success and is ongoing. It resonates very well with residents who have voiced concerns about the incidents of road rage. As one of the respondents, Vishal, pointed out, “a very decent crowd gathers. People skate and dance, and walk, and people bring their kids who tri-cycle. There is hula hooping and aerobics. This has made roads more than just a place to drive; roads have become a space for a community to make its presence felt”. The appeal of the event among the EMC cannot and must not be divorced from their anxiety about roads of Gurugram as common spaces that have been a spatial battleground for competing social orders desired by LAAC and EMC. These factors highlight the political strength and power of an association as “IamGurgaon”, formed as a “citizen” initiative. The citizen discourse being mobilised in this context is also significant in that the middle and upper-middle-class profile of most members and the conspicuous absence of worker associations, local panchayats reflect a very exclusionary sense of citizenship. Aravalli Biodiversity Park Aravalli Biodiversity Park is another example of EMC disciplining the city space in accordance with their habitus. The description of the Aravalli Biodiversity Park on the “IamGurgaon” website reads: Aravalli Biodiversity Park, as its name suggests, is an endeavour to create a forest garden that celebrates forest flora native to the Aravalli range. We have lost a large part of the Aravalli range, its flora and fauna to rampant development and urbanisation. The Aravalli Biodiversity Park was once a mining site. The land still has fresh scars of the mining era. “IamGurgaon” intends to restore this scarred land into a biodiversity reserve and celebrate the rich flora of the Aravalli Range. The description communicates a sense of entitlement and claim over natural resources, a sense of collective loss and a sense of purpose in a restorative/ revival project. A  sense of solidarity and community is forged along these three axes among EMC. Critical in this description is “we” that should regret the loss of Aravalli’s biodiversity. The “we” is conscious of ecological damages due to urbanisation, unlike “others” who participated in it. The “we” is responsible in its claiming the city space and understanding the city’s usevalue, as opposed to those who have exploited the city for its exchange value (exchanged city’s resources and land for money). A sentiment was reaffirmed by Ms. Thukral, who stated, if you look at it, all of us are migrants, and we want to make our city better because this is what we will leave behind for our children. We are the

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first-generation people coming to Gurgaon. We haven’t inherited this city; we have built this city. We weren’t born and brought up here. So, we have a responsibility towards our children, the next generation that we leave it like in good shape and in fact make it better for them. The thought was that I want to make my city a better place. Make it safer and cleaner and more accessible and sustainable. (Interview, March 2014) Alkazi (2015) highlights yet another important point with regard to this way of talking about the Biodiversity Park. He writes: The oxymoron of “forest garden” neatly sums up the contradictions inherent in the project, forests and gardens have two traditionally ­opposing meanings, a forest is wild and untamed, while a garden is civilised and controlled. The “forest garden” could be a metonym for the whole process of bourgeois environmentalism; the wish for freedom, the need for order. (Alkazi, 2015: p. 70) Amphitheatre Among other successful initiatives of “IamGurgaon” is an “imposing amphitheatre”, for which “IamGurgaon” has successfully lobbied. The amphitheatre is used for performances organised by members of “Gurgaon’s Class”. These events, the website claims, are funded or organised by the state government, which (like “IamGurgaon”) is for all residents. Although Alkazi (2015) aptly highlights that many of these events that are projected as free and open to all may sometimes require background knowledge and repertoire that may not be common to everyone. Consider, for example, the kind of background knowledge required for an event of “Dastangoi”, a specific form of narration that builds on elaborate knowledge of the use of puns, rhymes and meters found in Urdu high literature. Alkazi (2015: p. 71) argues that such specific and specialised background knowledge that not everybody may have access to makes Gurgaon Utsav (an event organised by the state government in the amphitheatre) “classed space”. Among other initiatives of “IamGurgaon” that have sought to exhibit and express their rights over the city space have been cleaning of Gurgaon streets through mobilising the municipality to enable closer surveillance and supervision of sweepers (Chitkara, 201020). A  classed intervention also, due to the absence of any labour organisation representation in IamGurgaon. Their insistence on the state machinery and ensuring its efficiency through accountability is another evidence that gives support to the middle and upper-­middleclass character of the initiative that seeks to establish its rights through

Intersection of Class and Space 61

mobilising state institutions and state machinery. To deal with the problem of traffic snarls, they mobilised help from residents who were experts in the appropriate field to help chart a clear plan of action and then take the drafted solution to the appropriate department and lobby for it to be taken up. Chitkara (2010) writes: The group identified a vacant plot, approached the municipality for turning it into a parking lot. Once ready, it will house about 100 cars. But crusaders always face their share of troubles. Ms Thukral has been advised not to use that road because vendors uprooted from the vacant spot are angry with her. The distancing from the underclass and the inter-class hostility is unmistakable. These represent the ways in which the public spaces and the city is being controlled, manipulated and disciplined by the EMC. Such control and intervention into city makeover have performative value strengthening the claim of EMC over the physical and, by extension, social space of the city. The concerted efforts at redefining the habitus, of legitimised claim, in ways that privilege EMC over LAAC is of immense significance to the understanding of class as well as to spatial sociology. The educated middle class is not just claiming the city; it seeks to redefine the ways in which the city is to be claimed through their stronghold in neo-urban spaces that otherwise are peripheral to the main city. Summary This chapter highlights the neoliberal restructuring of class and neoliberal restructuring of space through their initiation and participation in global circuits of capital is interrelated. The chapter illustrates the ways in which class and space interact towards consolidating, producing and reproducing class distinction. It looks at the intersection of space and class as producing specific kinds of class distinction. By highlighting the specific case of neo-urban Gurugram’s specific urbanisation trajectory traced through the five perspectives of geo-political, legislation, land deals, urbanisation and settlement, this chapter illustrates how intersection results in the consolidation of habitus. It further highlights how the existing socio-spatial dynamics get imprinted on and get imprinted by the class identities. The geographical and social space of the city is reclaimed in ways that value the habitus of the educated middle class as a benchmark of civility. This habitus then becomes the basis of defining a legitimate claim over the social and geographical space. The residential space, on the other hand, is constructed in ways that it appeals to the habitus of the educated middle class and makes it possible for the educated middle class to mobilise its cultural capital.

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Notes 1 Peri-urban is a term employed as a way of situating the position of these landscapes as an interface between country and town (neither rural nor urban in conventional sense) and its status as rural-urban transition zone. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its report on peri-urban agriculture (OECD, 1979: p.  10) states as follows: “The term peri-urban area, cannot be easily defined or delimited through unambiguous criteria. It is a name given to the grey area which is neither entirely urban nor purely rural in the traditional sense; it is at most the partly urbanized rural area. Whatever definition may be given to it, it cannot eliminate some degree of arbitrariness”.   However, there has been some contestation to the employment of this terminology, for instance, D.L. Iaquinta and A.W. Drescher (2002) argue, “there is an increasing perception that rural, peri-urban and urban environments operate as a system rather than independently. Many development specialists conclude that rural development and urban planning are necessarily linked activities. Activities or interventions in one arena have consequences, which are often negative, in the other. At the same time, creative policies can turn liabilities into resources and bridge the rural-urban divide”. Retrieved from www.fao.org/docrep/003/ X8050T/x8050t02.htmv. Accessed November 16, 2016. 2 (Jacombpura) “was laid out by a former Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Jacomb, in 1861, for the accommodation of Government servants” (Government of Haryana, 1883: p. 143). 3 Retrieved from http://gurgaon.gov.in/pdf/about-gurgaon.pdf. Accessed November 11, 2016, at 18:20 hrs. 4 Delhi Development Authority (1962). Master Plan of Delhi 1961–81. New Delhi: Government of India, p. 3. 5 Gurgaon (2016). Columbia Electronic Encyclopaedia, 6th edn. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=85569706& site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed November 20, 2016, at 16:00 hrs. 6 Gururani (2013: p. 133) writes, “According to the Punjab Scheduled Road and Controlled Areas Act (1963), power of relaxation implies that ‘the Govt. may in public interest, relax any restriction or conditions in so far as they related to land use prescribed in the controlled area in exceptional circumstances’ (263), and the state can accordingly acquire land or even subvert the entire plan”. 7 The introduction of high-yielding variety of seeds in agriculture with the objective of increasing food-grain production was popularly termed as “Green Revolution” (Chakravarti, 1973). 8 The state infrastructure that was essential, such as arterial roads and drainage systems, it has been pointed by the informants, lagged in comparison to real estate residential and commercial urban infrastructural development. 9 Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) is a commercial real estate development company that played an important role in shaping the post-liberalisation urbanisation of Gurgaon city. 10 Read. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Villagers-likely-to-takeover-city/articleshow/8182078.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&&& utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst. 11 De Wet (2008: p. 115) writes that disemplacement happens when “the area where people live or with which they associate is no longer able to support or sustain them. .  .  . They are thus no longer able to remain emplaced, and increasingly become uprooted, unsettled, ‘disemplaced’ ” (De Wet, 2008: p. 115).   Hemer (2015) highlights that the term disemplacement indicates a previous state of being emplaced. Emplacement emerges from an individual’s ability to

Intersection of Class and Space 63 formulate a narrative of identification with a place (Farrer, 2010) in this case ancestry, or “the process or state of setting something in place or being set in place” (Roy, 2017: p. 4). 12 For the connection between expensive cars and crimes, see the following newspaper links: Accessed August 6, 2016. http://mobilegov.in/gov/views/columns/gangs-gurgaon www.firstpost.com/india/gurgaon-bmw-crash-another-big-money-coverup-307983.html www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120401/spectrum/main1.htm Also see: https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/for-women-workers-in-gurgaonstrict-but-toothless-laws/ www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120401/spectrum/main1.htm 13 The popularity of neighbourhood/community units in the Indian context is tied to the profile of its initial occupants. Neighbourhood/community units were the living space of the bureaucratic elite and therefore it represented elitism and the lifestyle of the powerful (Vidyarthi, 2010: pp. 80–81). Vidyarthi (2010) highlights that the introduction of Civil Lines in Delhi (“a euphemism for the sequestered European quarter in South Asian cities, during the nineteenth century”) represents “a decisive break from the indigenous city, which was seen by colonial British as unhygienic, chaotic and incomprehensible” (ibid.: p. 82). 14 Savage et al. (2005) invoke elective belonging in the context of dynamics between locals and non-locals too. Elective belongingness is a sense of belongingness and claim that is embedded in one’s acknowledgement of having exercised an agency and conscious choice to live in an area, as opposed to belongingness embedded in “fixity” that comes from having lived in one area for very long. For those exhibiting elective belongingness, places which one comes to occupy become “sites for performing identities”. He writes, “Individuals attach their own biography to their ‘chosen’ residential location, so that they tell stories that indicate how their arrival and subsequent settlement is appropriate to their sense of themselves. People who come to live in an area with no prior ties to it, but who can link their residence to their biographical life history, are able to see themselves as belonging to that area” (Savage et al., 2005: p. 29). 15 Savage et al. (2005a) define “transients” as people who have “no ties with the place they now live in” (p. x). They could be understood as individuals who could have well settled elsewhere. These are migrants who have no anchorage in the places they live in and could easily shift to a different place easily. They are seen as outsiders who’ve yet not put their roots down. 16 Not much about the class profile of local population is known. What is known is that these villages were aligned by strong caste affiliations and were dominated by Gujjars and Yadavs as dominant castes followed by Jats. All three castes are traditionally associated in the area with agriculture and large land holdings, so they benefitted from the land deals during land acquisition (Debroy and Bhandari, 2009). This appears in the perceptions of the educated middle-class individuals who also see the local ancestral agrarian community as having a lot of money. 17 Similar statements made by two respondents, Mona and Karan. 18 Cybercity or DLFcybercity is defined as “India’s Largest Integrated Business District”. For more, see www.dlfcybercity.com/cybercity-overview.aspx. 19 The description on Raahgiri day acknowledges its inspiration in “cyclo via”. The description reads, “Cyclovia – The inspiration behind Raahgiri Day in Gurgaon: Cyclovia or Ciclovia is a term which translates from Spanish into English as ‘bike path’ is either a permanently designated bicycle route or the closing of city streets to automobiles for the enjoyment of cyclists and

64  Intersection of Class and Space public alike. It first started in Bogota and is now held weekly in Bagota, Columbia and is also very popular all over the world known by different names viz. Open Streets, Summer Streets, etc.”. Retrieved from http://raahgiriday.com/ cyclovia-the-inspiration-behind-raahgiri-day-in-gurgaon/. 20 Vartika Chitkara “I am Gurgaon”, in India Today, January 7, 2010. Retrieved from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/I+am+Gurgaon/1/78142.html.

Chapter 2

Distinction, Othering and Exclusivity

“the numerous ways in which we create spaces and places of our urban world, and the power relations within which we do so.” (Massey, 2005b: p. 162)

Introduction August 23, 2014 On my way to the gates, the guard at the gate stops me. He asks me who I am, to which I tell him my name, expecting that to be enough introduction. He looks on without any change of expression; I add information about who I  was going to meet. The guard eases his furrowed brows, but his lips remained pursed as he throws a quick glance over his shoulder to three guards sitting inside the guard post. They seem just as bemused, as one of them, a vaguely heavy but muscular man with a thick moustache and bushy eyebrows, in his later forties or early fifties, gets out of his chair and walks swaying with a “Kya Hua?” (What is the matter?). The earlier guard, a young man in his late twenties or early thirties, reiterates the information I had provided him with. The guard looks at me with elevator eyes and asks me the reason for the visit, to which I say, “I am a friend!” He looks unconvinced, goes back to the post and talks for about 2 minutes on the phone, comes back and hands me a pass. He reiterates with a confirmatory question, “you’re a friend, huh?!” and I take entry. The guard at the lobby of the tower takes the pass, asks me to fill the register and reconfirms with me, “You’re going to Mudit Sahab’s flat?” I nod and call the lift. Once the interview session wound up, we sit and chat, and I shared my experience, adding that the security checks are fierce in this place. Mudit’s facial expressions change. He was quiet for some time and then said, “I had suggested I  should pick you up from the metro station, you need not put yourself through all this. Wait here, I will get my car keys, I will drop you off”. I explained to him that I wasn’t offended at them, questioning me or asking me anything. Mudit returned with his keys and explained to me that

DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-3

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the guards were perhaps correlating the fact that he is a single man, living with his flatmates (both men) and I am an individual young woman who is claiming to be his “friend” but not driving a car, following which he added, “Well, let us just put it this way, they didn’t think you are a friend!”. After a momentary pause, he adds, “That’s the problem with places like these. Some guards constantly watch all sort of cheap people and their cheap antics and impose the same logic on everybody”. His indication is fairly clear. I couldn’t be a “friend” because friends have similar social standing. A man who is living in a condominium in a high-rise building of a gated enclave cannot be friends with a young woman who seeks entry on foot. This may also be seen as reflective of gendered perception and social anxiety about the sexuality of women from the underclass, who are “befriending” men from a more privileged socio-economic standing. His car approaches the gate, and the guards rush to open the gate and flash a quick salute. It is amply clear that a lot more than mere impending criminality is being assigned in the reading of individuals who seek entry to gated enclaves. This incident made it clear that what seems like a homogenous space of educated middle class suddenly shows fractures of identity from within the group. The incident highlights that there are ways of being and belonging that are mandated within the gated enclaves. In defining these ways of being and belonging, what is further defined is a hierarchy of identities that are defined in relation to the space of the gated enclaves. Having erected walls and gates as a way of cordoning off space to secure spatial control does not establish that the class identity has been consolidated with a finality. The spatial practices of consolidating class identity and distinction do not stop at securing walled compounds that restrict access and entry inside homogenous classed spaces. While EMC is raging a battle to restructure legitimate ways of claiming the city from LAAC’s authority over it, the gated enclaves act as their emplacement (Roy, 2017), presenting a homogenous, united and cogent front, but are gated enclaves as cogent internally? The spatial practices that help define class distinction against LAAC, when turns inwards towards itself, it becomes nuanced to further classify the population towards identifying a “core”/secure and peripheral elements of class identity. What happens once a spatial stronghold has been established, when the threat of “the class other” has been neutralised through spatial control? What happens beyond the walls and gates of gated enclaves? Is it truly a middle-class safe haven? The chapter explores these questions and highlights that once the field of sight has been secured, the “othering” gaze turns inwards. The spatial practices nuance themselves further in an attempt to define a class’ “core” identity, establishing order and hierarchy even among allies and alike(s). The previous chapter highlighted how the desire to find one’s footing in a city, against the claims of LAAC, results in the EMC seeking residential

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spaces that offer exclusivity (of shared resources) and restricted access. This exclusivity, once secure from the threats and competition from LAAC, nuances itself to produce tiers of socio-spatial hierarchy among those previously thought of as class members. Such a view nuances the existing idea that gated enclaves tend to be socially homogenous environments, and people who choose to inhabit these spaces seek actively to live with the people who belong to the same social group (Caldeira, 2001: p. 258). Even though to the larger community of city-dwellers and those outside the gated enclaves, the population of the gated enclaves seems like a homogenous group, and while this may be true for the functional purposes of claiming the city, the gated enclaves are not without their internal fractures of class identity. The social and physical space of gated enclaves, thus, acts to both magnify differences on one end (among residents of gated enclaves), meanwhile, simultaneously hide differences on the other (as a united EMC). This chapter deals with insecurities not just with regard to the other (outside) but also with regard to the other (within), that is, neighbours. The chapter outlines the ways in which the very architecture of residential space of the educated middle class in a gated community represents and makes exclusivity, privacy and security the organising principles of EMC living. Towards understanding the idea of class distinction, the idea of exclusivity, privacy, anonymity, manual surveillance and security within gated enclaves become important. These underline the optimal conditions and spatiality within which the class status can be enjoyed optimally. A closer inspection of this spatiality within the gated enclaves highlights the efforts that go into protecting the sanctity of fragile class identity and distinction. It further highlights how this fragile class identity defines a “core” identity, yet again, in relationship to space. As the scales shift from the larger city to space within gated enclaves, the basis of an authentic claim over the class identity and distinction undergoes change. Depending on the differential scales of analysis, gated enclaves represent “Social space [that] tends to be translated, with more or less distortion, into physical space, in the form of a certain arrangement of agents and properties” (Bourdieu, 2000: p. 134). Spatial Practices Producing Exclusivity In the previous chapter, the preference for gated living among EMC was highlighted. The idea of gated enclaves in neo-urban was also discussed. The need for walls, gates and enclosed spaces is certainly tied to EMC’s perception of vulnerability, a perceived threat of crime and disorder, and a need to consolidate its classed identity. However, if one were to understand gates as solely linked to the issues of security and perceived threat of crime, one is likely to miss another important purpose these gated and enclosed living spaces serve. Walls, gates, security guards, and so on also work to maintain exclusivity and protect against unrestricted open access to the collectively secured island of EMC’s privileged, classed space and infrastructural resources.

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It is important to situate the neo-urban gated enclaves in relation to the privatised modes of urbanisation and patch-work city they produce. The “global urban spaces”, private built-utopias of the EMC shutting out the local masses creating spatial apartheid, is critical to the understanding of classed dispositions and distinction among EMC. The insecurities and threats are reflective of both a fragile sense of distance from local masses needing constant reassurance and two an acute awareness of being the personification of global urbanity in a peri-urban context superimposed over the rural-local place and space histories. The positionality then is one that brings together the verve of class vanguard of global urbanity, embedded in the identification of deep contrast with local, rural masses of class-others. Eyes Wide Open The positionality of EMC is contingent on securing their spatial stronghold against the class-other and the rurality of peri-urban space. Securing the privileged classed space against unrestricted, public access (by rural, local underclasses or rural middle class with comparable material means) requires vigilance and surveillance. Surveillance is understood as a sophisticated method of gathering data about individuals that can be sifted, sorted and screened towards identifying aberrations from the expected. This aberration and expected can be defined variously by different authorities/agencies towards achieving their specific ends. For instance, surveillance is done by state authorities, the police or the security forces to define expected and aberration in a manner they see fit to their purpose. In the context of gated enclaves, this expected and aberration is defined strictly along class lines. Surveillance can be understood using the analytical tools provided by Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze (1987), analysing Foucault’s ideas on Panopticon Structure1 by invoking the relationship between signifier and signified in a system of signification.2 They suggest that the “Panopticon” should be looked at in twofold “form of content” and “form of expression” (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987: pp. 86–883). About the form of expression and form of content, they write, the prison is a form, the “prison form”; it is a form of content on a stratum and is related to other forms of content (school, barracks, hospital, factory). This thing or form does not refer back to the word “prison” but to entirely different words and concepts, such as “delinquent” and “delinquency”, which express a new way of classifying, stating, translating, and even committing criminal acts. “Delinquency” in the form of expression in reciprocal presupposition with the form of content “prison”. (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987: p. 87)

Distinction, Othering and Exclusivity 69

That is to say, prisons presuppose an idea of “delinquency”; it constructs an idea of aberrations (behaviour, conduct that would be classified as deserving of prison) that justify the need for prisons as content. And in the definitions of what constitutes delinquency, there is a reciprocal presuppose and justification of the existence of prison as a form. Another important point to note here is that delinquency does not represent a prison-type structure. Deleuze and Guattari (1987) say that the “form of expressions” is a set of statements arising in the social field considered as a “stratum”, while a “form of content” is a complex state of things as a formation of power (architecture, regimentation, etc.). The idea is that “prisons” have no essential connection to “delinquency”. Prisons don’t stop, deter, define or contain delinquency. Similarly, class identity and classed dispositions are forms of expression, and gated enclaves are forms of content that presuppose this form of expression. The form of expression of class identity, a class distinction and classed dispositions come together with other forms of content like malls, entertainment parks and hotels to produce other aggregate formations. These aggregate formations of expression-content articulations have differed in the past and have drifted over time. In a similar vein, gates, walls, rules, passes, parking stickers and guards are “form of content”, and “statements pertaining to class distinction, class identity, classed dispositions” may be seen as “form of expression”. Gates and the associated assemblage of security and segregation may have its own set of non-discursive multiplicities; that is, there may be a set of statements that may not coincide with the ideas of class discrimination and may, for instance, reference themselves in crime or management of space, water and other resources. Gates and security and surveillance may independently be invoked in other situations aligning with other forms of expressions to produce different aggregate formations. However, in this case, the form of content and forms of expressions come together to formulate a class distinction situated in a neo-urban context. The surveillance and gates of the gated enclaves employ and invoke ­subjective-perceptive mechanisms and thought processes meant to screen and keep out the underclass. The security desired by EMC is not just of property and life, but to a large extent is also security of trust, the security of resident’s “right not to be bothered”, and privacy. Surveillance in the most obvious and direct form is meant to also restrict access to premises in an attempt to sanitise the space of undesirable sights, smells and sounds related to members of the underclass. Security of order, life and property is of the most serious concern within a gated enclave. That is the reassurance of some protection against possible crimes. These crimes may be crimes against one’s property and assets (including children). Thus, security measures are meant to neutralise the

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Image 2.1  RWA Notice inside Gated Enclave Source: Author image

vulnerability of the body (children, elderly) against mobile threats posed by free-moving individuals, vehicles and delimiting perceived pollution to the socialisation process by underclasses (language, drugs, habits of playing cards). Neutralising vulnerability is essential to enjoying the anonymity that EMC treasures. The idea is to reduce vulnerability (associated with isolation)

Distinction, Othering and Exclusivity 71

Image 2.2  RWA Notice at Gated Enclave Entrance Source: Author image

while retaining the beneficial aspects of being anonymous, which are a sense of privacy and control over one’s life decisions and disclosure. In terms of security of property and life, gated enclaves mobilise a number of measures such as verification of the authenticity and invitation of the visitor by announcing the visitor to the resident through an intercom at the main gate and issuing a visitor pass (see Figure 2.7). This is followed by another set of a meticulous recording of an entry into respective towers by a guard at the lobby of the tower, who checks the visitor pass issued at the gate and allows further entry. This is followed by a set of equipment that may be installed at the doors, such as a magic-eye/peephole on the doors and/or cameras. Upon the exit, the visitor pass is collected after duly noting the time of exit. An important aspect of this surveillance was the question asked by guards patrolling the premises of the gated enclave at all times who may stop and inquire about the purpose and identity of the visitor and the resident who the visitor is visiting (as described later). Mudit explains to me that the security is strict about entry inside the enclave. Most residents reported extensive inquiries at the gates as being resented by their family members and friends. Azra, another respondent, in fact, pointed out that the security at one of the gated enclaves became a reason why many of their friends would refuse to visit them at their homes, but she finds this useful for her own good. She said that even though it causes annoyance to close ones and friends, this kind of strict surveillance ensured that unwarranted individuals do not gain entry and pose a threat. Caldeira (2001) also observes this meaning of control as not only extended to house-helps and other employees such as drivers and cooks who work

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for residents but also visitors from one’s own family. A sense of “authentic” entries of guests of residents only may by itself not be the only criteria since judgements are made despite confirmations, but the dominant rule seems to be guests of residents, who may be fit by description to class-appropriate distinction. It is then meant to restrict access and entry to individuals from the underclass. The threat is that the “undeserving” underclass would access or abuse the resources that EMC has acquired for their children and themselves (as initial capital towards enriching their lives). These spaces and resources, paid for by the EMC, are private-collective goods that only children of EMC access within class-homogenous safe conditions. These are safer and a lot more desirable to public spaces and resources that are accessed by everyone. This is also, in the context of privatised modes of urbanisation, where private spaces and private resources are being built at the cost of neglect of the development of public spaces and resources, further contributing to “spatial apartheid” (Chatterji, 2013: p. 277). Manisha and Poorvi expressed this in the form of concerns about and anxiety surrounding “suspicious people” loitering around the public parks. They said this posed a threat to the physical security of the children. The two women helped identify markers of such “trouble makers”, highlighting clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, mannerism and language, all alluding to class markers on bodies of the underclass. Poorvi draws up the linkage between poverty and crime, “These people, those of them who do not have money, what do they do, how do they get money easily, without having to work for it, and quickly. This is what they do, they steal!”. This is the characterisation of an “absolute outsider”, someone not known and distant, someone who can be dehumanised and depersonalised by distancing oneself. The gaze of the middle class then is most hostile and unforgiving and ascribes to the “absolute other” the worst intentions. The threat from shabbily dressed people, who may not be “clean” and “hygienic”, are seen as pollutants to the sanctity of the gated enclave. As Jahanvi explains while talking about the benefits of staying in a gated enclave, “Here you won’t see any of those rag pickers, or ‘gande log’ (dirty people), here just about anyone cannot walk in like it is an open passage. I know the kind of people that will be there as my kids play in the vicinity”. Gande log, or dirty people and the concept of dirt is most strongly invoked. Often this is followed by associating drugs, abuse, sexual predators and drunken misdemeanours and even crime to the idea of dirt or bodies marked by dirt. People marked in this way are considered pollutants and possibly criminal evident in the way Manisha explains her fear with regard to men playing cards in a colony park from her previous residence and hints at the inherent possibility of crime associated with them when she expresses respite at the thought that gates reassure her against worrying about someone keeping an eye on her son as he plays in the park.

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The disdain for “dirt” as a marker of underclass should be linked to ideas of pollution within the caste system. The prejudice must therefore be linked to the ideas about caste among the educated middle class, even though implicit. The educated middle class and its direct relationship to intellectual labour must also be seen as feeding into this kind of prejudice. There are three versions of this body of the underclass that is invoked by the EMC; one is in the context “absolute outsider” that is unfamiliar and poses the threat of a “breach” or forced entry flouting the rules of segregation through contestation against spatial and class segregation, as explained earlier; second is of the “outsider inside”, or the people who work as domestic help and drivers, and so on for the residents; third is what I call the “allegiant outsider inside”, or the members of the underclass who is expected in exchange of monetary compensation to employ their knowledge of “underclass psyche”, in service of the task of surveillance. It’s Common, not Public The general disdain towards open access public spaces and resources; and anxiety about “absolute outsider” highlights the premium placed on exclusivity among the educated middle class. This section looks at exclusivity as being integral to EMC’s understanding of space. It highlights the need among the educated middle class to acquire collective resources, access to which can be restricted. This stands in relation to the underdevelopment of infrastructure outside of privatised islands of global infrastructure. The logic of the phenomena of ‘Partial Exit Hypothesis’4 (Alberta Andreotti and Patrick Le Gales, 2008) is still extended further in terms of how the educated middle class living in gated enclaves looks at the superior resource pool available to their children within the walled confines of a gated enclave. Gated enclaves have restricted access to their lawns, facilities, courts, parks and children’s play area. This guards the facilities against the possibility of un-rightful use and “abuse” by children from underclass-others or even adults from the underclass. The logic privileges purchase capacity by building on the resentment of being a middle-class taxpayer who contributes towards building and upkeep of public spaces and resources that get used by people who do not shoulder the burden of construction or upkeep equally. The dis-proportionality of payment towards the cost of building and upkeep versus the benefits, according to EMC, disadvantages them. The indignance is resilient even though the idea is not well-founded in any empirical and factual evidence. It is rooted in perception and prejudice based on singularly accounting on variance in directly-paid income tax (not accounting for indirect taxes). Poorvi attested this, “You know, unlike the taxation system (and tax benefits) in the country, here it is reassuring to know that everyone has paid equally to access the resources and yet it is not falling on someone’s back disproportionately”.

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She further highlighted that since everyone who accesses these resources has paid equally towards it, everyone “cares” about its upkeep and maintenance just as much. She suggested that knowing that the resources that she pays for the benefit of her children directly are reassuring. Knowing this also motivates individuals to pay for their upkeep, repairs and installations. She highlights that those who pay for the resources would also ensure that their children use those resources responsibly. She adds: But, that is all contingent on ensuring no unauthorised person is using these, and gates give us just that ability to restrict unsolicited access, use, abuse of these resources. And so, they are also better maintained. If you knew that the gourmet food you’re ordering would be eaten by three other people who have not paid for it, it’d pinch you. Similarly, Sneha, another respondent, pointed out: It is far better in the United States, while we were living in New York for two years I realised how the taxes collected from one district would go towards building resources for that community (district) alone. Here it is like the state will suck your blood out and feed it to the poor. You see the condition of the public parks, all gamblers just lying sprawled, labourers taking naps, broken swings, rusted see-saws, cow dung cakes being dried, cows grazing. How can anyone send their children to play there?! Everything there for kids would be invariably broken, and it is these kids who have nothing else to do but to loiter in the parks. They wouldn’t go to school and play on those swings all day long until they break. What value will they have for it, anyway?! They’re not the ones paying for it. We pay the most but end up getting no benefits for it. Manisha further reiterates the feeling: While we lived in Prashant Vihar (in Delhi), my son would play in the colony park, and there would invariably be these men who would be playing cards there or when he cycled; we constantly would have to be on toes to ensure he is not coming in the way of the vehicles being driven down the colony road. Now, here children go down and play, and I know that Nobody suspicious or strange has access to my children. No kids, no people from outside can come in, and Nobody unfamiliar maybe at the Park. I am sure my children are safe, and there are no anti-social elements lurking somewhere posing as a threat to the safety and security of my child. Earlier I would have to constantly worry about the kind of people in the Park, even though he was two years old only, but then you know there are such horrible things people do to even children younger than that. Even if not that, I would have to worry about the possibility of someone keeping

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an eye on him or planning to kidnap him. There is always that possibility of a fake entry even here, but more or less this is safe. Gated enclaves and their restricted use premium services and facilities are EMC’s attempt to “take advantage of collective goods and services where they are, but to avoid investing in any long-term resources, and go private and temporary for as many services as possible” (Andreotti and Le Gales, 2008: p. 128). The ways in which the educated middle class mobilises collective funds towards acquiring exclusive facilities should be read as an attempt to disengage with the larger public space of the city and instead depend on “islands of globality” to define the quality of life. It is a strategic disengagement of the EMC of neo-urban context that seeks to contain within island spheres of work, recreation and home, a life that reflects timeless and spaceless globality through the erasure of anything remotely reminiscent of local peri-urban dynamics. Teresa Caldeira (2001) observes a similar trend in her study of fortified enclaves of Sao Paulo. She writes: They are private property for collective use, and they emphasise the value of what is private and restricted at the same time that they devalue what is public and open in the city . . . they are turned inward, away from the street, whose public life they explicitly reject. . . . Finally, enclaves tend to be socially homogenous environments. People who choose to inhabit these spaces value living among selected people (considered to be the same social group) and away from the undesired interactions, movement, heterogeneity, danger and the unpredictability of open streets. (2001: p. 258) Although Gurgaon does not have what could be classified as fortified enclaves, and yet residents echo the sentiments, as Jahanvi says: There are many reasons why we choose to live in this kind of gated setup, one very big reason is the kind of facilities. While we were living in the villa for a little while, we had our own swimming pool, but then to maintain the lawns and everything was so costly, it is unviable. Here, my children can enjoy swimming, can learn lawn tennis without the burden of maintaining the infrastructure and facility falling on my individual back. The view is reiterated by Poorvi, who points out: I feel it is better to pool resources towards common but restricted use. You know, unlike the taxation system of the country, here it is reassuring to know that everyone has paid equally to access the resources, and yet it is not falling on the back of one person alone. Collective pools can be more effective because towards securing the same facilities and the limited

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input, there are many people who contribute to the pool. A stronger pool of money means we can afford better security than any of us could individually afford, children, get better infrastructure and facilities than if we were to individually pay for. This confirms yet again the partial exit hypothesis (middle class exiting public resources and building their private assets in private spatial islands). The

Image 2.3  Playhouse inside Gated Enclave Source: Author image

Image 2.4  Tennis Court inside Gated Enclave Source: Author image

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partial exit hypothesis also means that as the middle class exits from the usage of public resources, the state has less incentive to invest in its development and upkeep, leading to a general decay of resources. The scenario plays out differently for the neo-urban spaces where the development of public infrastructure is lagging. The neo-urban contexts situated on the peri-urban fringes with their spatial disparity of pockets of rurality and urbanity juxtaposed along with lagging development of state infrastructure and public spaces feeds into EMC’s desire to have private collective resources and cordoned-off living spaces. Spatial exclusivity of EMC, and their partial exit from public infrastructure citing the lack of public resources and their “safety” and “accessibility”, reduces the incentive of the state to develop shared resources in peri-urban areas, creating further disparity resulting in justifying the EMC’s desire to retreat into global, urban spatial islands that are in deep contrast with their surroundings. Caldeira (2001: p.  266) explains this feature of condominiums: Closed condominiums are supposed to be self-contained worlds. Residents should be provided with everything they need so that they can avoid public life in the city, in keeping with this view, shared amenities transform the condominiums into sophisticated clubs. Further, their desire to invest and develop segregated spaces in deep contrast and disjunct with their surroundings would invariably lead to class differences intensifying and shaping all socio-spatial dynamics of the city space.

Image 2.5  Private paved streets inside gated enclaves Source: Author image

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Right Not to Be Bothered In addition to the absolute outsiders and infrastructural exclusivity, gates also assist with a related aspect that Caldeira (2001) calls resident’s “right to not be bothered”. Teresa Caldeira highlights the weight of this kind of thinking. Security and control are conditions for keeping the others out, for assuring not only seclusion but also “happiness”, “harmony”, and even “freedom”. To relate security exclusively to crime is to overlook its other meanings. The new system of security not only provides protection from crime but also creates segregated spaces in which exclusion5 is carefully and rigorously practised. They assure “the right to not be bothered”, probably an allusion to life in the city and the encounters with people of other social groups, beggars and other homeless people. (2001: p. 266) Manisha highlights this as reassurance when she says: With the gates and the security guards one is sure that just about anyone wouldn’t walk up to your door and ring your bell, no delivery man, people distributing pamphlets, courier people or random people can’t just walk in. You wouldn’t within the enclave compound find beggars or random vendors. Even if a courier delivery guy comes, the guards will call me, and I can tell them if I want them to receive the package or not and then later, I can take it from them. Even if it is a bank courier, I will be informed, and I can tell them whether or not I am at home and depending on that, they will allow the courier guy to take an entry, or otherwise just send him back and ask him to come later when I am at home. This highlights another associated aspect of predictability of life within gated enclaves and a sense of complete control over one’s activities and accessibility. Announcing the guests and entry “through invitation only” provides a sense of exclusivity and control over time and space based on the convenience of the EMC residents. Thus, the idea of security and surveillance is extended beyond the discourse of control and discipline and becomes a necessary condition towards a sense of freedom, liberation and being in command of one’s life in an unprecedented manner. Manisha illustrates concerns with regard to this: Nobody has time these days. Everyone has schedules that are difficult to synchronise . . . you can’t expect people to be able to have those kinds of neighbourly ties, as there once used to be. Even if one were to have those kinds of ties, what do you talk about? You don’t have to tell your neighbour to keep an eye on your home while you’re away; there is security for that. Also, the kind of unannounced neighbourly visits we used to witness

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Image 2.6  Security screening at the entrance to a gated enclave Source: Author image

Image 2.7  Visitor’s gatepass issued at the entrance of the gated enclave Source: Author image

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as children were a disturbance, frankly. We used to get disturbed by these visits if we were studying. So, my friend and I occasionally get together and chat casually over coffee, but we definitely confirm before we go over. Unannounced is a kind of imposition and un-thoughtful. I feel there may be things going on; there may be guests at the other person’s place or a situation they wouldn’t be comfortable sharing, or just generally, their routines and planned schedules would get disturbed if you decided to show up unannounced and stayed on for 2 hours, that induces a two-hour slag to their original plan! Even if we get guests while they are at the gate, their arrival is announced, and we get some time to put things in order, which I feel is a good thing. Manisha’s argument about the futility of talking to neighbours in the absence of any need for neighbourly help and support (given most of those functions have all been outsourced to the market) makes it futile to invest into developing such strong neighbourhood ties, and this in some ways is perceived as enabling. Also, as Patricia pointed out, with access to technology, people can transcend their physical selves and choose who they spend their time with (without the need for physical contact). People can organise specific get-together(s) with the possibility of “deferred coordination over emails and chat messages” and monitoring the status till the last minute before the meeting, hence diminishing the need to interact with the neighbours for social support and sociality. This was further reiterated by almost all other respondents. However, Deepika’s response to the question on neighbours throws up an interesting insight: she says, “I  don’t interact much with anybody here. I  don’t think people (here) are very social”. Azra echoes Deepika’s feelings and adds yet another dimension to the self-blame of not being social with her reasoning on restricted interactions: [E]ven as kids we were told to concentrate on our studies and not spend too much time interacting or building social ties. My father always maintained that one must prioritise one’s work over everything else, and there is never enough work that one needs to do. This highlights how the middle-class habitus has shaped the educated middle class such that sociability is seen as an activity that should be restricted in favour of more important work. This finds further strength in the way Nikita reflects about neighbourhood relationships from her childhood: When I  think of it, it was always my parents, my mother specifically who would keep strong neighbourhood relationships, she would discuss designs for cardigans or recipes, in fact, I remember the aunty who used to

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live next door to us would rightfully tell us to prepare double the amount of Kadhi (chickpea flour curry) as we would make for our own family. So each time we would cook Kadhi, we would make two-family servings, one whole serving would go to our next-door neighbour, and from our servings invariably small portions would be given out to other neighbours. It was like having a community kitchen, but then come to think of it, people had time in those times. Now everyone is working. Also, we were always taught that every other child in the neighbourhood was a potential competitor, and so how could anyone expect to have this kind of community bonding pass onto the next generations. Patricia recalled how, while growing up, education was important, but she had to also struggle with studying in a house full of guests and people from the church bunking in. She, in fact, recalled an instance whereby she studied for her class 10 board exams on the stairs of her Hauz Khas6 house because the house was packed with people, and her father expected her to be courteous and nice to everyone. She explicitly relates to the sociability that was part of her home environment while growing up. This “strong culture of neighbouring” (Savage, 2005: p. 108), involving regular social contact with neighbours and a social phenomenon whereby neighbours (felt comfortable) “popped in” without making arrangements in advance (ibid.), is characterised as an inconvenience for the EMC. Therefore, the neighbourhood ties among EMC require formal invitations and announcing one’s intent to visit. Sanjana echoes this sentiment, trying to decode its logical reason. She says, there is a lot that virtual technology, markets, mobiles and TV recordings contribute to this. You see, while earlier everyone would have to do shopping within given hours and would have to go out around the same time or be watching television around the same time. People wouldn’t have much of choice but to interact with neighbours. I remember power cuts were the greatest opportunity for neighbours to be forced to get together and talk, but now we have 24-hour full power backup. So, now it is near impossible to synchronise routines. The flexibility of digital space and media technology provides lesser contexts for synchronised possibilities of developing face-to-face “primary” relations. All instrumental and social support systems needs are fulfilled. However, at times, not knowing who is here for how long creates barriers in developing strong neighbourly feelings. This resonates with what Park (1967) calls “mobilisation of the individual man”. He writes: Transportation and communication have effected, among much other silent but far-reaching changes, what I  have called the “mobilisation of

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Image 2.8  Intercom at the building entrance in a gated enclave Source: Author image

the individual man”.  .  .  . A  very large part of the populations of great cities, including those who make their homes in tenements and apartment houses, live much as people do in some great hotel, meeting but

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Image 2.9  Camera outside the door of a residence Source: Author image

not knowing one another. The effect of this is to substitute fortuitous and casual relationship for the more intimate and permanent associations of the smaller community. (Park, 1967: p. 40)

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Although, Patricia also highlights the inherent paradox as she says, interestingly these same people who are dependent emotionally on friends who are in other parts of the world or country or cities after retirements and subsequent loss of their workplace social group become terribly lonely. They do not find anyone they can get together with within the neighbourhood. We have a church community, and we do not need the social group as such, but I see other retired people who have, in their time, contributed to making this (neighbourly bonding) sound absurd, suffering under the weight of an established code now. We see three important reasons quoted for decaying neighbourly relationships. One is the lack of timing and asynchronicity between the schedules of different individuals with different job profiles, which is rooted in a coveted sense of globality. Second is the outsourcing of traditionally neighbourly help and assistance to market and hired labour. The third reason quoted is a sense of protecting privacy, that is, “the right not to be bothered” and an ability to screen and organise the information one would want to let out in larger public domain, to have control over the situation through knowing about and being able to plan in advance towards predictable means and ends. Savage highlights, the Bourdieusian perspective (which) suggests the importance of relating how an individual’s habitus enables them to feel at home in a particular place, in ways that may not depend on significant physical interaction (indeed in some cases, the ability of people to avoid interaction may be important for them to feel comfortable). (Savage, 2005: p. 102) Spatially, the enclaves are built (as described earlier in the section on architecture) so that the homes/flats/condominiums/apartments are stacked one above the other (with the best efforts to avoid two towers from facing one another), which enables and enforces a sense of physical distance and the illusion of greater open space with restricted possibilities for a quick eye contact through balconies. It reinforces a sense of privacy, which, more often than not, turns into a sense of psychological distance. As Park argues, “Physical and sentimental distances reinforce each other, and the influences of local distribution of the population participate with the influences of class and race in the evolution of the social organisation” (1967: p. 10). Not knowing the neighbours well also breeds a kind of anxiety. At the same time, the sheer number of flats and the number of residents sometimes offers a sense of reassuring anonymity. As Deepika puts it: My husband has to travel in relation to his work and while it scares me that if something were to happen to me, it would take so long for this to

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be known, given how little people here care to interact with each other. Or even if I were in trouble, my neighbours wouldn’t be accessible, at the same time I feel, there are so many flats, even if there was a hostile entry it would be a one in 1400 chance of the intruder spotting my flat and deciding to break into it. I feel safe knowing that the odds are in favour. Private Lives in Shared Premises This points to yet another related aspect of privacy as concern towards the security of life and property. Privacy in this context features more than just the “right not to be bothered”. This sense of privacy addresses concerns of protecting information about oneself as a necessary condition for security, putting out a neat narrative of one’s middle-class life, enjoying distance from neighbours necessary towards fostering a more de-spatialised sense of global self and towards cultivating global personas. The distance from neighbours also allows the possibility of escaping the perceived scrutinising gaze of the collective conscience. James Rule (2012) explains the complicated sense of what may constitute “privacy”. He writes: I mean by privacy .  .  . the ability of individuals to control the flow of information about themselves- even in the face of others’ demands for access to such information. Even this restrictive definition includes a variety of human motives and values. Some privacy interests might be bracketed consummatory—that is, interest in privacy as an end in itself. These include desires not to be exposed in moments and situations like nudity, humiliation, extreme grief and the like . . . Other privacy claims defend strategic interests. Here privacy matters because it represents a means to other, more distant ends. At the beginning for the purchase of a car, we do not ordinarily disclose to potential sellers the highest price we are prepared to pay. (Rule, 2012: p. 65, Italics as in original) Being stacked in houses that are one above the other and against multistorey buildings that are distant enough to escape directed neighbourly gaze works to preserve neighbourly unfamiliarity, unlike neighbourhoods where familiarity and exchanges happen across balconies. Respondents argued that the stacked-up flats give an impression of open spaces and ventilation while simultaneously providing a heightened sense of privacy, which then helps build psychological distancing necessary for experiencing a de-spatialised sense of globality. As Patricia pointed out, this produces paradoxical results; while one may feel anxious about being stripped of community support systems and social contacts that may make one feel secure; at the same time, this causes one to feel a certain sense of liberation owing to the high level of privacy, allowing the more optimised experience of de-spatialised globality. The lack of strong

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community relations, combined with architecture that produces a heightened sense of individuation along with a large number of residents within one neighbourhood, produces anxiety as well. Respondents also expressed that a heightened sense of individuation also brings a heightened sense of alienation and vulnerability. The alienation and vulnerability stem from the realisation that any untoward incident can easily be missed due to extreme individuation. It does increase one’s need for security exponentially while at the same time living in large numbers in one neighbourhood may feel liberating by making the odds appear in one’s favour. Being one among many and indistinguishable has paradoxical effects. It creates anxiety while at the same time respondents acknowledge safety in numbers. As Deepika points out, it is a reassurance to her that she is one among many flats, and so the odds are in her favour since specific information of her individual vulnerability would require one to pick her out from among over a thousand flats, and she believes the odds against are slim, which she finds reassuring. The preferred living arrangement of the EMC brings them together spatially while retaining and even enabling them to attain higher levels of individuation. This was coming together while simultaneous individuation is facilitated by collective structures like centralised security, management and governance systems. Each individual unit of the collective voluntarily agrees to give up a part of its power to these structures over their own lives. Each individual unit and person understands that it will be in some part scrutinised by the collective structures and agrees by it. Residents do not complain about strict security surveillance seeing it as being to their own benefit or its screening gaze, as in the case of Mudit. Even though Mudit understood the questions of the security guard as a violation, he did not seek to engage with them nor complain about it; instead, he chose to work around it. The collective structures are acknowledged and understood as a useful tool towards individuation and self-actualisation of each individual’s highest potential. Spatial Practices of Control and Restriction: Structuring Space This kind of optimisation of living space requires centralised control and discipline. Security, disciplining and control in gated enclaves are tremendously dependent on surveillance. It may be noted that surveillance in the context of gated enclaves means that not only are gates built, but gates are guarded by security guards. These security guards intercept and restrict passage or/ and entry into the enclaves. They are responsible for maintaining a lookout inside the enclave as well. These security guards maintain meticulous records of who comes in, when and what time do they go out, they maintain a record of the vehicle registration number of the cars that do not have authorised RWA resident sticker,7 verifying the authenticity of visitors from residents at

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the time of entry and enquiring the purpose of visit. Walls, gates, cameras, along with other relevant equipment and individuals trained to employ them, are necessary towards assuring the educated middle class of security of their assets and property. Surveillance: Keeping A Close Eye Surveillance becomes helpful in securing and disciplining the space. Surveillance in this context is manual and also defines aberration through othering, that is, reading of the other, their body and mannerisms in accordance with the class habitus. This is reflected in the interaction I  had with the guards of Mudit’s residential towers (described at the start of the chapter). It is an interesting insight that individuals entering the premises on foot are read for the class markings on the body and assigned a reference point for the system of screening. The guards are used to seeing cars enter the premises. These vehicles are then stopped routinely at the gate; the exchange is restricted to an inquiry about the name, tower number/name, floor and flat number and the name of the resident. The information is stored in a register along with the vehicle identification number. However, when one enters on foot, the exchange assumes a different tone. It allows for the possibility of more engagement and less classed physical and socio-economic distance. This perhaps is also indicative of the deference vehicles create for on-foot guards. On the other hand, guards are also used to individuals from the underclass who work in the gated enclave as domestic workers or governess/childminder/ayahs or drivers, each of them is given their respective ID cards that they must flash while taking entry. This is the protocol even if the guards are familiar with them (Nikita, a respondent, highlighted how her domestic help was not allowed in despite the guards being familiar with her; it took a long, insistent intervention on her part to have her gain entry, with a strict instruction that she must carry her card). What emerges from the incident is that the guards are not very used to seeing “visitors/guests” to the flats in gated enclaves arrive on feet, which inspires greater anxiety about an individual’s class position and authenticity. There is an implicit acknowledgement of sexual autonomy and individuation of the unmarried EMC men, inspiring both anxiety and powerlessness simultaneously. This is reflective of the conflict emerging from both the realisation that there is a power guards are granted by the collective, which conflicts with their acute awareness of the class difference between the guards and the resident, they’re surveilling on behalf of. Further, the sexual autonomy allocated to the EMC man stands in clear contrast to the underclass woman who appears sexually suspect instead of being framed against men of underclass or the aloof sexuality of the EMC woman. The misreading of the class situation was not an aberration but a usual feature, such as the correlation between cars, gated living and EMC identity.

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On my way after having met Soumya, I start to walk out of the complex. I  skirt past manicured lawns and an upcoming additional section of what appears to be the clubhouse. I see a couple of mothers dressed in track pants and t-shirts pushing brightly coloured tricycles, fitted with handles by the back of the seat. They stop outside one tower and continue discussing what appears to be a third person’s decision of a job switch, with active references of the market conditions and domain-specific employment sector. I  click a few pictures and keep walking past a couple of old men sitting on a wooden settee on the far end as children cycle past. I can hear the grunts of people playing badminton and the distinct sound of air deflected by a badminton racket coming from the other side of the hedge. I keep walking past a pharmacy shop and reach another tower entry point away from me, where I am greeted by a guard who looks like he just decided to take a stroll near his post at the tower. He asks me, “I see you come here often. Are you a beautician or masseuse coming on a house call?” Not the first time I have been intercepted at the entry to a gated enclave, I tell him my purpose of visit. He is still slightly surprised but smiles apologetically and adds, “I just thought it was not very usual to see someone walk in, and then you know, it is usual to spot these people who come in on house calls”. He begins apologising and has to be reassured that I am not hurt or offended at his misreading my class position. Surveillance also fulfils a number of other classed needs of the space. It examines and screens individuals based on what may be called ‘impending sense of criminality’ that is scrutinising and assessing individuals against the subjectively perceived possibility of them being criminal. The Outsiders-Inside and The Impending Criminality As discussed earlier, surveillance can be a method of data collection and screening it for expected and aberration. When surveillance is being managed and organised in a classed space like a gated enclave, the basis of determining this expected and aberration would be defined in accordance with the habitus of the educated middle class. What may constitute an “impending sense of criminality” is defined in accordance with the educated middle class’ habitus. It builds upon the othering process of the underclass by the educated middle class. The othering process, as well as the ways in which surveillance is construed in the context of gated enclaves, thus, provides an insight into “educated middle classness”. The classed structures of control and discipline work out differently for different category of individuals who work within the gated enclave. Those who work at the gated enclave homes are clearly the class-others who inspire feelings of anxiousness and insecurity. The anxiousness and insecurity with regard to the absolute outsiders (those who have no business being inside the private space of gated enclaves) are different from outsiders-inside or people who are employed by residents or the facility management companies hired for the upkeep of gated enclaves.

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This is reflected in the practices and values that underlie the surveillance within gated enclaves. In either case, of absolute outsider or outsider-inside, the everyday experience of surveillance with gated enclaves builds on the idea of “impending criminality”, that is, reading dispositions and cultural capital of underclass as the basis of attributing criminal tendencies. The idea of

Image 2.10  Facility management services maintain the premises of gated enclaves Source: Author image

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surveillance, security and the embodied criminality is imposed on the bodies of the underclass. It formulates the idea of criminality among the underclass (theft) through restricting discourse of security, walls and gates and the associated practices (ID cards, checking of belongings at entry and exit, etc.). It premises this criminality upon the idea of “other” that is a non-governable, instinct-driven, “whimsical” labouring body. It acknowledges both the need to be serviced by these bodies (as domestic workers) while at the same time treating them as a potential threat to privacy,8 personal autonomy and security of property and reputation. The bodies of class-other are seen as a threat to EMC’s orderly space (necessary towards steady growth) and the related idea of “breach of trust”. This is further linked to the strategies employed by the educated middle class towards exploiting the “economic basis of allegiance” towards governing the non-governable. It is interesting how space, structured according to the habitus of EMC, acts upon an individual, who EMC recognises as class-other. Domestic Workers Apart from the security staff, the other set of individuals that are crucial to the functioning of gated enclaves is the domestic helps and drivers. This staff working as laundry and/or cleaning and/or cooking staff or ayahs (governesses) is essential towards EMC to optimise their everyday life. These individuals are hired (not on contract) but informally with unclear terms of appointment or, as in many cases, solely based on an oral negotiation. The greatest sense of anxiety that surrounds the EMC residents of gated enclaves is with regard to domestic helps who may be assisting with household labour. As important as the domestic workers may be to EMC, these individuals simultaneously inspire anxiety. The greatest anxiety expressed by EMC is around the non-governability and whimsical nature of the domestic staff. The educated middle class feels absolutely reassured about the efficiency of those hired by the FMCs (facility management companies); however, they crib about the inefficiency and ungovernability of the household staff. Manisha and Jahanvi shared their woes about having to train the women working in their houses to be mindful of their languages. On one of the days of the interview, Jahanvi’s house-help, both the cleaner-laundry woman and the cook, had taken an off, and she described how that completely throws her schedule off balance, she said: This is the problem with some of these (underclass) people, you can’t expect them to treat their work as a job, with obligations. She did not even tell me. Now my whole day is ruined. I will have to cook something before my kids return from schools. I have lost practice. I used to cook and clean too, but now I do not feel like it, and these people are not reliable at all, no matter what you do. They have no sense of thinking about anyone other than themselves, and it is not easy to find replacements.

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Deepika pointed out her expectations from her domestic staff, justifying her position by highlighting the congruence in both their cases, with regard to the inevitable and obvious link between employment expectations against payment of salary. She says: My mother always taught me to treat everyone with respect, irrespective of their social standing. She made the point that I do not disrespect even the maids that are coming, today I  might shout at them if they are not doing things right, but it is not because they are from a lower class. I am also a salaried person, I  am also a maid for somebody else, a different kind of maid, but I am an employee somewhere. So, if I am doing my job properly, I want others also to do their job properly. I want to know that I deserve this money. If I don’t see that kind of commitment in somebody, it irritates me, so maybe that is the reason why I  am shouting at them but never because of this feeling that they are from a lower class. My ­parents also put forward that you can’t disrespect someone for their social standing. Remarkably, Deepika’s verbatim situates the two parties into their power hierarchy while at the same time situationally extracting her from her context to justify her anger as an employer on the inefficiency of an employee, and in fact, arguing her case as a just employer. She systematically glosses over differences between the nature of work, the rates of remuneration and the relative value of the remuneration but imposes an abstract logic of employeremployee relationship, which advantages her disposition, since her household chores are fulfilled by another person while she fulfils her job obligations, so in a way, her house-help contributes to meeting her job expectations while for the house-help the same isn’t true, but her habitus blocks that information from becoming apparent to her allowing her recourse to the lens of objectivity. The “outsider-inside” body of the underclass is constructed as instinctual, non-governable, irrational and threatening. This is seen even in the descriptions of domestic helps as being whimsical and irrational by the educated middle class. The labouring bodies are read as completely devoid of a reflecting mind, or a spirit as Soumya puts it: These people don’t think as we do. They want something; they just want it. It doesn’t matter what means they employ to get it. If they steal something from your place, they are not going to go back and think about it reflectively and say, “oh! I did bad. I shouldn’t have broken the trust of the people I work for. I shouldn’t have stolen from the house that feeds and takes care of my needs”. They wouldn’t feel sorry. In fact, if you were to even find out that they stole something, they’d deny it in your face shamelessly or just leave work, don’t even expect them to apologise or feel sorry.

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In some cases where the labouring bodies of the underclass were assigned “a thinking mind” their instincts were believed to be a stronger force than higher moral reflective thinking. Middle-class self-interest and middle-class morality governed the value judgement assigned to the underclass labouring bodies. The class-other (the outsider to one’s class against whom distinction is consolidated) that penetrates into the EMC’s domestic space is also seen as a threat to efficient transmission of class habitus intergenerationally, and thus, it invokes measures towards neutralising this threat. There is a process of maintenance of EMC habitus through extended surveillance and scrutiny of the domestic workers within EMC homes. This process is closely connected to their re-training (in EMC’s habitus) and sanitising the domestic workers of their habitus by employers. Interventions like separate elevators called service elevators for domestic staff, maintenance staff and guards, enquiring and instructing them to take baths more often or stop applying a certain hair oil, making the domestic workers wash up before working inside the house, changing slippers at entry, strict disciplining of their language and reprimands against the use of profanities, re-training of “speaking softly”, adding deference, and as in few cases learning certain words of English to speak with the children. Such intervention is aimed at the maintenance of the habitus of educated middle-class homes. The labouring bodies that represent the outside of the gates as well as outside of the class community are often seen as crass, unsuitable in attire, hygiene standards, even in terms of their language. They, therefore, require the careful and active involvement of the employers in culturing them to minimise pollution of the sacrosanct environment of the homes. There is also a perceived threat from the underclass domestic workers due to the access they have to information about the intimate sphere of EMC. The body of the “outsider-inside” is seen as a threat to trust, or what Poorvi terms as “breach of trust”. Many residents, notably Soumya, Nikita, Poorvi and Deepika although felt that despite the gates, walls and the guards effectively securing the gated enclave against the threat of the outsiders, the “­outsiders-inside” pose the greatest threat to the property, life and trust, by virtue of ease of access and the knowledge that they possess about the homes in which they work. As Poorvi explains: Only people who are working in the houses know the schedules of their employers, how many people live, when do they come in, when do they go out. For once, you may choose whether to share knowledge about your schedules with other people such as a neighbour or even friends, but with the domestic helps, drivers et cetera you are bound to tell them. Then, if they choose to share this information with someone with a criminal tendency, then they’ve compromised your security. Even if that does not happen, you still need them to work for you, so they will naturally have access

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to your home, and then they can always exploit an easy opportunity to sneak out without getting noticed, say a diamond ring, earrings, watches et cetera. You can still guard yourself against outsiders but what do you do about the people who work for you?! what hurts is also the breach of trust. You let these people in your houses, and then they violate your trust. Every once in a while, this happens, and it is usually petty, and invariably it would be the drivers and the house-helps that breach the familiarity and violate the trust. Although, interestingly, men interviewed had no complaints about their domestic staffs although Mudit did point out that he had initially employed a woman to cook at the apartment, but since it was he and his two flatmates in a three-bedroom apartment, her husband refused to let her work to which his reaction was, “I mean, obviously it is inconvenient, but I can understand. So, we employed a young boy now, he cooks well and occasionally also runs small errands like getting us cigarettes et cetera”. The gendered nature of anxiety against those who work should be read in consonance with the role that women play in EMC families as gatekeepers of class (elaborated in the last chapter). The gendered nature of the anxiety also reflects the gendered nature of perceived threat and inability to defend oneself. While women are far more at risk of suffering injury or worse in criminal incidents; however, the class and gender intersectionality in the character of this fear and anxiety cannot be ignored. Allegiant Outsider-Inside These perceived threats make the EMC depend on what can be called “allegiant outsider-inside”. The “allegiant outsider-inside” are the security guards who belong to the underclass but are believed (by EMC) to owe allegiance to the educated middle class of the gated enclave by virtue of their paid employee status. These are unlike the sub-contractually hired house-helps with ad-hoc employment status, arbitrary employment terms and absence of long-term allegiances from either side. Nikita, Poorvi, Jahanvi and Soumya highlighted how the guards at the gates are a reassurance against instances of crime by “outsiders-inside”. Nikita reflected on the walls of her gated enclave, which had recently been raised from 6 ft to 10 ft topped by barbed wires, she said: Now with high(er) walls, the stolen goods can’t be tossed to the other side, and so they (domestic helps and drivers) can’t just leave with stolen goods because the guards will check them and their belongings at the gate and you know these guards are going to be far more faithful. They come from similar backgrounds, have risen from that background, so they are much better at cracking the strategies and thought process of an underclass psyche, but now they are employed here, this is their bread and butter, this

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is their job, so they employ their knowledge to do their job better. They will lose their jobs if they don’t do well and so they use their knowledge in checking people and catching them. As in, where they may have hidden things that they stole, what to do with the steal, catching their lies too. Caldeira calls this “special power” (2001: p. 271), whereby some workers are given powers over other workers. The workers with special power subject the other workers to identification checks that include checking of their belongings and them too. Caldeira (2001: p. 271) captures this aspect well. She writes: The method of “special control” involves empowering some workers to control others. In various condominiums .  .  . both employees of the condominiums and maids and cleaning workers employed in individual apartments (even those who live there) are required to show identification to enter and exit the condominium. Often they and their belongings are searched when they leave work. Additionally, there is an increasing trend towards the installation of close circuit television (CCTV) cameras that the residents seemed to either be pushing for or gated enclaves having installed or in the process of installing them. The cameras are expected to enable access to recorded footage of premises towards surveillance through deference. Surveillance through deference means that the educated middle class can maintain a watch over the activities of its own guards, at their own discretion, through collective administrative bodies like the resident welfare association. This is expected to ensure greater efficiency towards maintaining order and control within the gated enclave. The allegiant underclass outsider-inside must also be subjected to constant and consistent scrutiny. The Othering of Insiders: The “Other Within” Just as it is important to understand the nature of space and its role in determining and shaping distinction, dispositions and habitus, it is also important to understand the nature of and dynamics of community belongingness with regard to the space of gated enclaves. To begin with, we need to revisit the idea of “elective belongingness” that we explored earlier (explained in the previous chapter). It refers to a sense of natural belongingness (among migrant educated middle-class residents) that one feels towards the space that one chooses to inhabit and makes the place where one stays integral to one’s life-history biography. Suggestions from the study on local attachment and belonging by Savage (2005a: pp. 29–30) can help evolve a way of understanding the intra-neighbourhood dynamics. Based on respondents’ accounts, those who live in a gated enclave can be

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classified into three groups: the first is the local ancestral agrarian community (described in Chapter  4), the second are migrants who are constantly at move Transient-Spiralists (Watson, 1964 Quoted in Savage et al., 2005a: p. 30), that is, “employees of bureaucratic (or corporate) organisations moving around the country as directed by their employers” and the third are migrant-residents who have been living in the city since at least a year. The category of migrant-residents is further differentiated between those who are staying on rent and those who have migrated and put down their roots. The Transient-Spiralists emerged from the reflections about the neighbourhood by Mudit and Poorvi too, which is a group of high-rank officials of transnational corporations who live in company-owned flats while they fulfil their short-term project obligations and then leave, and then the house is occupied by some other cosmopolitan employee who is here on a short-term project basis. Even though the study concerns itself with the third group, a clear illustration of all three groups may be helpful in understanding the third group better. Mudit narrated an incident involving a Japanese man who was living in his company flat in the enclave and “had women coming at all kinds of odd hours to his flat, but after a point the RWA talked to him about it, clearly telling him that he must ensure that the decorum of the enclave is not hurt by his individual activities, failing which he would be asked to leave the enclave”. Mudit’s narration of the incident pertaining to the Japanese national reflects a sense of acknowledgement of differences in contexts between residents and transitory group. The assertion is reflective of a greater sense of belongingness and claims over the space by owner migrant-residents as opposed to the claim of belongingness assigned to the “others within”. The “other within” can be understood in terms of subtle hierarchies assumed to be based on a sense of belonging within the space that is being occupied. The migrant-residents enjoyed the greatest sense of belonging within the gated enclave. They actively participated in the activities and the workings of the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) and expressed concerns about the area. It emerged from respondents’ account that those living on rent or those identified as transient-spiralists could not hold an RWA office or participate in its decisions and administration. Manisha (owner migrant-resident) expressed concern regarding water usage and wastage within various towers. She said: I have reached out to my friends who live here, trying to explain to them that they must talk to their domestic helps and explain to them that they should not waste water. There are some others along with me who worry about the limited pool of resources we have in terms of groundwater, and now the RWA has careful monitoring of the water usage within the enclave, and if a certain tower’s water usage is high, that tower is asked to assess its usage and curb it to expected usage levels.

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Similarly, concerns were raised by Jahanvi about the corruption in RWA and how her husband had to eventually step into it himself to take on the power from the previous president and examine records and investigate the accounts. Mona explained how residents even got together and challenged another gated enclave’s decision to open a gate across from the entry to their enclave, increasing the flow of traffic on that particular road. The RWA, in leadership with her father, took the other gated enclave to Chandigarh Court and won, getting a legal denial for any construction on that side by the other gated enclave. Soumya highlighted how they confronted the head of the RWA over his negligence towards the upkeep of the park on their side of the gated compound, which was addressed as a result of her lobbying along with other mothers whose children would go to that park to play. These were all migrant-residents who have put down their roots. Manisha, Jahanvi, Mona and Soumya all represent the owner migrant-residents. The others can be classified as those living on rent, that is, the tenant migrant-resident (who are mobile and have yet not put down their roots, are not solidly grounded in this class space). This group of residents seemed to not know much about any issues and had shown no initiative or proactive participation in governance and space-related issues pertaining to gated enclaves. Respondents belonging to this category remained largely unaware of issues within the gated enclave. They had not taken any issues in all the time they had stayed there to the RWA, nor had they attended any meeting that happened in gated enclaves on a regular basis. Mudit, Rishabh, Milind, Shruti all exhibited a sense of “yet to settle” resignation, whereby they enjoyed access to facilities but did not feel inspired to have qualitative engagement in the governance and issues pertaining to the space they inhabited. This could also be related to the statement made by Mudit, arguing that he is “not yet settled because he is not married yet”. Since the only aberration to that rule were Azra and Siya, both married, had a child each. While Azra’s husband provided legal counsel to the resident welfare association, she knew actively about issues being debated and argued. She still felt like an outsider, as a Muslim particularly. This exclusion was also in part due to the apparent lack of initiative on the part of the resident welfare association to allow the construction of a mosque within enclave premises. She said that her husband had volunteered to take on this task and help with the modalities. Similarly, during the interview process, Siya’s husband joined the conversation about the resident welfare association informing me about a recent issue of RWA members seeking to restrict playing hours for children in parks, in view of injuries to old people caused by young children playing with balls. He informed that the motion that reached him in his email sought the resident’s opinion on the matter towards developing a consensus for appropriate action in this regard. He stressed that he wrote a lengthy remark about how playgrounds are spaces for children to play in, and if the elderly wish to enjoy some time together, they can shift to the clubhouse instead of displacing

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children. However, the decision was taken in favour of the elderly, and the playing time for children was restricted to only two days a week or on the weekends. It is worth noting in this regard that Jahanvi, Poorvi as well as Mona voiced concerns about a kind of hierarchy between those living in their gated enclaves on rent and those who own the flats. As Jahanvi puts it: The flat owners behave in such a rude way with those on rent. There is almost an air of superiority about owning the place. These people won’t even bother acknowledging their own neighbours if they happen to know that their neighbours are living on rent. They don’t even exchange ­greetings. Their opinions are not as well heard as of those that are ­residents here. This clearly points to an implicit acceptance of the fact that EMC owner migrant-residents have stronger claims over the space and a sense of belongingness as compared to transient-spiralists and tenant migrant-residents groups, or local ancestral agrarian group. This can be seen as a situation that is tied to tenants feeling less invested in the space, but one cannot gloss over the fact that ownership of the property in the space is a manner of solidifying one’s legit claim to class core identity. One’s claim to EMC class is peripheral as long as one hasn’t solidified it with the ownership of property in EMC residential spaces. Not just restricted to a better sense and claim, educated middle-class migrant-residents make such a hierarchy apparent in passive-aggressive ways and through segregating transient-spiralists and tenant migrant-residents psychologically. In discussing participation in RWA, matters pertaining to maintenance and security of the gated enclave as well as cultural activities within the gated enclave, the transient-spiralists and tenant migrant-resident group were not consulted. Jahanvi, Poorvi and Soumya reiterated this. Mudit, Karan, Rishabh, Azra and Siya all highlighted how they felt they had lower negotiating powers with the RWA or, in general, within the gated enclaves since it is believed that owing to their status as lessee/tenant, they have lower stakes in the matters pertaining to the gated enclave. At the outset, it may appear to be paradoxical that there is the presence of the Resident Welfare Association even though the neighbourly ties are weak. The weak neighbourly ties were constant across groups. Not knowing neighbours and not having any kind of common grounds with them was similar across, and in fact, posed a kind of challenge to the methodology of the study that depended on snowball sampling for data collection. Almost unanimously, with the lone exception of Patricia and Nikita, who elaborately talked about each of her neighbours, nobody knew or interacted much with anyone. A casual interaction whereby residents exchange greetings or an occasional invitation to a birthday or housewarming party was about as much interaction as was reported. What emerged curiously from

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the reflections of these respondents with minor variation was a feeling of being isolated. As Milind noted when asked to reflect on common features of residents in the gated enclave that he was living in, he said: The common thing about everyone here is that none of them can be seen (laughs). People are mutually and collectively invisible. We are living in a world of ghosts where we are the ghosts ourselves. I haven’t seen or talked to anyone in the neighbourhood, but then, come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone living here talking to anyone. However, Simon and Fauzan (2013) help us understand this paradox through a description of a similar aspect in their study of Jakarta, they write, there appears to be a separation made between understanding and association. In other words, it was not always necessary for residents to understand each other in order for them to collaborate on a wide range of local projects such as neighbourhood maintenance, programmes for children and youth. (Simone and Fauzan, 2013: p. 288) Summary This chapter highlights that the stronghold of the EMC is further stratified into formulating the core and peripheral identities of class distinction. The chapter highlights how the class distinction of EMC is not as coherent as it seems when it is pitched against the LAAC. It bears internal fractures and differentiation. As the referential frame changes from the city to their stronghold, gated enclaves, the axis of distinction also changes. The need for gated enclaves in neo-urban is justified in view of the spatial disparity, and the EMC’s need for superior infrastructure and the exit of EMC from shared public spaces feeds into reinforcing spatial disparity. The increased spatial contrast between neo-urban space and specialised EMC islands of globality reinforces the axis upon which class distinction is claimed. The material and ideological conditions that naturalise the need for building walls and gates emerge from a distinction that the educated middle-class claims for itself. Conversely, the material and ideological conditions that emerge from the building of walls and gates play a critical role in formulating disparity that feeds into the need for walls and gates. The chapter highlights how layered the othering process within gated enclaves is. The othering process has levels and axes of permissibility and exclusivity. The shifting boundaries mean that underclass is also permissible, given its fulfilment of certain kinds of criteria, while those who may share a class (but are perceived as holding fewer stakes in the field) may also be left out on some other axes (house ownership). Further, the walls and gates emerge as significant architectural manifestations of the kind of distinction that is being claimed by the educated middle

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class. The preference of collective yet individuated living among the educated middle class in some ways reiterates both their preference for the right not to be disturbed as well as their desire to acquire access to superior resources through the collective mobilisation of economic capital. Notes 1 Foucault’s (1977) analysis of Panopticon structures of prisons and asylums in the context of a distinctive theory of power offers significant theoretical tools towards understanding surveillance. Panopticon was originally Jeremy Bentham’s (1995) concept. Jeremy Bentham proposed an architectural design that was supposed to maximise the visibility of inmates through strategic arrangement of space and lighting. Foucault (1977) suggested that the very structure of Panopticon could be looked upon as a model through which one could build an understanding operation of power in the society. Panopticon, in general, becomes a scheme for managing various sections of population through dispersal of disciplining powers. 2 The concepts of signifier, signified and a system of signification are developed by Saussure. A system of signification, crudely put, is a system through which acoustic image/sound (signifier) is related to a concept (signified). The link is not between the mental concept and its name but rather the concept and the pattern of sounds. The concept-sound pattern relationship is entire mental and is independent of external reality. Languages would all be understood as systems of signification. 3 The document is not numbered too well and therefore the numbering used is the page number on the PDF format of the document. The quote is taken from the chapter titled “The Geology of Morals” in “Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. B. Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press”. 4 Andreotti and Le Gales (2008: p. 130) define partial exit hypothesis as, individuals belonging to the upper middle classes can put into practise “partial exit strategies”, that is they can choose to withdraw from certain public organisations (schools in the public sector for instance, hospitals) and to retreat from those organisations. With respect to the city, this means withdrawing from the use of the local space, and from the social interaction at that level. (explained in previous chapter) 5 In view of the findings of this study, a more fitting idea would be exclusivity, instead of exclusion which Caldeira uses. 6 As part of educated middle-class migrant-resident population, Patricia a Syrian Christian from Kerala had grown up in Hauz Khas in New Delhi and later shifted to Gurgaon. 7 Resident Welfare Associations in gated enclaves are responsible for assigning parking spots and giving out vehicle authorisation stickers that are to be pasted on the windshield of the vehicle as a certification of one’s residency. 8 Privacy is defined as, “the ability of individuals to control the flow of information about themselves—even in the face of others’ demands for access to such information” (Rule, 2012: p. 65). For more on Privacy, see, Rule, J. B. 2012. “Needs” for surveillance and the movement to protect privacy. Teoksessa Ball, K., Haggerty, K. D., & Lyon, D. (toim.). (2012). Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 64–71.

Chapter 3

Constructions of Self and Identification

Having looked at the macro socio-spatial context of the educated middle class, it is important to highlight the socio-political, historical and temporal context in which the EMC situates itself. However, space is not a unitary concept. Having looked at the space of the city and neighbourhood, it is also important to understand the other ways in which space reflects and shapes identity. Everyday spaces like the workplace, schools and leisure spaces are critical to understanding the order of life and self for EMC. Leisure and recreational spaces have been studied in conjunction with middle-class identity connecting the middle class to the spaces (Brosius, 2012; Srivastava, 2012, 2015). However, most spaces are seen as reflective of a disposition. The need, however, is to situate the order of self within the order of the more frequently accessed and occupied spaces. This chapter solidifies the spatial embeddedness of the EMC identity by highlighting how colonisation and restructuring of space outside are reflective and constitutive of a class distinction. The spaces reflect a reconciliation between globality and the old middle-class disposition. This chapter highlights how the spatial-social becomes a critical way to make sense of oneself. The chapter further engages with how EMC contextualises itself and its cultural practices intergenerationally. The macro narratives of the middle class situated in historical and socio-political contexts have been captured by many scholars (Sarkar, 1989; Chakrabarty, 2000; Deshpande, 2006; Joshi, 2001; Fernandes, 2006); not much is known, however, about how the ­middle class situates itself socio-historically. The trajectory drawn for the middle class leads to situating the new middle class “in structural terms with the expanded ‘new economy’ service sector and private sector professional work forces” (Fernandes, 2006: p. 90). While this can be helpful in marking clear transitions at a discursive level, it does not help us situate the continuity between previous generations of the middle class and new generations of middle-class individuals. The chapter, therefore, captures the ways in which EMC makes sense of its own antecedents.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-4

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Everyday Spaces and the Order of Self Despite its deep rootedness in global circuits of capital and knowledge and its integration into market relations and consumption (Brosius; Palackal; Fernandes; Scrase and Ganguly-Scrase), it is important to understand that the market is not where they derive their power and legitimacy from (Fernandes, 2006). A spatial understanding of class would argue that while the old middle class derived its power from being sheltered spatially by the state (literally, in the case of government residential colonies, government schools and open public spaces), this section of middle class derives its legitimacy and power from colonising the peri-urban space, making it exclusive, and tailoring it to fit their aspirational/desired/embodied global-urbanity. In doing so, islands of globality are built in stark contrast to the local milieu through decontextualisation and deterritorialising the space (and self) while simultaneously deepening disparity and fissures with the surroundings. Segregation, in this case, acts to consolidate power through exclusivity and the creation of stark spatial disparity. However, even though the middle class is spatiotemporally decontextualised from its immediate milieu, it is still deeply contextually situated in the middle-classness of previous generations of middle-class people. In fact, it is arguable that this kind of spatial disassociation is only possible because one is anchored deeply into cultural practices and dispositions inherited. Space and Identity Spaces like schools, workplaces, living spaces and cultural spaces are both shaped by and shape the classed dispositions. While the understanding has been that people’s everyday experiences in schools, in jobs, in the communities in which they grew up, and the ones in which they now live generate and sustain class sentiments and the lived experience of class shapes people’s cultural values and practices. (Devine, 2005: p. 141) However, space and dispositions are mutually constitutive. In a Bourdieusian sense, everyday spaces are the fields linked to a classed disposition in such a way that the field structures the habitus, which is the product of the embodiment of the immanent necessity of the field (or of a hierarchy of intersecting fields). On the other side . . . habitus contributes to constituting the field

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as a meaningful world, endowed with sense or value, in which it is worth investing one’s energy. (Bourdieu, in Wacquant, 1989: p. 44) The chapter, therefore, captures the underlying synchronicity reflective of distinction among EMC through these spaces and the subtle rules that structure them and, by extension, reflect the structure of middle-class lives. Schools Schools have become important for understanding habitus and field relationships. Schools combine a present-day performative claim to a class disposition for the middle class as well as reflect a projection of future dispositions. One of the most obviously striking developments in neo-urban contexts has been the proliferation of international/global schools. The trend means that an overwhelming majority of schools in neo-urban contexts are either international/global schools (even if only nominally) or schools that have been rebranded to include the word global/international. The popularity of international schools in neo-urban regions is not solely functional but mostly performative and aspirational. An IB school teacher who has worked for 30 years as a teacher explains the relevance and need for IB and international/global schools. She likens IB schools to the idea of a “Central School”, meant to standardise the education of children whose parents are in transferrable jobs in India. ­International/ global schools often affiliated with the international baccalaureate or IB board emerged to cater to the educational needs of people who would migrate from other countries with families for medium to longer terms but were expected to return to their countries. The desire to standardise the education of children migrating from other countries (especially the UK and USA) and expected to return led to the demand for international baccalaureate and global/international schools. IB schools situated their practices and curriculum in UK/Europe/USA, responding to the educational demands of these countries for children who would eventually return back. However, the informant says their association with the global north quickly made IB schools and, by extension, international/global schools a “fad” (her word). She called it “internationalism ki beemari”, likening this craze for international schools to a disease: contagious and beyond individual control. The shift to IB schools and/or international/global schools marks a shift within the middle class intergenerationally. The respondents highlighted how the stress was placed on English medium education during their schooling years. Respondents highlighted that while growing up, English medium private schools were coveted, even though many of them had attended government/aided schools. However, the English medium private schools are no longer the benchmark of what counts as valuable educational “investment”.

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The popular choice for children in neo-urban Gurugram was the ­International/ Global schools, and the coveted choice was IB. English medium education is no longer the benchmark of good education for middle-class children in neo-urban contexts. There is a definite shift in criteria of a “good” school from (a) English as the medium of instruction and (b) success rates marked by how many students secured seats in state-funded institutes of higher education in India to offering “world-class ambience”, “overall development of child’s personality” and “exposure to global education standards”. There is a lot of value attached to the alignment/affiliation of the school board with higher education institutions in the United States or the United Kingdom. There is also a shift from stress on scholastic achievement (percentage of marks in CBSE/ ICSE) to the idea of “holistic development”, “global exposure” (Gilbertson, 2014; Fuller and Narasimhan, 2006) and “personality development activities and hobbies” that strengthen applications to US and European HEIs and also serve as the foundation for global networking with peers feeding into global work opportunities. The changes to what would be considered a good school have just as much to offer in terms of understanding the changing/ changed disposition of the middle class beyond the aspirations that shape the disposition of the middle class in a neo-urban context. Schools have become an interesting site for performative functions. International/global schools have come to be understood as markers of future aspirations and an astute investment in making children’s future (which lies in being further integrated into global circuits of capital). Therefore, middle-class neighbourhoods and communities in neo-urban contexts limit the choices by highlighting what is deemed class appropriate. Respondents felt that they would be unfavourably judged if they did not send their children to international schools. For instance, while reflecting on class experiences at various stages of life, Mudit highlighted, When I have one child . . . when I have another child . . . I will have to send these two (children) to international schools because it is a matter of expected norms of giving them good education as per current standards, and I can’t even think of sending them to Haryana Board schools. Mudit highlights how the neighbourhood and the community make certain choices default for the middle class. He said his position and status would be judged unfavourably if he chose not to send his children to the best international/global school. Implicit to this understanding is also the performative commitment that middle-class parents feel towards their children’s education. It acts as an attestation of class-appropriate parenting practices. School choice, in this respect, becomes a signifier of parental “effort”, being “invested”, “dedication” and even “sacrifice” (Kumar, 2011) critical to middle-class parent-child

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relationships. The constancy of attention and labour invested in the education of the children marks a continuity between the previous generation and this generation of middle-class parenting. The values and ideas connected to schools or limits placed on the choice of school have a lot to say about class disposition. Neighbourhoods and Households Chapter  2 elaborately explains how neighbourhoods shape and become part of disposition to produce a specific class identity. Interestingly, all the women (Siya, Nandini, Nikita, Trishna, Poorvi) working in the service sector and were married to entrepreneurs (in the real estate or retail sector) were the ones to stress the importance of living in condominium complexes. In contrast, the entrepreneurs wanted an independent house. The preference for gated collective living pertains to a need for collective belonging (to a homogenous group) as a way of and precondition to feeling “ordinary” and ­“regular”. Respondents said being “ordinary” acted as a precondition to feeling a healthy pressure about defending one’s class position through cultivating basic habitus and something more that stands one out of the crowd simultaneously. Karan highlights the importance of living in a field that is consistent with one’s habitus. He says, “neighbourhoods say a lot about a person’s class position”. Class gentrification, he says, “happens but is not absolute and final”. He suggests that due to temporary or situational constraints, one may live in a neighbourhood incompatible with their class position. However, even then, people will always aspire to move higher on the ladder and live in neighbourhoods that are appropriate to their living standards and tastes”. That is, it is only under a situation of constraints (posed by risks, debts or liabilities) that an individual may choose to live in a neighbourhood that is not consistent with one’s class situation (based on education and habitus). Such a living arrangement remains undesirable given the incongruence between one’s habitus, other sites and the neighbourhood. Malls Another spatial development that sticks out in the neo-urban context is the mushrooming of malls. Going to malls, restaurants and theatres (malls) was the most listed form of leisure or recreation and ways of celebration over the weekends. Malls were linked to the “shopping experience”. There has been a marked change from the idea of shopping (purchasing things one needs) to an experience involving a lot more than mere procurement turning it into a recreational activity. Malls bring together the possibility of entertainment, shopping, gaming and dining or “hanging out” together. A good shopping experience is built on the capacity of the space to sanitise/neutralise space (decontextualise it from the immediate local context), be

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exclusive and be class homogenous (removing the sight of poor, that one may encounter in a regular marketplace). It, thus, seeks to enhance the experience of spending money without having to acknowledge the disparity. Soumya stressed the importance of “no unpleasant exchanges” as critical to the shopping experience. She prefers malls because “The whole space is sanitised, everything has some standard”. The preference for the “shopping experience” and the spatialisation of that idea in shopping malls marks the distinction of the middle class over the underclass in the neo-urban context. Shopping in general and shopping experience specifically becomes about (1) homogenous class spaces and (2) the creation of islands of globality; as Milind highlights: You can find all the brands together in one place, it allows you to choose from the brands that you know are in your purchasing capacity. You wouldn’t run into flea market stuff, but neither should you expect to find high-end exclusive designer stuff. There would only be about 20% stores that are high end, and even those are for those people who have just moved from upper middle class to affluent status and have retained old habits (of shopping at the malls) (laughs). This is to say that individuals who move to affluent status may have acquired purchasing capacity appropriate to their new class situation but are still in the inertia of the old habits like shopping at the malls. This is the place where various fractions of the middle classes can come together and customise from unlimited options a persona that is reflective of their specific but ordinary taste. Mona, Sneha and Soumya highlighted the significance of malls for the educated middle class. Mona said: You see, many of those who go to the malls may have money to buy a Gucci or a Prada, but many of them may not even know what a Louis Vuitton is or what even is the full form of DG (Dolce and Gabbana) or MK (Michael Kors) leave alone knowing about a Coach or being able to tell the difference between a real LV (Louis Vuitton) and a fake one. And that sets those with decent education apart from those with the money but no class. Malls, therefore, are spaces for flaunting effective integration into global circuits of capital and knowledge. The rootedness in foreign brands and the ability to flaunt this knowledge at malls determine the distinction in educatedness. The significance of this globality of values was further highlighted by Soumya, who noted: The one thing that annoys me is the fake branded stuff, and you would invariably run into someone carrying a fake LV bag without even the

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slightest clue. I won’t lie; I do judge these people. I feel pity, but I judge them for their ignorance. They may want to flaunt a taste, but they know nothing about these brands. I have asked a number of such people who LV (Louis Vuitton) is, and they know nothing. They just want to appear suave and tasteful, but the lack of class shows. What sets the educated middle class apart from the other fractions of the middle class with the same material basis and purchasing capacity is their ability to articulate their taste, their command over their choices and the depth of their engagement with the taste. Holiday Destinations Recreational activities have changed from being about rest and relaxation to “enriching” experiences and the idea of “living life to the fullest”. Vacations and recreational activities are all about what can be quoted, referenced and illustrated as validation and construction of desired global persona. For instance, foreign vacations are seen to add more validation to a global persona. The knowledge of western cultures and societies, specific cities, landmarks, niche cuisines, and so on is an important way to reference oneself more strongly in global circuits of capital and knowledge. Similarly, adventure sports/experiences such as camping, hiking, kayaking, mountaineering, rafting, bungee jumping and sky-diving are also referenced as a validation of embracing a persona that is adventurous and associated with a sense of “living life to the fullest”. Most of these experiences were (in most cases, a one-time affair) meant to broaden the apparatus for connecting on common grounds with people from around the world since these experiences are seen as global activities (removed from context) and well-advertised. Virtual Space Virtual space and online social media are important ways of highlighting and curating this global persona. All respondents highlighted that they would update their social media with pictures of foreign vacations or experiences, validating a global persona on their social media. The purpose was never just to signal to others in the field how deeply one is deeply integrated into global circuits of capital and knowledge but also a performative way of experiencing a middle-class identity that curates one’s distinction for oneself. The oftquoted phrase “pictures or it didn’t happen” reflects the collective interest in this curation and in validating others in the field as authentically experiencing this global persona. Online templates of identity on virtual media also allow one to be part of the masses and yet carefully and strategically craft one’s persona to highlight one’s specific tastes through an unlimited option of being specific kinds of

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“ordinary”. Online social networking website profiles provide a rudimentary template of what an educated middle-class life must be like. A glance through specific places being tagged, interests shared and events notified, such as birthdays, job switches, marriages, the birth of children, anniversaries, new homes, cars and holidays reveals elements of educated middle-class disposition. I was expected to share my social media handles even before I could get a first meeting with my respondents. LinkedIn and Facebook authenticated my identity to my EMC respondents. Offices/Workplaces One cannot ignore the shift in corporate working culture from a more public office culture that dominated the middle class until the late 1990s. The kind of spaces that have since come up has spatially dominated the neo-urban landscape. The multistorey offices, cubicle floor plans, facility management companies and structured physical space and work relations go a long way in understanding the shift in disposition of the middle class in neo-urban areas. Office spaces or workspaces provide specific kinds of cultures of interpersonal relationships and language codes that form a specialised refinement of mannerisms and language and conduct a kind of sophisticated informality that emerges from “global work culture” (Radhakrishnan, 2011: p. 54). These work cultures do not necessarily transform but mutate the class dispositions in that neighbourhoods with ID cards for house-helps or guards to restrict entry through gates of the neighbourhoods are too congruent, often actively replicating the processes described by the respondents at their workplaces. As Shruti captured this well, she said: It wasn’t this nice always, earlier the guards in this neighbourhood did not have proper uniforms, just sky-blue shirts and black trousers as a dress code, and I used to feel so bad, I mean I see guards in my office, in shopping places all have ID cards and uniforms. Then eventually, I complained to the RWA, and they managed to fix it. Important to note in this comment is the mutually complicit values and habits that structure the spaces across. Hence, ways of registering identities and organising bodies in places marked in ways that properly classify them according to their profile evolve out of experiences of working in specific kinds of work environments. Corporate offices and international schools made up the majority of workplace profiles among the respondents of this study, which is significant towards understanding one’s position through uniformed guards guarding gated entrances as crucial to the collective existence of the educated middle class. Through experiences in workplaces, discourses of consistency, accountability, efficiency and sincerity get appropriated into lives outside of the

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workplace. This is well illustrated by how Deepika justifies the scolding of her household help; she says: I might shout at them if they are not doing things right, but it is not because they are from a lower class. I am also a salaried person, I’m also a maid for somebody else, a different kind of maid, but I am an employee somewhere. So, if I am doing my job properly, I want others also to do their job properly. I want to know that I deserve this money. If I don’t see that kind of commitment in somebody, it irritates me, so maybe that is the reason why I am shouting at them but never because of this feeling that they are from a lower class. She employs the same work ethic that she is expected to fulfil as part of her work environment in the corporate sector. Time/Routine as a Cultural Field Routine is crucial since the length of office hours/time determines wages in the corporate service sector jobs that predominate the employment profile of the educated middle class. Daily schedules are determined by daily work hours in a salaried job setup, and similarly, monthly schedules are determined by salary. That is to say, financial routines are arranged around the circular event of crediting monthly salary. At the same time, the regular and ongoing work and education-related tasks are planned and arranged around the daily hours of the day spent at home or work/study-place. The work days and non-work days define yet another important time distinction that has crucial importance for the salaried and educated middle class. This is the distinction of the time frame between weekdays and weekends. The dominance of office work tasks characterises the former, the latter is dominated by recreation and rejuvenation for the upcoming next unit of time for focussing on work much along the lines of “work hard, party harder”. The binary of “work” and “party” crucially set corporately salaried and the educated middle class apart because it situates the disposition to want to extract the most from their days and lives in extension to the spaces and interactions. The idea that one can optimise to maximum output informs how identity and life are organised. The shift from having a fixed and predictable routine to giving life a sense of order has been replaced by a desire to fit more and more within a fixed time frame. The change in disposition is evident from Nikita’s observation: When we were growing up, our parents being in salaried employment was a kind of advantage. The daily routines were so fixed. We would go to school in the morning, come back, eat lunch and sleep a little. Then get up, and by that time, our parents would return from work. Then we would study. Our parents would help, and then everyone would eat food

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together. I see the same is not even possible with my husband being in business. Usually, he works late and leaves early, so my son and I follow our own routine while he follows his own, but then he has no fixed time for returning home, and when he returns home at an irregular time, it usually disrupts the rhythm of the day. Most female respondents acknowledged that the corporate sector jobs usually do not allow their husbands to return early enough for them to invest time with the children, and yet they all admit that even though they may not play as active a role, the fact that their work hours are predictable allows for the home routines to be disciplined for efficient utilisation of time. At the same time, the other frames of time remain more or less congruent with school schedules to ensure better interactive possibilities between parents and their off-springs and maximum engagement with the nuclear family unit. The struggle for the discipline of routine, a familiar memory from their years of growing up middle class, still appears as essential to effective functioning and is expressed well in the words of Siya. She says, “He (husband) needs to network to do well in his career. He needs parties and social gatherings. I, meanwhile, have been struggling because I  have to report at the workplace”. A similar struggle is felt by Trishna, who confesses: His days are arranged very differently than mine, and it is a struggle to even do budgeting since he has ongoing ebb and flow of money, and I am used to working on and through monthly salary that is fixed and assured. It is some bit of a challenge because I am gone by the time my husband wakes up. In the case of Patricia, however, the need for disciplining routine triumphs. She says: We realised it early enough that it is easier to work by the academic calendar and plan finances on a monthly basis and schedules on a weekly basis since children’s school schedules could also align and function perfectly with that way of organising. Because otherwise, John (husband) has a flexible routine, and it becomes difficult to manage discipline in the house. John feels this has helped him, too. He has become far more productive, so he follows the same time frames even though he needs not. This is helpful because, in actuality, his schedules are flexible unless it is a client meeting or something similar. The flexibility of his schedule allows us to manage sudden demands like taking one of the kids to a play meeting or a party while I am at work. John would likely make space in his schedule for this, but I can’t do that. The expectation of enforcing and maintaining a routine was also a gendered labour that fell upon women in the family, as is evident from multiple

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aforementioned verbatims. Some had set the routine through streamlining control over the routine, while the husband provided support as is evident from what Poorvi highlights, “The father is an ambitious entrepreneur is convenient since kids need mothers around far more and mothers bring stability to the house. So things (routine) function according to school and my time schedule”. Routines are also important to the middle class because they establish the utility of time and its value, a crucial element ensuring early socialisation of children towards an important realisation later about how time is measured against money. Thus, time as a cultural field shaping dispositions through specific experiences is one of the significant findings. Being in the Middle and Ways of Being Middle Among one of the more significant findings that offer a starting point for this discussion is that despite varying ideas about what “being middle class” meant, respondents unanimously identified themselves as “middle class”. Such emphatic recognition of class as an important identity marker is critical. The salience accorded to class identity in the Indian context is a very carefully crafted relationship with the community-based identity (Fuller and Narasimhan, 2014; Säävälä, 2001). The middle class, even in this context, retains its potential of “ideological sleights of hand” (Deshpande, 2006: p. 216) that has been associated with the traditional middle class. In some ways, it signals that the EMC as having evolved from a middle-class habitus carrying forward its ideological commitments to the selective erasure of ­community-based identification as primary. The performative overshadowing of caste-religion-related privileges is an important link establishing continuity between other “middle class” factions in the Indian context. This performative overshadowing allows for the possibility of nuancing class distinction in accordance with the changing basis of relevance at any given time. Essentially, the middle “[c]lass does not determine identity, but it is not irrelevant either. It is a source, a device with which to construct identity” (Savage et al., 2001: p. 888). The device formulates its own basis of self-identification and distinction. In this sense, middle-classness is a product of “both an economic and symbolic system”1. Middle as Neither-Nor The educated middle class subsumes itself into a larger consolidated middleclassness when it comes to an understanding of the class situation in reference to the underclass or the affluent class. It seeks to look at the middle class as a state of being “ordinary” (signalling a sense of functionality) as opposed to either “dysfunctional” extremes that respondents view as being “remarkable”, that is, inviting scrutiny by virtue of being at the centre of the public

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gaze. Given the space constraints that can aid social distance, the underclass is seen as socially vulnerable and unable to protect itself from the public gaze. In extreme cases, the most vulnerable among the underclass may depend on the charitability/pity of this public gaze to survive through the aid of welfare and charity. On the other hand, the affluent are seen as desiring the public gaze as a way of reproducing themselves. Protected from the vulnerability and vices are the middle class through their middleness. Deshpande (2003) reminds us that the notion of middleness associated with the middle class . . . is “neithernor” notion of avoiding extremes associated with the median: the middle class is thought of (and more importantly thinks of itself) as the stable centre of society and polity impervious to extremes. Thus, the middle class is supposed to be neither poor nor rich, neither too conservative nor progressive, and so on, in a familiar litany that sees virtue in moderation and claims to embody it. (Deshpande, 2003: pp. 129–130) In this way of marking oneself apart from either undesirable extremes, the middle class retains its roots in its antecedent middle class, retaining the continuity of an important value defining the habitus. Moderation, as an important value of Indian middle-class habitus, has been retained even in the most globally inclined EMC. As we shall see ahead, this value of moderation reconciles with the global-urban value of “enjoying life” unlike the previous generation that stressed saving. The reconciliation adapts itself into the coveted value of astuteness that gets reflected in its thinking about finances and savings. Many respondents expressed their position of being middle class as a position of advantage that escapes both extremes of “struggling for subsistence” and “affluence”. Both extremes, which are the “struggle for subsistence” and “affluence”, are seen as susceptible to moral and economic decay. As Deepika puts it: Having too much money makes everything lose value and significance. Everything starts to get evaluated by how much money it would require. Money can be overwhelming at either extremes. Both the underclass and the affluent can’t escape the control of money and financial worries over their thoughts. The time on the side where money is underwhelming is a luxury because one is invested in earning enough to be able to manage subsistence while on the overwhelming side, time is a luxury because money is constantly being invested and reinvested and managed and mobilised and redirected, and so life becomes consumed in constant worries of profits and losses. This way middle class is advantaged in that they have enough to not constantly be worrying about arranging money nor so much that

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one doesn’t know what to do with it. I feel middle classes are champions of moderation, they get the best of everything. While Deepika highlighted the escape available to the middle class as a way of dissociation from undesirable aspects of being on either extreme, that is, the advantage of being neither-nor, Siya highlighted how being in the middle brings together the best of both worlds: Middle class can be characterised by identification with both extremes. The middle class can identify with job insecurity or how badly they need their job and the fear that if they lost their job, that would be an immediate crisis, which is characteristic of the lower middle class. At the same time, it can also relate to the aspirations and goals of the upper middle class, that is, buying more than one car, taking foreign vacations, and buying trendy clothes from foreign brands. This keeps them both grounded as well as aspiring. The other important thing which is associated with this is that the middle class has the capacity to have healthy competition since they are not so wealthy that they become indifferent towards cultivating their potential and not as deprived to not be able to invest in it. Siya’s opinion resonates with what Savage (2000) notes with regard to the need for “ordinariness” as “a relational construct in which people draw contrasts with others who place themselves above or below them” (Savage, 2000: p. 116). He claims: People’s sense of self-identity is linked to a claim of “ordinariness” or “normality” which operates as a double reaction against both above and below .  .  . “middle class” here means you are average, normal, in the middle. It means you’re neither exclusive on the one hand, nor part of the working class on the other. (Savage, 2000: pp. 115–116) It may also be that the idea of “ordinariness” may correspond to this very idea of being in the “middle”, and hence “un-remark-able”. It is a systematic way of looking at oneself as having successfully evaded being looked upon as in need of intervention. The underclass and the affluent class are both looked upon as battling a crisis of very different kinds that invite the judgemental gaze and intervention, which then allows the middle class a sense of autonomy. This idea is revisited in very different terms when cautioning adolescents of the risks of not valuing moderation as an important principle of constructing a sense of self. Either extreme is presented as a situation leading to moral collapse and risks of becoming vain. Both sides, underclass and affluent, are caricatured as drug addicts and vain, having lost purpose in life in addition

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to characterising the underclass as having to go without and not being able to afford a “decent” lifestyle and for the rich to be consumed by addictions and moral corruption due to overwhelming wealth. The values that are associated with either extreme (not having a purpose, being vain and addictions and moral corruption) by themselves are also a concern when it comes to the socialisation of adolescents and young adults in what Nandini highlighted is the principle that “financial and social decay follows the moral decay”. Dickey (2012: p. 560) also reports this uneasy contradictory feeling of moral superiority and anxiety, at once a position of social visibility and worth, a stage on which to be judged by critical spectators, and a site that simultaneously avoids, buffers, and is caught between behavioural extremes—and this location contributes greatly to both the pleasures and the anxieties of being a middle-class person. Notably, the views on either extreme (affluent or underclass) did not draw upon any empirical observations but were based on broad speculative generalisations. There were rarely, if any, attempts made to substantiate descriptions of those identified as affluent or underclass with information from actual observations. Middle as Either-Or The EMC isn’t a homogenous whole, either. It is a fractured unity that is comprised of both horizontal factions and vertical factions. This understanding is reflected in the ethnographic work of Dickey (2012) and LaDousa (2014) on the middle class. LaDousa (2014) acknowledges that the label “middle class” links “multiple disparate groups in its modes of membership and display” (LaDousa, 2014: p. 6), echoing the idea stated by Deshpande (2006) in his seminal essay on Indian Middle Class. However, the nuanced understanding of the internal factions of the middle class as seen by the middle class itself has not been captured in works that situate the emergent middle class in urban spaces. Horizontal Faction The study finds that there exists a distinction between various horizontal fractions of the middle class on the basis of their primary occupation or source of income since it is this economic activity that produces significant changes in routines, workplace habitus, social networks and variations in class stability. I  have listed earlier the distinction between entrepreneurial and educated middle class in the previous discussion on time routine. Yet, another division that emerged from the discussion was that of the agrarian, middle and educated middle classes (as illustrated by the discussion with

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Mudit later in this chapter). Entrepreneurial, Agrarian and Educated middle class were three fractions that could be identified in the EMC in Gurugram, based on the data in the study. It is important to note here that while there may indeed be a distinction between the different horizontal fractions, there is an increasing trend among all fractions to attain membership in the educated middle class. The preference for the educated middle class is because it is perceived to offer more consistent class stability and increased opportunities for the educated middle class during the simultaneous decaying of state support, especially for the agrarian middle class. The findings confirmed and validated the proposition offered by E. Sridharan (2004) through analysis of the Market Information Survey of Households (MISH) data set of the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) that middle class consists of “horizontal income slabs (divided) into sectoral occupational categories such as the public sector middle class, the non-agricultural private sector middle class (including its self-employed components), and the agricultural middle class” (Sridharan, 2004: p. 411). The sample had mentions of individuals who are classified as entrepreneurial middle class or “non-agricultural private sector (including its self-employed component)” and educated middle class. In this study of Gurugram, the private service sector (emphasis on IT and ITeS sector), private real estate sector, private educational sector, public educational sector (both employed in publicly funded universities in New Delhi) and private entrepreneurial sector were found, and only one instance of public sector employment was found. Among the respondents, Patricia, Siya, Nandini, Trishna and Nikita were all associated with the education sector, while Nandini, Trishna and Nikita were working as teachers at international schools. Patricia was a university faculty, and Siya had taught at universities in the past in contractual positions and had chosen to opt out to finish her Ph.D. All five women were married to entrepreneurs. Also, there were shifts; for instance, in the case of Poorvi and Jahanvi, their husbands had quit paid employment to venture into entrepreneurship. So had Mudit, as did Milind once, until his venture failed, and he returned to paid employment. There were differences in routines between the entrepreneurial middle class and the salaried middle class (already described above in time as a cultural field). This was significant to EMC since routine or a semblance of it was important to the order of the self. Even within salaried employment, there existed an internal differentiation. Salaried employment reflected the classic crisis of “disorganised capitalism” (Lash and Urry, 1987). The jobs exhibited the characteristic dependence on and simultaneous devaluation of flexible specialisations (Lash and Urry, 1987). While for most respondents, their employment was earned on the basis of their education, and yet there was a wide difference in the value and status associated with these designations, job security and also their

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remunerations. There was a wide range between technical-professional education, general education, and on-the-job or crash training courses. The latter profile of people recognised their disadvantage in the system, for instance, Soumya, who had an undergraduate degree with mediocre academic grades with no specialisation. She explained: I got a job right after graduation, even though my parents wanted me to study further. At that time, it was easier. The job sector was expanding and there was a boom in employment opportunities. Call centres were mushrooming and I  got in at the perfect time. My knowledge of the English language helped, but the work hours were challenging. I stayed put, kept upgrading my job profile through timely switches between companies for an increment and eventually reached here. When I quit, I was working as a team leader in the call centre of a good IT company, but I needed to spend time with my younger son, unlike what I did with my elder one, so I decided to quit . . . I knew (well, that) if I stepped out of the employment sector, the return would be near impossible. I would have to work my way up all over again. I wouldn’t be offered the same profile of a job even after six months of staying out of the job market. One has to be constantly on their feet, but I also know that changes with the degree in hand, say an MBA from Delhi University could easily return back on the same profile even two years after. Sneha, who had earned a degree in biotechnology and then an MBA, both from a private university reiterated Soumya’s anxiety of being out of the workforce for a considerable amount of time: It is very tough to get a job now, I  mean, I  have been away from the employment market for the past two years. When I quit my job to accompany my husband to New York for his on-site assignment, I  knew well that re-entering paid employment would be extremely tough, But I  am trying. So far, I haven’t even gotten a call for an interview from any of the places, even for positions with odd work hours shifts. The anxiety of being unstable in their jobs works as a reinforcement towards motivating their children to attain stable employment and the reassurance that only a technical-professional education credential can provide. The distinction of a technical degree from an institute of repute was validated by Suraiyya, an MBA postgraduate from Indraprastha University (a central government-sponsored university in New Delhi): I quit my job in marketing and sales about three years ago, at the peak of my career for my son, whom I had started realising was missing being with his parents, while we were absorbed in our careers and till date I keep receiving interview calls from various places, although what they are

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offering is less than my last drawn salary I know I can negotiate that easily against my work experience and qualifications. . . . I can make that choice for my son because I know I will be able to find a job whenever I decide to look for one, but for now, I want to enjoy motherhood. Similarly, Pragya was employed with the defence research wing of the government and felt absolutely at ease with taking time off regular employment demands as she said: I have a secure position owing to my specialist position, nobody knows my work, and they can’t do it without me (laughs). My education is my greatest guarantee of employment. I am sure I wouldn’t lose my public sector job, but even if I did, I am sure that given my expertise and knowledge base, I wouldn’t struggle to find a job. Pragya, Milind and Suraiyya exhibited confidence in their education (both from institutions of higher education of repute and acclaim), and hence the risks they took of stepping out of paid employment (for Milind for an attempt at entrepreneurship and for Pragya and Suraiyya for motherhood) did not lead to the kind of anxiety that Soumya or Sneha had faced. This confidence came from an understanding of the relationship between these educational institutions of repute and the labour market (and its relationship to class status). Nandini explained this further, you wouldn’t find a Lovely Professional University (a private university) working at Google; it would invariably be an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), IIM (Indian Institute of Management) or at least an NIT (National Institute of Technology) graduate, that says enough. Foreign companies also don’t go to any of these state universities or private universities; they also hire from IIT/IIMs. This is further reinforced by what Pragya highlighted: How few are these institutions of higher education that are good, and then there is a whole b-grade industry of education offering you the same education but of a substandard quality and higher fee structures but even then there is no assurance of jobs, or if one finds jobs, there is no job security. A little differently Vishal highlighted the relationship between the three (educational institutions, employment and class status): You will see a fundamental difference on the basis of the kind of education and the level of education which translates into certain kind of job

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security and income, which would translate into kinds of cars, homes and even mannerisms. It is these together that would produce someone’s class. There is yet another way in which educational institutions (of repute) mitigate class reproduction. This was from being in social networks with others in the same educational institutions that are doing well for themselves. During the time of their stay at the educational institution, any batch of individuals forms some informal groups based on hobby/interest groups, activities and general affinity. These groups remain relevant even after graduation and often result in members helping each other get opportunities. Mudit highlighted that most times, the groups formed even at these educational institutions mostly remained homogenous (reproducing regional, linguistic, caste and/or gender profiles). There were instances (few and far) where non-homogenous profiles found a space in these groups. These groups helped maintain class security. For example, when Mudit came to Gurgaon, he came to join one of his seniors (with whom he was within an informal interest group) from IIT, who was working as technical head for an online startup business. Being from IIT enabled certain kinds of social capital for Mudit and Milind, of which Mudit used the social network to land up in a startup company in Gurgaon. The networks established among peers during their stay at educational institutions must be connected to bettering life chances. Peers, it was observed in the study, help other peers in securing better employment directly (through giving references and notifying about the openings) or indirectly (helping learn skills useful in the market, as was the case with Mudit). The educational institution also becomes an integral part of constructing an individual’s identity, in the way that Bourdieu (1986) understands cultural capital in the institutional sense or institutional capital. Milind explained how being from an educational institution of repute marked a candidate with a kind of distinction that was similar to wearing a branded article of clothing on one’s body. He said being an IIM or a JNU pass-out marks an individual apart, irrespective of his/her actual talent or merit. He said: If you have managed to get the name of an educational institution of repute tagged onto yourself, chances are you would run into someone from the same educational institution who will unknowingly feel favourably towards you. When you wear the tag of one of these big reputed institutions you land yourself in circles of authorities far more easily than others. What is implied here is that educational institutions not only produce certain kinds of embodied capital but also that this embodied capital translates into social and symbolic capital.

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Reconversion Strategies Bourdieu considers reconversion strategies integral to reproducing class situations effectively. Broadly speaking, reconversion would mean that individuals employ a change in strategy for the social reproduction of material and/ or ideological basis of class status going by the idea “to change so as to conserve” (Bourdieu, 1984: p.  157). As part of the reconversion strategy, individuals diversify ways in which they reproduce class status. Put simplistically, this means those with wealth would seek to diversify their social c­ apital through acquiring taste/finesse/culture and those with culture/taste/finesse would seek to diversify ways to generate wealth. The primary respondents were associated with and had intergenerational links with both agrarian and entrepreneurial middle class were noted too. While there was an instance of intergenerational movement from the agrarian middle class to the educated middle class, no reverse links were found; that is, agriculture did not attract the fancy of the educated middle class as a way of diversification of capital. Self-employment and business/entrepreneurial ventures did attract the fancy of the educated middle class to diversify capital. The entrepreneurial middle class or the self-employed middle class also sought education to diversify its capital. While the educated middle class sought class mobility through ­business/entrepreneurial ventures, the entrepreneurial middle class sought class stability and a claim to propriety through education. Thus, the educated middle class had their educational credentials, primarily cultural capital and habitus, that they depended on for employment. Intergenerationally, Rishabh’s father was an entrepreneur, but he had witnessed his father’s life as an entrepreneur and in view of the losses that his father incurred, Rishabh chose salaried employment over entrepreneurship. Similarly, yet differently, Shruti’s father was an entrepreneur, but she experienced immense pressure from her parents to seek paid employment for the sheer fact that the educated middle class had propriety. Mothers of both were never in formal employment or entrepreneurship. Vishal, Pragya, Sanjay and Mudit’s families were engaged in some measure of agriculture. All of their families at the time of the study still owned agricultural lands; however, their relationship to the land varied. Mudit’s family, at the time of the interview, still owned agricultural lands, and his elder brother was primarily engaged in agriculture. Sanjay had sold off the agricultural land after his father’s demise recently. Vishal and Pragya’s parents were not directly engaged in farming but had someone else doing the agricultural labour for them in return for a part of the produce. Both their fathers were employed in salaried jobs in the public sector, while their mothers were not formally employed. The remaining were all employed in the professional-technical service sector jobs or service sector jobs in generalist profile that is lacking in any specific technical professional specialisation.

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This kind of coexistence of Weber (1978) propertied middle class and propertyless intelligentsia raises doubts about where they may be placed within the horizontal factions. The way Weber distinguishes between the petite bourgeoisie and propertyless intelligentsia is significant here to understand a crucial in-class distinction between the agrarian middle class and industrial middle class, and the educated middle class. The distinction is not in terms of arguing that the intelligentsia does not have property or the propertied do not seek some foothold within the intelligentsia. The point is to locate various in-class or horizontal fractions, as Wright (2000) puts it, through the primacy of either of these to the material and ideological conditions that populate their existence and, in this regard, project themselves as alike. Intergenerationally or even within their lifetime, EMC was eager to diversify their capital through employing reconversion strategies, as a way to reduce the risk factor that threatens class security. Agriculture, as well as business, were seen as “vulnerable” to external (relatively more unpredictable) forces such as season, crop disease, rainfall, soil nutrition; and market demand, supplier efficiency, labour market, stock market ebb and flow, consumer base and overall economy, respectively. A fluctuation in any of contributing factors can lead to both chances of big growth or big losses, and even though small businesses may manage to recover, fluctuations create anxiety for small businessmen. During his schooling years, Rishabh had witnessed his father’s music business going bankrupt and the financial crisis that followed. He attributed his choice of “secure” salaried employment in the IT sector to his witnessing his father’s plight. In a different vein, Milind, soon after his graduation from IIM, joined a salaried job, only to leave it after 2 years to pursue his dream of a startup. He recounted that the startup failed miserably, but he was not deterred at all because he knew he could fall back on his salaried job, and he did return back to it comfortably. Thus, individuals would want to invest in securing education and salaried employment to gain class security/stability. This is perhaps one contributing factor to why education has become so important for the middle class. Education (specifically technical education) acts as a guarantee to middle-class status or a secure base to fall back on. Although the intelligentsia may have an inherent advantage, better tools and potential to mobilise their cultural capital intergenerationally into reproducing class status, such a phenomenon is not absolute and final. The expanding market acknowledges and taps into the aspirations of the agrarian and entrepreneurial middle class and offers to help cultivate the cultural capital that they couldn’t inherit from pedigree (Majumdar, 2014). Karan (salaried parent), Mudit (agrarian family) and Milind (salaried parent) invested tremendously to crack the IIT-JEE exams2 through investing in the best coaching centres chosen on the basis of rigorous research. Mudit stayed as a “guest” resident in a popular hostel (closer to his natal place) to benefit from an environment where people prepared for competitive exams. However, this hostel

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is also rumoured to be central to caste wars between two prominent castes in the area. He then went to Kota,3 Rajasthan, where many aspirants like him from varying social-economic backgrounds stayed and prepared for IIT-JEE. As Mudit recounts: There were not just people like me, who had not found adequate guidance or support; there was, for instance, the son of a top official in Delhi Police who was staying with us, in the same cramped spaces that we occupied while we were preparing. Another one was the son of a big businessman. These were people from all kinds of backgrounds, and one couldn’t tell. Nandini resented not being able to mobilise enough economic resources to let her son stay in Kota for a year to prepare for IIT’s joint entrance examination. Kota provides an apt example of the market aiding the cultivation of cultural capital that may not be passed on through pedigree and habitus. The market of shadow education (Majumdar, 2014), coaching centres and preparatory schools reflect investment into reconversion strategies. Although not an assured way, shadow educational institutions and coaching centres (however questionable) may constitute what Bourdieu calls “modifying elements” (adapting from its original usage by Comte) for those who may be deprived of certain kinds of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1990: p. 183). Vertical Factions Upon being asked if there were any fractions or further distinctions within the educated middle class, all (except two, Deepika and Supriya) identified that there is a distinction within the middle class that divides it into Upper MiddleClass, Middle Middle-Class and Lower Middle-Class. It is interesting to note here that while in horizontal fractions within the middle class, the educated middle class delineated its distinction over the others on the basis of occupational differences, when talking about vertical fractions, the educated middle class resorted to subsuming itself into a broader category of the middle class, membership to which was contingent largely on material as on ideological/ cultural basis of class status. The respondents, in fact, highlighted the material basis of the class situation, that is, assets and capital. Some differentiation reflected the primacy of financial planning and budgeting as a practical defining feature of the middle class. Such differentiation is built upon the internal differences among classes simply on the basis of financial security and financial planning. For Patricia, the difference between vertical fractions was marked by the different perceptions of finances and feeling associated with finances. She said: The difference is between subsistence, security, and surplus as organising themes or principles of life. The guiding theme in a lower middle-class household would be subsistence, and so all thinking would be arranged around what is a matter of subsistence, while for average middle-class

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families, it would be security; that is, only when expenses threaten their security would they get worried and for the upper middle class it would be how to manage and cultivate the surplus. Similarly, Siya highlighted the differences between the three fractions by outlining the difference in when one thinks about what one is spending. She said: Lower middle-class planning happens before spending, middle-class planning happens while and during spending, that is, there is some margin to accommodate immediate demands that may be important and for an upper-middle-class budget is a matter of reflective accounting. Deepika and Supriya saw a continuum and felt that this was an ongoing process of progress. As Supriya said, “people over the course of time .  .  . keep getting better financially. So, this kind of differentiation [between upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class] is very temporary and situational, this kind of classification”. Meanwhile, others were divided about how the difference between divisions could be understood. Despite not having clear criteria, EMC felt comfortable and confident in mental classification and evaluation; as Suraiyya puts it: It is very uncomfortable and unnatural to ask someone their class. I don’t think anyone does that, but there is an unstated assessment that is perhaps involuntarily being run in our heads that looks at a person’s appearance, their dress, language, mannerisms, cars, address or neighbourhood where they live, the kind of homes they live in, their spending patterns and use that information at some level to classify people on the basis of their class. This isn’t an obvious, visible thing but just a mental mapping of information about a person. These ideas reiterate the claims made by Dickey (2002: p. 216), where she writes: Many symbols of class . . . are immediately evident upon meeting someone including clothing, hygiene, speech manner and movement and sometimes education, occupation and housing . . . you may also learn what newspaper they read, whether they drink tea or coffee, how they decorate their homes, what kind of consumer goods they display . . . all of these are signs of class. Further clarity to this came from Karan’s mental scheme for evaluating and organising different people belonging to the middle class into vertical fractions on working out the common minimum grounds. He said: I would say if you are trying to understand the middle-class division, from a Gurgaon perspective, you could say that one car, one house of

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two ­bedrooms or three bedrooms with regular stuff-one air conditioning, television, laptops, mobile phones, et cetera, and collective savings below 15 lakhs for a family of four people with no additional liabilities, that would be an average middle class or what you would call a middle class. If you feel that someone is 50% then they are at the bottom of the larger middle-class section of society, you’d be the end point of the lower middle class. Whereas if you have enough to help someone make up their 50% lack, you’re at the top of the upper middle class. If you have enough to support another household of this size, you’re no longer middle class; that’s how I look at it. Karan’s ideas provide an interesting formulation of the middle class’ average capital, asset and resource level. After being probed about the kinds of cars that would differ, he added: I guess the common cars you see in certain neighbourhoods. I guess the most common cars in any neighbourhood represents the car that could be associated with a certain class position they may have. So, I  would situate it in the context of neighbourhoods, say Palam Vihar would be a lower-middle-class neighbourhood, and you see many motorcycles and scooters there. Sectors 9, 10, 22, and 22b would be middle middle-class and you see more Maruti Altos, Wagon-Rs and Santros (car brand, and model names) there and then there would be sectors 23, 50, 52, 55, 56, 57, Ardee City as well where all you’d see are Fortuners and Mahindra Dusters, Honda Civics, Skoda Octavias et cetera. What is significant is that Karan employs objective observable evidencebased assessment in the assessment of capital, assets and resources. Suraiyya does not look at the capital in the same way as Karan; she incorporates elements of cultural capital in the sense that Bourdieu (1986) invokes it through the idea of embodied cultural capital, such as language and mannerisms, towards assessment of capital in the Capital-Asset-Resources. Karan’s economic evaluation propositions are complicated further by Mudit. Mudit highlighted that there is a very important aspect that many economic assessments classify people on the basis of incoming economic capital miss, which is the “invisible support” and “invisible expenses” from economic liabilities and returns. Inheritances and Liabilities Interestingly, Karan’s way of defining class was looking at the household as a unit of analysis. Household as a base had its inherent issues; for instance, as Nikita, Mona, Trishna, Pragya and Rishabh pointed out, resources are not distributed equally among all members. A more sophisticated way of

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understanding this is offered by Mudit. He suggests a mental framework of “invisible support” and “invisible expenses” to think about how familial support/hostility can complicate evaluations of an individual’s class position. Familial life histories help individuals make sense of their class position. The expectations of their class experiences and struggles are weighed against the promise of belonging to a particular family. This echoes what Savage (2000) terms as individualisation of class identity whereby, “Class operates as a benchmark by which people can measure their own life histories” (p. 113). I adapt his nascent idea into a framework of “liabilities and returns” that can help one understand one’s class status more fully against the promise that belonging to a middle-class family held for them. Liabilities and returns as a determinant of class experiences/class struggle/class security featured most prominently in Mudit’s views but did manifest themselves in some measure or the other in the views of Karan, who looked and worried about his sister’s impending marriage (for which he was primarily responsible), also in Rishabh’s worries about outstanding debt repayment (accumulated from the failed business of his father). Similarly, Sanjay recounted the kind of struggle he had to face owing to his father’s untimely demise, leaving him with the economic responsibility of younger siblings and his mother. Liabilities and returns play out very differently in the lives of young women hoping to reproduce class status. For instance, in the cases of Nandini and Soumya, the decision to marry against the wishes of their families came at the cost of losing claim on any kind of “invisible support” increasing the liabilities impacting their class status. The words “invisible support” and “invisible expenses” proposed by Mudit highlighted a crucial element of the “invisibility” of this upon the individual’s person. Mudit explained this invisibility during a conversation: A manager or say a profile like CTO (Chief Technical Officer) is just that, a manager or a CTO in the fixed (limited) gaze in the public realm. The general public looking on would judge every aspect of this guy’s life and choices against a parameter of what a person of his job profile should be living like, what he or she should be spending on. So, the expectation would be that he should have like a fancy car and a lavish house, notwithstanding that he may have invisible expenses say a loan he has inherited from his father, or say he has a big family of, say, 11 members he is responsible for and he is the only earning member, or has someone, in the family of even four people, who needs a treatment that costs a lot or other things like that. You know, fluctuations, small or big, or both. But, when he shares his struggle, he finds nobody that sympathises. I have seen people like those who have to buy a certain car or a certain kind of house just to avoid being judged as being miser or money-hoarder, in being insincere to his/her class.

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Liabilities and returns, as he says, are in part “inherited” through one’s own doing or through misfortunes that one had no control over. He says what is often available to the observer’s limited gaze becomes the basis of one’s classification into certain kinds of class positions; however, there is a lot, in his opinion, that does not meet the eye. Consolidating his ideas, one could propose that “returns” include economic and human capital available to individuals through their relationship with their parents, which can easily be translated into economic capital. In one way, liabilities are an absence of returns; that is, one has to struggle to build what others of the same class status inherited from their parents. Mudit illustrates this by sharing how while one of his worries was of being able to buy a house for himself, a number of his friends already had houses that they had either inherited or purchased through help from their parents. He admitted that it made a huge change in the way they experienced their “economic status” and the way he did because he did not inherit these assets marking class membership through inheritance. “Not everyone starts at the same place, but everyone is expected to run the race as equals” is how he sums it up. This kind of liability can directly result from intergenerational upward social mobility that makes one’s ground shaky. An important iteration of this can be seen in the case of Nandini and somewhat in the case of Soumya, who both married against the wishes of their parents and were denied any claim on support the other women like Manisha and Pragya could easily avail. Childcare support and financial cushioning both became a challenge because parents on either side refused to support the young couple. The responsibility of childcare primarily fell upon the young couple straining their finances, as well. Nandini stated how she and her husband found themselves “on the streets, while just a day ago we had everything”. The loss of support came as a shock and meant that the young couple had to start from scratch to build themselves up to their natal family’s living standards. Then there is a third kind of inherited “liabilities”, that is, economic expenditures that do not relate directly to an individual, his/her spouse and children. This was seen in the case of Rishabh and Sanjay. While Rishabh had inherited debt that he was helping his father pay off, Sanjay found himself responsible for his sisters’ marriages after his father died a sudden unexpected death. These liabilities are understood as tying down one’s ability to accumulate and cultivate capital through diversification of existing capital. The feeling of respite that Nandini felt at having secured a house for her son and being on the job and self-sustaining, thereby not passing on liabilities to her son after her husband’s untimely death, also reinforces this idea. Further, as it appears, “liabilities” and “returns” also include fluctuations that one experiences throughout one’s lifetime. As Mudit explained: As I  know, now that I  am economically stable and only growing, I  can afford to marry and have a child. I could withstand such fluctuations as

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having a child or my wife deciding to quit paid employment. I could comfortably cover their expenses. But imagine this, my (financial) planning is good for one child. If, however, I were to have twins, maybe I would be strained, but then if I were to have three children, each their own expenses of schools, along with expenses of home and bills and other stuff that’d change my class position by increasing my expenses, the spending on education and other things will get curtailed. If I have one kid, I may send him/her to an international school and spend on camps, and dance classes, if I have three I will have to start contemplating cheaper options of private schools that are not international. However, if you were to imagine, I already have a house handed down to me by my father, my wife is in paid employment and earns well, and we have one or even two kids, the way in which I would experience economic status then would be very different. To this one may add what Azra highlighted as “crucial life decisions” in any individual’s life, marriage, for instance, would be a critical decision, whom do you marry and when could alter your class position a lot. If you married while you were not on the job, the other person was also not employed, and he had his own set of problems like a large family to look after or perhaps had a lower status than your own, you would suffer a loss. Even if you were a manager and earned handsomely and came from a family that supported you and never sought any financial support from you, now your income would feed a whole family. The money at your dispense will go down significantly. Marriage I feel is one of the most critical life decisions, you get it right, you’re placed well, you get it wrong, you get messed up. This is indirectly supported by Siya’s admission that the decision to marry an entrepreneur was a well-thought-out and calculated economic decision as a Ph.D. scholar who is unemployed and is likely to have unstable jobs for quite some time (mentioned later, again). The idea of liabilities and returns is sewn into the idea of salaried jobs and their correspondence to an ideal kind of life trajectory assumed for an individual. The class stability that is associated with stable salaried employment gets strained or enhanced because of these liabilities or returns. Homeownership (for residential purposes) provided the basic security and necessary impetus for enjoying a middle-class position to the educated middle class. Salaried jobs are not particularly responsive to or accommodating of these liabilities and returns. Salaried employment, much like other occupations, assumes the individual as an individualistic actor, and so does the class analysis that bases itself on the three parameters of occupation, income and education. Therefore, I suggest here that occupations, education and income alone cannot be a good indicator of class position.

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However, as Dickey (2000) rightly argues, the class system’s uniqueness as a form of hierarchy is that its fundamental basis lies in economic power. This fundamental economic power combined with the status markers that financial resources can produce — such as education, honour and conspicuous consumption — then themselves become a source of economic power (Dickey, 2000: p. 467). In terms of understanding how the educated middle class distinctly negotiates with intergenerational class advantage as well as mobilise themselves towards class mobility, inheritance becomes important. Inheritance, especially in homeownership, is essential to the idea of class stability and a necessary condition for class mobility. Individuals who find themselves lacking in the security of homeownership find it more difficult to aspire for class mobility. While the inheritance of assets may prove to be advantageous, liabilities become a deterrent to class mobility. Further, parents assume the responsibility of providing the necessary impetus at an early stage through careful speculation of what may constitute a competitive education and necessary cultural capital through exposure to what may be seen as advantageous skills and talents in future competitions for higher education and, subsequently, in employment. Parents mobilise human capital and economic capital towards cultivating habitus that appears futuristically viable or necessary for class reproduction in the future. However, these factors work intergenerationally. Individuals also, during the course of their lifetimes, try and build and maximise this advantage for their future generations, as inheritance they shall pass on to their children to strengthen children’s claim on class status. For those with inheritance, it may be slightly easier compared to those who are trying to build it for themselves and their children through their own lifetimes. Those who did not inherit/ lost the inheritance also attempt to build an inheritance for their children. Strengthening class status and stability as an aspiration is an end in itself for the EMC. That is, the desire to strengthen the foothold in the middle class and experience better material status than one is currently enjoying as a measure of a successful life. Homeownership is of the greatest significance to the middle classes in general and the educated middle classes specifically. A finding that is resonant with the findings of a study on middle classes in the cities of Paris and London (Bacqué et al., 2015: p. 134) is the desire for homeownership among the middle class as a marker of class stability. Houses are considered among the basic class stability passed on to the next generation, apart from a good education and associated cultural capital, which forms the necessary resources towards the transmission of intergenerational advantage. Parents consider this a necessary condition towards securing their children’s future and providing them with the necessary impetus towards enjoying a certain amount of class stability. This also is seen as laying the necessary groundwork for them to seek and aim for class mobility.

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The considerations of ensuring some kind of homeownership take into its ambit the considerations of choosing a neighbourhood that is likely to be future-smart, that is, neighbourhoods are chosen from the point of view of their appearing to be a smart choice even in future, through calculated speculation about what might happen to the city and neighbourhood in future. Nikita, Nandini, Soumya and Mona expressed a sense of relief and resignation from their responsibilities as parents to have provided their sons (all three had sons only) with the necessary impetus. They all expressed a sense of relief at having acquired for their son(s) homes they could inherit to secure their future. In similar and not widely varying statements, all four mothers said the same thing which is illustrated through the statement made by Nandini: His late father and I had done our bit, we have acquired a house for him to build his future . . . our duty is done. Now it is up to him to be able to sustain what we have built for him and grow it further through his hard work and determination, or else he suffers the consequences, but we have done our bit. Struggle for homeownership dominated the life narratives of Sanjay, Poorvi and Nandini, who seemed to measure their hardships through rent payments and relocations. Sanjay’s father died before he could even finish school, and so he found himself struggling economically. He recounts that the only respite he had was a piece of land his father had bought in Old Gurgaon during his lifetime, which became his only inheritance towards battling the liabilities imposed by the father’s untimely demise. Homeownership is a crucial marker of having “generated” or, as Mudit put it: I do not consider myself as having settled; I am still not married and own no property. It is not like I wouldn’t or couldn’t get married, but I want to build something for myself before I think of assuming the responsibility of running a household. I will marry once I have built a home for myself and have enough to give to my children and eventually also pass on to them. Apart from homes, conjuring/saving funds for good college education and some savings (that can be mobilised for education or homes) to be passed on are critical to intergenerational inheritance. Almost all respondents, who had children, some as young as six months, reported having begun thinking or planning futuristic financial planning. All parents with children reported having invested in fixed and recurrent deposits in the name of their minor children. Fixed deposits, investment in bonds and shares and other kinds of futuristic financial planning must be seen as the transmission of intergenerational class advantage in and through the capital.

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The educated middle class aspires to build capital through investments and returns of profits and also through diversifying capital through venturing into entrepreneurship. When the educated middle class aspires to class mobility, it seeks to do so through changing tracks and switching from salaried employment to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship offers the possibility for larger gains but also poses the risk of significant losses. The losses are reasoned through the security of the possibility of returning to salaried employment upon an occasion of losses; hence, the bid for class mobility is secured through educational capital that the educated middle class possesses. Hence, while a salaried job and secure employment are a measure of class stability, business ventures are means of class mobility. Drive towards class mobility wasn’t experienced equally by all respondents. It was most prominent among respondents who have, at some point in their life narratives, experienced a threat to basic class stability. Those who have never experienced a threat to class security avoid risks inherent to entrepreneurship, attributing the risk aversion to familial responsibilities. Further, the aspiration for class mobility was far stronger among those who did not have children, were not married or was not primarily responsible for family members’ expenses. This perhaps was linked to the perception of risks such a venture involved. Those who had struggled to gain class stability sought entrepreneurial ventures as a means to compensate through accruing enough for intergenerational transmission of class advantage. Rishabh’s narrative made him far more careful against the risks of losses inherent to entrepreneurial ventures, and so he wished to steer clear. Mudit’s narrative had no previous generation attempting entrepreneurial ventures, and so he remained far more optimistic and hopeful. Nikita and Trishna both had husbands who owned small businesses, and Nikita reportedly saw this as a matter of security for her son, who was suffering from an invisible disability. She felt this would ensure that even if her son couldn’t get into paid employment, he would still have his business and would be able to lead a “comfortable life”. On the other hand, Trishna saw this as a matter of opening up options for the future of her two children. She felt they could get an education and seek paid employment or get educated and join the business, but their getting competitive education was essential. Similarly, Patricia’s husband owned a business, but both she and her husband maintained that her daughter, who was soon to earn a degree in architecture, shouldn’t compromise on her scholastic performance or take her education for granted and that she must work hard to earn competitive grades. They made sure she knew and understood that she wouldn’t be allowed to join her father’s business right away, but instead, compete first in the job market and acquire paid employment, work as an employee to gain a sense of responsibility and discipline following which she may choose if she wants to run her father’s business.

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Even though cars and other consumer durables are other important purchases for the educated middle class, unlike houses, cars and other consumer durables are not looked upon as investments or inheritance. Cars and other consumer durables are, in fact, a matter of production of a global persona. A global persona that participates and has a position within a system of globalised circulation of the capital of which these artefacts are signifiers (Schirato and Webb, 2003). Their utility and cost-effectiveness are combined with ideas of status and lifestyle to inform choices on what devices, gadgets and other consumer durables should be bought. These indeed have to be appropriately supplemented with knowledge systems, concepts and cultural ideas that establish one’s deeper roots in a global economy while talking about the local population’s perception as “having money but no class”. While these may produce “class” in day-to-day lives, stable class membership is traced through homeownership. Summary The primacy accorded to the “middle class” identity through strategic shadowing of other community-based identities and associated privilege is still relevant to this faction of the middle class. While diversification of capital has been and still continues to be, even for EMC, an active strategy of strengthening one’s claim to middle-class status. This chapter captures the kind of middle-class distinction that emerges from the interaction of space and class. It captures the various axes (intra-class and inter-class) along which this group consolidates its distinction. The emergent group identifies itself, against intra-class axes, distinctly as the educated middle class while reclaiming its identity as a middle class against underclass and affluent sections. The chapter captures the layered ways the educated middle class understands its position. It captures the ways in which it distinguishes itself from others. This chapter highlights an important insight, drawing upon Milind and Mudit’s life narrative and understanding the life choice of Nikita and Jahanvi’s husbands against understanding the reconversion strategies employed by the educated middle class. For instance, in an earlier generation of middle-class parents (as in the case of Mudit’s parents), one may find a strong desire to replicate and mobilise through outsourcing (to the market) the responsibility for culturing requisite cultural capital for successful intergenerational horizontal mobility to an educated middle-class fraction. Similarly, both Milind and Mudit sought to reconvert the economic capital generated through their cultural capital into fixed capital. This may hold true even for attaining higher cultural capital by mediating a class location higher than their own for their children upon the display of merit by child and child’s aptitude. The parental generation hoped to simulate habitus and acquire cultural capital of aspired class fraction/class as a way of shaping

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appropriately, among their children, the cultural and occupational aspirations associated with the aspired class fraction/class. This they hoped would lead to intergenerational mobility. It also illustrates an important aspect that Nambissan (2010) identifies and credits the middle class with: redefining what constitutes a necessary and “good” education. Interestingly, what emerges here is what used to be cultural capital once for middle-class families, overtime becomes the habitus, and therefore the idea of “good” education keeps getting redefined as an educated middle class successfully reproduces its class position intergenerationally. However, the changing trends of ‘good’ education (described above) reveal that the composition of the necessary apparatus of cultural capital keeps getting redefined in ways that make it tougher for the aspiring middle class and intra-class fractions to replicate the habitus available to children of the educated middle class. Notes 1 Dickey (2002: p. 216) argued that “economic and symbolic factors work together to produce an individual’s class”. 2 Indian Institute of Technology (a premier institute for engineering education) offers admission to its various branches across the country on the basis of scores in a nationally conducted entrance examination, IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology, Joint Entrance Examination). 3 Kota is a city in Rajasthan which is dominated by an ever-expanding industry of coaching for the Indian Institute of Technology’s joint entrance examination to aspirants.

Chapter 4

Cosmopolitan Subjectivity, Morality and Social Beliefs

Progressively, we have looked at city, neighbourhood and community levels. So it is now important to understand this distinction at the level of “self” of the individual and its relationship with other communities and the influence of these communities’ cultures on EMC’s values and subjectivity. The understanding of middle-classness as a socio-spatial category must be extended to understanding the meaning-making involved in the production and performativity of the self and subjectivity.1 Class is as much about practices as what orients those practices and behaviours; and how one makes sense of them. This meaning-making and meaning-giving allow one to understand the linkages between the self and the broader socio-spatial class distinction. It situates itself in patterned interactions with other subjectivities and shapes itself in relation to it. This chapter approaches the idea of a self through the conceptual tool of cosmopolitan subjectivity. Cosmopolitanism has a rich academic dialogue surrounding its conceptual and analytical frameworks, which is beyond the scope of this chapter. Sufficient here to say what cosmopolitan subjectivity would mean in the context of the educated middle class and why it is a good framework to understand the self of EMC. This is a departure from the existing discourse on middle-classness as associated with cultural omnivorousness as a way of claiming aesthetic and social superiority (Peterson, 1992; Erickson, 2008). Culture, in this analysis, refers more to values and ideas that inform preferences and differential valuation instead of focussing on the distinction of taste and aesthetics. While the two are not mutually independent, cultural cosmopolitanism would capture beyond immediate signifiers of culture and taste tied to social advantage. It would capture the orientation that is tied to preserving and reproducing social privilege through gatekeeping of cultural values. This also moves beyond the understanding of middle-class subjectivity through the lens of morality (Säävälä, 2010; Gilbertson, 2018). It considers “norms, values dispositions. As well as conceptions of good and desirable” (Säävälä, 2010: p. 6) but also looks at the limits/barriers that the EMC reinstates of moral-cultural inferiority. DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-5

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The way in which it is invoked in the context of EMC cosmopolitan subjectivity would build upon Jeremy Waldron’s (1992, 2000) ideas about cultural cosmopolitanism. Waldron highlights the distinction of a modern rootless subject who is both conscious and, in fact, proud of living as a mixed-up self in a mixed-up world (1992: p. 754; 2000: p. 228). He rejects the idea that such a subject position is parasitic, instead suggesting that it is reflective of the vast human capacity to absorb a variety of cultural materials in order to cultivate their own capacity to discern what would be valuable. He imagines that a cosmopolitan individual has loose ties with his/her community and does not strongly identify with his location, ancestry, citizenship or mother tongue. He objects to the idea of tying an individual’s feeling of self-fulfilment to one community’s culture. He argues this represents a more static view of culture. A static view of culture would not be helpful to understanding the varied, often messy and internally contradictory values that inform a sense of self for an EMC. Cosmopolitanism, in this sense, is a discursive aggregate of the historical, local, national and global networks that shape EMC’s distinction over relationally defined “other”. The understanding of self and subjectivity of the EMC requires accommodation of “unresolved historical dialogues between continuity and disruptions, essence and positionality, homogeneity and difference (cross-cutting ‘us and ‘them’) . . . cultures of displacement and transplantation (that are) are often inseparable from specific, often violent, histories of economic, political, and cultural interaction, histories”, except that this kind of discrepant cosmopolitanism is not diasporic. (Clifford, 1992: p. 108) The two departures from original ideas about cultural cosmopolitanism are made here. The first is to overcome the assumption of a monological individual choice inherent to Waldron’s ideas on cosmopolitanism. Here cosmopolitanism and the choice of certain kinds of values over others would be situated in a relational frame. The second concerns the perception of mobility as integral to the idea of cultural cosmopolitanism. The argument here is that the cosmopolitan subjectivity of EMC is about the internal boundaries that pertain to an idealised global self, both those boundaries/barriers that are reinstated and those that are crossed. It highlights the boundaries that are crossed and those that are not. These boundaries are “values, mentalities, and motives for action (as well as their rationalisation) that accompany a self everywhere and underpins the self’s uncosmopolitan treatment of others and of the environment” (Papastephanou, 2015: p. 2). These barriers are cultivated from a very early age through upbringing, acculturation and schooling, “these are not merely shaken by self’s mere exposure to alternative lifestyle”

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and critical to understanding how value is assigned to other cultures and how some barriers are reinstated, and others crossed (Papastephanou, 2015: p. 2). In the sense in which it is invoked here, cosmopolitan subjectivity is an integral part of the psychic landscape, that is, “class thinking and feeling” of this social class (Reay, 2005: p. 912), combining together sometimes complimentary, sometimes contradictory values together in predictable patterns. It becomes what Savage (2005) calls class consciousness in the weaker sense, which is a major organising feature of life sans any claim to revolutionary potential. Cosmopolitan subjectivity of the EMC then is a nonelite form of everyday practice geared towards consolidating or contesting power. That is, it is not to be construed as ethnopolitical but instead performative. That is, cosmopolitan subjectivity becomes a strategic and performative resource that helps demarcate distinction against contextually relevant others. In this form, cosmopolitan subjectivity seeks to consolidate power through invoking regional, national, global and caste-religious references to establish favourable contrast with the class-other, which may range from inferiorised EMC (Dalit or Muslim EMC), underclass and elites. This form appears rather messy, inconsistent and internally incoherent, emerging from a curious interaction between local, national and global networks along with historical Savarna roots. However, when examined carefully, it combines gatekeeping of deeply Savarna Middle-Class privilege with the aspirational progressive-liberal global self. Both these can be mobilised to consolidate power and distinction strategically. It seeks to take the power that comes from being a global self and restrict disproportionate access to this global self for savarna sections of EMC. I. The Unmarked Individual: Meritorious, Smart and “Global” Middle Class This part of the cosmopolitan subjectivity of the EMC is progressive. It can be seen as a derivate of the early discourses of the modernist middle class that has moved beyond the primordial identities of caste, religion and kinship. It represents the EMC’s rootedness in the nationalist discourse of modernity attributed to the cultural project of the Nehruvian middle class, which EMC combines with elements of progressive globality (Joshi, 2012). Merit and Competitiveness A critical part of EMC’s cosmopolitan values is the celebration of the idea of de-historicised and individualised merit, talent and fair and objective competition. The merit-talent-free-and-fair-competition rationality employs the logic that aligns well with the desire to discredit other markers of identity and historical advantage resulting from it. The idea of merit is life-affirming

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for EMC in that it cloaks historical savarna advantage. In this regard, merit serves the discourse of being modern and progressive and therefore does not reference itself in caste or religious identity (Joshi, 2012) and is simultaneously global in its celebration of the individual, their talent and merit as the sole basis of rewards. Merit, talent, hard work and fair competition can be seen as a defence mechanism for the EMC much in the same way as Devine and Savage (2005: p. 6) argue fatalism and ambivalence are for the working class, that is, “psychological defence mechanism by which workers adapt to their life situations”. Considering the ambiguity faced by EMC in reproducing itself intergenerationally (primarily through education), a primacy to merit helps one firmly reaffirm their membership to the class category. When outcomes are favourable, merit is credited, and when outcomes are unfavourable, the system is blamed for not considering merit as the sole criterion for selection. In either situation, the linkage between merit and the middle class is unquestioned. Individuals in EMC reaffirm that they are meritorious either through their success stories or through their resentment of the state’s disregard for merit over the reservation. In all of these references of merit, merit is seen as absolute, objective, individualised, apolitical and quality that is at least in part inherent. The defence mechanism for the educated middle class is objective competition and meritocracy. Competition with stress on objective evaluation criteria is seen as the best way to identify talent and also establish it. Therefore, entrance examinations to technical professional courses in colleges of repute are seen as battlefields for sifting/proving talent. All respondents felt that a fair and objective evaluation of talent should be the only basis for determining an individual’s true worth. While some felt resentful of caste-based reservation of seats in these coveted entrance examinations, others felt that these were deemed irrelevant since reservations at entry level do not help with securing degrees. Karan said: I don’t see caste as a significant factor. It is insignificant because the government doesn’t mediate the larger employment sector . . . so at best they can force them into the education system, but they can’t ensure these students will get jobs at the end of their completion. The dominance of better-paying opportunities in the private sector is seen as a further respite since the private sector was assumed to be objective enough to sift out a non-meritorious caste-based reservation availing section of students. Jahanvi illustrated this; she said: Even when these students (students availing entrance level caste-based reservation) get an initial push and come in, they can’t survive the system. They usually can’t perform as well as those who get in through their merit.

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Then, they struggle to find a job because even though they may find a reservation in education, they can’t get the same privilege while competing for jobs. At best, they can pitch for public sector jobs that offer them the possibility of reserved seats. Similarly, Nandini pointed out: It is not a matter of advantage for reserved castes as a matter of disadvantage for the general category, because even if reserved category students get admission based on lower marks, they can’t often beat the merit students in competition for better performance at the university exams as well as jobs. Some, however, had a more critical view of academic performance beyond entrance being a direct outcome of pure merit. Mudit, for instance, highlighted, from his days of studying at one of the premium institutions of higher education (Indian Institute of Technology): I have seen many students struggling with English as a medium of instruction and just the very arrangement of classes, lectures, the presentation being deeply dependent on heavy words and English as the primary medium of instruction. There would be so many students who would be tremendously uncomfortable just doing presentations that one could tell they have never had the context for any of this, and so they wouldn’t do too well. Some, more than others, were aware of the cultural capital and habitus along with savarna advantage shaping the outcomes that established the meritoriousness of an individual. Radhakrishnan (2011: p.  87) highlights meritocracy can be traced to Michael Young (The Rise of the Meritocracy). Merit is equated with ­intelligence-plus-effort. She just as quickly notes that the idea of merit in the Indian context is a matter of “inherent personal worth and talent thus contains within it the historic complaints of India’s elites”. The popularity of merit discourse is integral to middle-class rationality. This is reiterated by Azra, who fine-tunes the merit formula at higher education institutions and subsequently at the employment market to intelligence plus effort plus talent. She says ambitiously for her two-year-old daughter: I would want her to study from good reputed institutions in India or abroad. This means she should be able to acquire a seat for herself in higher education on sheer merit because all the good institutions of higher education in India are state-sponsored, where entrance examinations are so tough to crack and if she proves her merit for a seat in higher education

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institution abroad she would be studying on scholarship like her father . . . I feel that the criteria of merit should be that the education did not cost a lot . . . it is not like we cannot pay, but this is the mark of good quality, competitive education . . . and once she gets into a good institution, a good job is assured. Primacy is accorded to competition over social bonding even among children from an early age. Individual achievement was prioritised over cooperation and empathy, especially in scholastic performance. Children were gently reminded that even friends must be seen as competitors. Feelings of affinity and friendship were secondary to the desire to outdo one’s peers. Friendships were construed as ways to broaden one’s social capital, to challenge oneself or merely as recreation. Children were routinely reminded that they should be mindful of one’s financial and time-related losses while investing in bonding with friends. Children were encouraged to make concessions but only upon an assurance of reciprocity, that is, being smart about personal, emotional and social relationships and prioritising one’s individual goals over the emotional demands of relationships. Interestingly, this has been a value that has been consistent across generations. As Nikita pointed out from an anecdote from her childhood: This once, in an examination, I had scored 24 out of 25 and when I told papa that, he was proudly patting my back all the while saying “well done! Very good!” and I  don’t know what came to my mind. I  promptly said, “papa, Alka (peer from the same neighbourhood) has scored 24.5” the next thing I know, the hand that was patting my back came and landed with a loud thud on my cheek. His expressions had changed; I still remember his words, “Why couldn’t you be the one who scored 24.5 instead of her?” This stress on being meritorious at the cost of friendship has not changed, as highlighted by Poorvi’s advice to her children: I keep telling my kids that friendship is important, but they must not let friendship influence their performance, because eventually everyone will be appearing for the same exam and while you would have spent your time helping this friend of yours he would have spent time preparing himself for the exam. The appearance of being “ordinary” yet significant while not being a “stand-alone/odd” is also critical to the social persona of the EMC. To be ordinary yet extraordinary is a matter of being able to blend in well with the class group or have nothing “out of the ordinary” (in class terms) that can catch negative attention but simultaneously be outstanding in merit and achievements. Social perception of an unmarked “normal” person is crucial to their sense of self, and its protection is important to the educated middle class.

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Attitudes Towards Money and Materiality Attitudes pertaining to the spending of and acquisition of money are also crucial elements of the psychic landscape of the educated middle class—It is seen as reflective of EMC’s performative astuteness. EMC construes money not just as a matter of class security/class mobility but also as a matter of “enjoyment” expression of “quality of life”. In their ideas, there is a clear distinction between the enabling power of money versus the corrupting power of money. There is a complex approach that is promoted with regard to money among the educated middle class, that is, being obviously ambitious with regard to the acquisition of money and yet an expression of disenchantment/ detachment with it. For instance, Soumya, who was coordinating with some of her friends a shopping trip to buy some clothes for her brother’s upcoming wedding, hung up her phone and shared her thoughts about it: We (a group of friends) have been discussing where we would go for shopping, so I suggested Meena Bazar (a brand of ethnic clothing chain) this friend of mine . . . was like “why are you planning to spend so much on just one saree you will wear just once for your brother’s wedding?”. . . . She was suggesting we go to Chandini Chowk, and I don’t get this kind of attitude. I mean, you’re well off; why do you have to be so stingy about your spending? .  .  . this is a very “dhaniya-mirchi” attitude (requesting complementary rewards on purchase) of being stingy about money; that if you’ve spent ten grand on a Saree, you must wear it all the time. There is this thing I think that shows a person’s class . . . how comfortable are you with your money . . . people may have acquired a house here and a car that looks fancy, but they clearly lack the attitude. Money, therefore, needs to be acquired but should also reflect in spending and not just in earnings. One should exhibit an ease with money that should reflect in the appropriate use of it. This is seen as representative of “class”. The ease of spending is associated with class security and belongingness. So, even as investments must demonstrate a calculative, prudish sensibility, consumption patterns and attitudes must exhibit a metered casualty. This is contrasted with earlier attitudes towards money and materiality. Money and leisure were strongly associated with the values of saving and passing on a legacy. This discourse of savings and passing on the legacy has been reformulated into being smart about money. Every respondent, in some way or another, constructed the idea of being smart about money. As Vishal put it: The older generation of people wouldn’t want to spend, they would just keep hoarding the money until they felt they had saved a lot for once they retired, but that is just a stupid idea, cause once you retire, you’ve lost

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the best years of your life solely spent on earning. You never enjoyed the money you made, and now you’re too old to do many things you could have done with that money. So, there has to be a smart balance between time and money, weigh them against each other. Poorvi pointed out the same idea, but from the other end of the spectrum, she said: We were really young, and we didn’t think too smartly, we had only our daughter by then, and we really wanted to enjoy life, so we decided to go to Europe for vacation, and we took loan for it and that sort of burnt a hole in our financial planning. We didn’t think too well, and we had a child. Although we still take foreign tours and vacations now, we plan smartly. The idea of smartness is linked not just to moderating between the variables of time and money but also to terms smartly and balancing them against each other. As Vishal said: So, smart balance doesn’t always mean just buying these joys in ways that do not compromise your financial stability, sometimes you like something that would sting your annual financial planning and savings, but you got to have smart thinking, as in, what I do is I ask myself, “I am 29 right now, I can take this trip to Vienna and see and enjoy its beauty. It would compromise my finances, sure! But I do not have kids yet whom I need to worry about. My parents are not dependent, I do not have to pay any monthly instalments, and I  wouldn’t have them for another two years. I will easily earn back my way back to my current status of stability sooner than that, so I can take this trip”. The idea of smart balance between time and money is an idea that has evolved out of an idea of self-disciplining too as one respondent Sanjay, who was in his 50s pointed out: These days, kids get into jobs sooner and are marrying later than before, so they get a lot of time to enjoy the money they make. For people in our generation, by the time we had any financial stability, we had a couple of kids too, and then it just changed everything. So, people were more disciplined about money and finances because of the times they were in. By 27–28 years, men in my generation all had a couple of kids now. I see women that age defer marriage and kids, so their approach to money differs from the previous generations. Although, I still feel discipline around money helps people stay in control of their desires.

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This reinforces the finding of a study of middle classes in the cities of Paris and London (Bacqué et  al., 2015: p.  58) that values of prudence, fairness and commitment to education as crucial defining elements of middle-class thinking. What is interesting in these statements is that there is a clear identification of a shift in discourse from financial discipline to financial smartness. There is also an acknowledgement among the educated middle class of the changing notions of organising life over time. These changes it appears are the average age of marriage and planning children, while the age of joining the workforce and becoming economically independent has not changed much over time. Globality Money is also mobilised towards achieving a sense of globality. Being immersed in the global discourse of consumption and trends is seen as an important part of being progressive and upwardly mobile. Globality as a value is the idea that one has more in common with counterparts in other countries (especially in the United States and the United Kingdom) than one’s own neighbourhood. It seeks to be culturally initiated in globalised values of consumption, lifestyle and repertoire. Value is placed in consumption through leisure, travel and appropriation, through recreating tropes picked up from being integrated into global circuits of capital/knowledge like clubbing, eating out, parties, concerts and buying expensive gadgets and jewellery as a way of “enjoying” one’s life. This goes towards establishing the globality of an individual, highlighting their “class” and distinction of values and morality that is referenced in more “advanced” contexts than the one they are currently inhabiting. EMC highlighted the importance of parties, retreats, vacations or holidays to the idea of a “quality of life”, especially in early adulthood. In the EMC repertoire, these count as “experiences” that are often recounted and often relived and valued for teaching important values like “treating women with respect”, “being broad-minded (dressing, drinking and dating)”, “planning”, “bonding and friendship” and also “moderation” or “learning to be in control”. These are seen as values that one gains through exposure to globality. This must also be associated with globalisation and the expansion of the market for consumer durables and the recreational industry. The global economic and cultural exchange traced in and through a global circulation of commodities becomes a crucial tool for claiming one’s place in the global economic opportunities and associated claim to a global persona. The production of this global persona is crucial to establishing one’s utility in global economic systems and processes and claiming a kind of cultural capital that educated middle classes view as crucial to the eventual process of diversification of capital and conservation of capital, and securing the economic stability and progress in future.

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Almost all educated middle-class families invested in educating their children in “International” schools, focussed on overall development, invested in technology intensively as a tool towards keeping oneself updated with what is happening around the world, the boards that most parents chose for their children is IB, that is, “International Baccalaureate” which would allow them to compete with students from the world over for places in undergraduate courses in universities in European countries and the United States of America. Both Manisha and Poorvi highlighted how they wanted to be prepared “economically” for when their children reached the age of college education, and since they wanted to increase the scope available to their children for their college education, they had them enrolled in IB schools as a way to broaden the pool of colleges they could apply to. This broadening of choices through IB schools is also tied with two things, one anxiety over intensifying competition in institutions of higher education of any repute (most owned by the state and therefore also following the state guidelines on the reservation of some seats for socially and historically disadvantaged castes and tribes, and sometimes religions), and two, a lack of confidence in private institutions of higher education that have only been recently established. Globality is of great importance to an educated middle class since it offers possibilities of broader future prospects of employment and mobility, and expansion espoused by EMC. Thus, it becomes important to systematically and consistently work towards establishing a globalised persona and identity; and to be able to neutralise, if not eradicate, local contexts in view of one’s claims in the global economy and global platform (Budiman, 2011; Roy, 2011; Simone and Fauzan, 2013; Radhakrishnan, 2011). The sense of empowerment that is associated with globality is well defined by Smitha Radhakrishnan (2011). According to her: The “global” also refers to certain kinds of processes, communication styles, and skills, all of which are low context (in that they rely more on words and language than situational or relational clues), standardised, and transferable anywhere in the world. . . . Sometimes the notion of what is “Indian” stands in contradiction to the global, while at other times they are in concert. (Radhakrishnan, 2011: p. 55) She identifies this sense of being “global” in the context of the workplace, specifically IT offices. It must be understood as a significant aspect of the habitus of educated middle classes that would influence others through shared fields like neighbourhoods, networks of friendship and consciousness. EMC’s cosmopolitan subjectivity combines a global persona that champions individual efforts, merit and achievement with the consideration of observing caste and religious boundaries, especially with regard to marriage.

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Therefore, data represents a curious tug between hyperbole about seemingly “objective” merit and achievement; and the rules of caste and religion governing sexuality and marriage. Often it is also seen that the reconciliations sometimes favoured the global persona, as in the case of Milind, who admitted that in case of a chance possibility where he fell in love with a girl from a different faith group and had shared interests and mental connection, he would marry her. At other times, the two expectations came together to compound what may be considered a desirable match, for instance, in the case of Azra, who clearly stated that being a Syed was not by itself a sufficient criterion for who would be considered a suitable match (in future) for her daughter. She added that being highly educated and acclaimed would not suffice if the suitor is not Syed. She maintained that a suitor should meet both the criteria, that is, being Syed and being highly educated and well employed. II. Pedigreed Cultural Cosmopolitanism: Marriage and Family (Caste, Religion, Gender and Sexuality) While this may seem to highlight internal contradictions within the cosmopolitan subjectivity of the EMC, such a conclusion would be somewhat hastened. While a messy mix of values, values embedded in community and caste identity is not contradictory, however, it could be seen as an extension of the bifurcation between social spaces of ghar (the spiritual) and bahir (the material), allowing one to be modern and spiritual in respective spaces at the same time without causing a conflict or contradiction (Chatterjee, 1989). This allows for a comfortable coexistence of regressive caste restrictions on marriage and sexuality within the family and home space and “broad-­ mindedness” and “progressive modernity” to exist in material spaces of work, education and leisure. The EMC maintained that caste and religion in no way influenced their experiences as middle-class people. This was in contradiction with what they said about experiences pertaining to marriage, and the EMC seemed oblivious to this contradiction. Families as functional units and support structures were highly prized and valued. EMC prides itself on the strength of the nuclear family as a functional economic, social and cultural unit. EMC suggests that families provide for all anticipated needs of its members efficiently, providing them with the necessary and optimal control environment for the actualisation of one’s highest potential. The closeness of family ties ensures proper and efficient transmission of essential cultural capital and habitus towards efficient reproduction of class advantage. The next chapter covers how families optimise, reproduction of class advantage and cultivate class-appropriate cultural capital and habitus. Sufficient here to highlight that the limits of acceptability are clearly defined in EMC families. Wherever they are not explicitly stated, they’re implicitly communicated from Azra’s mother sounding her on not entertaining the possibility of a relationship (establishing that the only form

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of acceptable conjugality would be arranged marriage) to Manisha’s mother sounding her on being mindful of making a career for herself (and not getting “distracted”). Families are held together through disciplining interactions through hierarchical rules. For instance, during an interaction, Soumya reprimanded her three-year-old for taking away candies he had initially offered me. She said, “That is so bad. Is this how you behave with elders? Say sorry!!”. Values such as respecting the elders keep familial hierarchies intact, ordered and functioning smoothly. These also have functional value since vertically extended families are often called upon to supplement childcare. It emerged to be the most viable family in the sample. Pragya, Manisha, Patricia, Mona and Rachna had all been living in the vertically extended family, that is, in-laws staying in the same households, at least for a significant time if not for good. While Trishna and Nikita lived in close vicinity of their in-laws as well as parents but not in the same household, Suraiyya, Deepika, Sneha and Azra regularly visited their household for a significant duration. These signal the need for strong family ties within EMC. It further highlights the functional value of such familial values and family arrangement since it promises support structures necessary to the functioning of the households of salaried EMC with children that need caregivers; as Pragya put it: I have never been comfortable with help for daughter, but the fact that my mother-in-law is here is such a relief because I do not have to constantly worry, I know that she will take very good care of her, also it makes her feel purposeful, so it is to her interest too. She just can’t give her baths because of her knee joint issue; otherwise, she makes this whole thing so much easier than it would be without her. Familial cohesion showed in the collective responsibility that the adults of the family took for the children. Children and their educational goals and achievements became the focus area around which most familial collective efforts were organised. It became the arena where familial collectivism, commitment and cohesion were displayed (elaborately discussed in the next chapter). Marriage, however, became the testing grounds for children’s allegiance and adherence to familial values. Familial support and collectivism are not unwavering phenomena. It is deeply contingent on stringent ideas of respecting hierarchies and limits of caste and religion. The limits on marriage partners are very clearly stated and communicated from an early age. Any defiance of the set limits could result in an individual losing family support and even being reprimanded by the withdrawal of promised assets, childcare and/or financial help, increasing the vulnerability (of loss of class status) of the individual manyfold.

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Marriage EMC maintained distinct objectivity about the individual in public spheres of jobs, education and competition, refusing to acknowledge community-based identity as a basis of consideration about the individual. Respondents readily refused to acknowledge the role of caste or religion as significant identity markers that determine social interactions or friendship circles; however, it is a significant finding of this study that despite using the snowball sampling method, no networks led the researcher from a caste-Hindu respondent to a Dalit respondent, through networks. The Muslim and Christian respondents formed a minority too. In comparison, Soumya was a Hindu married to a Muslim who was reached through referral by Pragya, another Hindu respondent. Azra, a Muslim respondent, was reached as an independent link. However, when it came to marriage, there were strictly defined limits of acceptability. EMC, largely savarna Hindu (based on snowball sampling used in this study), had strict sanctions against marrying outside conservatively defined caste and religious boundaries. The respondents could themselves recall their parents sounding them on these boundaries of prospective spouse. Azra recalled being told by her mother that she should not even think of marrying anyone who is not a Syed. Similarly, Milind also highlighted that even though not explicitly off-limits, there could not be common grounds between himself and someone from a different religion due to vast “cultural differences”. He said he would prefer someone who is “smart”, “well educated” from a “good place” and has a connection with him. He also highlighted that his parents had made it clear that anyone was acceptable as long as she was educated and upper caste. The two criteria for acceptance for a prospective partner were being well educated and not being a Dalit. This highlights a lot about caste and religion’s relationship with class consciousness and identity. It is true that one is not only middle class in India but needs further qualifiers to be situated closer or further from the secure core of the class identity and distinction. This finding is reinforced by cases where this defined marriage boundaries of caste and religion were violated; the couples were met with strict sanctions. There were two couples in the sample, one with an inter-religion marriage and one with an inter-caste marriage. While the inter-caste marriage was between a Brahmin and a Rajput caste (both considered high in caste hierarchy), there was a strong backlash, and strict sanctions were imposed. Both the couples married in their early twenties, soon after completing their bachelor’s degrees. While the inter-religion marriage of Soumya was met with a strong initial backlash and anger from her family as well as the family of her partner, this changed with the birth of their first child. Hence, as Soumya reported, after a long period of hardships owing to a lack of support system and human capital, they found the support of their

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parents and their economic and material situation improved through help from both their families. Nandini was not as fortunate. Her parents, as well as her in-laws, refused to accept them and their marriage. As a result, she had to struggle financially throughout. Both the couples began their struggle with “no place to live”; however, situations were slightly different for both. While Nandini (expecting to live in her husband’s home) and her husband were drawn out from his home for marrying in defiance of family and social norms, they found themselves struggling to make ends meet. Their struggles took them to live in a garage when they first shifted to Gurugram for the lack of family support financially or other kinds of support. It is noteworthy that a family’s support in supplementing childcare is crucial to economic realisation and employment potential. In the absence of help from families and parents, individuals struggled with employment and the demands of childcare and found their lives tremendously limited by their economic conditions and the ‘liability’ on employment imposed by the demands of childcare. Soumya points out that when she started working, her mother eventually stepped in to help her with her firstborn while she was away at work. In fact, she had to leave her son in the care of her mother when she first came to Gurgaon with her husband and struggled to find a foothold. After about two years of being in the care of his grandmother, when Soumya and her husband felt they had gained a foothold in Gurgaon, they got their son to live with them from their parent’s place in Mumbai. Both the women attributed the hardships to bad planning and marrying soon after graduation without having cultivated a strong economic footing. In the case of Shweta, her parents had an interreligious marriage, causing her mother’s natal family to completely disown her and sever all ties with her, a fate similar to Nandini. Shweta’s mother, a Muslim by birth, according to Shweta, never referenced her Muslim identity in any way and adapted to the Hindu family ways of her conjugal home, changing her name and practising Hindu rituals. Similarly, the children of the respondents were expected to observe the same caste and religious boundaries regarding the acceptability of a marriage partner. Nandini said her son (16 at the time) had full discretion in choosing his future spouse, as long as she was upper caste and educated. It is noteworthy that Nandini herself had an inter-caste marriage but stressed with an amount of pride that she, a “Tripathi” (Brahmin), had married a “Singh” Rajput, but her son was carrying the family name of her father’s side including their Gotra, “Vashishtha” as his surname. Similarly, Azra said: She (Azra’s daughter) must become like her father. I would hope she is as sharp as her father; we would want her to study at Harvard upon her own merit. She can choose whomever she would want to marry, provided he is a Syed and well educated. While being “educated” was an important criterion, it was also supplemented by respectful observation of caste and religious boundaries in most cases.

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Partner preferences also exhibited a preference for more strongly class criteria. Career orientation and world view along with a global-broad outlook was also a necessary condition towards being a worthy spouse and a good mother who can provide the children with necessary impetus while providing and culturing their habitus to ensure their doing well in the global competitive context that the parents foresee their children competing at. However, the primacy of their active role in the life project of their children must take primacy over individual aspirations and career ambitions. Suraiyya had suffered an accident as a child that damaged her vision in the left eye, and she recalled her mother’s reaction was shock and sadness. Suraiyya recounted: My mother’s first reaction was that she started crying bitterly and one of the things she said to relatives and friends was, “who will marry her now?!” and since that day I  had housed in myself, that feeling that no one will want to marry me and so I would have to earn to live by myself. When my husband approached my family, I told him about this, and he said, you’re so qualified and well educated; this is not a concern for me at all. I’m not looking just for a wife for myself but a mother for the children I will have eventually, too. Mudit and Milind also described their desirable partner as one who is “smart”, implying cultural capital in the institutional and perhaps embodied sense (Bourdieu, 1986), “well educated”. As Milind puts it: She should be competitively educated, I mean must be educated from good institutions of national repute and should be working preferably, although if she decided to quit her job that wouldn’t be an issue with me at all, she should be able to have smart conversations and be able to educate her own children well enough. While the educated middle class exhibited far more willingness to allow women to join the workforce and labour market, their joining labour market is contingent on an agreement that they would not prioritise their professional roles over their roles as caregivers. The educated middle class is also rather restrictive in terms of the margins of acceptable sexuality and marriage. For women, the choice of a marriage partner was not only supposed to be a smart choice in terms of political viability but also a well-calculated choice, as highlighted by Siya, who admitted: I would say, the decision to marry a businessman was in part an economic choice too. As much as it may sound fancy, it would have been a challenge had I married someone in academia for intellectual appeal. You can’t survive and run home on intellectual appeal. I am in academia, too, I am writing my research thesis, and I understand that it will be a long time before

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I can imagine this to start paying off, and I need the basic comforts that my parents had been providing me. I need a car, a house, domestic help and a sense of economic security. Marriage is a tell-tale sign of how class identity and distinction function within EMC. It combines anxieties of loss of class security (as in Siya’s verbatim) but also is unabashedly casteist and conservative Hindu when it comes to marriage and conserving middle-class advantage and middle-class culture. In this regard, EMC’s cosmopolitan subjectivity is most restrictive. Gender, Sexuality and Educated Middle Class Educated middle-class rationality and subjectivity differ for women and men. EMC subjectivity is deeply gendered in that it considers women’s income as supplemental to a man’s income which is seen as contributing to class status. Career women are expected to earn but earn comparatively lower than their husbands in service of the gendered hierarchy of the EMC family. Women’s incomes are seen as contributing to basic class security, but men are encouraged to actively opportunities to increase their income as a marker of class status and mobility. At the same time, EMC exhibits a strong preference for career-oriented wives, the experiences of women in EMC families after marriage was contradictory to the claim that EMC families support working women. Women were expected to leave jobs in favour of childcare. ­Therefore, women leaving jobs restrict families from focussing more extensively on retaining stability function. Women, then, engage in a­ssociated aspects of class production and reproduction functions within the family structure through shaping rationality and logic. Therefore, children also see the mother as disciplined around money while the father is aspirational with regard to money. Women are gatekeepers of class status, ensuring effective transmission and reproduction through efficient cultivation of class-appropriate cultural capital and career ambitions. As mentioned before, women represent class discipline too. Women provide human capital towards the reproduction of class effectively, intergenerationally within the EMC family. Women’s careers provide the necessary security against which men espouse class mobility. Women embody class security of secure choices and rational, calculated decisions, while men are seen to embody class ambition and make risky but calculated investments in hopes of profitable returns. When not contributing to the cause of class aspiration financially, women take up the responsibility of contributing by transmitting class-appropriate habitus and cultivating cultural capital and social capital, while men contribute economic capital. For instance, Suraiyya, Soumya, Pragya, as well as Sneha had all stepped away from full-time employment to take care of their young children and assist them with their education during what they identified as “crucial

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years of life” as both Suraiyya and Pragya said that in such a situation, a decision to step outside of the labour market was informed by the idea that men in the family could earn enough to support the financial demands of the family. Mona reported having made the same choice while her son was growing up. Poorvi stayed away from full-time employment until her children were old enough. Often the access to opportunities may come alongside the pressure to conform to cultural, often patriarchal, notions of “rational-practical choice” for women. Much like the broader middle class for EMC as well, “economic privileges may not, by default, translate to empowerment for women” (­Belliappa, 2013: p. 3). Transmission of class-appropriate habitus and cultural capital was seen primarily as the responsibility of mothers. Women prioritising intergenerational reproduction of class over career/job was considered an astute and rational choice on the part of the woman. Similarly, class ambition for men was considered a “rational” choice since men were considered less suitable for transmitting and cultivating classappropriate habitus and cultural capital. Children were considered “life projects” (elaborated in the next chapter) and embodiment of the success or failure of two individuals (parents). EMC distinguishes between sexuality and marriage for men. The degree of acceptability of digression from stated rules determining sexuality and marriage is different for men than for women. Marriage choices must be class appropriate, while sexuality-related choices appear far more open and exploratory for men than for women. There is a tendency to desexualise educational and career pursuits to enhance and retain focus and optimisation of potential, especially in the case of women. Women’s education and work often come at the cost of submission of sexual control to the family patriarch. Pragya’s narration of her life story is symptomatic of the over-­determination of women’s sexuality in middle-class homes (Puri, 1999) and offers an insight into the shaping discourses of sexuality in EMC. While describing her college years, she shared that she liked a boy who studied with her in the same class. But she was apprehensive about her family accepting an inter-caste match for her. She evaluated the possibility of the relationship being accepted by her family was slim, so she decided never to acknowledge or confess her feelings for this boy. Even as she decided to speak about this aspect of desire, she was careful to ensure that her mother-in-law, who was tending to her 1.5-year-old toddler, was not in hearing range and made sure I understood that this might be a sensitive subject for further discussion. Normative sexuality is also defined through the centrality of marriage while carefully maintaining and reproducing the caste and religious divide. The religious and caste anxieties are largely conformed to, and any deviation is seen as non-normative and hence liable to be met with strict sanctions. Mothers play an important and defining role in highlighting the boundaries of acceptable behaviour for the children within the family. For instance, Azra

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narrated how her father, when she started going to college, told her, “I trust you, child!” while her mother had told her more clearly, “If I ever heard any rumours about you, that you were seen roaming around with this boy or that boy, that would be the end of our relationship with you. The doors to this house will close for you forever”. A predictable pattern emerges from women’s narratives. Women are encouraged to focus on scholastic performance and cultivating cultural capital while remaining mindful of diminishing their sexual agency. In their narratives, women were repeatedly reminded that normative sexuality is inescapably linked to marriage. None of the women reported having a relationship that did not culminate into marriage. The centrality of marriage to the sexual agency of women was a link so strongly defined that even in situations where women defied boundaries of caste and religion in choosing a partner, they could not imagine not getting married to them. Pragya did not share her feelings with the boy she liked because she could not marry him without upsetting her parents and could not imagine “liking” someone outside of it, inevitably leading to marriage. The contrast emerges when one takes into account the narratives of the men who were interviewed. Men reported taking the initiative and having a number of relationships that they were clear were not meant to lead to marriage. Trishna, Nikita, Mona, Soumya, Deepika, Nandini and Shreya admitted to marrying the only men they had been in a relationship with. Further, Nikita and Shreya had both suffered intimate partner violence and said they did not contemplate separating. While Nikita was subjected to intense psychological violence both at the hands of conjugal family and her spouse, forced separation from her child, threats of estrangement and divorce, for Shreya, this was more physical and sexual violence by her husband over a prolonged period of time. Despite all, neither wanted to separate or seek help. Both felt responsible for their condition for having chosen the wrong person to fall in love with and marry, so they felt they were obligated to live with their choice. Two definitive courses emerged from the women’s life narratives; one was a life that prioritised career building and academic pursuits single-mindedly. Then, upon reaching the appropriate age, their families looked for an appropriate match that met the criterion of the same religion, upper caste, class and educational background. Respondents were then asked to “choose” from the options presented by the family who got married. Sneha, Rachna, Srijoyi, Manisha, Patricia, Suraiyya, Siya and Pragya all fell into this category. The others had married out of choice, and even then, only Mona, Nandini and Soumya seemed to have violated the boundaries of caste and religion. Mona was a Hindu married to a Sindhi, Soumya was a Hindu married to a Muslim and Nandini had married into a different caste. Deepika took pride in the fact that she had chosen a man from the same caste background to fall in love with and so until she explicitly told anyone nobody could “suspect” they had

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a choice marriage, which she mentions was an advantage when this was to be discussed with parents on both sides. The narratives of love and marriage among women in EMC reflected the over-determinism of female sexuality by the socially defined discourses of “what is socially/sexually respectable” (Puri, 1999: p. 103). Patriarchal control over women’s sexuality is outlined by three distinct ideas, one which champions and prioritises a desexualised pursuit of a career, in a way as an implicit promissory precondition for investment in education by the family and allowing women to access higher education. The second is to retain focus on one’s educational and career pursuit while keeping at bay any kind of “unnecessary distractions” (sexuality and sexual desire is seen as a distraction and relationship expectations as an added pressure among many already existing pressures of domestic and familial responsibilities) that may negatively impact one’s performance in building a career. Third is that choice of spouse is a rational, profitable decision that retains or enhances material conditions of life while retaining the ideological conditions (relationships that may not culminate into marriage are seen as futile, and therefore emotional investment, sexual or physical investment in a futile venture is seen as a “bad choice” or “pointless”). In EMC families, much like the wider trend of middle-class families, women’s educational/career milestones are all arranged neatly around getting married at around mid-twenties and having kids at a gap of about 2–3 years after marriage (and definitely before the biological clock ticks off at 30 years of age). For men, however, the vision of life is arranged around building assets, capital and resources, especially home ownership. Men did not arrange their life goals around marriage and children but rather around career growth. Men arranged future timelines through phrases such as, “when I get a house. . . . ”, “when I manage to establish my business. . . .” and “once I am a manager in this company. . . ”. These are spoken by Mudit, Milind and Karan, respectively. As for women, the phrase was, “before I have children”, “Once I get married”, “When my son starts going to school”, spoken by Deepika, Shruti and Mona, as well as Pragya. It is, thus, evident that while women deliberate and plan their lives around marriage and family, men arrange their life trajectories primarily along milestones such as getting a house, making savings and fixed assets and/or starting their own company. This finding does not differ from the trend of gender in the larger category of the middle class. Donner’s (2008) study attests that among middle-class women in Kolkata, “Motherhood dominates the lives of middle-class women in India. Their education, their marriages and their professional careers are arranged and represented in relation to the female role of a mother, and listening to marital and educational histories” (Donner, 2008: p. 32). Once married, women also felt far more invested in the pursuit of presenting a neat public perception of EMC families. Shreya narrated how she would diligently cover her bruises before stepping out for work or leisure.

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It was so evident and obvious that her five-year-old daughter pointed out to her (on one occasion) that her bruise was not completely covered up. Shreya looked at it as a sign of how mature and understanding her 5-year-old was. Implicit to her sentiment is the idea that keeping up the facade of normalcy and an ordinary-regular life is seen as a mark of maturity and growing up. She expressed a strong pressure to appear normal and “just like everyone else”. She said the pressure was not just external but also was her own doing. She said she wanted to appear “normal”. In a conversation, much after her interview and narratives had concluded, she shared another violent incident that yet again sent her to the emergency room with a broken arm, which her husband managed to blame for slipping and falling. In terms of sexuality, what is noteworthy is the normalisation of heteronormativity in the discourse and narrative of EMC men and women. One of the questions in the open-ended interview scheduled asked respondents to share their “greatest fear” with regard to their children, and Pragya couldn’t list anything that she felt sounded like the worst-case scenario since she believed she had all that was necessary to ensure a settled life and a stable future for her children. Once the recorder was switched off, she suddenly said, “Oh! I do have a fear with regards to my son. I just hope he turns out straight and not gay, you know, that’d be unbearable!” In another incident, during the interview, Soumya was receiving repeated calls on her phone and, as an apologetic explanation, revealed that it was her brother’s wedding (Her brother was working as a chef in a five-star hotel in New Zealand) the following week and that this has been a much-awaited event in the family since her brother had taken particularly long to marry. In the narration of how anxious the entire family had been about having him get married, she said: We were all worried that he may be gay and may never marry. So, I was entrusted with the task of asking him this. This one day, while talking to him, I just asked him straight away, “are you interested in men?” cause if you are, you might as well tell us, maybe get married in New Zealand only, if that is the case! So I can’t tell you how relieved we all were when he chose this girl and finally decided that he wanted to get married. Everyone is excited. It was fairly evident that homosexuality (even when visibility is accorded only to male homosexuality and not to female homosexuality) is still considered on the margins of normative sexuality by the EMC. III. Classed Morality of the Middle: Ethics, Morality, Crime and Politics Much has already been written about the “classed” morality of the middle class, unlike the objective understanding that morality includes a component

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of a normative code of conduct that is expected of every rationally thinking person under specified conditions (Gert and Gert, 2016). In “classed” context, morality should be seen as containing within its ambit the content of this normative moral judgement that classed individuals find acceptable. The middle class has been looked upon as evading social responsibility (Verma, 2007) and even hypocritical, superficial and arrogant (Gupta, 2000). However, such an account fails to capture the nuances. Writers and scholars have suggested that the middle class looks at itself by drawing favourable contrast with the underclass and those it sees as elite. EMC exhibits an “arrogant satisfaction” (Reay, 2005) and a claim to moral propriety. EMC looks upon itself as “moral identifier”/“moral custodian”. This, however, is unlike Butler and Robson’s (2003) finding that the middle class in British society identifies itself to have replaced the working class as the “moral identifier” (Butler and Robson, 2003: p. 17). EMC situates culture and morality firmly within the middle class across generations. EMC associates morality with “virtues and positive attributes” like “ambition, sense of entitlement, educational excellence, confidence, competitiveness, hard work and deferred-gratification” (Reay et al., 2011: p. 12), which are strongly referenced as values defining middle-classness. Through such a discourse, EMC formulates a positive classed identity with which it can associate and feel pride. Educated middle classes reinstate that “middle classness is a moral and ethical claim” (Srivastava, 2012: p. 57). However, EMC morality is one that is integrally tied to having “just enough” to “enjoy life” and not too much to disorient or too little to cripple. Both ends of the class spectrum are considered morally bankrupt and seen as morally inferior to the middle class. Morality The educated middle class looked at the affluent and underclass with a sense of disregard. A sense of “helplessness-shamelessness” and moral degradation/ corruption is attributed to both the poor and the rich. While the rich are seen as victims of an overwhelming and morally corrupting amount of wealth, the poor are seen as too consumed in their daily livelihood and subsistence, whereby morality becomes subordinated to subsistence. Poor as well as rich are painted as disrespectful to their elders and inconsiderate towards the needs of their children and family. It is construed as dysfunctional on both ends of the underclass and elites. Relatedly, “irresponsible” sexual behaviour is seen as characteristic of both these extremities. Extra-marital affairs (characterised as sexual promiscuity) were seen as characteristic of the faltering moral fabric of underclass as well as elite homes. This moral degradation is seen as an inevitable outcome of deprivation or excessive material wealth. Poor men are projected as sexually dominating while poor women enjoy less sexual freedom and choice. At the same

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time, women as well as men are attributed with a certain amount of sexual promiscuity owing to inconsideration for family unity and mainly mediated by living too close and sharing resources with a number of unrelated people and a lack of boundaries, both physical and psychological. On the other end of the spectrum, those with “vulgar” amounts of money are seen as sexually promiscuous because the rich prioritise individual desires and individual freedom over the needs of others (especially children) within the family. It is suggested that those with “vulgar” amounts of money often prioritise libertarian values of chasing after experiences just for the sake of it. The rich also exhibit an inconsideration towards family as a unit or providing an enabling environment to children. Children also are seen as not being focal points of family units too. For the poor, the focal point is seen to be economic subsistence. For the rich, the focal point remains individual (as described previously in the discussion on values in the chapter). Parents are projected as emotionally invested in economic subsistence pursuits or in themselves to care about children and invest in their upbringing, which is another characteristic of the educated middle class. Painting the class-other as morally inferior services EMC’s “arrogant satisfaction”, as Azra put it, in EMC homes there is a lot of respect for elders. . . . For the rich, it doesn’t matter; they have so much money that nobody cares about nobody else. Parents don’t have time for their children. They are so consumed with themselves that they throw money at their children; children get easy money and do not find love from their parents, so they get easily misled into habits of drugs and start experimenting with their sexuality. That’s why you see so many extra-marital affairs and homosexuals among the rich. Their parents don’t have time for them, these people have loads of money and do not find love from their parents or the right kind of guidance, so they need something to stand them apart and get them the attention that they do not get. From their parents. . . . Those that do not have money can’t often find the right kind of guidance. Due to lack of privacy owing to constraints of space, these children often end up witnessing sex in some respect or another, and then they naturally feel inclined to experiment with their sexuality and end up getting involved in some kind of sexual deviance [sic]. Many others also employ variations of the same rational reasoning to argue in favour of this “arrogant satisfaction” and against the moral corruption inherent to scarcity or abundance. Homosexuality was also associated with the class extremes of poor or rich. Homosexuality is seen as a compulsion (born out of a lack of regulation, education, care or culture characteristic of poor homes) or a matter of lifestyle. Azra argued that homosexuality was a result of witnessing sex (at an early age) and/or being molested due to a lack of space among underclass

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neighbourhoods/households. She said it could also happen in children who feel neglected by their self-absorbed parents and may be seeking attention through their divergent sexuality in the more affluent houses. Mudit recounted that during his undergraduation, a friend of his was nicknamed “Homo”, which he admitted was short for homosexual. So, upon being asked if the friend he was talking about was indeed homosexual, he responded negatively, adding, “You can tell . . . (gays apart) There are ways that men have, they can tell gay men apart” (upon asked to elaborate) “all gays will have loads of money and everyone with loads of money will have some element of gayness about them” at this point, his friend watching TV interjected and added, “or some aspect of being a player [sic]” (“Player” here means someone who has casual sexual relationships with a number of women). Mudit laughed at this and added: Cause you can’t pull off being any of that if you have to worry about salary, dues, monthly instalments, rent and other stuff. Who can manage the worries of a middle-class life with those kinds of things?! Those are side effects of a lot of money. Ethics versus Practicality The educated middle class’ recent use of words such as “practical”, “rational” and “smart” is significant when describing the decision-making process through their life narratives. The educated middle class prides itself in avoiding the moral vulnerabilities associated with either extreme or the “others”. However, as one respondent, Suraiyya, pointed out, there is a difference between “rational” and “moral”: People know what they may be doing or going to do may harm someone else adversely, and they may have no reason to do so, but if it favours them, they will do it anyway. For instance, no one will tell you that lying is good or stealing is all right, but if we see that lying may get us some benefit. We could easily get away with it; chances are most people will make that deal. Similarly, Vishal highlighted: It may not always be the righteous thing to do, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be right. If I were to think of righteousness, I should perhaps be working with the public health system, providing subsidised healthcare to the poorest. However, I also think about what may be right for me; my career would stagnate if I were at a public hospital, I would be overworked for what may be less than half the pay I get right now, and the technology available there is far from the latest trends. I wouldn’t learn much, which

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would eventually take away from my market value too. So, I would rather work at a super-speciality hospital that also pays me well enough for me to imagine a life of comfort and a secure and progressive future. The weighing of ethical considerations against what may be seen as “practical” and “smart” in terms of stabilising the class situation. The educated middle class understands the “rational” as being considerate of one’s own expectations as against being overwhelmed by the objective idea of “moral”. Ethics as an abstract principle that can be and is applied to a reality that one is objectively removed from and interjecting into is also a recurrent idea among the educated middle class. The problems are talked about as witness accounts, embedded occasionally in the narration of one’s intervention. Ethics are defined in terms of objective ideas of justice, morality and fairness that, given specified conditions, should be met by all rationally thinking, educated middle-class individuals. EMC tends to distance oneself from the issues as not being their concern or a kind of passive resignation. An externalisation (dissociation and distancing from the issue) of issues allows issues to be defined from an outsider’s point of view while assuming an objective-moral position. Hence, the objectivity of the highest order is assumed while associating oneself with these abstract ethical ideals through statements such as “There is rampant corruption now starting from politicians to rikshawalah, people aren’t honest”, made by Mona, a respondent. Similarly, Manisha, another respondent, described the problem of water wastage in the gated enclave she was living in and her intervention towards having it addressed (described in Chapter 4) which she began by noting, “there is a huge problem in this gated enclave, in Gurgaon that worries me a lot, which is the crisis of the abuse of natural resources”. This kind of recognition of the problem as an external phenomenon that one can see and identify but cannot do anything about it is the kind of resignation that defines ethical and moral standpoints for EMC. Recognising the ethical and moral nature of the issue and seeing it as either right or wrong reinstates the idea that EMC is the “moral identifier” and distinct from the underclass and elite in the lack of a moral compass. Yet, this morality is strongly linked also to resignation. EMC tended to act when asked to join an already ongoing initiative or join as a collective (like RWA) whose leadership was middle class as well (Raahgiri) but not take a moralethical stand as an individual. What is interesting is that during this conversation, after a long monologue on rape and the state of politics in the nation, Mudit concluded by saying: These things are just terrible parts of our reality that must be fixed somehow, but then these things shall happen, and someday somehow these will have to be addressed. I mean, we can’t solve that in a day, if we consume ourselves with thinking and solving every problem of the nation who will think of our lives and livelihoods, we have got to worry about putting bread on the table foremost, right?!

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This should be associated with a rational decision and practical approach. Having abstract ethics allows individuals to claim a sense of morality without having to necessarily disrupt their lives, routines or plans in any significant or concrete way. There is also an implicit prioritising of economic activity, employment responsibilities and maintaining a stable routine over moral and ethical concerns. Moral-ethical concerns are given significance in so far as they do not disrupt the normal functioning of regular patterns of being and acting. Poverty and Crime The ideas about crime among the educated middle class reflected a deeply entrenched prejudice against poverty. Crime was seen and understood as strongly linked to poverty. In this respect, the idea of an ethical issue is also distinctly different from a crime. Crime is seen as threatening vulnerability as opposed to ethical issues that are seen as a matter of attaining a higher ideal. During a conversation off the record about the demand for capital punishment for the December 16th Delhi rape case, Mudit commented, “There are many labourers and poor people who are uneducated and do not have any sense of city liberties, if the laws are stringent and punishments are feared, nobody would dare to commit rapes”. Upon being asked if all rapists are necessarily poor, he added, “I mean to say, that if you see a general trend among rapists is almost all lowly educated or uneducated people, poor or not, these are deranged men who need to be punished severely”. The poor, uneducated and criminals are integrally linked in the minds of EMC. Similarly, most respondents talked about thefts in the neighbourhood and enclaves and general levels of crime in Gurgaon. This was a broad problem that needed to be fixed. The problem of stealing was associated with such broad ideas as unregulated slums, migrant labour and a generalised statement on the lack of morality among the poor slum dwellers. Even household helps (as explained in the previous chapter), as Poorvi explained, “Those who do not have this, and have no way to earn it themselves what do you think they would do, they would steal”. A similar idea was voiced by Suraiyya, who said: Well, we have to ensure our own safety and security, I mean, if you see these people, they have themselves never seen some of the things they come across in our homes and naturally feel tempted to do something that they shouldn’t be doing, and then it becomes a matter of indomitable will power and self-control which most of them struggle with given their long history of “going without”. Often the way it works in slums is that if you really want something, you just steal it based solely on when you are most likely to get away with it; that is what they do here too.

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The ways of addressing are just as sweeping and generalised, stepping up surveillance and security measures by the police. Despite the risks involved in employing underclass men and women in EMC homes, EMC employers felt that being employed in EMC homes saved these underclass men and women from the ills that breed in poorer neighbourhoods. EMC respondents highlighted how their domestic workers saw working at their homes as a refuge from their otherwise difficult lives. They argued that their homes provided better work conditions than the poor, vulnerable domestic workers would face in “other” homes where they worked. However, most of them also noted that despite being considerate employers, they were usually taken benefit of by their domestic help. Respondents highlighted that there was a lack of trust and confidence, and a lack of reciprocation of sincerity from the side of their employees, in effect, presenting themselves as vulnerable to exploitation by those they have employed. EMC felt they were vulnerable to exploitation by their employers and employees. EMC felt that while the poor have a hard life, the hardships faced by the EMCs go unnoticed because it is not starkly highlighted. Soumya noted in a considerate voice: Life is challenging for those working in offices. I mean, at times, I look at my house-help and wonder, what does she have to worry about?! She finishes her work here and then she is done, and even if she does her work badly she will be pointed that out, for people like us, so much depends and so many people depend on us, one person does their job badly, it all gets ruined. She doesn’t have to be thinking so much all the time. For us, we are continuously consumed by thinking about our work. Our minds are still at our workplaces in one part. EMC respondents equalise exploitation and vulnerability as being comparable and equivalent, declassing vulnerability and exploitation. Arguing that they are not exploiting or participating in exploitative practices but that they share ranks with the underclass in being exploited and vulnerable due to being working individuals. Exploitation is abstracted from the nature of labour, work conditions, employment benefits, voice and agency or remuneration in a qualitative manner but simply reduced to the number of hours one is expected to work (calculated cumulatively to include both direct work and work-related thinking). The educated middle-class champions mental labour over manual labour, reinforcing both caste and class stereotypes and implicitly reinforcing the basis of class and caste hierarchy through the abstracted and objectively employed concept of exploitation. The previous chapter also highlights how Deepika conflates her and her domestic worker’s status as being salaried employees and therefore governed by the same expectations of accountability and sincerity.

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IV. Collective Conscience and “Self-Conscious” Self: “Log Kya Kahenge” (What Will Everyone Think/Say) The EMC has a certain amount of shared understanding about the persona that fits well with the class identity. The shared understanding of the ideal person serves the purpose of aligning an individual with it through acting upon oneself in accordance with the shared understanding of an ideal persona of this classed subjectivity. Mead (1934) helps situate this idea of self as “an object to itself”. He writes, “The self, as that which can be an object to itself, is essentially a social structure, and it arises in social experience” (Mead, 1934: p. 140). This aspect of self is constituted when an individual begins to look at oneself as an object through the eyes of what Mead calls the “generalised other2” (Mead, 1934). Mead’s suggests that “self” is embedded and established through a sense of collective and shared attitudes and perceptions (Mead, 1934: p.  135). He argues that individuals as “organic members” of society, therefore, acquire a tendency to be self-reflective. This reflection is guided by looking at oneself as an object perceived by others based on shared attitudes and perceptions. This tendency manifests itself in EMC’s cosmopolitan subjectivity as being conscious of the gaze of the collective conscience. By the collective conscience, what is meant is an abstracted idea of a collective sense of what an individual belonging to this neighbourhood/class/ network is like, acts like, thinks like. This is a significant characteristic of educated middle classes because of their inherent dependence on social networks and community support for meeting the needs of middle-class life. Also, through shared resources and spaces that the educated middle class inhabits, the consideration for shared attitudes and perceptions becomes crucial towards ensuring smooth social coexistence within a given space and resources that are shared and an intense dependence on harmony between all co-inhabiting for smooth functioning of the system of shared and collective resources and space. The collective conscience evolves out of an abstracted idea of an ideal middle-class individual; this may have no bearing or reference points in actual reality but constitutes a general idea of ideal behaviour, appearance and sensibility. For the educated middle class, it is important to be effectively able to conform to the bracket of ordinariness, the collective conscience as defining the margins of acceptable ways of being, acting and thinking becomes crucial. This manifests itself in the disciplining phrase “log kya kahenge?!”. “Log kya kahenge”, literally translated to “what will everyone think/say”, is a crucial element that signifies this aspect of collective conscience. Individuals may not always completely conform to the normative behaviour, attitude and conduct, and yet there is a sense of dialogue even then with the collective conscience by discrediting its credibility and authority to determine one’s conduct. This goes to say that even through denial and occupying

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negative spaces of reference, the collective conscience is integral to middleclass living and being. The social gaze of the collective is an internalised mechanism of objectively turning one’s gaze upon oneself to critically evaluate the class appropriateness of one’s social persona. It is important to note that no actual pinpointing happens; no respondents could narrate an incident where something concrete manifested as evidence of this gaze. The gaze is crucially attributed to other members of the middle class and the underclass that the educated middle-class individuals interact with regularly. The invocation of the phrase “log kya kahenge” as a reflective check also implicitly establishes the distinction of the educated middle class from the underclass by negatively marking certain forms of language, attitudes, spending patterns, actions, and behaviours, choices and decisions. It may be invoked in the event of the presence or demonstration of any of these in forms and ways that are seen as appropriate for the underclass or in case of the absence of educated middle-class appropriate language, attitudes, spending patterns, actions, behaviour, choices and decisions. Crucially the phrase gets associated and evolved with the specific character of being “educated” too as a way to indicate the distinction and propriety associated with being EMC. Log Kya Kahenge suggests that certain acts or behaviours could put one’s status and membership to a class status position in an inferior position. This, by extension, means that material conditions of living are not definitive, and final determinants of class status and subjectivity are important in securing one’s claim to class status. The phrase may be employed to denote judgement of others’ actions, attitudes and behaviours, choices and decisions in one’s social space. In some variation, all respondents acknowledged the collective conscience’s gaze as an influence on choices, decisions and thinking in general. Trishna, however, looked at it more critically than most others. She argued that this was a typical “hypocritical” attitude among the middle classes in general. She said: This whole log kya kahenge concern is very middle-class thinking, and in most part is a typical hypocritical attitude, in that, when it comes to talking about oneself they would want to be excused and argue how distinct they are in their thinking and so look at this as something the others do and is born out of a feeling of envy, but I have seen these very people will be the ones to pick and comment on other people’s appearances, their cars, their homes, their children, anything. I feel yes it is a real thing that shapes thinking for most of middle-class, but no one seeks to acknowledge one’s participation at perpetuating it. Unmarried men and women felt differently about this gaze of the collective conscience. They seemed far more dismissive about it. Shruti, Rishabh, Milind, Mudit and Karan, although they acknowledge this gaze of the

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collective conscience but felt that those with family and children worry about conforming far more than those who are unmarried and do not have a family. As Karan put it, and such a concern on their part is also reasonable, you see, they need to be on good terms with the other people living and working around them, because they have a greater need for community support and a group of association than anyone who doesn’t have children . . . we do not have to worry about who will play with our child, or who will come to our child’s birthday party! Hence, it doesn’t bother me at all. Perhaps when I marry and have kids, I will also start worrying more about it. Sanjay and Rachna felt the same way, but they seemed to defend the gaze of the collective conscience and justify it by highlighting the erratic and irresponsible behaviour of the younger, unmarried men and women. As Rachna puts it: In the name of modernity, these youngsters do anything; as if there is no tomorrow or that they exist in a kind of a bubble, like what they do has no consequence and shouldn’t affect anyone else. However, there has to be a collective sensibility that respects the freedom and comfort of everyone who inhabits that space. . . . There has to be some sense that respects the fact that other people inhabit this space that you share with them. There were some who didn’t share the favourable opinion of this gaze. Some called it out as a characteristic feature of the Indian middle class that enjoys “gossip and trash talking everyone else to make themselves feel better over petty issues of absolutely no concern to those who engage in it”, highlighted Mona. Milind and Shruti also felt the same way. Shruti said: I am sure if you went to any of these rich nations, none of this would be happening there. No one has the time, energy or interest to gather petty knowledge from the corner of the eye, looking over the shoulder and using it to talk behind people’s backs. People live their own lives and restrict themselves to that. Here, if I were to even hang around with my boyfriend, people would start bitching (slang for gossiping) about it, for no rational reason, at all. What must be highlighted here is that most respondents looked at this collective conscience as a characteristic of the broader Indian middle class as opposed to the specifically educated middle class. Such an invocation is evidence of the fact that the educated middle class does not look upon itself as a historical category. The acknowledgement of the collective conscience informed efforts to protect one’s social appearance and reputation in the public sphere. Shreya

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represented an extreme example of this concern for the maintenance of reputation in the public sphere and the social appearance of normalcy of the “ordinariness” of the educated middle class. During the course of the interview, in one incident, Shreya revealed being a victim of domestic violence and marital rape. She narrated how she would routinely suffer physical and sexual violence at the hands of her husband. Using his knowledge of medicine and through his professional contacts, he managed to cover up these violent incidents that sometimes led to the emergency room of a hospital. She also revealed that she was reportedly running the finances of the house while her husband studied for his MD3 and was temporarily unemployed. She spoke about how her bank account was swept clean of her savings as a way to cripple her economically so she wouldn’t think of leaving her husband. She said: I was with a colleague, and we had to pay for a school function towards a collective pool, and I gave them my card, which was declined. Furious, I called up the bank to demand an explanation, and they told me that my husband, who has a joint holding of the account, had withdrawn three and a half lakh rupees in an instance. I remember being stunned, angry and embarrassed, and to top it off, I had to pretend like it was a problem with the card because I couldn’t tell anyone that this was what had happened. It would have been humiliating to have to admit that. So, I ­borrowed money from a colleague and paid and waited patiently for my next salary. Interestingly, despite anything, Shreya did not want to consider taking help from the police and wouldn’t want to see this as a potential threat to her safety and security since, as she claimed, “He wouldn’t do anything worse than what he is already doing, because I know he fears that he will lose his career and whatever little social reputation he has, after all, he also has to think about log kya kahenge?!”. Notably, the effect of the public gaze had paradoxical, and even mutually contradictory effects on both partners since Shreya said that she wouldn’t contemplate separation or divorce in view of the fact that she has a five-year-old daughter and would have to bear the loss of social prestige and the stigma associated with women who are separated and/or divorced. Similarly, this critical collective conscience of the educated middle class gets reflected in the decision of marriage, especially in the case of choice marriages, which is illustrated verbatim by Deepika. She said: One of my childhood friends, one of the only friends I had in the neighbourhood, was getting married to a Bengali guy, and her mother was really not very happy with it. She was very concerned; for instance, in our case, we were both baniyas; if we had not told anyone, nobody would know that it was a love marriage because both are baniyas, and it could be an arranged marriage. And we got married at a gap of one month. So, when she was getting married, her fiancé’s name was Bengali, so, just seeing the

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name, people would know it was a love marriage. So, in aunty, I could see, she had a huge fear of “log kya kahenge”. Sanjay highlighted the spatial dimension of the social gaze of the collective conscience: One can understand it this way, in the underclass neighbourhoods there is not much space between homes and therefore anything that happens passes quickly into wider public view, and hence there can be no such consideration for the underclass about a social person because everyone knows what everyone else’s doing. There is no control over one’s privacy and what one may let pass into the wider public gaze. In affluent households, on the other hand, houses are so far apart that no one knows anything about another person but what is presented and projected. On the other hand, affluent households are primarily run by an army of housekeepers, drivers, governesses, gardeners, et cetera. Since the people living in these affluent households are forever surrounded by these employees, there is no way they can control what may be passing into the wider public gaze. Hence they prefer not to care about it at all. They employ the superiority of material wealth to enable them to look past social norms and societal gaze and instead assume a persona that distinguishes itself as being set apart. Only among people like us (Educated middle class) does the social gaze of collective conscience work to help make wiser, better informed, critical and more practical decisions through a social mechanism of collective wisdom. The collective wisdom values harmony, interdependence and the ethics of coexistence. In the allure of modern-day glitter, the younger generation may not care, but they do not understand that being mindful of society keeps one responsible. Lastly, this collective critical gaze becomes an influencing factor in c­ ensoring-shaping-determining the conduct in public spaces, the appearance and the presentation of the self in the public sphere and in choosing appropriate consumer durables as a display of one’s assets towards validating one’s class position, as is evident from the verbatim of Mudit. He said: I could, for instance, when I have a child now not send him/her to a mediocre school, say definitely not a public school, but not even like a good private school, it would have to be an international school because then you know “log kya kahenge”. Where I live, even how I live, should readily conform to societal expectations of how someone with my job profile and credentials would live . . . notwithstanding my actual life situation. I mean, I could have eleven members in my family who depend on me for meeting their economic needs and still be judged for not spending as much on a car.

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These statements illustrate how the idea of “collective conscience” governs conduct as well as life choices. Summary The historical roots reflect the inherited caste and religious privilege that, through “ideological sleight of hands”, is converted into a privilege earned through merit (Deshpande, 2006: p. 216). All of which goes towards consolidating the power of the pedigreed middle class. The cosmopolitanism of the educated middle class reflects not just this reconstitution of savarna privilege, gatekeeping of savarna culture while accommodating elements of progressive individualism. Further, it also seeks to subordinate the underclass and contest the power elites as “morally” inferior. Cosmopolitan subjectivity is used here as a way of capturing middle-class subjectivity because the idea aptly captures the transformative and vanguard spirit towards one’s immediate surroundings and context; along with a desire to engage with “other” cultures as a way of evolving; while maintaining a primacy of the individual over the community. These components, their fractures and mutual tensions capture well how the middle-class subjectivity formulates a self and its relationship to the community and the space. This chapter highlights some of the ways in which the educated middle class organises and understands itself. The chapter illustrates the virtues and values that are considered central to their sense of self. The ways in which the external world is negotiated with, the element of consciousness that is internalised and the ways in which the class identity is negotiated against other intersecting identities of these individuals. The chapter highlighted the selective disregard for acknowledgement and attribution to caste and religious identities, which sits in good synchrony with the ideas of merit and rational choices in economic and educational spheres. The selective disregard is such that the educated middle class refuses to acknowledge the role, in any part, of one’s religious or caste identity as enabling or disabling their economic potential and merit. All respondents unanimously refused to identify caste and religion as aspects of identity that had any influence on their merit or economic potential in the employment market. The spirit of true competition was upheld as a free and fair determinant of merit. EMC’s rationality and principles reflect not just habitus and fields but also the political-economic-social histories of the middle class and its aspirations for a claim in the global economic system. The chapter highlights the referencing and grounding of the middle-class self by the educated middle class in the religious and caste identities as well as in their specific neighbourhoods, their education and institutions of higher education that they attended while retaining their claim on a global persona. The chapter also highlights what Dickey (2012: p. 578) calls the “negative influences on the middle-class position”. She suggests that positive influences

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help the middle-class feature as “counting in the Madurai society” (emphasis added). The negative side leaves the middle class vulnerable to the scrutinising gaze of “social onlookers” and pressure to sustain the lifestyle established as the middle class, something the EMC captures in a more nuanced way as “log kya kahenge”. The chapter highlights the need to view class not as a matter of actions that are a direct function of objective class position but as everyday actions and decisions of individuals as means to claim oneself as being a social class (Bourdieu, 2004). Such a position suggests that individuals actively produce their class instead of being carriers of practices and norms of a class inscribed and imposed on them. Class positions, in this context, are seen not as causative but rather as explanative factors. This is to say that it informs how people understand themselves, their dispositions and actions reflectively. Class is referenced by individuals only in reflective explanation for their dispositions and not as causative. Notes 1 Chris Weedon (1987) defines subjectivity as “the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense of herself and her ways of understanding her relation to the world” (Weedon, 1987: p.  32). Subjectivity, then, is as much about locating oneself in relationship to the socio-spatial distinction as much about the valuation and evaluation of others in the same field to determine their suitability and, therefore, penetration into the social-cultural context. A lens to look at oneself and evaluate one’s claim to distinction is about evaluating others’ behaviour and ideas for conformity to abstracted norms of class distinction. 2 The idea of generalised other is employed by Mead to communicate the ability of an individual to take on the role of other individuals in a group, to be able to assimilate their organised set of attitudes, thoughts and reactions. These then shape assumptions that work to influence and shape the attitudes and behaviours of the individual. He writes, “A  person is a personality because he belongs to a community because he takes over the institutions of that community into his own behaviour” (Mead, 1934: p. 162). 3 Doctor of Medicine (Latin: Medicinae Doctor, abbreviated MD). Advanced degree in medicine.

Chapter 5

Family and Everyday Practices of Class Reproduction

Vignettes I Suraiyya was working as a marketing manager at a multinational corporation. The job is demanding time. She knew about the pressures she would encounter with her specialisation in marketing and sales management degree, but she had not expected it would be a problem. She had always imagined that she would have to fend for herself given the fact that, owing to a childhood accident, she had lost most of the vision in her right eye. When she told her to-be-husband about her impairment, which her parents and family advised her against, she thought he wouldn’t want to go through with the marriage. She was surprised and happy when she found out that it did not change his mind. They got married, and things were good, and soon they had a baby boy. Suraiyya joined her job at the end of her maternity leave, but things started getting challenging. Long work hours and little work-life balance left her frustrated, the feeling of failing at meeting the expectations of her family from her. She would return home at 9:00 PM, and after a little time spent with her son, she would begin making her presentations by 10:30 PM. At one point, it started to create friction. She felt she wasn’t being understood as her husband started to feel that their son wasn’t getting enough time with his mother and was craving it constantly. She saw that too and felt guilty, but her husband said it out loud to her, driving the final nail in the coffin. At one point, the guilt of missing out on her son’s life started to bear her down. Though supportive, her in-laws took care of her son while she worked. She felt she wasn’t a good mother and that when her son grew up, he would resent her for prioritising her life over his childhood. One night, her husband suggested she should weigh her priorities and make a choice without solely thinking about finances since they have their home, and his salary should suffice for the family. She finally made a choice and quit her job. Suraiyya says it is a happy change to wake up in the morning without the worries of making final changes on a presentation. She says she enjoys that DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-6

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now. The only worry on her mind in the morning is what she must give her son for his lunch. While paid employment was rewarding with the respect, acclaim, position and satisfaction of having a career, the competitive world of employment is too demanding and unforgiving for women to balance their roles as mothers. She says she found a drive to be a career woman, but her role as a mother is fulfilling and satisfying. She no longer feels guilty, her inlaws have stopped complaining to her, and although she misses having the job, the joy of motherhood and family makes up for it. II Soumya says the greatest challenge with regard to discipline within the home and family is maintaining speech decorum. As part of his job, her husband, a civil engineer, interacts with labourers and contractors over the phone all day. While he is at home or working from home, he talks to them in their manner. He would be routinely yelling into the phone in a crass tone typical of “labouring classes”, his sentences would be punctuated with the choicest of profanities and slurs as a way to communicate with the labouring class in the way that he thinks they would understand. She understood that his interactions with contractors and labourers were an important part of his job and his effectiveness in connecting with them was essential to the success of his project. Even though she understood it, she had little appreciation for the underclass language and style and tone of talking around in her house since not only would it ruin the ambience of the home but also could prove to be a bad influence on the young child. At times, she tried to warn him about his choice of words and speech. Although he maintained the code until he had his elder son in sight, he would return to his form of speech when he thought the son wasn’t in listening range. She says her elder son was always mature for his age and maintained a good filter of what he should pick up and what he shouldn’t. So while her husband thought it was a smart move on his part to physically move to another room or into the balcony when talking on the phone to contractors and labourers (as a way to block his audience with the screening door), it was actually just a matter of good judgement on the son’s part that kept the hack looking like it was a successful strategy. The trick wasn’t effective but he did think it was. This continued until they had their second son, who as he grew up would not discriminate in what he picked up. Soumya warned her husband again since he had become more relaxed over time upon realising that his elder son wasn’t picking up his form of speech. He promised that he would not be so casual about it and that all he needed was to be disciplined with his strategy of moving into the other room or balcony and that his hack was full-proof. This continued until one day; he heard his two-year-old toddler repeat some of the profanities he had been yelling into the phone regularly. Soumya

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and her husband were stunned and alarmed about this since they were worried about the kind of socialisation her younger son was acquiring. She confronted her husband and made it clear that she wouldn’t tolerate any more of this; she can’t have her son speaking “like a labourer”, what school would tolerate that kind of speech if he became habituated to speaking like that? What does he (her husband) expect to make of his child with those kinds of mannerisms inculcated in the young boy? Soumya’s threat was too real to be ignored anymore, and at this point, it was impossible for him to argue that his hack was full-proof. Soumya then had to put in efforts with the toddler to have him lose that word but the good that came of it was that she could get her husband to agree to the rule that he wouldn’t take calls from work at home. Now he makes it a point to explain to all his contractors and labourers that he is not to be reached after 7:00 in the evening, which is his time for returning home. She says, additionally, if he works from home or is home on the weekend, he goes out for a walk in the evening and, while on the walk, returns calls of the labourers and contractors who have been reaching him through the day. They both emphasise talking in a polite, composed tone around the house and do so through example. Soumya now feels happy that her husband complements her efforts. III Azra’s 18-month-old daughter is playing while she is talking. She fondly caresses her daughter’s hair while the toddler insists on getting her mother’s attention. Azra points to a picture in a glass case of a young man smiling into the camera with her daughter in his arms. She says the similarity between the father and the daughter is striking and unmistakable. She smiles fondly. While she was pregnant, she wanted and prayed every day that her child should be exactly like the father. She wants her child to grow up to be like her father and walk in his footsteps. She proudly talks about how from a family of modest means, her ­husband studied hard, completed his post-graduation and studied law at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a full scholarship. She would tell her daughter that she must follow her father’s example and study hard and, through her merit and hard work, acquire a scholarship to get a degree from Harvard/Stanford/MIT in the United States or Europe (Germany or the United Kingdom). She suggests that it would be the proudest moment of her life. The success of her daughter would make her happier far more than any of her own individual achievements. She would feel successful and satisfied with her work as a mother if her daughter managed to prove her mettle. Her husband says that even if she cannot get a scholarship, he would try his best to have her study at universities abroad, but she is insistent that her daughter prove her merit and study on scholarship like her father.

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It is argued that family has been and still remains the primary site for the production of class identities. As Bertaux and Thompson (1997: p. 2) argue with regard to social mobility (and may as well be extended to transmission and reproduction of class advantage), “the primary location of generation and transmission lies within families, which provide the social and emotional launch pads for individual take-off”. The chapter builds on insights from the life-story narratives as well as an interview as evidence to capture transgenerational and family views of reproduction of class habitus among the educated middle class (Bertaux and Thompson, 1997). The above vignettes highlight different aspects of how the educated middle class strives to give their children advantages. Having looked at the fractures that produce a distinction, how it gets consolidated and how it manifests itself, this chapter looks at the process of reproducing classness in the next generation. The chapter captures how EMC mobilises non-economic capital to preserve their class status intergenerationally. Despite extensive work on studying why children from middle-class families are more likely to end up themselves as middle-class adults than children of any other background (Goldthorpe et al., 1987). While class mobility has received ample attention among scholars, work on class stability and class reproduction seems to have suffered. Class stability and class reproduction are important ways of understanding the gatekeeping of class boundaries that can help unearth as much about class reproduction as about class production. The practices that consolidate class distinction and the practices of class reproduction work in coalescence. Practices pertaining to class reproduction as performative as they are socialising the next generation. Therefore, discourses on childhood and parenting practices; and educational pursuits among middle-class families become a good site to study performative class identity and practices of class reproduction. Bourdieusian framework emphasises the salience of cultural and social capital in addition to economic capital towards reproducing class. Taking forward the Bourdieusian framework, this chapter highlights the ways in which spaces become integral to this reproduction process at home. Parenting practices and discourses among the middle class are performative of the class identity alongside being directed at reproducing class advantage intergenerationally. It employs the premise that the idea of “child” (not actual experiences of children but the discourse about child and child-rearing) can be looked upon as a cultural resource or a theoretical resource for the reformation of the adult subjects (Castañeda, 2002). Children, as constructed through parents’ narratives, can therefore become spaces or forms through which the middle-class adult re-formulates their middle-class self in material and semiotic terms. This position bases itself on two ideas, one, that the narratives surrounding the child construct the child as “the adult’s pre-subjective other” since the child is in flux, and so it is a good way to capture discursive practices that make the middle class. These practices are therefore as much

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about social reproduction of class distinction as about consolidating it. The class-other becomes a critical way of defining what kind of primary habitus is passed on. Language, globality and urban sophistication (as seen in the earlier vignettes) become important to the primary habitus being cultivated among young children. The discourses of childhood and associated parenting practices reflect not just a sense of reproducing class advantage but are also informed by the anxiety of intergenerational downward mobility in view of increased job instability among the middle class. Having said this, it is simultaneously also clear that EMC parenting practices are directed at producing a definitive advantage in meritocratic competitions. The mutually agreeable relationship between the middle class, meritocratic competition, good qualifications and good jobs is not new (Goldthorpe and Hope, 1974). Meritocratic competitions being the best way to sift talent and meritocratic competitions privileging middle-class upbringing are still as relevant to understanding the middle class’ quest for class stability and social reproduction as before. This chapter, in a logical progression from the previous chapters (focussing on the city and gated neighbourhood enclaves) moves to the next level of EMC homes. The chapter highlights the EMC’s performative and social reproduction practices through three inter-related aspects: (1) Life as a Project, (2) Parenting and (3) Enabling Environment. Life as a project captures the organising principle of middle-class life. It is an underlying idea that informs practices, choices and decisions and is rarely acknowledged. It reflects middle-class orientation towards producing themselves as well as reproducing class stability across generations. Class status becomes a matter of making astute foresight and prudent choices. Social class reproduction, therefore, in the understanding of the class becomes a matter of informed and calculated choices and not one tied to structural inequalities. As Rishabh explained, “some people make good choices, others, not so much. Some people cash in on opportunities others miss . . . it’s an open field”. The Middle-class, especially EMC prides itself on this ability to make prudent choices. They see their perceived success as a product of equally prudent choices and the astute judgement of their parents. Enabling environment is how the social reproduction of class becomes socio-spatial. It is the way in which the EMC consolidates the social reproduction of class socio-spatially. The space of the family home becomes co-constitutive of the process of social reproduction. The idea of space as central to the reproduction of privilege and advantage is not new. It has been explored as the “padhai ka mahaul” in earlier works that suggest the importance of peer culture, amenities (like electricity) and educational resources (like good tutors) to intergenerational social mobility among those aspiring for middle-class status (Jeffery et al., 2007; Ganguly, 2018). However, it has not been explored from the point of view of how the middle class reproduces its advantage and social reproduction of class. The spaces and the ways in

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which EMC lives and formulates their occupation of those spaces define the distinction and its social reproduction. Parenting captures the resilient practices, the structure and templates of roles within an EMC domestic space that ties it with previous generations of the middle class. It highlights the enduring features of a middle-class family space that withstand social reproduction amidst evolving primary habitus intergenerationally. I.  Life as a Project Sherry Ortner (2003) argues that class must not just be seen as something one is or has, in which people find themselves or are assigned. It should also be understood as “a project, as something that is always being made or kept or defended, feared or desired” (p. 14). This aspect reflects the ways in which a family organises and reproduces itself on a day-to-day basis. The idea of class as a life project draws parallels with Beck-Gernsheim’s “life as a planning project” (1996) without submitting itself to the thesis of individualisation in post-traditional times (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). BeckGernsheim imagines “life as a planning project” that is primarily sustained and invested in through elaborate calculations by the individual (Beck-­ Gernsheim, 2002). EMC also attributes its perceived success to astute decision-making and prudent choices on the part of parents and themselves. The narrative of having exploited a good opportunity to translate it into success also feeds into some gratitude for the parents in posterity. It functions to keep the family tied together by the trope of the gracious child and dutiful parents (elaborated later in the chapter). Beck-Gernshiem highlights that life as a planning project is also reflected in how “upbringing too, has become a planning project” (Beck-Gernsheim, 1996: p. 139). Beck-Gernsheim (1996) suggests that the rise of modernity led to the “discovery of childhood” which is associated with efforts to influence the development of the child. According to this new doctrine of childhood, parents can make an essential contribution to a child’s healthy progress, indeed can lay the foundation for all of its later destiny by appropriate care and education. (Beck-Gernsheim, 1996: p. 142) Lancy (2014) also theorises about how the child in a middle-class family in modern times has come to represent a kind of project that parents undertake. The project of life for a considerable amount of time, during childhood, is shaped by the social institution of family and the household.1 The indirect investments in terms of facilities, access to material and financial resources, and house-helps supplement labour demands that may otherwise fall on children and plays a considerable role in shaping the project of life in the early phase. Similarly, direct investments such as education, enrichment activities,

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and exposure trips are seen as directly benefitting the making of a futuristic economically rewarding persona and are treated as important towards the making, developing and shaping of educated middle-class life as a project. Carol Vincent and Stephan Ball (2007) also highlight how middle-class parents view exposure to enrichment activities in their pre-schoolers as an essential part of shaping their character and personality. Further, the futuristic approach to shaping the success of children reinforces Schielke’s (2012) idea that to maintain middle-classness is to “live in the future”, which is a pursuit of securing the future. “Life as a planning project”, among EMC families, therefore, must not be mistaken as a singular person’s independent-individuated planning project. The embeddedness of the individual within deep kinship and family ties ensures that even the most individual aspirations are collectively shaped and are often translated into collective goals. The inter-connectedness within the family sees to it that the life chances of one are tied with the life chances of the others within the family. Successful maturation of a middle-class child into a financially independent adult is a reassurance for the life project of the parents who have financially secured their old age that their adult children would not become a financial liability. As the individual grows, one may consider him/her to be playing a far more active role in shaping the life project themselves. Even then, the efforts are embedded in the networks and resources that may be accessible to an individual through one’s kinship, family and social ties. The individual upon attaining economic independence is still supported by inheritances and labour assistance in childcare from the parents and sometimes kin network. Even though the focal point of all investing, planning and thinking is the individual, it is never just the prerogative of the individual alone. Life as a project provides an apt analogy for understanding the speculative, prudent calculations that are characteristic of educated middle-class living. These calculations are all geared towards optimising returns through intelligently calculated and planned investments with low risks at the right time. Not only is a person known by the life project of his own life, but in educated middleclass families, one’s children are seen as an extension of one’s life project. Failures or successes of the child are seen as symptomatic of the perceived success or failure of one’s own life project, as a parent. Educated middleclass parents place a high premium on efficient guardianship and mentoring of the life project of their child leading up to successful integration into the economy as an individual. Successful Maturation Successful transition of the middle-class child into a middle-class adult is reassurance for the parents, in their old age, that children would no longer be a financial liability to parents or incapable of sustaining themselves and

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their children. For instance, both Poorvi and Nandini emphasised that they invest in their children and expect them to do well for themselves. All the while maintaining that even if the children refuse to acknowledge their duties towards their parents in old age, they should not become a liability to the parents when the parents have aged and cannot financially support the adult children anymore. Both stated that they had insured their own future and will not need financial support from their children but do worry about the possibility of children being unable to sustain themselves financially, despite getting the best launch pad. Stating their fear in the witness of children was meant to keep them conscious of their gracious duty against the privileges their parents are working hard to make available to them. A successful child is not only the lack of worry in older age but also a validation of the discourse of sacrificing parents and dutiful children by children. Successfully attaining financial self-dependence upon maturation is, therefore, a necessary condition to being functional individuals, in addition to gratitude towards old parents for having made sacrifices and put in consistent hard work into the successful life project of the child. The gratitude must oblige the child to understand his/her duties towards the parents which may primarily include care and security, gracious affection and occasional financial assistance, in case of an emergency. Parents stressed and often took pride in having secured their old age financially. Parents highlighted how they had planned well so that they do not become any kind of burden on their children while maintaining that they still expect respect and consideration on account of having been sacrificing and “good” parents. This demand for consideration is one that is also presented as obligatory on the part of children and not compelling, although defiance or denial is resented but accepted. Denial is seen as the thanklessness of defiant children, a resentful attitude among the younger generation towards the older generations. Individuals also understood that they owed their success to their parents and although strained, they did not seem to resent their parents’ expectations of a dutiful child. Marrying Well Both married and unmarried respondents suggested that matured individuals outside of marriage are considered to be in a state of moratorium or latency period. The latency period could be used to refer to a state where the individual is not yet settled in a job/established his/her employability but also critically, unmarried. Individuals who have attained financial individuation through secure employment and are unmarried are especially considered in latency. The urgency and inevitability of marrying and starting a family would intensify for them. The beginning of a career and its stabilisation is seen as being symptomatic of readiness for marriage. This may be linked to the traditional idea of being able to provide for the family being the marker of one’s suitability and readiness for marriage, by default. Marriage logically

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follows the conclusion of the student phase, and acquiring secure employment is non-negotiable. Marrying prematurely without having secured one’s employability was seen as an irrational, immature and impulsive decision that was unbecoming of the middle class. Opting out of marriage still is considered unusual and abnormal. It is seen as a failure to acquire a partner, an essential feature of reproducing one’s class status. Reproducing one’s class status is an important part of being middle class in general and, by extension, being educated middle class. The choices are defined keeping constant the idea that every individual within the middle class generally would marry and want to reproduce the middle-class nuclear family setup. Hence, many of the individuals who were living in a flatmate setup were individuals who were single and still to marry. As Rishabh, Karan, Shruti, Mudit and Milind2 confirmed their living (residential) setup is transitory and changing since those who get married move out, while newer people may take their place. Hence, family, on the whole, is considered a far more stable arrangement. In the educated middle-class narrative, the time between the movements from being part of one family (natal) to being part of another family (conjugal) is seen as a passage that is significant as long as it retains its character of being transitory. Marriages are crucial decisions in a middle-class family. Marriages either reflect the sense of exercising active agency (defiant choice marriages) or exhibiting the middle-class rationality of prudency towards making what would be seen as the most functional marriage alliances through systematic matching. Matchmaking is geared at reducing anomalies expected to happen in inter-religion, inter-caste and inter-class marriages. It is believed that neutralising anomalies results in functional marriage alliances leading to a homogenised environment that is considered conducive to effective parenting. Wherever the partners considered for marriage were not from readily compatible caste and religious backgrounds, the compatibility would be argued on the grounds of romantic bonding or education and occupation. Important decisions were made from the point of view of finding a partner that suits mating needs characteristic of educated middle-class life, such as urban sophistication, globality and education, in addition to a homogenous social profile. There is a huge currency for women who are educated or have proved their merit, not just from the point of being a socially acceptable partner that easily fits into one’s social networks through exhibiting similar shared cultural capital. Also, the choice of partner is judged against their ability to provide in future the required cultural and educational capital (woman) or economic capital (man) to the children born into the alliance. Mudit highlighted the gendered division of the kind of capital each partner is expected to accrue in favour of raising a family together. He suggested he didn’t care as much about a partner’s employment status as their education and worldliness (to fit easily in his social groups). Within the middle class, marriage still is less a matter between two individuals and more between two families.

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Conjugality is valued for its significance in a nuclear family setting but is not a guiding idea when making marriage decisions. The preoccupation with finding a well-matched partner for marriage is also tied to the future goals of the family, particularly parenthood. Homogeneity also is considered a guarantee against the possibility of “seeking outside marriage”, as one respondent put it. The promiscuity of either parent may be seen as a threat to the stability of enabling environment for the child, which featured as a threat that existed in being on either extreme of underclass or affluent. Hence, parents exercise tremendous caution in prioritising parenting roles over individual sexual desires. Planning Parenthood Over the past three decades, there have been many changes that the family structure in the Indian context has witnessed. There has been a steady and continuous growth in the number of women joining paid employment after completing their education.3 The second change that has been happening over time is a delay in getting married, which is generally an urban trend and means that both men and women are older (on an average) when they get married.4 Consequently, the average age of mothers and fathers at the time their first child is born, over time, has also risen (Lancy, 2014: p. 75). Further, as middle-class individuals choose to have fewer children and focus on mobilising greater resources towards rearing them, the discourse on childhood among the educated middle class has come to look at children as “projects”, to be carefully planned and maintained. This is not to say that the educated middle class does not look at children as a source of joy, but they also understand children as extensions and embodiments of one’s class distinction. Therefore, EMC consciously and very carefully limits the number of children they have and when they have them. Having too many children or more than one unplanned pregnancy is seen as unbecoming of EMC couples. Contraceptives and fertility assistance allow individuals to plan their children in accordance with their life plans, career trajectories and goals, financial situation, resources and support system available to them, their material situation and physical condition. Parents claim a sense of distinction in their shaping a child’s project in admirable and successful ways. A  parent whose child exhibits merit that stands him/her apart while still retaining and exhibiting all the signs of ordinariness and humility is seen as evidence of successful parenting. Children are seen as carefully planned decisions that require some amount of background preparation on the part of parents. All parents in the study highlighted how the average latency period between marriage and having a child is, on average, two years. Within this two-year period, the partners work towards developing a stable relationship, financial stability, reasonable career stability and preferably a house (Forsberg, 2009: p.  25;

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Beck-Gernsheim, 2002: p. 53, Lancy, 2014: p. 75). This may also be linked to the need for educated middle-class families to provide their children with the most enabling environment that has the least amount of discord and disruption owing to a lack of coordination between parents. Respondents highlighted that the synchrony between work and home environments is important to provide the optimal upbringing to the children. There are greater instances of non-standard work schedules (while traditionally associated with self-employment and entrepreneurship but now extended to service sector jobs) which many educated middle-class individuals engage in that have also featured among the respondents of this study. Respondents were divided about non-traditional work schedules and their impact on child-rearing. Some felt that it allows more flexibility for parents to supplement the efforts of the other in tandem. However, a majority felt that it contributed to less-than-ideal conditions with erratic work hours that are not conducive to children’s schedules and routines often. The family composition was also important and yet contentious consideration in planning optimal and effective parenthood. In a household where older parents lived together or were frequent, individuals felt constrained and restricted, which was the greatest cause of resentment. The loss of complete individuated control over matters of one’s household and family as well as freedom of lifestyle was resented. However, this was balanced against the support system provided by older parents for childcare. Demands for geriatric care were seen as additional to the healthcare needs of children, and resentment of the same was seen as disrespectful and ungracious. It featured as a cause of stress and strain on an already strained routine, which to the individuals wasn’t convenient but unavoidable. While, it may be argued that some of these descriptions may fit the profile of the middle class, in general, it is safe to assume that the intense dependence of the educated middle class on consistent daily routine and salaried jobs makes these aspects far more pronounced than perhaps for those who do not face pressures of salaried jobs (resulting from the educated middle-class profile). II. Parenting Cultures and Class-Appropriate Socialisation The parenting style of EMC parents in this study was involved and intensive. The parents looked at parenting as a long-term project; they emphasised ­prioritising the needs of the child and actively participating in decision-­ making pertaining to the child’s life. EMC parents either were or wished were deeply involved in the happenings/social circle/people in their children’s life. The parents took pride in leading “child-centred lives”—that is, “apart from work, their lives revolve(d) around (their) children, their needs, and education & leisure activities” (Forsberg, 2009: p. 44). The child(ren) enjoys the spotlight in an educated middle-class family. Parents invest heavily in the

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upbringing of the child ensuring that the child inherits parental secondary habitus as its primary habitus. The tensions emerging from the neo-urban context are in no manner inconsequential in determining the parenting practices of EMC. In fact, ­globality becomes a critical element of cultural capital that EMC parents consider appropriate for their children to learn and pick up. It shows in their preference for global schools and in the enrichment activities, EMC parents invest in. The enrichment activities are chosen based on a global appeal for when the children have to reference their childhood in their college essays or require common ground with their peers in colleges in the United States or the United Kingdom. The fractures in the neo-urban context have shaped the tensions between LAAC and EMC. This tension between EMC and LAAC has already defined the axis of distinction for EMC from the range of p ­ ossibilities (of claiming distinction) inscribed in the EMC by their middle-class parents. This desire to embody globality has become critical to EMC’s sense of self and therefore is visible in the cultural practices to reproduce class status. The child’s formative year of socialisation produces a practice which can be characterised as “reverse socialisation” and “reverse disciplining” that parents employ upon them. Reverse socialisation and reverse disciplining are ways in which parents reorient themselves by acting upon themselves in response to the demands of child-centred parenting. The patterns of behaviour that are being inculcated through both reverse socialisation and reverse disciplining are often very different from the behavioural and linguistic template of parenting experienced by the respondent parents themselves. For instance, addresses for mothers and fathers were widely different from the previous generation; expressions of feelings of gratitude and graciousness and sharing about their day respondents highlighted were not something they had themselves experienced as kids. The new behavioural and linguistic repertoire was often inculcated in the offspring through the dual strategies of reverse socialisation and reversed disciplining. This would be the first opportunity for the parents to also experience the new repertoire in parenting, and so the strategies of reverse socialisation and reverse disciplining functioned performatively to acclimatise the parents and performatively establish it in their experience and intuitive understanding of parenting. In reverse disciplining and reverse socialisation, the attitudes of adults in a house with a child are reoriented in accordance with the needs and demands of parenting a child within educated middle-class families that adopt childcentred parenting. It should be understood as structuring, reorientation and disciplining of habits, attitudes, behaviour and language that members of an educated middle-class family undergo/undertake in view of a child. These strategies are employed for demonstrative and performative purposes as well as for ensuring the efficient transmission of habitus and appropriate cultural capital. For instance, during a marital discord between Nikita and her

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husband, when her husband forced her to live apart from her son and him with the promise of joining her a year later, it was owing to her son’s resentment that resolved the situation finally, with her being brought back to her home in Gurgaon from Bhiwani. This happened solely due to the resentment in her son for being separated from his mother. In another instance, Azra, whose 18-month-old daughter, who is beginning to pick up the language, has a reverse influence on the parents, in that Azra pointed out that her husband does not appreciate her calling him by his name since the child is beginning to pick it up and uses his name to get her father’s attention. So, they have resorted to calling each other “Mumma” and “papa” around the house (instead of the traditional address of Ammi-Abuji that she used when talking about her parents). Parents employ various instances of reverse disciplining as evidence of the importance of the child in an educated middle-class family. This can also be related to the vignette presented earlier about Soumya’s husband and his use of profanities. Nikita also pointed out that the sole reason she wanted to shift into a flat setup in a gated, educated middle-class neighbourhood from their own home in old Gurgaon was driven by considerations for giving her son a continuation between his school and home environment. This may also be related to the need among parents of the educated middle class to provide their children with a controlled environment that enables their potential. The continuity between school and home environment provides and produces one such way of reducing incoherence and producing controlled-consistent conditions towards better performance by the child. Reverse disciplining is a strategy whereby parents change and alter their behaviour, actions and words in an attempt to socialise their children in a controlled and effective manner. Parents establish and follow the rules around the house in a demonstrative manner like Soumya would enforce a rule stating that everyone must eat at the table together. When her sons tried to skip it, both she and her husband would sit at the table eating alone, having conversations about how they miss having the sons around, as a way of encouraging her sons to join in. The schedules of parents’ work around the schedules of children and their schools, sleep time and enforcing the no-television rule during children’s examination are all examples illustrating reverse discipline enforced by parents upon themselves in demonstration of the idea of “rules of the house”. Eventually, overt demonstrative disciplining of the self to inculcate discipline among children gets replaced by parents mentoring children towards developing self-discipline. Like helping children come up with study schedules or daily timetables, this begins around adolescence when parents start to transfer the onus of self to the child within controlled conditions. Self-Discipline Disciplining does not always assume the form of a stated or assumed rule, enforced through the acting out of an authority position. While in the initial

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phase, parents may work through (bank upon) emotions of guilt and fear emerging out of a need among younger children for parental approval and fear of parent’s authority, this is not a fixed parenting strategy. As children grow and attain adolescence, parenting strategy shifts, and a different kind of guilt takes precedence in the relationship between parents and children. At the same time, the fear of authority transforms into fear and insecurity of losing class status upon maturation. This guilt corresponds to the quintessentially middle-class discourse of the “sacrificing parents and dutiful progeny” (Kumar, 2011: p.  230). Parents in passive-aggressive or resigned ways keep sounding their children to the threats of losing class status upon maturation. The parents remind children of the competitiveness of higher education institutions and the employment sector. The fear and insecurity are not imposed but suggestive, as emerges from Nandini’s resigned way of reminding her son that his future prospects now depend on his hard work. Poorvi, too during an introduction with her 13-year-old daughter, made it a point to complement her daughter’s focus on academic performance in extension, adding, “That’s because she is smart. She knows very well that only those who work very hard and do very well at school proceed further and become something, everyone else just gets left behind”. The fear is also implicitly tied to the feeling of being incapable and being a matter of shame for the parents who (children are told) are strained in providing a better lifestyle towards a strong foundation for their future success. Middle-class parents build upon the narrative of feeling “burdened” by their children’s needs (Kremer-Sadlik et al., 2010: p. 47). The burden is not actual but figurative in some respect. The burden is not one that is an objective reality, but more a subjective experience of providing for the child things that are projected as necessary (usually slightly out of reach). Parents wouldn’t want their children to feel burdened in return but be conscious of their parents’ sacrifices and fulfil their duties efficiently. Azra highlighted this when she talked about how her father never expressed feeling strained, but she could catch it in his discussion with her mother, and her mother would also encourage children to be mindful of the strains of one income home of five children. Thus, parents simultaneously provide for the children material, cultural and emotional support under the agreement that children will stay mindful of their responsibility and obligation in response. While parents nurture the child with emotional and material comforts often embedded in a narrative of self-sacrifice, the children have to do their best to avoid failing to deliver. Parents used their being “self-sacrificing” providing parents who always thought of their children and their best interest over and above themselves, as a way of passive-aggressive reminder that the children must in some respect be obligated to play the role of “dutiful child”. A dutiful child is one who acknowledges his/her responsibility to complement the investment made with his/her honest, efficient and maximum input in terms of dedication and hard work. Such an acknowledgement of one’s duty emerges from children being conscious of their sacrifice. Parents highlighted

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and inculcated in the children a sense of guilt and shame at not being able to meet the minimal expectations of being a dutiful child as due regard to sacrificing and enduring parents. A child who fails to meet the expectations of a “dutiful child” template must suffer with shame and guilt at being ungrateful. The emotional burden of being a dutiful child is intense within EMC families. So intense is the appeal of the dutiful child template that critical goals like financial ­independence and success are considered faded in comparison. The subtle communication of the idea that parents endured stress to provide for the child’s needs reinforces the idea that parents must feel “burdened” by the needs of the child (Lancy, 2014: p.  72). This presents the child’s dimension to the ­ quintessentially ­middle-class discourse of the “dutiful progeny” (Kumar, 2011: p. 230). Discipline, when enforced upon children in the house, especially with regard to behaviour and actions, assumes more the form of “margins of acceptability”, that is, there is a variable level of leniency exercised for a violation of set codes. In view of adolescence, parents change their expectation of strict observation of expected codes of behaviour to accommodate some level of deviance. A margin of acceptability allows restrained violations of expected codes (of behaviour, language and attitudes) that are negotiable. All the while, the idea of negotiables and non-negotiables are clearly outlined to children through defining aspects that are non-threatening to the inherent idea of the middle-class self. For instance, in talking about adolescent children, parents talked about how there is some tolerance that they hold for certain kinds of deviance, but others are far more intolerable. This was evident in Soumya’s parenting strategies for her 13-year-old adolescent son. She mentioned how they have introduced a mini bar at home and allow the child to witness a kind of restrained-controlled drinking to communicate that the family hold no prejudice against the consumption of alcohol when it is self-restrained. She said that they did not want her son to get the idea that alcohol was taboo triggering in him a temptation to hide his drinking and/or experiment outside of their knowledge. She said they did not want to increase the appeal of alcohol for their growing-up son so that he did not feel the need to experiment in secret. The tolerance is extended upon favourably weighing habits, actions and behaviour against being dysfunctional to the educational aim and pursuit of merit success or to the principles of self-regulation and the rootedness in ordinariness. The middle class and specifically educated middle class is attributed to a kind of disciplinary ethos “which assumes a certain degree of austerity, selfregulation and self-imposed personal restraint marshalled in the service of an individual producer’s output of productivity” (Davis, 2004: p. 11). This selfconscious discipline of moderating one’s desires to optimise productivity is also inculcated among children. For instance, Soumya has a need and wants model (the things that the boys “need” and the things the boys “want” in a bid to explain to them how to prioritise needs over wants) to help her sons

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choose what they wanted to spend their Diwali shopping budget for. She also made the brothers spend half of their allocated budget shopping for a gift for the sibling. She said it was her way of inculcating in them the feeling that money at their disposal must nourish their families as much as themselves. Self-disciplining is encouraged among children to cultivate restraint that helps moderate one’s relationship with external stimuli. This is crucial to not get distracted from the educational pursuit and economic goals by falling prey to distractions. Cognitive and behavioural discipline is encouraged among adolescents as a kind of self-control against temptations, addictions and self-harm. Soumya building of a mini bar at home to encourage open exchange with her son and ease the enchantment of forbidden pleasures and initiate in him to develop, as she put it, “a healthy attitude around alcohol”. Drugs respondents highlighted are the other threat that parents grapple with ways to deal with. Mona narrated how it was a crisis situation when she came to know that one of her son’s friends had died of an experimental drug overdose. She said she felt the urgency to address the issue with her son: His friend had died of something nobody could have imagined. No one in his family knew he was doing drugs. So, I understood the urgency of the situation and decided to address the elephant before it damaged something precious. I took the opportunity to talk to my son about it and how this may happen to him if he falls prey to his own temptations and temptations of the peer culture. I told him that he must learn to judge and understand a self-destructive tactic from fun and enjoyment. I told him that the way to do that is to imagine the worst-case scenario, what could possibly happen if you went to an amusement park versus what could happen say if you are doing drugs. I know this isn’t foolproof, but after a point, I or any parent can’t keep surveillance, so all we can do is counsel the kids and hold good faith in them. Parents felt that humility about one’s position of privilege could be a deterrent for children from engaging in “self-destructive tactics”. While they were unwilling to let their children mingle with children from the underclass as a perceived “bad influence”, this did not ease their threat from the “bad influence” of the middle-class peer group their children were raised in. Parents like Jahanvi were critical of the middle-class children who take their position of privilege for granted and exploit the fact that as adolescents, they are a matter of parental anxiousness. She highlighted how these adolescents exploit the fact that neighbours feel uncomfortable about prying on matters of each other, especially with regard to parenting and family, generally and unless suggested otherwise. Such compliance to a subtle unstated rule is in direct relation to the middle class’ need for the “right to not be disturbed”, described in the earlier chapter. However, parents realise that keeping their children at a safe distance from underclass individuals that may prove to be

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a bad influence is not enough. They feel their children are still vulnerable to bad influence from children who do not appreciate their position of privilege or take it for granted or are not humbled by the i­nherent vulnerability of salaried occupation central to the educated middle-class identity. These in-class bad influences are not seen so much as a matter of having lost self-discipline and who would eventually lag behind and perhaps struggle to intergenerationally secure and/or maintain their middle-class status. Every middle-class parent interviewed expressed anxiety against children who seemed unmindful of the discipline necessary for reproducing their parents’ class position. Almost all parents felt their children might be vulnerable to such an influence but not likely to lose sight of their goal, given their appropriate parenting and socialisation. It is noteworthy that although parents identified the existence of such influences around their children, none of them associated this idea with who their own children may be. All parents held faith in their adolescent children and the good judgement that they assumed their kids develop owing to good parenting. Values Educated middle-class family prides itself in authentically safeguarding moral and traditional values. It emphasises its claim to being the social class that is custodians of traditional values. Educated middle-class families believe that children must be respectfully obedient towards parents generally and fathers, specifically. Hurting parents through aggressive behaviour, defiance, questioning of their authority, and discrediting their contribution to success in life narrative, thanklessness is seen as a threat to traditional values. It is important to note that educated middle classes rationalise these values as being functional and an “adhesive” to keep families together. As Mona said: Values are very important. I told my son that there is no value to a man who doesn’t have values. Values, I feel, are the essence of the middle class. It also makes the middle class better than a lot of others. At the same time, it also has adhesive quality, a family with a good value system will always each other’s support, and with each other’s support, each person in that family will thrive and succeed in whatever they choose to do. Rachna, Patricia, Sanjay, Milind and Pragya also employed the word meaning “adhesive” for traditions in the context of family. The traditionalism of EMC may seem at odds with their desire to be more globally oriented. Scholars previously have also engaged with these mutually incongruent tendencies of globality and traditionalism among the middle class in India (Srivastava, 2015; Thapan, 2004). This may also be seen as evidence supporting the “cultural omnivorism” hypothesis that Erickson (2008: p.  347) talks about. He argues that social class distinction is not built around a singular

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highbrow culture as is suggested by Bourdieu; instead, it is a functional combination of a diverse cultural repertoire that provides a social advantage. He highlights “cultural omnivorism” as a distinct cultural versatility that can be linked to social advantage. He states that “cultural advantage (or cultural capital)” is a function not of “high-status tastes but highly varied tastes combined with a keen sense of the rules of the relevance of which kind of culture to use in which situation” (Erickson, 2008: p. 347). Parents expect children to be respectful, deferent and grateful towards their parents (sacrificing ­parents-dutiful progeny). Lack of respect or gratitude is seen as being a marker of losing moral values. Speaking ill of one’s parents or a lack of gratitude towards parents is seen as thanklessness and arrogance that is symptomatic of having (forgotten one’s roots/culture). One can identify a dynamic coexistence between the cultural value system and developmental goals (often conflicting) set by parents for their children. However, sometimes developmental goals and aspirations conflict with the cultural value system. In such incidents, a demarcation is drawn between family and larger social spaces. Children are made conscious of the fact that different rules apply in these different social spaces. The larger social space is seen as a sphere where competitive spirit and shrewdness are seen as desirable, while within the family, sometimes the spirit of competition may feature between siblings, which is largely discouraged. The educated middle class acknowledges that the economy and the job sector focus on the individual as the unit of all transactions. Therefore, it is only logical for children to have life goals that are individualistic and geared towards being able to sustain themselves economically. Individual success in the economic sustenance of each adult would contribute one part towards reducing financial liability on other members of the family. The EMC families depend on each young member reproducing middle-class status efficiently, unlike the case of a family-owned business or agriculture landholding where fixed capital is collective security. This is validated in the study done by Tamis-LeMonda et al. (2008: p. 194). They write: Individual achievement may be regarded as an important, and perhaps necessary, part of collective success, and personal success may feed back to the family in the form of family obligations, financial support, and responsibility. Children who achieve in school and the workplace bring pride to the family and are able to support their family financially in the future. The expectations of siblings supporting each other were not pronounced in EMC families, but an implicit idea that one sibling not doing as well could add to the burden of others was hinted at. Unlike the Tami-LeMonda study, middle-class parents in this study also took pride in having financially secured their old age. It was very important for the parents not to become a liability to their children in old age.

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Strategies The strategies of parenting have moved from restricting and controlling, (as experienced by the respondents themselves) to more enabling, and intervention based (as practised by them as parents themselves). Soumya indicated that as parents, they try to refrain from the use of negating words (words that communicate refusal, denial, negation, rejection) as a parenting strategy. They use suggesting tones as a way of putting down the demand of the child if it is seen as unacceptable. As she illustrated: For instance, if we are at a market and he (gesturing to point at her two-year-old) starts to insist on buying something, instead of denying him, we would say something like, “how about we go in and have an ice cream together” . . . this way I do not have to get into a yes-no argument with him. Pragya and Patricia both said that they resorted to asking their children clarifying questions about the demands made by their children. They asked these questions in a way that exposes the logical absurdity of something that her children are asking but is not an acceptable demand. Somehow parents in the study agreed that the commanded negation that is characteristic of authoritative parenting (which most have experienced themselves) is a parenting strategy that draws children away from their parents. It was imagined that such a distance between parents and children becomes breeding grounds for bad decisions among children. Nikita illustrated this with an example from the time she was a child. She said the answers were more authoritative and direct yes/no. Instead, she (as a parent) expresses her discontent and disagreement and then asks her son to make the decision. She said it encourages him to rethink his demands. Most parents highlighted that they would rather engage in reasoning with their children than use physical force. Almost all parents argued that they gave their children a chance to explain their actions or words before engaging with them. This contrasts with the individuals themselves witnessed/experienced as children. This was evident from Patricia’s narrative of her childhood, where she recalled multiple incidents of being beaten up by her father. Similar instances appear in the narratives of Nikita. It is noteworthy that those in their later 20s and early 30s reported fewer or no incidents of being punished through the use of physical beating, slapping, spanking or any similar action in their childhood. All respondents in their late 30s and over could recall incidents of being hit as punishment. Among all educated middle-class respondents with children, it was observed that there was generally more dependence on reasoning, elaborate dialogues and negotiations between parents and children. There is intense stress on seeking an explanation from children and seeking reasoning from

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them in support of their suggestions and choices. Such intense focus on reasoning and rationale for one’s actions and behaviour should be seen as helpful in having them develop the ability to formulate complex arguments and establish the primacy of reason and logic. This was pointed out by Trishna, who said that she allows her elder daughter, who was eight years old, to explain, reason and develop arguments so that she could practice deductive thinking, inductive thinking, logical reasoning and linguistic abilities. Similarly, Nikita also helped her son practice his organising skills and reasoning by giving him small educative tasks around the house, that did not contribute in any way significantly to household labour requirements. Edgerton and Roberts (2014) see this kind of parent-child dialogue as helpful in parents preparing their children to “more successfully manage institutional encounters and effect favourable academic outcomes”, that is, transform embodied cultural capital into institutional, cultural capital (p.  197). Cultivating the ability to argue, convince, reason and dialogue is consistent with the social law governing institutional and cultural capital, helping middle-class children be better oriented at using cultural capital to attract more cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1990: p. 182). There is also a far higher tendency among educated middle-class parents to seek consultations from physicians and counsellors and discuss childcare concerns with each other, even in the reflection of the respondents. There is a tendency among educated middle class specifically and middle class generally to invest relatively more resources in their children’s education. The respondents suggested that the educated middle-class, middle-class, and even aspiring middle-class families, on average, spend far more time researching to make better and more competitive educational choices for their children. Deepika, Mukul and Patricia agreed that the networks available to educated middle-class parents make their children’s chances of accessing better resources, training and opportunities better than the chance that underclass children get. What appears smugness relates to the assurance the middle class derives from being in the middle. This relates to the EMC’s view of either extreme as less invested in their children’s education and somehow unable to contribute to shaping their children’s lives. Accessing the right kind of information and appropriate reviews and feedback on different services is of significance to middle-class parents who would spend time discussing, exchanging and reading articles and blogs/websites/newspaper articles about childcare and even discussing it with peers and colleagues while also talking to friends and other people about their feedback or suggestions with regard to impending decisions. There is a greater influence of virtual space-based technology than has ever been before. Parents need information technology to aid various family tasks, and household chores that are performed through online transactions, and much of the research and feedback towards making informed choices (educationally as well as otherwise) is done through peritextual.5 Research,

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which means that more extensive research can be carried out with far less effort over a flexible-extended period of time. However, there is a sense of both abetting and hindering family goals that are attributed to virtual space and information technology. However, the relationship between EMC parenting and information technology is not linear. Parents are both consistently depending on and weary of unfiltered access to the knowledge provided by information technology. Parents imagine the internet to be both useful and a “time waste” violating the value accorded by EMC to prudent time management. Wasting time on the internet is a trope used to describe a child’s activity in a virtual space that does not further educational goals. Parents highlighted online gaming, chatting, social media and online content consumption, among other ways children could misuse the internet and waste time. Wasting time was seen as unbecoming of the educated middle class. It was a resignation from the core value of the educated middle class, prudence and ambition. Wasting time was associated with the underclass and those with “no drive to compete or succeed”. Such ideas resonate with Jeffrey’s work on “time pass” among the agrarian lower middle class (Jeffrey, 2010). Time was precious to EMC and failing to put the time to optimal use is characteristic of the underclass but also of the elite. Wasting time or passing the time was symptomatic of aimlessness that was associated with children belonging to elite families as much as with the underclass. In the interest of making the best use of time, EMC parents actively engage elaborate research towards keeping themselves abreast with new developments in the field of education and what may constitute essential towards the perceived best interest of their child’s future. Apart from the background research, the educated middle-class parents actively discuss the progress and plan with regard to the education of their child with the teachers, various coaches and tutors coordinating the feedback and available information towards planning of the future course of action. As illustrated by Manisha, who remarked, that’s just how the times have become if it is not the physical labour, it is the mental labour in terms of researching and gathering relevant information, channelling feedback they get from various classes, planning. If nothing else there is a constant sense of worrying that gets ingrained as middle-class parents. Donner (2005: p. 124) highlights that “the new patterns of education are held responsible for the demands made on parents, who feel they are more preoccupied with their children’s education than the previous generations were”. The supportive roles that EMC parents play in middle-class families may extend well beyond schooling years and often well into higher education.

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The supportive role may also entail ensuring that children do not have debts that restrict them and their building a lifestyle for themselves upon being employed, certainly not once they are married. Also, building a house or acquisition of a house or a physical property is seen as part of the enabling and supportive role of the parents as a way of launching their children into a safe environment where they can begin enjoying a middle-class lifestyle from their salaries without any delays brought upon by worries of rent payment or payment of instalments. This also ensures a comfortable ground from which to begin imagining the future of the next generation. The security of a house also allows the newly employed individual to take into account fluctuations and explore far more than the previous generation found the time to. EMC parents also recognise that they may be required to provide childcare assistance for their children well into their adulthood to ensure the successful reproduction of middle-class identity. Such a realisation is situated within the broader need for EMC families to locate childcare within the families. Parents perceive this as a necessary investment in providing their adult children with the support needed for them to establish themselves firmly as educated middle-class adults. Such realisation cannot be divorced from the experience of EMC parents themselves, who, many of them, benefitted from the support provided by their parents in their childcare responsibilities. Many educated middle-class parents see their children as extending their middle-class narrative past what they had achieved through their years of active employment. All parents hoped that their children would add to or build upon what they had already achieved, failing which the parents could at least be assured that they had done their due in providing their children with a stable beginning and a secure foundation. The house was therefore seen as security against risks and fluctuations the children may be faced with, If anything happens, at least he will have a place to stay . . . at least he has got this house, he wouldn’t be out on the street. He would have some stability in struggling against odds. He wouldn’t have to worry about building for himself a shelter. Houses, preferably in a gated enclave, provided the ultimate middle-class security against the threat of downward social mobility and against losing one’s claim to being middle class. Even with fluctuations of fluid capital, one felt assured of retaining one’s claim to the middle class through one’s house in a middle-class gated neighbourhood. Interestingly, all parents unanimously aspired for their child to exhibit a deep interest in learning, a flair for hard work, diligence and perseverance, dutifulness and sincerity, confide in parents, be healthy and have self-discipline. In retrospect, the individuals (now parents themselves) also acknowledge the narrative of parental struggles as very real and limiting as they did the best they could. Individuals credited their parents’ contribution in the form of a dutybound endurance and the efficient mobilisation of resources towards providing the children with a fertile platform (invariably,

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all individuals acknowledged that their parents sent them to the best school and helped them with their studies) to perform their best and are therefore responsible for their success. The template produces a narrative that they would perhaps imagine themselves fitting into their future “maybe one day even our children will empathise with us”, as one respondent put it. “Mothering” and Child Rearing Practices Carol Vincent (2010) highlights well how intensive mothering6 may not be standard and universal, as is argued. She argues that a particular set of mothering practices, consumerism and outlook is a social class-based social phenomenon. Mothering among educated middle class privileges intensive mothering, from what emerges from the data. Vincent (2010) also situates the classed nature of intensive mothering by highlighting how in the case of working-class women, waged employment is privileged over the capacity of working-class women to mother their children. Donner (2008: p.  37) highlights how the child-centred approach that emerged in Europe travelled to the colonies, during a time when India’s new colonial administration was grappling with the loose family structure that existed in the Indian context. The loosely defined discourse on family with some of the earlier patterns redefined by nationalist fervour interacted with western domesticities and the child-centred approach of the western world towards formulating the idea that an educated mother is the most preferred primary caregiver to the child, hence middle-class women’s lives became defined as service to the husband and their children, often in opposition to earlier and more collective ways of marriage and parenting. Not only is a specific class-based bias contained in this construction of motherhood but also implied are assumptions about the kind of family within which this ideal can be realised (ibid.). Middle-class mothering has for long been considered “proper mothering” (Golden et al., 2018) and even though implicit even scholarly works invariably in highlighting structural inequalities paddle that ideal of mothering, still privilege middle-class mothers. Other sections of mothers are seen as inferior in comparison. Griffith and Smith (2005) highlight how mothering among educated middle class contributes to the reproduction of middle-classness. As it emerged from this study, there is a strong need among educated middle-class families to locate early childcare within the home instead of having to depend on daycare and the need to have reliable and efficient childcare support, which forces mothers to take sabbaticals or opt-out of paid employment. Sreejoyi had been sending her 2-year-old daughter to daycare and was happy until she realised her daughter would cry for long hours once dropped off at the

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daycare. Hence, she opted for a childcare leave until her daughter joined the school. Similarly, Azra, who was due to join her job in three months, was having cold feet at the thought of having to leave her 18-month-old daughter at a daycare. She felt uncomfortable with the idea of strangers taking care of her child. She also felt uncomfortable with her toddler being taken care of in lieu of money, among other toddlers. She did not think childcare could be done in a professional manner. She suspected that a handful of professionals could even manage 20 toddlers together (as was the case with this daycare). She expressed resentment and resignation at the fix she felt between joining her job and staying home. It must be noted here that Azra had exhausted her maternity leave of 6 months and a childcare leave of about 12 months. This is related to the perception among EMC parents that reliable childcare provided by mothers or motherly figures could neutralise threats of emotional and psychological damage to the child. The parents sometimes prefer to leave children in the custody of elder grandparents who (sometimes with the assistance of nannies and helpers) assist “both partners working” household by partaking in childcare responsibilities, especially during the early childhood phase. Pragya, Suraiyya, Nikita, Soumya, Patricia and Azra all had, at some point or the other, depended on kin and elder parents for partaking childcare responsibilities. The role of grandparents has been widely recognised by anthropologists and other cross-cultural scholars who have examined family relationships in traditional societies (Parke, 2013; Donner, 2005). In all cultures, grandparents influence children’s development directly through the quality of their interactions with their grandchildren in their roles as occasional caregivers, playmates, advisors, and support figures or indirectly through emotional and financial support, guidance, and child-rearing advice that they provide their adult children in their parenting role (Parke, 2013: p. 147). Grandparents, especially the grandmother of the child, may assume responsibilities of household task management to assist with the domestic responsibilities of the mother to allow her time and space to dedicate herself to the needs of the child (Donner, 2005: p.  133). Pragya, Patricia and Suraiyya admitted to getting help from their mothers-in-law to manage the household while taking care of the children. This ensures that the children are in the company of an intimate family (assuming) that shares the concern for the child’s best interest. Also, this neutralises the effects of interclass mixing through the hiring of underclass nannies and ensures effective class-­appropriate socialisation into a class-appropriate cultural capital. This is highlighted by Vincent (2010), who argues that “Mothering as a personal, intensive and intuitive experience is infused with classed behaviours, values, actions and dispositions” (p. 113). A nanny (professional childcare expert) is not a usual employee; however, a child-minder or helper for childcare is not unusual in EMC homes. A helper or child-minder only provides physical labour; meanwhile, childcare

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responsibility and practices are closely determined by intimate family members to ensure class-consistent socialisation. Without support from grandparents, women are often faced with the difficult choice of choosing between their career goals and financial independence against the cultural and social expectations associated with motherhood. They may be career-oriented but being career oriented rarely comes at the cost of the family (Radhakrishnan, 2011: p. 149). A phenomenon also reported by Parke (2013: p. 29), who writes, there has been plenty of anguish about women’s more active role in the workplace and especially the presumed negative impact on children. Many assumed that children would be harmed by this realignment of roles which takes women away from their traditional roles as homemakers and caregivers. While the familial discourse among EMC families does not hold steadfastly to the idea that women’s primary job is child rearing, it does maintain that child-rearing should be prioritised over career. Many respondents reported the stress and guilt that accompanied having to make a choice between career and childcare in educated middle-class families. Interestingly, all women who took sabbaticals or exited their jobs in favour of the demands of motherhood and childcare expressed a sense of fond nostalgia, resignation and relief in that order about their decision to quit. While all women missed being in paid employment and the ­professional-social identity, they also expressed a sense of resignation about the scales being tipped in favour of demands of the maternal role as the primary caregiver. Women also felt that the demands of a full-time career made it almost impossible to balance one’s role as a mother, domestic chores and responsibilities of a career in the conjugal home. Suraiyya had left paid employment about two years ago when she realised she was getting no time to spend with her 2-year-old and felt optimistic about finding a job given her strong educational credentials. She said she let go of her paid employment to be available to her 2-year-old and maintained she does not regret her decision even though she misses the rush she got from her work. The middle-class discourse of “self-sacrificing mothers” and the “dutiful progeny” is relevant even in EMC families (Kumar, 2011: p. 230). Suraiyya said that while the in-laws provided childcare assistance, she realised it came at the cost of their opinion about the relationship dynamics and sharing of chores between the husband and wife. As much as the women missed their work, they also expressed a sense of relief at having opted out of paid employment or caring for their children as socially rewarding and fulfilling, often associating their children’s success at school or other ventures with their own vicarious success.

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Pragya, a research scientist at Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on sabbatical for the past two years and then on a maternity leave, which had begun about four months before the interview, said: All those things, the acclaim, the accolades, the recognition is important and fulfils you, but all that is of no use if your children feel dejected and desolated. All the awards and acclaims start to feel empty as a mother when your children feel untended to. All that (work) is important, but this (childcare) is important too, sometimes more. I made it in my life, and that feels great, but my children should be able to make it in their life is of far greater importance than what I have achieved individually. Interestingly, none of the narratives or interviews appeared to hint at friction within the family or among conjugal partners due to pressure on women to opt out of regular paid employment in favour of family obligations. It was an unstated default that if need be, the mother/wife will quit or take a sabbatical to care for the children. This is reflective of an implicit and unstated understanding among young educated men and women of the gendered division of labour in the home, subordinated status of women within marriage and the idea that “[T]he primacy of the woman as a mother and protector of the domestic sphere is not fundamentally transformed by her employment in the lucrative global industry; rather it is enhanced in unexpected ways” (Radhakrishnan, 2011: p. 151). Women within the educated middle class are expected to effectively mobilise human capital toward intergenerational reproduction of class advantage (Vincent, 2010). Their careers can provide the necessary security against which men of the family espouse to strive for class mobility. However, upon being faced with the question of the reproduction of class intergenerationally, women take up the responsibility of contributing by transmitting cultural capital and social capital, while men primarily take the responsibility of accruing economic capital. While this is particularly true of educated middleclass families, it may also apply by extension to other horizontal fractions of the middle class. Such an assumption about future roles each partner is expected to play should also be seen in connection with the strong preference for an educated spouse among the respondents (described in earlier chapters). The preference for an educated spouse among educated middle-class individuals is in ways hinting at the premium placed on embodied and institutional capital that may be mobilised for future roles and sexual division of labour as parents as well. Often, kinship relations may be called upon to help assist this process while the primary focus remains. Some women continue to contribute to economic capital as well, just as men partake in building social and cultural capital as well. What must be emphasised here is not the sharing of these

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responsibilities but the idea that the primary onus of generation of economic capital to a large extent falls upon men, while the primary onus of inculcating habitus and cultural capital falls upon women. These in synchrony are expected to reproduce class advantage effectively. Prioritising reproduction of class advantage over individual career choice for women and class ambition for men is understood as a rational choice since children constitute what would be described later in this chapter as “projects”, an embodiment of the success or failure of two individuals who are their parents becomes contingent on how the “projects” of their children turn out upon maturation. There also were mothers who did not leave paid employment but took a sabbatical and had returned to their jobs, like Patricia and Manisha. However, one must note that both of them, as well as Pragya, who was set to return to her job, had childcare support from the co-habiting grandparents. In contrast, others like Poorvi, Nikita, Trishna, Nandini, Shivani and Shreya all left and joined different jobs at a time when they felt comfortable returning to paid employment. Almost all cases are unanimously stuck to the twoyear gestation, which has previously been described as the safe period to return to the employment sector. Since at the expiration of a two-year period, re-entry into paid employment becomes almost impossible. The Template of Motherhood The mother as the epitome of female agency within the educated middleclass family is defined by the woman’s role in establishing and maintaining class boundaries performatively. They contribute to shaping the ideological locus of the middle class and maintaining its continuity through child-rearing practices and lifestyles in India (Donner, 2008: p. 39). That is to say; mothers are gatekeepers of class belonging and contribute to class security ensuring efficient reproduction through effective class-appropriate socialisation and concerted cultivation (Lareau, 2002, 2003). Mothers represent class discipline and maintenance of class boundaries through scrutiny, surveillance and what can at best be described as an editorial role. They actively assume and enact editorial roles in shaping everyday behaviour, attitudes, speech, action, practices and routines. Routinely approving, disapproving and revising and correcting behaviour and language unbecoming of the EMC class status. Mothers organise, check, correct, polish, direct, manage and supervise the individuals to class-appropriate persona. Soumya overtly corrected her 3-year-old to end his request sentences with a “please” and a “thank you” and his trying to get attention while the interview was going on as “bad boy” behaviour. She would routinely point out to her 3-year-old that I am watching him and would judge his actions unfavourably since “what will she think about you?!”. Her pointing of my gaze to her son as something that should act as a deterrent to his actions is symptomatic of early socialisation into “log kya kahenge” (described in an earlier chapter)

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as well as socialising him into the class-appropriate repertoire of actions and language. In another instance, during an ongoing interaction with Suraiyya, her three-year-old spotted me and, having developed familiarity, came to invite me to play with him. I  noticed that he had fistfuls of candies in both his hands. He looked down at his shoes and suddenly extended his hands and said, “Take this”. I cupped my palms and received the candies. He picked up the one candy that had slipped from his grip and fallen when he had run up to me, put it back with the others in my palms and said, “Now, give it back”, and took them back, a little at a time, to stuff it in his pockets. Soumya quickly reminded the boy, “Shouldn’t you offer her some?”, the boy looked at Soumya and back at me then took one from my hand and offered. I accepted it and then he ran away. He returned shortly afterwards and said, “I really like that one; you take this one” and offered a different candy in a trade-off. Soumya let out a gasp and a sheepish chuckle and exclaimed, “This is so bad, shameless boy!” There were many instances where mothers actively circumscribed their children to keep them within class-appropriate boundaries or reprimanded behaviour or utterances they believed were unbecoming of the EMC status. Sometimes such circumscribing was done not just to shape overt behaviour, but also expectations and attitudes, which are appropriate for a “dutiful progeny”. For example, on one occasion, with her son in hearing range, but without directly addressing him, Nandini said, “We have both done our best; now it is all up to him to make whatever he makes of it. He does well; it would be good for him, and if he doesn’t, what can we do”. Clearly, Nandini wanted to highlight the shared-ness of expectation of attaining successful maturation and being gracious “dutiful progeny”. Mothers are seen as members of family structures that not only work towards primary education and socialisation but also establish and execute order, control and discipline through consistent vigilance and systematic remedial intervention. Despite such a critical shaping role “mothering continues to seem to be two ironically contradictory things: overblown and idealised, and insignificant and unimpressive” (Nita Kumar, 2005: p. 157). Mothers remain invisible outside of their roles as custodians of class boundaries and their services towards the upkeep and maintenance of households and family members. Mothers are visible only through their labour and through their obvious role of maintenance and enforcement of order and control, as well as gatekeeping behaviour and attitudes to be class appropriate. Soumya struggled against her husband’s abusive language around the house which she resented as being hurtful to the linguistic development, mental vocabulary and cultural repertoire that the children picked up and being class inappropriate. Mothers also were visible in and through their efforts to cultivate a taste and cultural capital. Mona proudly mentioned exposing her son to Picasso and

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Beethoven early on, carefully choosing the music and books he was introduced to. Suraiyya mentioned playing classical sangeet in her home for her daughter to get acquainted with. In the making of the project of life for their child, mothers played far more active and physically engaged roles than fathers did. In comparison, fathers were decision-makers and contributed through economic capital (generation and investment). The redirection of economic capital towards efficient optimisation of resources was dependent on the research and physical labour invested by mothers (Forsberg, 2009; Vincent and Ball, 2007; Vincent, 2010; Donner, 2005; Reay, 1998). Milind highlighted how his mother spent her days and nights eye-guzzling pamphlets, prospectuses and other information she would collect about various coaching institutes after completing his class 10th examinations. He said she would go to any and every class that anyone suggested could be good, she would get the material and the only responsibility of Milind was to read and study hard the material that she had procured, which he did. Similarly, in her narrative, both Nikita and Manisha highlighted the efforts that their mothers invested in going with them to every coaching centre, procuring books for them, and finding relevant information about tuition centres while they were entrusted with studying and investing their best efforts towards successful culmination. In their study, Vincent and Ball (2007) also note that the investment into making and strengthening a child’s life project is not only class-specific but also gender-specific investment (p.  8). They highlight Sharon Hays’ (1996) concept of intensive mothering as a way to explain the demands that motherhood within middle-class households imposes on women. They highlight that mothers are expected to bear the responsibility of broadening a child’s worldview and developing their talents through identifying the child’s potential and honing it. Mothers contribute to a child’s life project through physically and mentally investing in arranging and organising for the children appropriate “‘exposure’ to as many valued experiences as possible” (ibid.). This demands from the mother “a heavy investment of the mother’s time, energy, money and emotional commitment into enhancing the child’s intellectual, physical, social and emotional development” (ibid.). Therefore, the expectations of mothering, among educated middle-class families require “the maximum free time being harnessed to maximum cultural capital” (Bourdieu, 2018: p. 82). In this study too, Jahanvi highlighted how, unlike her mother, she escorts her two daughters everywhere. Milind recounted how his mother actively researched the coaching institutes he must attend and even filled out his forms. Srijoyi, Shivani as well as Azra were researching to find the best preschools for their daughters, who were of two years, two and a half years and 18 months, respectively. Srijoyi and Shivani had extensively researched all the schools nearby and which ones they were keener on sending their children to. All the women admitted that they discussed their research into preschools with their partners, but the research work was entirely theirs to

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do. This reiterated what Reay (1998) observed about mothers mobilising networks to generate social capital towards making more informed choices with regard to their children’s education. They had elaborate reasons that built on the school’s teaching philosophy, the diversity of exposure available to children and even their success rate of launching children into higher educational institutions. This is reiterated in Vincent and Ball’s (2007) study on middleclass mothers of children under five years, “In the families in our research it was certainly the mothers who bore the responsibility for researching, arranging and monitoring the care and education of the children, and their attendance at activities” (p. 8). Father as a Symbol of Taste and Personality While mothers feature in narratives in terms of ‘what they did around the house and for the child, fathers featured prominently as people with tastes and personalities. Mothers’ likes and dislikes were expressed in terms of rules around the house, while fathers were accorded personalities in preferences and annoyances. In the life narratives, fathers were presented as characters that were assigned stresses, pains, struggles and character. These were people who liked some things and disliked other things; they were shown as having principles, values and endurance, while the mothers were presented as shadow figures with no individuated sense of self that distinguishes them from their role as a mother or the household. While mothers featured as tied to processes of production and reproduction, fathers were associated with the authorship of the finished products. Mothers were background labour to the production of a social aura, and fathers were assigned authorship and representational role. The social perception and societal praises and rebuttals were seen as having a direct impact on the reputation of the father as an individual and never on the mother (even in cases where mothers were in the workforce and enjoyed an existence outside the home). The social persona of the family and home was seen as a direct extension of the father’s personality and individual self. While mothers reflected in the discipline of language and behaviour, the father’s principles were reflected in the principles of the family, his values in the values of the house and the societal feedback on the family were seen to be having a direct impact on the individual reputation of the father. The family bore the pressure of making the father look good, while the father risked his individual social reputation as being associated inextricably with the societal perception of his family and house by extension. The distant breadwinner role assumed by the father also enabled the space whereby comprehension of limited interaction could happen. While for mothers the role of mothering amalgamated her individual self into the selves of her children, her spouse and her household. While the identity of the mother as an individual diffused into the children, spouse and household,

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the father’s identity was consolidated through its extension and reproduction by family and household. The templates employed to talk about mothers and fathers are indicative of gendered socio-cultural and economic frames associated with these roles and what it means for the EMC family structure. Therefore, it is important to consider how, in talking about mothers as shadow people, what template of motherhood is being produced. It is interesting that the subject position that is assumed while talking about life is that of a gracious adult-child. It further gets muddled up with their reflection on their parents as other parents. Mothers are posited as the primary parent; fathers are seen as personalities and role models. Mothers contribute towards cultivating rootedness, humility and hard work, while fathers contribute to cultivating the will to strive and ambition. Fathers are defined in terms of the ambitious vision they outlined for their children to aim to achieve. Most often, this vision is, by design, meant to be independent of a child’s own interest or ability and usually unrealistic or exceptionally competitive. This precise “hard to attain”-ness must drive children to work harder, perform better and feel a greater sense of dejection at not being able to meet the expectations. The ambitious expectations of fathers are always stated in terms of academic success and/or career choices; however, the disappointment stemming from an inability to meet fatherly expectations has a bearing on choices pertaining to career but also to marriage. Considering that the expectations of the fathers are almost always independent of the child’s ability or interest and almost, in all instances, more or less unrealistic or too hard to achieve, failure is more likely than not. Since failure is more likely it is just as likely for fathers to be disappointed. For instance, Azra pointed out how her father expected her to become a doctor, but she had no interest in medical science. He was disappointed to learn that she had defied him while choosing her stream for her higher secondary school education. Contrarily, Nikita’s father was against her wish to pursue a career in engineering, since he felt that engineering is not an appropriate field for women and wanted her to be a teacher, he too felt disappointed in his daughter when she flunked her teacher education entrance examination, which she admitted was on purpose. Unlike approval of the mother, which is contingent on children being able to meet realistic goals, the father’s approval largely is contingent on meeting expectations that are always set higher than the actual potential of the child. For instance, Patricia, while talking about her father, highlighted this aspect in an exaggerated expression by saying, “My father still can’t understand why I can’t yet be the principal of my college, the registrar of the university, the prime minister and the President of India, all at once”. Her remarks indicate a somewhat resigned acceptance of the inevitability of living with “the disappointed father”. The idea that “fathers were disappointed in children” contributes to a kind of guilt in children that produces a sense of allegiance and conformity towards the class, caste and religious rules and

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familial expectations especially pertaining to marriage set by the patriarch, as somewhat compensatory. Azra’s, Nikita’s and Manisha’s mothers were categorical about sounding their daughters that any act pertaining to the choice of marital partner outsides of the codes of religion, region and caste would be intolerable to the fathers. The disappointment emerging from career choices works to circumscribe choices pertaining to marital partners. This is validated by the fact that while a defiant career choice of daughters did not become a ground for a severing of the father-daughter relationship, the choice of marital partners in the case of Nandini and Soumya led to the disintegration of their familial bonds. Azra said that her father did not talk to her for two weeks because she chose a stream that he did not approve of, but she was able to make it up to him. Both Nandini and Soumya said that their father refused to see them or talk to them for the longest time (for years) since they had married against their wishes. In part, this hostility is definitely tied to the father’s perceived hurt to his social persona and a loss of respect in the gaze of the collective conscience. Both the loss of social persona and loss of respect in the gaze of collective conscience is a function of the general abhorrence of flouting caste-religion diktats within the educated middle class (discussed in an earlier chapter) and a perceived loss of patriarchal control. A resigned accommodation is yet another mechanism by which an individual’s allegiance to the family, especially the patriarch is reinforced and the child as an individual is glued to the family. This allegiance keeps the family together and functioning as one unit, providing an enabling environment for individuals to reproduce their class privilege. The allegiance within an EMC family also imposes the condition that they abide by these codes of behaviour/templates of mother, father and child. Playing the mother, father and dutiful child roles efficiently is as much a part of producing enabling environment as disciplining space and time and social interactions. The defiance of the child (however insignificant) and its resigned accommodation is meant to produce a kind of indebtedness that ties the child’s individuality to the approval of the parents, especially the father. The status of the father as a removed/distant parent and authority helps establish a distance between the child and the father. This distance is critical in establishing a kind of divide between child’s actions and their judgements by the father. How a child’s actions would appear to the father works to reverse influence actions in view of speculative judgement by the father. Contrarily, fathers rarely, if ever, express their approval, explicitly. Father, instead at best indicate their accommodation since approval will reduce the need for the child to keep seeking approval. The mothers usually invoked how the actions would appear to the father as a way of circumscribing children’s actions. The approving/disappointed “gaze of the father” manifests itself through the warnings of mothers sounding children to keep conscious of the gaze of the father and striving to, if not doing him proud, at least not disappoint him. The discourse

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of the father’s expectations and his distant judgement is always established through the context of career and academic success. While “the disappointed father” was more visible in respondents’ own accounts of growing up and relationships with their fathers, Azra, Manisha, Nandini, Suraiyya, Pragya and Mona, all with children of different ages, indicated invoking the father’s judgement as a circumscribing reference to children’s actions. Azra, Pragya and Nandini, Manisha and Mona also either hinted or explicitly indicated to their children that they would/should make their fathers proud one day. Fathers also assume the position of a guiding/wise voice of reason and experience. The council extended is usually with regard to decisions pertaining to career, social persona, investment and management of finances, occasionally taxes, and on an odd occasion with regard to family and marriage (especially to sons). The counsel on marriage and family are not usual, but a career, social persona, financial management and advising are most common. In contrast to the narration of their own fathers, Pragya, Poorvi, Nikita, Trishna and Patricia identified a change in their own husbands as fathers assuming a more “nurturing-protecting” role, too, is highlighted by an incident Patricia’s narrated to illustrate a changed pattern of fatherhood over time. She said she was used to being beaten up as a disciplining strategy. So, she had grown up with the experience of being beaten (with a belt). However, she recalled that on one occasion (guided by her childhood experience), she took out a belt to hit her eldest daughter, but her husband promptly took the belt from her hand and declared that she was not going to hit his children with a belt. She said she felt very nice and, in fact, ran down to tell her father what her husband had said in a bid to highlight how better a father her children had. Fathers have been traditionally and were still (in EMC families) entrusted with primary responsibility for arranging economic capital required towards investment in the child’s futurity. Fathers are also assigned far more character and personality as compared to mothers. Fathers are authority figures, while mothers are omnipresent conscience that works to sanction, comprehend and/or argue the rightness of an action, thought or word in light of the father’s absent judgement. Fathers, in this sense, remained aloof and removed from the regular workings of the family but were involved in overall decisionmaking, sanctioning or reprimanding of family matters when they turned out of the ordinary. Azra recalled how her father had only once called his three daughters and told them that he trusted his daughters. She said her father saying this to her and her two sisters was momentous, and they held onto it as a sacred bond that must not be violated. However, the reminders from her mother were far more frequent and direct in pointing out that both, the idea of having a pre-marital relationship as well as the thought of marrying a nonSyed, was forbidden. Manisha’s mother also sounded her on concentrating on her career and not falling for “distractions” of pre-marital relationships since they could compromise her career prospects, in addition, to warning

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Manisha that “girls choosing their marriage partner was not a rule in this family”. Hurting the father’s social persona and his name and reputation in the societal gaze was seen as a matter of immense guilt for younger women, who found themselves entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining their father’s name and reputation. Young women honour the patriarch by honouring the control of the patriarch over their lives. This pact of honouring the patriarchal control over their sexuality solidified the discourse of dutiful progeny on the part of young women. In opposition to young men, dutiful progeny discourse meant feeling indebted to the parents and honouring them through continuing to act subordinate around the patriarch. Respect, reverence and care for older parents were tied to being dutiful progeny. Parents admitted to not being able to find enough time now to play with their children and did not resent it much. This was argued as giving children the autonomy to form their own social groups away from parents’ intervention towards understanding social relationships gradually. This was, however, seen as being compensated in and through escorting and driving children to and back from their various enrichment activities. The Child Planning of children as explained above is carefully carried out. The period between marriage and parenthood is the time when parents carefully and meticulously work on their own compatibility and resources to ensure the most conducive environment for bringing up a child. Children born soon after marriage are seen as unbecoming of EMC’s prudence and are considered less cared for than the children born through careful calculation and conscious decision. The break-up of a family unit or discord is seen as counterproductive. It is an unstated assumption that children would not be able to perform as well as they would otherwise if they lived in an environment with disturbing influences. Nikita and Shreya both admitted maintaining some discretion and presenting an illusion of normalcy to their children even when there was marital discord between parents. However, both admitted that they would perhaps share about things when children were old enough to understand them as an effort to minimise the disturbance knowledge of discord may cause. While there were active attempts to cover up and filter information, these were complicated by the restrictions imposed by space, as was evident from the case of Shreya, who admitted that her five-year-old daughter was a regular witness to the physical violence that she was subjected to. In a conversation following a gap, Shreya confessed to being hospitalised as a result of injuries she received from being hit by her husband. She recounted, every time I went to my workplace or went out just generally I would wear a turtleneck or a scarf to hide the visible bruise on my neck and shoulder

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or put some concealing make up on it. When I was going out to market with my daughter, I didn’t notice this once, but the scarf I had wrapped wasn’t covering its (bruise) up well. She (daughter) stopped me at the door and said, “mummy, cover it properly, it is showing!” I can’t tell you how I felt. My child has grown so much, how mature she has become. There was a tendency among the educated middle class to conceal and exercise discretion to control disclosure to the outside world. This strategy helped keep mentions of one’s ongoing problems limited and helped maintain an enabling environment with the least amount of discord and disturbance. There was also this prevailing sense of internalising the codes of social presentation acceptable to the consciousness of the collective gaze. This internalisation (as evident from Shreya’s words) is a crucial part of maturation. This differentiation of the publicly presented self and privately experienced life reiterates the ideas of collective conscience (explained in detail in the ­previous chapter) as a structuring influence in the lives of the educated ­middle class. Parents also mobilise information technology to retain discretionary powers and control privacy through well-calculated divulging of information that is shared on social networks. Virtual space allows for a greater sense of individualised, flexible and convenience-based interaction that may spread over time and space, a socialising that may not necessarily disrupt one’s routine or schedule significantly. Hence, discretion and disclosure were crucial to forming an educated middle-class identity produced performatively among the children. Disclosure sans disturbance was the toughest task within educated ­middle-class parenting. Disclosures about discord or financial strain were to be weighed for their potential to disturb the child and so appropriately timed and carefully managed. A successful disclosure sans disturbance would lead to maturation and assumption of responsibility by the child as active partaking in the reproduction of an educated middle-class identity. In terms of disclosures about financial strain, maturation meant a sense of gratitude and reciprocal effort and hard work from the child, which will be explained later in this chapter. Efficient coordination among parents serves as a solid foundation upon which a child’s life planning can be optimised. Also, such efficient coordination is essential to meeting the challenges of parenthood in an educated middle-class family. Poorvi highlighted that she was concerned about her children living in a joint household, witnessing tiffs and arguments, learning that bickering was normal and learning to emulate that in their conversations elsewhere over time; hence they shifted away from the joint household. Similarly, Nandini and Soumya pointed out that they felt that their firstborns were not as well planned as they should have been. Both had married early in life and felt they needed stabilisation before having made the decision to have a child.

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David Lancy highlights that the changes in the economic basis of society and the need for future workers to stay in school for longer durations have shifted the discourse on childhood. He writes, “Children have been transformed from being economic assets to liabilities to personally rewarding ‘projects’ ”. (Lancy, 2014: p. 77). This may also be related to what Vincent and Ball (2007) observe as a trend among the professional middle class in Britain, which enunciates Lancy’s claim that the child is understood as a project, that the parents have the responsibility of investing in and improving through exposure to the right kind of learning experiences. This is what Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods (2011), calls “the concerted cultivation of children” (Lareau, 2011: p. 48). Vincent and Ball (2007) argue that this understanding of childhood “as a project, soft malleable and able to be developed and improved” encourages parents to approach enrichment activities such as singing, gym and dance, et cetera in a bid to enrich their project and improve chances of social reproduction. In this manner, parents act as “managers of social opportunities” (Parke, 2013: p. 17). Parke (2013) clearly highlights the class-specific nature of such an inclination among parents, particularly associated with the professional middle class. Parents in this study, too, understand this as a part of their responsibility to actively facilitate children’s access to various social and physical resources outside the family. In addition, parents pay to acquire services from individuals apart from family members in their children’s socialisation and cultural capital acquisition. As explained in an earlier section, there is an observable shift in the kinds of and ways in which children are being initiated into various forms of cultural capital. A shifting trend is observed among the respondents from those who grew up in the 1970s–1980s being taught by a family member and/or some friendly older neighbour. The 1980s features as the mixed year where some had already started narrating the emergence of paid tuition classes as supplemental to what was being done in the school and the emergence of coaching centres for higher education entrance examinations. Those who grew up in the 1990s highlight a clear and strong dependence and presence of shadow education systems as determining competent and good education (Majumdar, 2014). However, the parenting decisions that emerged from the study highlighted how the shift is moving from a mere co-curricular shadow system to increased attention towards professional coaching for extra-curricular activities and enrichment exposure to various skills and talents, sports and interests (Parke, 2013: p.  13). Schools, once the only source of extra-familial responsibility sharing, have now become one among an array of freelancing services available to middle-class parents. Although schools still retain their primary relationship, schools are increasingly also recognising their position within a network of activities that populate the life of the educated middle-class child. Unanimously in the findings of this study, it was found that services of professionals (academic and non-academic support) were accessed on an

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independent basis. The professionals were hired either together, as Jahanvi pointed out, on the basis of a demand from a significant number of families within the neighbourhood or by enrolling children in already running batches, which has children more or less from the same social background. Membership in a batch, as opposed to individualised services from a hired professional, is significant to the educated middle-class child’s sense of self as being part of a group accessing the same or similar resources (being ordinary) while demonstrating distinction of merit and talent (being unique). All parents in the study highlighted how their children should retain the cognisance of competitiveness through being one among many competing. Nita Kumar (2011) highlights this fittingly; she writes: That they are like everybody else is simultaneously the tragedy as well as the triumph. It is, of course, the professional skill of advertisers to create the effect of specialness in anonymity: the message of “you can be special if you’re like everyone else” is a necessary corollary of the size and positioning of the middle class. (Kumar, 2011: p. 223) Note that in the latter case (learning in batches set to timings) children usually are not all from the same neighbourhood, even though a significant number may be from the same neighbourhood, owing to discussions about childcare decisions among parents. In fact, the need and preference for the gated enclave and living in gated enclaves emerges from the need to seek assistance with child protection in emergent educated middle-class families. Holding onto the middle position is also a matter of self-control. As Dickey (2012: p. 559) notes, “Whilst being ‘in the middle’ is a source of pride and pleasure, connoting both achievement and enhanced self-control, it is simultaneously a source of great tension, bringing anxiety over the critical and damaging scrutiny of onlookers”. The activities include co-curricular activities that assist learning and creative problem-solving techniques such as Vedic maths, Kumon, and abacus, which are all related to mathematics that was ongoing, while story-telling and story-writing workshops and science camps were more like consolidated workshops that would last a fortnight during school vacations. Apart from the co-curricular programmes, children (of those within the sample) were being sent for or received at some point lessons for musical instruments (guitar, in two cases and violin and sitar in one each), dance (contemporary and Indian), gymnastics, karate, tae-kwon-do, swimming, football, tennis, basketball, table tennis, squash, cricket, theatre (workshops during school vacations), camps, hiking trips that parents saw as supplemental to personality development through exposure and character building. These may not necessarily be linked to professional training for future talent-based careers for children. However, they provide a perfect beginning for identifying children’s

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talents that may later be focused more specifically on the objective of building a possible future career, as Soumya pointed out about her 13-year-old son, who plays soccer and represents his coaching club. There are inherent operating notions of success in the current state of the economy that gets associated with the idea of middle-class life as a project from childhood until one has children themselves. Now well, engineered and maximum exposure parenting reflects the idea that school knowledge is insufficient for post-school success in higher education or career. This is reiterated by Vincent and Ball (2007) as being a matter of building a number of things that can be listed in future in the college application essays of children, improving their prospects in educational pursuits and careers. They aptly write: [T]hese activities can be understood as evidence of the planning ahead, the concern with the future that defines the approach of the middle classes to education. . . . This is to formulate the beginnings of a CV for the child. A proven track record in music, drama, art or sport can increase a child’s attractiveness in a competitive school market. (Vincent and Ball, 2007: p. 11) This also emerged from the interviews of Poorvi and Manisha, who highlighted the importance of having co-curricular and extra-curricular activities listed in the application of children when they apply for higher education in foreign universities. Although the enchantment with good performance at school remains, parents now look at school education as signifiers of ability and talent and look at it as one of the many aspects contributing to their child’s future success. The linkages that EMC parents see between cultural and economic capital reinforce Vincent and Ball’s (2007) argument, “(t)he buyingin of expertise through activities (or tutoring, or parenting classes) is one of the more obvious ways in which cultural capital is linked to economic capital” (p. 8). Not only can economic capital buy cultural capital but the right cultural capital is essential for speculative investment in the development of specific kinds of cultural capital that may have better returns than the others. The shift may possibly have something to do with the rise of semi-skilled service sector jobs and the emergence of startups in India after the relaxation of license requirements, along with the opening up of markets (Krishna, 2013: p. 38). The idea of freelancing and selling existing ventures for a profit to bigger companies is strengthening the belief in the economy of ideas as the basis for a successful life. This kind of investment in shaping the child’s life project in terms of particular talents and abilities is intensive both in terms of time, economic capital and cultural capital (reflected in background research taken on by parents). The primary site of production of the middle-class child is still the family (Kumar, 2011: p. 229). The child in a middle-class family is actively and

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categorically distinguished from the notions and practices associated with child care and childhood in a lower-income family by educated middleclass individuals. Childhood is seen as a constructive phase and a critical period where the child must pick up the tools that help build a foundation for an “all-round personality” and “holistic development”; these words are employed by middle-class individuals to highlight a more global persona that incorporates kinaesthetic and mental experiences of activities that transcend local-contextual interests and allows the child to develop the requisite repertoire, experiences and importantly anecdotes that develop into cultural capital while building the personality of the child. In yet another example of the inter-class distinction, the parents clearly distinguish the middle-class child from lower-income households by drawing two important contrasts. One is the involved and extensive parenting, and the second is the freedom from labour responsibilities in favour of time relocation for educational and personality-building activities. In some cases, children were expected to perform some duties, but these were largely customary and a way of re-enactment of discipline and dutifulness of the child. These small tasks that children were asked to fulfil were carefully timed and not part of the child’s routine but more like an exercise and obligatory. These tasks were then associated with the connection the child must develop with the family and the home as a kind of reminder of expected future roles. As an adult, children should be mindful of the relationship that is expected of a responsible person in their homes. This is also supplemented with the need to have children realise their position of privilege without making them resent it. The children must realise that what is being made available to them isn’t available to everyone else and enhances the fact that their specialness is supported materially too. That is, they have no reason not to aim to actualise their full and highest potential, given their position of material comfort. Although parents of low-income households may also have similar expectations and ambitions from their children, middle-income households and the educated middle class, in particular, mobilise resources far more efficiently through systematic research and involvement with their children’s education. In their own opinion, middle-class households and educated middle class are far more involved and engaged first-hand with their children’s education. Often provided as a social role model for children to use towards shaping their own ambitions and goals, for instance, as Azra pointed out while talking about her ambition for her 2-year-old daughter. She highlighted how she should aim to get competitive education, preferably from a higher education institution in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Germany and preferably on a scholarship. Mothers also carefully align their expectations to the child’s ongoing performance in educated middle-class homes. Nandini, anxious about her son’s deteriorating performance at school exams said, “Both my husband and I wanted him to get into IIT, but now when I see how he is doing, I feel even if he gets into an NIT, I would be content”.

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Parents realise a high co-relation between home environment and children’s academic performance, especially the time invested by the mother and her educational background during early childhood and during later childhood. Families, and in most cases, mothers, invest more time into their children’s education to supplement the shadow education systems and enrichment activities that the child attends. The parents unanimously admitted to sitting down with their child to help with school work or practising and learning lessons for examinations and class performance. Shadow education institutions and parents too worked separately on strengthening the child’s learning at school. While parents said they would strictly stick to what was being done at school, the shadow education system worked on roughly the same curriculum but at their own pace each day. They did not feel the need to collaborate or synchronise their classes to what was being done at school, also because the batch system meant these children came from different neighbourhoods and usually from different schools. Hence, the academic schedules were multiple and difficult to synchronise; hence shadow education systems followed their own schedule and plan. Parents supervise the child’s homework too. It is noteworthy that the father’s participation, in terms of time and labour, with the child’s education is flexible and negotiable. Mother’s participation, on the other hand, is more continuous, intensive and somewhat taken for granted as being her primary responsibility as the primary parent (Reay, 1998; Donner, 2005). Enabling Environment Cultural practices of parenting and socialisation are also spatial. The relationship between class and space is important to understanding how class privilege is reproduced intergenerationally. There is a strong need among educated middle-class families to optimise routines and practices concerning the education and socialisation of the middle-class child through cultivating an “enabling environment”. Environment or its Hindi equivalent ‘mahaul’ has previously been explored to highlight concerted efforts at intergenerational social mobility through education in the rural context (Jeffery et al., 2006) and among Dalits neighbourhoods in Delhi (Ganguly, 2018). Even in earlier invocations, the “mahaul” combines perceived positive effects of peer culture, amenities (like electricity) and educational resources (like good tutors). In some ways, the varied accounts of “mahaul” are invoked even in EMC families as a contrast drawn from underclass children’s upbringing. “Mahaul” is referenced through a lack of it in underclass families and appears in EMC child-rearing and parenting narratives as a marker of their investment in ensuring their children’s future success. A marker of parental investment in children’s socialisation and children as projects. An enabling environment is something all EMC parents recognise as critical to parenting children the right way. EMC parents argued that such an environment was (in their opinion) difficult to achieve in lower-income

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households since it required the efforts, commitment and work from parents that underclass parents couldn’t commit to. While some EMC parents felt the lack of enabling environment was no fault of underclass parents, other EMC parents felt that underclass parents were not as invested or well informed about the need for enabling environment. They argued that the lower-income families maintained more demanding bonds with their extended families, unlike the flexible and less-stringent demands experienced by educated ­middle-class families in particular, whereby everyone (even in extended families) mutually agreed upon children’s education being of the highest priority. As a result, parents often excuse themselves from familial obligations of visits, ceremonies and functions by arguing that their children have conflicting school or academic year schedules, which in most cases qualifies as an authentic reason for missing these obligations without creating any kind of friction in the social and familial relationships. The chapter takes “mahaul” beyond its presence or absence to understand the invested and concerted effort by the educated middle class to produce it. “Enabling environment” in the context of the middle class in gated enclaves isn’t as much a fact as a spatial declaration of class privilege through practices. These class practices are meant to mobilise economic, cultural and social capital towards translation into a cultural advantage that aids and facilitates scholastic and learning success. Providing an enabling environment to children is seen as a necessary condition for actualising their true potential and future success. An enabling environment for children is the concerted efforts of parents to systematically provide the most optimal conditions for learning through disciplining the social and physical space that children inhabit. It is simultaneously a dedicated attempt at minimising distractions, reducing the negative influences and inhibitors to learning. Providing an enabling environment is also tied to the acquisition and making available those resources that are seen as conducive to learning objectives and the child’s future success. These include supplementary tuitions and personality and skill development lessons linked to the middle-class parents’ understanding of their role as facilitators and enablers (Reay, 2005: p. 130). It is the systematic production of all conditions conducive to this outcome and removing anything seemingly inhibiting or counterproductive to the goal. The production of space as enabling environment requires the control, manipulation and disciplining of both physical and social space. This is evident in many ways that govern educated middle-class parents’ behaviour, concerns and choices. For instance, Nikita’s insistence to move to an educated middle-class neighbourhood in new Gurgaon was tied to her need to provide her son a continuity between his home and school environment, which she felt she couldn’t ensure given the suburban locality of Old Gurgaon is characterised by. Also, parents organise their days through active negotiations for the timing of shared and divided responsibility towards the child’s routine management. As Nita Kumar (2011) puts it, “All of the

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family’s schedule should ideally be planned around child’s scholastic requirements” (Kumar, 2011: p. 231). The idea of an “enabling environment” is a principle that is not just applied to controlled settings for children towards advantaging them in scholastic performance and educational outcomes but also supports and supplements the adult middle-class individual in accruing occupational success. The closed residential space of gated enclaves embodies this idea of an “enabling environment”. The plan of the gated enclaves includes provisions and utilities that meet the most functional needs of households. Further, such an arrangement removes the need for individuals to separately invest time and resources in the upkeep, maintenance and doing odd jobs around the house to the ­underclass employed collectively by the gated enclaves as maintenance staff. This ­provided the much-needed distance from domestic and maintenance labour for EMC children as well as parents to focus their energies on education and enrichment and parenting, respectively. These, along with other comforts available to EMC children in EMC homes, provided them with the important cushioning against worries pertaining to chores, comfort, ­sustenance, and so on. These needs are maintenance-upkeep-related labour, security, procurement of provisions, facilities such as water, electricity backup, safe playing space for children, recreational and extra-curricular activities for personality enrichment available at ease through shared infrastructure, and collectively acquired labour force through shared cost. In extension, individually employed household helps, drivers, caretakers, nannies, nurses, and so on function to further free the educated middle-class from domestic labouring, significantly reducing time investment, allowing them to concentrate their energies on career pursuits, education of the children and/or being able to enjoy life. The middle-class parental aspirations for accruing exposure and experiences consistent with globality reflect the kind of amenities collectively arranged for within the gated enclaves. These amenities and coaches being made available within gated enclaves are not just from the point of view of getting children a healthy, wholesome life. Many parents like Pragya relate it to the possibilities of their children building a career out of interest, a fairly recurring theme in mothers’ reflections on their children. The educated middle-class living in gated enclaves to ensure privileged access also seeks to restrict access to lawns, facilities, courts, parks and swings installed for children within the enclave against the possibility of un-rightful use and “abuse” by children from the underclass or even adults from the underclass. Parents wanted their children to stay mindful of the fact that these material comforts are contingent on their ability to prove their worth in the education and economy subsequently. They wanted their children to enjoy the material comforts but use them as a launching pad to ensure the future security of the

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same or similar material conditions through appropriate educational success that feeds into bettering their future employment prospects. The material comforts and provisions were meant to be both tools as well as motivation for the children, while material comforts and provisions enable the child to free himself/herself from the obligations of labouring or participating in household chores in any significant manner. These were also meant to be a kind of motivation or a kind of driving force towards envisioning their future ambitions with regard to a lifestyle. Gated enclaves also promise the structured social and physical space that EMC desires for their children. The unstated protocol of living in gated enclaves is respecting other residents’ space and discretion regarding interacting. Despite most EMC parents having grown up in houses bustling with neighbours and relatives who would visit unannounced, the same was discouraged systematically within the gated enclaves. As Manisha explained: Nobody has time these days . . . you can’t expect people to be able to have those kinds of ties, as they used to be, anymore. . . . Also, if one were to think of it this way, the kind of unannounced neighbourly visits we used to witness as children were frankly a disturbance. We used to get disturbed by these visits if we were studying. So my friend and I  occasionally get together and chat casually over coffee, but we definitely confirm before we go over, unannounced is a kind of imposition and un-thoughtful . . . their routines and planned schedules would get disturbed if you decided to show up unannounced and stayed on for 2 hours, that induces a two-hour slag to their original plan! Even if we get guests while they are at the gate, their arrival is announced, and we get some time to put things in order, which I feel is a good thing. The system works so that any visitors are announced to the parents before they can appear at the doorstep. The time this gets parents allows them to limit the disturbance the visit may cause to the academic schedule of the children in the house. The need among educated middle-class parents to provide a protected, controlled environment is crucial to the child’s future success at securing and reproducing the material and ideological conditions characteristic of middle-class status efficiently. This need also leads them to weigh the value of social interactions for their promise (desirable and undesirable). The need among educated middle-class parents to control social interactions and orchestrate social experiences in their children’s lives until they get employed must be linked to middle-class parents’ role as facilitators and enablers (Donner, 2005). Parents look at peer circle as a critical situation for the child to develop socialising skills, team spirit and networking ability. They are also conscious of possible risks of peer group influences distracting the

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child away from the controlled, well-engineered, orderly and orchestrated enabling environment produced by the family. As Jahanvi puts it: Sometimes I feel my mother was far more relaxed as a mother than I have been for my daughters, I mean I do not leave them alone anywhere. For one they are girls, and the world is just a terrible place for girls. Secondly, I feel when kids are left to their own devices, they can’t be trusted to make the smartest and sound decisions, and these kids also have access to all kinds of strange influences these days. By the age of 13, all kids know all sorts of things that we didn’t even imagine. They are growing up faster than they should, and if parents don’t pay attention, they will get allured by their peer groups’ habits and get into bad habits. The designing of a controlled environment and socially useful interactions are done through maintaining close control on striking associations that are seen as constructive and useful and through maintaining sanitised social relationships of the child within a social group that has similar yet competitive social and educational goals. A  child’s social group, his/ her peer group, is also an important influence that sets and structures a child’s life goals. Every child in the peer group (of the educated middle class) normally strives for and attains college education from the most competitive institutions of higher education (Akerlof, 1997). As Anirudh Krishna (2013) highlights, a college degree makes a significant contribution to one’s earning potential. His arguments strengthen the trends emerging in this study for a preference among educated middle-class parents for a technical professional degree from a state-funded, reputed institution of higher education. The social networks made available by virtue of one’s membership in a certain kind of educational institution or enrichment club/group/batch are significant for the future prospects they promise for the child. These associations of social networks have concomitant significance in current times for the parents towards accessing appropriate social capital, as well (Coleman, 1988: Parke, 2013). The schools where one sends their children to ring together parents for various school and children-related activities and functions and in effect develop social capital for parents. This is illustrated by an incident whereby Mona’s flat was broken into, and despite filing a complaint with Gurgaon Police, she couldn’t get the officials to initiate an investigation despite persistent follow-up. She then decided to reach a high-rank official of Haryana Police whose son was studying with Mona’s son at the same school. Although it did not help her case very much, just the personalised access to a higher rank police official is significant for the kinds of social capital that can be made available through accessing some of these common educational and social institutions meant for children.

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Time and space management towards enabling and enhancing the child’s potential through minimising distractions is also essential to providing children in an educated middle-class family with an enabling environment. Parents go all out to provide the child at home a controlled environment with the least amount of distraction, disruption and disturbance through discipline. The control extends well beyond broad ethos and peer groups. Parents organise their daily schedules by dividing time between themselves for shared and individual responsibility/contribution towards the child’s routine management. This structuring of schedules reinforces what Nita Kumar (2011) points to. She writes, “All of the family’s schedule should ideally be planned around child’s scholastic requirements” (Kumar, 2011: p. 231, Reay, 2005: p. 129). There is a collective sense of understanding that parents of children may face some kinds of demands that everyone within the social circle agrees to accommodate. Children of school-going age or in higher education may be excused from attending functions and, in many cases, may be encouraged to do so in view of their academic obligations and demands. Parents may also actively participate in the child’s academic pursuits through extended tutoring or changes in family schedules as well as individual schedules (for driving to and back from coaching, for getting all necessary requirements, etc.), home environment, spatial management and discipline. It must be noted that all families may not consistently be doing all of these but may employ in part or in the collection some or all of these tactics at some point or other. These may further be extended to ensuring that the child is initiated into activities that may collectively form what is understood as an “enabling environment”. There is a whole discourse on school as an enabling environment in educated middle-class homes. Unlike what Crozier et al. (2008) report in their study of British middle-class parents who despite being financially capable of funding private school education are choosing to send their children to urban state-run comprehensive schools so that children develop into adults possessing a “good self”, an “ethical self” and with the clear aim of allowing their children to be able to mix with children coming from diverse backgrounds allowing for their children to “build character” as well as develop an appreciation for their privileged backgrounds against the “problems” some experience (Crozier et al., 2008: p. 265). The educated middle-class parents that are a part of this study preferred providing their children with what they considered and understood through in-class networks of neighbours, colleagues and friends as the most competitive education. Only Pragya was sending her six-year-old son to a school aided by state funds since she considered it important to the child’s selfconcept and his view of maintaining humility and not developing arrogance about his material privilege. She felt that it would work as an effective tactic to inculcate in him the motivation to work harder towards beating the

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competition since he would have little assurance of all the material comforts. In her words: A little sense of lack and a greater understanding of one’s humility is the key to success in life. One has to have a hunger to be doing well. You will get lazy or laid back if your stomach is too full. You would only move if you have a little hunger in you. You would get off your behind and work. Even so, Pragya felt that while she felt comfortable sending her child to an aided school, she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of sending her children to state-funded schools due to the sheer lack of accountability and the dismal state of pedagogy and facilities. Everyone else in the study was sending their children to world/international schools, arguing that this was the most enabling environment.7 The world schools were credited with world-class pedagogy and exposure and even controlled temperature and physical environment that would enable the child by neutralising the effect of temperature variations and other such issues posed by a physical environment that may negatively influence the learning environment and hence decrease the learning potential of the child. The child’s energies would get distracted from overcoming hostile weather conditions and physical environmental barriers. Even though Mudit remained critical of world schools as the best, he still said that he would be compelled to provide his child with what the society around him considered enabling environment. Summary This chapter captures the cultural practices within families as the primary site of transmission of class advantage. The chapter looks at these from the point of view of values, people and practices that it builds its insights around. It looks at how the mother and father are given different roles coordinated towards the efficient cultivation of the child as a project. It looks at how various strategies, resources and services are mobilised toward the creation of an enabling environment for the children. This enabling environment is expected to facilitate a child’s existing potential as well as enhance it. It looks at how engaged parenting makes it imperative for the parents to not just prioritise the child above almost all other concerns but also curiously restructure their own language, attitude and behaviours. This kind of restructuring is seen as contributing to the cultivation of enabling environment for the child. The chapter further discusses how the values appropriate to an educated middle-class habitus are inculcated in a child. The idea of a “sacrificing parent” and a “dutiful child” is the core value of the value system upon which the efficient transmission of class advantage is rested. The chapter also highlights

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the ways in which the interferences of what is understood as “distracting” or “harmful” peer influences are neutralised by parents. The chapter captures the ways in which the social space is utilised and structured to ensure the most efficient transmission of class advantage intergenerationally. Notes 1 “The household refers to a joint residence of members who share resources while a family has to do with the idea and value system that define who within a kin group constitute its members” (Krishnaraj, 2005: p. 3011). In the context of the study, the term household is being used to refer to all the material resources and services that a family mobilises or acquires for the members of a family in cohabitation. Family is used for members related to each other through marriage, kinship and adoption ties. 2 By the time the chapters were written, Karan, Milind and Shruti were married. 3 For an elaborate account of decadal trends of women in salaried employment as a skilled labour force in urban areas, please refer to Chaudhary and Verick (2014). 4 For more on trends in marriage age among women in India, see Goswami (2012), who describes how the mean and median age of marriage among women in urban areas have increased over time. 5 Genette (1997) expands the traditional ideas about the text. He introduces the idea of paratext, which is the framing elements both inside and outside the printed text that shape the reading experience, even though they are not part of the proper text. They act as augmentation and extensions of the proper text (McCracken, 2013: p. 106). Genette (1997: p. 344) defines epitext as, “The epitext is any paratextual element not materially appended to the text within the same volume but circulating, as it were, freely, in a virtually limitless physical and social space”. McCracken (2013) extends this to electronic literature. Here epitextual research refers to the extended information (on virtual and social space) and reviews that are circulating in social and virtual space and collected by the individuals towards making a choice or a decision. 6 Vincent (2010) describes intensive mothering as an “expert-guided and child-centred”, “emotionally absorbing, labour intensive, financially expensive” ideology in which mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture and development of the “sacred” child, and in which children’s needs take precedence over the individual needs of their mothers. (p. 110) 7 International schools emerged as a popular choice among the educated middle class as being efficient and sophisticated. The protected centrally air-conditioned premises, English-speaking teachers with sophisticated mannerisms, global exposure through tying up with schools in other countries and a global culture reflected in the school calendar, pedagogy and accountability measures seemed to provide the ideal controlled environment for their child to actualise his/her potential without having to battle harsh weather, or less qualified, de-motivated or ill-tempered teachers in an obscure teacher student ration and bad infrastructure of state-funded schools are perceived by the educated middle class as most suited to them.

Conclusion Towards Socio-spatiality of Class

Class is not universal, nor is it particular is a dialetheic claim. That is, this statement is true, and the negation of it is also true. All research on social class (across the globe) fills in the explanation for this dialetheic statement. Social class is universal in the broad way in which material or status inequality structures people’s interactions with one another and not universal in the sense of being a consciousness of “a class unto its own”. Similarly, social class is not particular in that every society has identified its internal social divisions that broadly reflect differential life chances and differential life situations. Each context indeed has specific ways in which classes have formed or operate that may not neatly superimpose on other contexts. We instinctively understand that New York’s middle class isn’t similar to New Delhi’s. As it emerged, New Delhi’s middle class wasn’t similar to New Gurugram’s middle class. We also instinctively understand that theories that have been constructed in western contexts may have limited applicability or need adaptation to suit the specificity of non-western contexts. Bourdieu’s ideas on social class in French society have limited applicability to explain social class realities in the Indian context. The underlying idea behind this understanding of the limited applicability of western theories is that space, social histories, context and culture play a role in the way in which social class plays out. In essence, what we know instinctively highlights that space plays an important part in playing out the specificities of social class identities. If the context is relevant, how relevant is it? And how is it relevant to understanding the ways of being and doing social class? Spaces are almost never neutral or sterile. They frame unfamiliar bodies in unstated rules of being and existing. The unstated rules render themselves to the scripts of being and becoming of domicile bodies and their dispositions. The relationship between space and identity as co-constitutive has not been explored in the context of the class. Spaces are structuring phenomena, and structured by classed disposition is also not a novel idea. The manifest ways of how this happens are rarely captured. The study highlighted that fractures that bring together elements of local and global policy, politics and capital have a bearing on the urban form and identity in a homological DOI: 10.4324/9781003454861-7

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manner. The study illustrates how local histories interact with global capital circuits (as illustrated in the book) to produce specific configurations of networks. These networks produce particular possibilities of urban form and social class identity homologically. In this chapter, I will reflect on how class becomes socio-spatial and what important insights this has in the context of the Bourdieusian theory of social class distinction in an attempt at grounded theorisation on social class. Such an attempt necessitates that we engage with theories on social class so far, highlighting the history of the middle class in India to situate insights on the post-liberalisation middle class in the neourban context and its significance for Class Analysis. Class Analysis This section by no means aims to capture in detail the trajectory of social class theorisation but provides a basic grounding for the following insights. Social Class theorisation emerged in the wake of industrialisation and the changing character of urban as well as society. Marxist class analysis is the first ever comprehensive engagement with changes in the organisation of work, labour and objective material conditions and the growing consciousness about it. The analysis offered a structures-based approach to studying the divisions within the society. The classes, therefore, were neatly structured and were fundamentally in contradiction to each other. These contradictions matured into full-fledged class conflict and were considered the primary drivers of social change. For Marx, the way in which human labour was mobilised and the relations through which it was mobilised were the starting points for studying society and history. Marxism offered the starting point for the “class approach” to studying society. The Marxist analysis’ most fundamental basis of all class analysis was the objective differences in material conditions and the growing consciousness among people about it. Marx’s conviction in the structured and binary nature of classes in a mutually contradictory relationship with each other proved to be the greatest shortcoming of Marxist class analysis. Marxist theory’s inability to account for the intermediary class or middle class in any comprehensive way became one of the greatest limitations of Marxist theory (Bottomore, 1983). As time progressed and the middle class grew (in clear opposition to the projections of Marx that the intermediary classes in a maturing capitalistic society would dissolve and merge with either of the two fundamental classes, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat, towards intensification of their mutual contradictions) (Sitton, 1996; Wright, 1985). Marxist class analysts have also been accused of using class analysis as so fundamental that they account for differences and hierarchies based on gender, race and religion. Marxists argued that these differences were, in the act, a function of class relations. This essentialisation of all forms of discrimination to be essentially disguised class relations emerged as another shortcoming of the Marxist analysis. The material conditions and consciousness are Marxist

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elements of class analysis that have persisted in class analysis. The conflict is critical to the understanding of class even now. However, the way in which it plays out is not one that holds revolutionary potential. The  antagonism between classes and their perceived differences from others is the ­backbone of feeling and being class. Marx’s ideas became significant to the Indian context with Lenin’s effort at adapting the Marxist theory of social class (set in the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution) to fit agrarian contexts. This step adapted Marx’s ideas by dividing the agrarian society into classes like landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants and agricultural labourers. Even though adaptation to an agrarian context was a significant step, there was limited applicability of Lenin’s adaptation of Marx’s ideas because there were other social divisions that determined and were arising out of ownership, control and use of land. The relationship between identity, status, privilege and land was complex. “intermediary classes” and “mixed class type” were common instead of exceptions (Beteille, 2007). Further, the divisions of class in India co-exist with divisions of caste that sometimes complement and don’t. This makes a neat application of class analysis extremely difficult in the Indian context. Weber begins by departing from the Marxist claim that class position and social status are mutually exclusive. He built a more comprehensive understanding of the intermediary classes. He recognised that class was about more than just material aspects of the class. Marx failed to account for education, occupation and income as contributing to shaping class position. Weber’s ideas on property-less classes furthered the class analysis from traditional Marxist criteria of land, labour and capital towards accounting for nonmaterial aspects of the class. For many years to come, sociologists would look at occupation (non-manual versus manual work) as the basis of distinguishing between the middle class and working class, respectively. Eric Olin Wright (1985) later added to this list authority and skill as capable of determining class, especially in the context of the middle class. He highlighted that based on the specificity of skills, one could think of the middle class as either being closer to or further from those who own means of production. Max Weber’s ideas on class built upon his notion of what he calls “Class Situation”. He argues that class situation translates to a typical probability of (a) procuring goods, (b) gaining a position in life and (c) finding inner satisfaction (Weber, 1978: p. 302). Elsewhere, he argues that the market situation determines the class situation (Weber, 1947). Weber highlights that class may be applicable where a number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances, in so far as this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in possession of goods and opportunities for income, and is represented under the conditions of the commodity or labour markets. (Weber, 1947: p. 181)

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He highlights that terminology of class can be employed to “any group of people found in the same class situation” (Weber, 1947: p. 181). “Class Situation” and “Class”, according to Weber, refer only to the same (or similar) interests which individual shares with others. In principle, the various controls over consumer goods, means of production, assets, resources and skills constitute a particular class situation (Weber, 1978: p. 302). Although the first conclusion drawn upon Weber’s analysis argues the economic basis of the formation of a class, his analysis touches upon themes that may not solely be economic. For instance, consider the inclusion of skills as a determinant of class situation. “Skill” is the only non-commodity that the class seeks control over. This admission is crucial since this is the only aspect that is dynamic and, unlike commodity, difficult to control. Despite the analysis being largely economic, Weber is significant for highlighting certain aspects of social class dynamics. For instance, he argues, “mobility among and stability of class positions differ greatly; hence the unity of social class is highly variable” (Weber, 1978: p.  302). For Weber, class differences are typically defined by property ownership. There can be the propertied and the property-less classes. The property serves as the source of wealth creation. Propertied classes may generate wealth through rent (Rentiers) or through commercial ventures (Entrepreneur). Property-less could be distinguished by the kind of services they offer in the labour market (Unskilled, Semi-skilled, and Skilled). According to him, class organisation could occur in three kinds, Propertied Class, Commercial Class and Social Class. Propertied class own means through which rent is generated, for example, labour, installations (factories and equipment), and land. Commercial classes are based on the marketability of goods and services, for example, merchants, industrial entrepreneurs, agricultural entrepreneurs, and bankers and financiers. Social class “makes up a totality of those class situations within which individual and generational mobility are easy and typical” (Weber, 1978: p. 302). Weber argues that the social class is constitutive of the property-less intelligentsia, working class, petty bourgeoisie, skilled specialists and people privileged through property and education. Among all three, there is a positively privileged, middle and negatively privileged class. He categorically defines the middle class among the commercial classes as self-employed farmers or craftsmen. The middle class, for Weber, is a situation of negative belonging that is neither to the positively privileged nor the negatively privileged. The middle class may be a middle class within the property or commercial class. What seems to distinguish the social class from the property and commercial class is the sole dependence on their skills being converted to capital. It is tied to its skills, as property class is tied to the property, or the commercial class is tied to trade. What is interesting is how propertied middle class to commercial middle class to social middle class begins to get removed from fixed capital.

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The mechanisms by which people sustain being part of a certain social class becomes abstract and complex. The distinction between three kinds of the middle class also emerged in the present study, where the educated middle class distinguished itself against the agrarian and the entrepreneurial middle class. The other important point that Weber’s analysis puts forward has to do with the relationship between status and class. Status may rest on a distinct or ambiguous class position. However, it is not solely determined by it: Money and an entrepreneurial position are not in themselves status qualifications, although they may lead to them, and the lack of property is not in itself a status disqualification, although this may be a reason for it. Conversely, the status may influence, if not completely determine, a class position without being identical to it. The class position of an officer, a civil servant or a student may vary greatly according to their wealth and yet not lead to a different status since upbringing and education create a common style of life. (Weber, 1978: p. 306) Weber highlighted that capital and status knit together with “extraordinary regularity”, but he never clearly stated the linkage between the class situation and status. Weber did affirm that property and power go hand in hand (confirming Marx’s ideas) even though he maintained that economic dominance was culturally mediated (in patterns of socialisation, lifestyle and ideas of prestige). Marx accounted for cultural aspects of class (or what we would look at as cultural aspects of class now) connected with the larger networks of the productive cycle; that is, culture/taste/lifestyle was ultimately the product of class position. The class position was a precondition that informed culture/taste/lifestyle (Marx in Grundrisse, 1973). In his arguments, Weber uses class analysis as a way to explain linkages between the consequences of class and class situations. Weber’s analysis argues that class gets distinguished by various consequences associated with a class. For instance, life chances correspond to one’s position in the class hierarchy, and as a result, certain phenomena that are rather involuntary, such as mortality, and fertility, get associated with a certain class. Similarly, Weber recognises that there are certain attitudes and behaviours that may result from people’s common experiences within a class situation. These attitudes and behaviours may be meditated attitudes and behaviours or spontaneous. However, there is a striking pattern; yet, he maintains these are not class conscious. This may be caused due to similarity in the class situation that individuals find themselves in (Weber, 1978: p. 929). Weber, however, does not argue the existence of class simply upon patterns of unconscious attitudes and behaviour. He also argues that there are some class-conscious behaviours. This can occur when, as Weber says, individuals become aware of “the connections between the causes and the consequences

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of the class situation” (Weber, 1978: p.  929). In Weberian class analysis, culture/consumption is how a class associates with the market. Weber both linked consumption as functionally tied to class, but principles of consumption of goods can also produce class situations and heighten class consciousness. Interestingly Weber also highlighted how varied status claims, cultural formations and lifestyles competed within the middle class owing to their ambiguous relationship with the market economy. He imagined the middle class as being in the strange position of simultaneously selling their labour and owning capital, splitting their sensibilities between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Weber (1946) embeds practices that have become routinised through their inscription in habits and on the body. Weber (1946) describes culture as world images created by ideas. He writes, “the ‘world images’ that have been created by ‘ideas’ have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest” (p. 280). However, such a position presupposes that practices are functions of values and ideas, which poses the risk of the determinism characteristic of structure as tied necessarily to class action. It assigns deterministic potential to structures, ideas and values, compromising on the performative essence of classness. Therefore, there was a need to more comprehensively evaluate the relationship between disposition, culture, taste and class. The “cultural turn” in class analysis emphasises the significance of cultural factors over and above economic or material, in sociological explanation (Crompton and Scott, 2005: p.  186). While traditional thinkers had tried to combine the economic and social aspects through emphasising “embeddedness”, the class was mainly understood through the binary focus on economic and social-political bases. It is well known that both Marx and Weber have embedded the economic basis of class within the larger socio-cultural realm. However, changes in the class structure were explained as changes in economic basis, which in turn have been attributed to changes in the sociocultural realm and vice-versa. The cultural turn in class stratification moves beyond this duality and reclaims the embeddedness to argue culture is salient in both economic and social bases of class. The salience of culture to economic and social bases is best captured by the concept of class consciousness within the traditional Marxist and Weberian analysis. The feeling of being in a class becomes a crucial entry point to studying the cultural salience of emergent class-based social groupings and stratification. The cultural turn of class analysis, in essence, engages with class consciousness and breaks it apart from the Marxist structure-consciousness-action model and structure-action dualism, which Lockwood (1992, 1964) helped to identify within Marxism and Weberian traditions. Even Erik Olin Wright’s (2000) seminal “Class Counts” does not redeem class consciousness from the structure-action duality that Lockwood critiques in his work. Wright (2000) defines class consciousness as “the understanding by people within a class of their class interests” (p. 4). Another important attempt at capturing

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class consciousness comes from Mann (1973), who points out the hierarchical levels of class consciousness, each moving closer to the class action. The breakthrough with regard to the conceptualisation of class consciousness as independent of class action comes from Savage (2000), who helps nuance this idea further to reclaim it from its strict relationship to structure. He suggests that class consciousness can be looked at in two senses: the stronger and the weaker. In the stronger sense, class consciousness would exist when members of a class are all aware that class is the critical axis of social life. In the weaker sense, class consciousness attains a more fertile meaning, becoming a major social life organising feature. In the weaker sense, cultural salience helps shape the specific class consciousness, and in the weaker sense, class consciousness entails cultural salience and contextually determined class distinction. Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas on class distinction are best suited to capturing this aspect of social classness. Bourdieu’s ideas do not build on the identification of oneself as belonging to a certain class position through objective criteria; rather, it is a process of differentiating oneself from the others within a field. He does not look at practices of social class as a product of one’s position but rather as strategies to reproduce class distinction. Bourdieu (1984), in his work titled “Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”, begins by attacking taste as being naturally endowed. He argues that “good” taste has to do with cultural preferences that are evolved from and based on systems of perception, judgement and socially conditioned action that children acquire while in families (Primary Habitus) and later from institutionalised education (Secondary Habitus). The dual meaning of the word “taste”, which usually serves to justify the illusion of spontaneous generation which this cultivated disposition tends to produce by presenting itself in the guise of an innate disposition, must serve, for once, to remind us that taste in the sense of the “faculty of immediately and intuitively judging aesthetic values” is inseparable from taste in the sense of the capacity to discern the flavours of foods which implies a preference for some of them. (Bourdieu, 1984: p. 99) Bourdieu, in his book, evolves an understanding of social class through the triad of Capital, Habitus and Field. The triad of Capital, Habitus and Field has offered the possibility of constructing a more dynamic view of class that is capable of helping one understand a class in everyday living. Bourdieu’s approach thus offers to break the traditional approach to study class from the lens of occupation and material assets. To Bourdieu, constructed classes can be characterised in a certain way asset of agents who, by virtue of the fact that they occupy similar positions in social space (that is, in the distribution of powers), are subject to similar conditions

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of existence and conditioning factors and, as a result, are endowed with similar dispositions which prompt them to develop similar practices. (Bourdieu, 1987: p. 6) Further, an important observation that he makes about the nature of the class is that a class is “as much by its being perceived as by its being” (Bourdieu, 1984: p. 372). This links with Bourdieu’s ideas on habitus as “not only a structuring structure, which organises practices and the perception of practices but also a structured structure” (Bourdieu, 1984: p. 170). Essentially highlights the importance of studying class through practices of doing and being in a class that is structured by inherited dispositions that one also recognises as the most appropriate of a particular class. Bourdieu (2004) situates class as a subjective rather than just a structural identity. While it may appear that his analysis links tastes, values and ideas to a social position, his argument instead proposes that various forms of capital and certain kinds of tastes and networks are mobilised towards selfadvancement. He points to ways in which there is an ongoing construction of class through various means of producing distinction for evolving and sustaining class boundaries. Bourdieu (2004) argues that the boundaries of class are not rigid but fluid. He suggests that class is not a matter of one’s position but one’s practices; that is, it is not a static identity acquired but a matter of subjectivity that is constructed through active and continuous mechanisms. Thus, class is not a construct, that is, an attribute but construction that is a process of doing and being class. In this scenario, class is not about actions flowing from the objective class position but a matter pertaining to class processes as reflected through everyday actions and decisions of individuals (Bourdieu, 2004). Such a position suggests that individuals actively produce their class instead of being carriers of practices and norms of a class inscribed and imposed on them. Further, Bourdieu uses occupational categories. His analysis of class often gets translated to the triad of occupation, income and education as being an operational representation of Field, Capital and Habitus, Although he uses occupations in his analysis of taste and aesthetic judgement being mapped on social space. His analysis points to how occupations are linked to lifestyles, and lifestyles are understood in terms of “good” and “bad” taste (Bourdieu, 1984). Further, his argument that the dominating groups have the ability to have “good taste” works to mask the cultural and economic capital it bases itself on. Another important dimension of class that Bourdieu points at is the “distance from necessity” that is embedded in the understanding of “good taste” (Bourdieu, 1984). He proposes that this distance from the necessity produced by the presence and employment of economic capital that dominating class invokes for this purpose is often mistaken for a spontaneous and natural knowledge of good taste. He maintains that a hierarchy of taste emerges

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against a hierarchy of economic capital that provides varying comfortable “distances from necessity”. However, because the economic capital and “distance from necessity” are masked, the “good taste” hierarchy comes across as a matter of inherent natural attributes (Bourdieu, 1984). He further argues that good taste only makes sense to those who lack it. The concerted attempt is not to be included but to be excluded from less desirable class positions. Also importantly, even in his analysis of taste, Bourdieu (1984) maintains that social space is inhabited by dominant and dominating groups who are imbued in constant struggle and negotiation by virtue of their relative position. Such an analysis is useful for understanding the experience of the middle class in the Indian context since it takes into account the relative positions of different groups within a class. He further argues that class identities are established through the distinction between the dominant and the dominated, with the dominating successfully and forcefully establishing their own cultural choices as superior and legitimate (Bourdieu, 1984). Bourdieu’s idea of class draws upon capital. However, capital is not restricted to economic capital and employs a principle of “reconversion strategies” whereby one form of capital, say economic, is used to generate another form of capital, say cultural (Bourdieu, 1984). Thus, membership in social space is earned by expending or exchanging stock of economic, social or cultural capital. It is argued that the middle class has a specific nature of reconversion strategies that are employed. By nature, the reconversion strategies employed by the middle class emphasise the economic investment in gaining educational credentials; and the role of educational credentials in producing economic and social returns (Nambissan, 2010). Bourdieu’s ideas on the field are often restricted to being understood solely with regard to institutional positions. However, Bourdieu’s engagement with the field as an important variable in the formulation of class habitus must be situated in the context of his longstanding interest in the relationship between physical and social space. Bourdieu situates social class within physical and social space eloquently through his works, notably “Bachelor’s Ball” (2008), “Pascalian Meditations” (2000), “Distinction” (1984) as well as “The Weight of the World” (1999). At one level, he argues that properties of physical space can be superimposed on social space. He argues, Just as physical space, according to Strawson, is defined by the reciprocal externality of positions . . . the social space is defined by the mutual exclusion, or distinction, of the positions which constitute it. . . . Social agents, and the things insofar as they are appropriated by them and therefore constituted as properties, are situated in a social space. (Bourdieu, 2000: p. 134)

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In other places, he illustrates how physical space acquires the characteristics of social space, that is, as he puts it, the formation of “socially ranked geographical space”. He writes, to account more fully for the differences in lifestyles between the different fractions—especially as regards culture—one would have to take account of their distribution in a socially ranked geographical space . . . its position in social space, and partly on the relationship between its distribution in geographical space and the distribution of scarce assets in that place. (Bourdieu, 1984: p. 124) Field, therefore, is as much a matter of physical space as it is about social space. Field, in fact, must be situated in the congruence of physical and social space. Bourdieu argues that the field essentially has to do with structured space (physical as well as social) and rule-bound institutions such as occupation or higher education. The field functions through the willingness and voluntary acceptance of the “rules of the game” by all “players” (Bourdieu, 1984). The field is defined as “structured spaces of position (or posts) whose properties depend on their position within these spaces and which can be analysed independently of the characteristics of their occupants” (Bourdieu, 1993b: p. 72). Within the social space, multiple fields operate, and the rules of each of these fields are synchronised and reflect the habitus of the dominating. His idea of a field must be extended not just to understand social space but to physical space, which dominates his analysis of class. He does not look at the field as being generative in nature but as somewhat fluid (compared to structured positions). He writes, “in order for a field to function, there have to be stakes and people prepared to play the game, endowed with the habitus that implies knowledge and recognition of the immanent laws of the field, the stakes and so on” (Bourdieu, 1993b: p. 72). Moreover, fields become relevant only when there are people who understand the stakes (the field has to offer) and are interested in the game. This aspect of being interested in a field and the ability to participate is governed by habitus, while capital provides an edge. However, Bourdieu maintains that capital can only be mobilised by people with appropriate habitus in specific fields. His situating class in the Field-Habitus-Capital triad emphasises that class is not so much about recognising one’s position in a hierarchy but about being able to differentiate from others in a field (through habitus and capital). Thus, there are two streams of thought proposed by Bourdieu about the class: one that class must be understood through ways of being and doing class, that is, through dispositions and practices and two that habitus, capital and fieldwork towards producing a class. What emerges in the light of these two streams of thought is that class needs to be understood through the homologies that link immediate physical and social space with experiences, routines and practices in light of inherited dispositions.

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Bourdieu, I  suggest, lays the foundation for spatialising class; however, he sees space and class as being homological that is spontaneously run by a similar logic of functioning. Critical to socio-spatial turn to class analysis is Bourdieu’s idea of “dispositional philosophy of actions” (Bourdieu, 1998: p. vii) in field theory. He writes about dispositional philosophy potentialities inscribed in the body of agents and in the structure of the situations where they act or, more precisely, in the relations between them. This philosophy is condensed into a small number of fundamental concepts- habitus, field, capital—and its cornerstone is the two-way relationship between objective structures (those of social fields) and incorporated structures (those of the habitus). Some important ideas in this seminal quote are (1) The dispositional philosophy of action is the common thread tying the trinity of field, capital and habitus (homological unity); (2) It emphasises potentialities inscribed in the bodies of agents and structures, meaning neither is the agent nor the situation unilateral. What plays out in a specific context as the basis of distinction is one of the many possibilities that exist and the possibility that emerged through the interaction of the agent and context. It is then the interactions or the relationship between the two that would contextually determine which among the many possibilities of disposition will be played out in the formulation of distinction. Therefore, the interaction of habitus and context becomes important to determine what would become the axis of distinction. This work takes this idea of homologies between space and class and forwards that understanding into developing a better sense of how homologies that tie field and disposition come to be. It draws upon the ideas of Doreen Massey (1994) to build the idea that field and the axis of class distinction are co-constitutive of each other. The class cannot be understood except in relation to spatially and contextually defined ways of doing class. The work highlights the ways in which space and class distinction become co-constitutive. Indian Middle Class The adaptation of class analysis to the Indian context has not been without its own issues. Beteille (2007) highlighted the incongruence of the MarxistLeninist framework to the Indian agrarian context dominated by intermediary class or “mixed class type” (Beteille, 2007: p. 948). The influence of the caste system also meant that ownership, control and use of land were complex, variable and fluid. Further prevalence of the caste system meant that class stratification would cut across or interfere with a purely class analysis. Notwithstanding the limits of class analysis in the Indian context, scholarly attention to the study of the Indian middle class has not been scarce. What

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we know from existing studies would help us understand why some possibilities of distinction emerged in the context of the post-liberalisation neo-urban middle class. Indian middle class has been key to representing the pulse of the nation. Indian middle class has been invoked to represent the opinions of all Indians in the Indian context, while it truly only articulates the “hegemony of the ruling bloc” (Deshpande, 2003). Misra (1983) very well articulates the frustrations of early work in the middle class. He argues that the scholars of the 1950s and 1960s had been employing “middle class(es)” as a self-explanatory and self-evident sociological category that did not need any further conceptual engagement. Essentially the early work on the middle class does not embed itself in traditional frameworks of class analysis. Misra gave a comprehensive account of the colonial middle class, which he said was commercial, landed, educated and professional. Misra (1983) highlights how the early middle class in India was a product of colonial policy, western education and capitalist enterprise. Thus, the middle class he is accounting for is “suspended”, in the sense of not having a coherent character or being able to forge an independent, distinct character and profile. He argues that the factor responsible for it is “immobility of the caste organisation and despotism of the bureaucracy” (Misra, 1983: p. 9). Since early works don’t use the middle class faithfully, instead of ­building a narrative about the Indian middle class through colonial, post-colonial and post-liberalisation as frames for constructing it, it may hold some merit to look at the fractures that informed the middle class in the Indian context. It is this fractured nature of the middle class that many scholars prefer the nomenclature of middle classes instead of thinking about the middle class as singular. Transformation of Agrarian Structures Unlike the western context of peasant communities (which stands contested among historians1) Indian villages were characterised by a variety of land relations and a complex hierarchy of ownership rights over land. This was unlike the sole criteria of ownership rights of capital (such as land) that dominated the understanding of peasant community and associated relations of production in western peasant communities. In the Indian context, relations of production were mediated by social institutions such as kinship, religion and social organisation of caste, although there may be some exceptions to this broad trend (Béteille, 1974). There was considerable economic differentiation, but the basis of differentiation was not simply ownership but ownership sanctioned by the order of caste hierarchy. Also, caste relationsbased exchange of services guided production distribution (Béteille, 1974). Surinder Jodhka (2003) highlights two important points about pre-colonial agrarian-economic systems. One is about how there was elaborate economic

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differentiation among villages, consisting of large cultivators, using hired labour, raising crops for the market, and small peasants who could barely produce grains for subsistence. There were still sharper divisions between caste peasantry and menial population; that is, there were specific caste profiles of those who worked as agricultural labourers. Further, revenue bureaucracy linked the village to the central authority, and revenue worked as the dominant mode of surplus appropriation during medieval times. Revenue collected from landowners and zamindars fluctuated in accordance with the relative favouritism of the Mughal authorities towards certain communities (Kumar, 1992). Jodhka (2003) highlights yet another important aspect of the village social-economic system: the Jajmani system and its other variants. According to him, the agrarian social-economic structure was embedded in a framework of exchange relations. The exchange was unequal and oppressive, essentially based on exploitative relations guided by the morality of different caste groups specialising in different occupations and exchanging their services through an intricate web of relations guiding the division of labour. At some level, even the most exploitative landowners recognised the principle of reciprocity and patronage, in some forms or others. With the advent of colonialism, for the purpose of simplification of administration, the colonial administration passed a law called the permanent settlement, which essentially worked to grant the zamindar full property rights over the land. This worked to further disturb an already fragile balance of the relations of production. Jodhka (2003) illustrates how the zamindar, earlier only entitled to revenue, suddenly was the owner of the land and its produce. This disturbed the client-patron relationships characteristic of social relations of production and a production process that was guided by kinship systems and the exchange principle of caste hierarchy. The tillers now were not entitled to any part of the produce. The other change was the commodification of land, that is, from being livelihood and the basis of organisation and sustenance of social relations, suddenly land had become capital. This became even worse with the commercialisation of agriculture. Production for the market was not entirely new to Indian agriculture; however, the market began mediating consumption to an extent whereby even the small subsistence-based farmers were initiated into market relations (Jodhka, 2003). The most significant change that came about was a change from ­production for consumption to production for the market. ­Jodhka (2003) points out that this was further accelerated by improvement in transportation and connectivity due to the building of railways within the subcontinent and the opening of the Suez Canal, which made the possibility of earning profit more lucrative than earning exchangeable services within the restrictions of the local market. The disturbance in the caste system due to a breakdown of associated economic functions, when coupled with secular, non-exclusive employment

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opportunities available in colonial administration, worked to bring vulnerable caste groups in contact with not just non-conventional occupational opportunities but also exposed them to quick economic mobility promises of a colonial education system. Owing to historical restrictions on vulnerable castes, though this kind of change was evident only in a statistical minority, it was by no standards insignificant. However, the realisation that education and new employment opportunities in colonial administration were lucrative was not the sole realisation of vulnerable castes. Although the economic basis of the social organisation got challenged, the caste system resisted changes. This meant that castes traditionally associated with knowledge pursuits also sought exposure to colonial education on a priority basis. The desire to preserve existing caste privilege led to the reproduction of upper castes to dominate the Indian middle class. Colonial Education Policy Thomas Macauley (1835/1979), in his vision document, sought an education system that could build “a class, Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and intellect”.2 This idea was tied to the need to have a social group educated by English standards to aid colonial administration. There were two points that emerged from the nature of the education system that the colonial administration set up. Srivastava (1998) highlights that the colonial administration set up an educational system that was not uniform; that is, the presidency towns of Calcutta and Bombay received ­disproportionate attention as opposed to educational ventures in other parts of the country. Srivastava (1998) argues that English education of the highest quality was available at the presidency, and it was this English education, specifically its secular and non-exclusive intake, that caused an uneasy relationship between traditionally dominant sections and the not-so-privileged vernacular groups. Srivastava (1998) further highlights that this colonial English education, rather non-exclusive of caste profile, was received within the existing framework of caste relations, thereby strengthening the grip of upper castes over new opportunities and new forms of capital. Thus, non-exclusivity attracted vulnerable caste groups, while caste conventions attracted castes associated with educational pursuits. The employment opportunities associated with colonial education attracted individuals who were made vulnerable due to changed agrarian relations. As a result, the middle class that emerged was tied to colonial education and was recruited to administrative jobs. Social functions of caste, however, were retained. As a result, the colonial middleclass members were prominent doctors, college teachers, lawyers and government servants. In this faction, the middle class was most closely a product of the western education system in that it sought prosperity through colonial patronage (Misra, 1983; Sarkar, 1997).

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The middle class that thus emerged was imbued with caste-based tensions between those who wanted economic and educational aspects to erode caste further and those who would, in some ways, use social functions of caste to influence and/or transform the economic and educational functions of caste. This new service-based, salaried middle class that emerged was also politically most sensitive and responsive. It was educated in languages and could be educated about western ideas of nation, nationalism and freedom. Another important factor that emerged in the character of this class was that it largely comprised of service and salaried individuals who also understood the benefits of acquiring education as a capital that could be converted to other forms of capital and returns. What emerged from such a process was a middle class that benefited from and most closely associated with the political administration and, as a result, sought participation in it. Political administration became a matter of interest and educated middle classes comprising of intellectuals and tertiary level professionals expressed, communicated and built an opinion on administrative and political matters, evident from a surge in the number of independent newspapers and journals published and circulated, in Bengal, a trend that existed in other parts of the subcontinent (Fraser, 1977: p. 257; Fernandes, 2006). Colonial and anti-colonial movements saw the middle class emerge as the stakeholders of nation and nationalism, including a cadre of nationalist leaders, western educated intelligentsia (Sarkar, 1989; Chakrabarty, 2000; Joshi, 2001). The newspapers targeted a specific social group that was educated and interested in the political affairs of the subcontinent (Fraser, 1977: p. 257). These publications sought to cultivate political opinion during colonial times. Their expansion, especially after 1905 in most parts of the subcontinent, does point to greater consolidation of urban-educated m ­ iddle classes and the interest in the cultivation of their political opinion. The crucial aspect of the middle classes that it reflects is education, and the use of literary communication of ideas as the basis of organising and cultivating opinion and active participation in political matters. Political participation of the middle classes (Chakrabarty, 1990; Verma, 2007) is an important characteristic of middle classes that helps one uncover various other characteristics of the middle classes in the post-independence period. Jaffrelot and van der Veer (2008: p. 16) identified two factions of the middle class, the petty bourgeoisie and reformist intelligentsia-both deeply rooted in upper castes (Jaffrelot and van der Veer, 2008; Fernandes, 2006). Muslims generally were also excluded from the formation of this colonial middle class (Sangari, 2002). The Hindu elites learnt English at a far greater rate and with a high level of proficiency than Muslims of the time (Sangari, 2002). These works highlight the character and frictions imbued within the character of the middle class. The structural constraints to English education vis-à-vis return that it promised structured the relationship between the middle class and education as one whereby opportunities for prosperity

226 Conclusion

were limited and necessitated the upper castes to retain a competitive edge at privileged access to these opportunities in a new social order. Colonialism restricted access to social, economic and political capital, and upper castes were invested in protecting their privileged claim to any form of prosperity. Blunted Growth of Industries in Colonial India Another significant influence in shaping the Indian middle class came from the change in economic structures of organising activities of trade and agriculture. However, these were accompanied by restrained industrialisation in the Indian context. Chatterjee (1992) highlights that the colonial administration in India concentrated on exporting and transporting raw materials, which stunted the growth of the industrial sector. Chatterjee (1992) further argues that the industrial sector, if developed on a full scale, could have led to the emergence and expansion of the industrial middle class, that is, of the managerial and executive or supervisory staff. The only opportunities for expansion of the middle class lay with the services within the colonial administration, which was linked to the colonial education system. Thus, the colonial middle class that emerged was linked to the limited opportunities within the colonial administration through the colonial education policy that most middle-class members belonged to the service sector and emerging intelligentsia (Chatterjee, 1992, 1993a; Misra, 1961). This is noteworthy for understanding the post-independence mass mobilisations and their reading as middle-class mobilisations. It must be noted here that although changes in the political economy, as they existed in pre-colonial India, led to the shaping of the Indian middle classes, its character evolved in more dynamic ways. It carried forward elements of social organisation as it were within the caste system, evolved within the constraints imposed by blunted development of industries and in accordance with the changing economic relations of trade and agriculture. From many theorisations of the emergence of pre-colonial middle classes in the Indian context, one point that emerges is the elaborate consideration given to data emerging from the composition of ICS (Indian Civil Services), which is presented as evidence to argue about the character of middle classes. For instance, Fernandes (2006) uses the data from ICS as evidence to study the composition of the middle classes in terms of religion. It is contestable that ICS be considered an occupational profile that can be considered within the middle-class category since ICS was one of the most lucrative and the highest paid administrative job. It is only plausible that people employed in ICS would be part of the elite class. However, while there is contestation against the claim of their being middle classes, a claim that they are not the middle class is equally contestable.

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Relevance of Middle Class in Post-Independent India From the point of view of previously stunted industrial development within colonial administration, the scenario of economic activity changed. Postindependence industrial development, spearheaded by the first Prime Minister’s vision of modern India, led to changes in the middle class’ composition. As Mazzarella (2005) notes: The most general story concerning the transformation of the middle class in India describes a shift, in the 1970s and 1980s, from an older, relatively coherent understanding of what ‘middle class’ connoted—classically, a Nehruvian civil service-oriented salariat, short on money but long on institutional perks to entrepreneurial pretenders to the title. (Mazzarella, 2005: p. 1) This is also reflected in the changes in educational pursuits that characterised the middle class. As Nambissan (2010) remarks: Until the late 1970s, apart from the upper middle classes (old and newly emerging), the middle classes were still enrolling their children in state schools or state-supported, privately managed schools. The middle-class flight from state schools, a clear trend visible in urban India since the 1980s, was followed by the increasing desertion of these schools by the lower middle class in the next decade or so. (Nambissan, 2010: p. 287) The hegemony of English as a language and as a medium of instruction was carried forward into independent India among the middle classes. English continued to represent the key to the expansion of possibilities. However, the profile of aspirants and the character of pursuit have undergone some changes (Fernandes, 2006; Nambissan, 2010). Rudolph and Rudolph (1987) argue that the state’s investment in higher education and public sector jobs worked to consolidate the social base of the middle class. State fostered English education as a part of a Nehruvian project for the Indian middle class to take its rightful place in the world (Joshi, 2012). As already pointed out, when looked upon in continuity, the middle classes have had a character of their own. This stands at odds with what Michel Guglielmo Torri (1991) argues when he attributes the failure of social reforms to the lack of a coherent culture within the middle classes and its associated hegemony on social reforms. The middle class, as built-in above discussion, had a character. It was fretted with conflicts within and among different forms of economic, social and political systems and their respective moralities co-existing and negotiating with one another. In this regard, the middle classes were dominated by certain caste groups and occupational

228 Conclusion

profiles (public servants/civil servants); and was driven by State-funded English education. The political morality imbibed through education policies and other administrative policies made it impossible for the caste or religious profiles to formally push cultural hegemony. The caste character is further validated by the synopsis of middle classes by Sanjay Joshi (2001) when he talks about the middle class in the context of Ayodhya Kar Sevak mobilisations or the Anti-reservation policy agitations of the 1990s. He explicitly outlines the duality and political conflict inherent to both cases of protests. He writes: What is pertinent for this study are the obviously contradictory political positions taken by middle-class leaders and their supporters in both cases. Despite virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric in their campaign, leaders and supporters of the Hindu right repeatedly claim that their campaign is not motivated by an antipathy towards Muslims but is simply seeking “justice” for the “majority community”. . . . During the agitations against the implementation of the Mandal commission report, too, upper caste educated urban youth of the middle class framed their agenda as an agitation against the casteist politics as if their existing privileges had nothing to do with their upper-caste status. (Joshi, 2001: p. 3) So while middle-class agitations did reflect religious and caste profiles of who dominated the middle class, the leadership could not explicitly embrace this cultural hegemony (Joshi, 2001: p. 3). The political interest and the morality in this case were obvious, visible and in contradiction. Further changes, especially the emergence and strengthening of Dalit politics in the 1990s, are significant. As opposed to the expected domination of certain interest groups, the contradictions between the social organisation of castes trying to dominate the economic organisation and political representation, the political morality had attempted to attack the social organisation of caste within middle classes. The emergence of Dalit political parties and coalition alliances reflected the changing scenario of the middle class. The political discourse and morality of the middle class were asserting themselves, seeking changes in economic structures and domination of caste. Post-Liberalisation Middle Class Scholars have imagined 1991 as a year that marked an epochal shift from the previous phases of the middle class (Gooptu, 2013), which has led to the emergence of the “new” middle class. The New Middle class is seen as an aspirational middle class among media and the market. A class was not shy about spending and consuming. Taking the occupation as the basic criteria

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for distinguishing the new middle class, Fernandes (2006) argues that members of this class are structurally associated with the service sector and private sector employment in the “New” economy. Multiple studies have explored the culture associated with this middle class without re-examining the framework that is applied to study the new middle class. The idea of a “new” middle class has gained momentum in recent times is the one suggesting it has a markedly different disposition than the earlier middle class (Lakha, 2005; Mazzarella, 2005; Fernandes, 2006; Säävälä, 2010; Donner, 2008; Brosius, 2010; Baviskar and Ray, 2011; Palackal, 2011; Radhakrishnan, 2011; Belliappa, 2013). Scholars argue some social and political events that have shaped the discourses of what is seen as this “new” middle class can be traced from 1980 to 2000, with special emphasis on the decade following the year 1990. It is postulated through speculation that the events such as the anti-­Mandal Commission agitation, Babri Mosque demolition and subsequent HinduMuslim riots played a significant role in the shaping of middle-class character, along with the economic policies from the 1980s to 1990s (Lakha, 2005; Kohli, 2006a; Jodhka, 2011). These events may also explain the assumed reluctance to acknowledge the role of caste and/or religious identities in defining educated middle-class identities and life narratives. The irrelevance relegated to the influence of caste and religion on educated middle-class identity should be seen in connection with the 1992 Hindu-Muslim riots and Mandal Commission recommendations for reservation for Dalits in higher education institutions. The reluctance to invoke caste as a significant factor in ensuring advantage or disadvantage in educational and/or professional pursuits must be seen as an apparent defeat suffered by traditionally dominant caste and religious identities that constituted the dominant profile of salaried and educated middle class (Fernandes, 2006). The irrelevance attributed to caste or religious identity in influencing educational and/or professional success/­ failure must be seen as an attempt to preserve the caste and religious dominance of the Hindu-Savarna among the middle class. The two historic episodes are crucial as they led to violent protests and riots, which disrupted the otherwise regular and “ordinary” lives of the traditional salaried and educated middle class. The upper-caste-middle class morale suffered a defeat with the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations for reservation in higher education institutions for historically disadvantaged sections, and the Hindu middle-class morale suffered a defeat through massive losses incurred by the middle class in the riots coupled with the general rise in identity-based politics in the decade of 1990s. This internal struggle over identities and interests among and within the educated middle class perhaps led to a redefinition of what may be termed as social high culture, drawing from Bourdieu’s terminology of “high culture” (Bourdieu, 1984), which is in congruence with the global identity that seeks to discredit the claim of religion and caste over social identities in public

230 Conclusion

sphere consisting of multiple cultural fields such as work-places, educational institutions, while staying respectful of its boundaries and avoiding intermixing. Establishing in its place the nuanced discourse of merit, talent and achievement instead that masks habitus and cultural capital as an individual’s embodied and natural abilities. Therefore, being educated constitutes a distinction against all those who may enjoy middle-class status on a material basis or those who may not be middle class. The educated middle class thus considers itself culturally distinct in comparison to others. The phenomenon of a changed character of the middle class in the post-liberalisation phase in India has been explained through everything from consumption, morality and political symbolic lens. Socio-spatial Middle Class In this study, I  have looked at the middle class through the experience of class in everyday life as opposed to imagining it as a given static position that speaks for itself (Liechty, 2003: p.  8). The study highlights class identities and relations that individuals establish in the context of existing fractures of socio-spatial dynamics that they also have shaped through spatially consolidating their distinction. The axis of distinction claimed by the post-liberalisation middle class was as “educated middle class3”. The educatedness is less a function of objective criteria of educational credentials and institutions and more a negative reference to the class-other, against whom distinction is sought. Social Class, then is a shared mode of being and a “we-ness” undercut by “otherness” (Ball, 2003: p. 176, Deshpande, 2006: pp. 211–212) and a sense of boundary, however contextual and shifting, that fixes unities (Anthias, 2005: p. 30) where the associated relational power struggles also get marked on physical space (Savage, 2011). It highlights how global circuits of capital interact with local socio-spatial dynamics to produce fractures that then determine the identity and the trajectory of the urban form. The distinction of EMC is linked to both EMC and LAAC recognising New Gurugram as a field and competing with each other to establish a monopoly of legitimate violence. New Gurugram, as a field, has been defined through (i) specific stakes and interests which all players recognise, value and endowed with habitus that implies knowledge and recognition of imminent laws of the field, that is, the land in neo-urban new Gurugram and the associated (global) social mobility; (ii) the structure of neo-urban new Gurugram is a state of power relations among the competing Local Ancestral Agrarian Community (landowners from Yadav, Jat and Gujar castes) and Educated Middle Class (Home Owners). LAAC had a long-established monopoly of legitimate violence within the field as contingent on symbolic capital associated with caste and economic (land ownership and assets), social, cultural and embodied capital associated

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with it. In fact, these caste affiliations facilitated land acquisition to seal the real estate deals between landowners and real estate giant DLF (Singh, 2011). This monopoly of legitimate violence (tied crucially to land) was increasingly threatened by the largely upper-caste middle class migrating to the city. The fact that most respondents (representative of EMC in Gurugram) belonged to upper castes, except two who identified themselves as OBC, one Christian (upper caste Syrian Cristian) and one Muslim (upper caste Syed). This allows for the symbolic capital from caste to become comparable across the two groups of EMC and LAAC. When combined with the comparable material means, the comparable caste-based social entitlement meant that neither of these could have potentially offered the axis of distinction. Considering that symbolic capital and material capital are comparable between these two players, the axis of distinction through othering shifted to embodied capital of urban sophistication and embodied globality. The EMC is able to convert their caste-based symbolic capital effectively into embodied capital tied to urban sophistication and embodied globality, thereby subverting the distribution of capital that determines the structure of the field (how neo-urban spaces would be accessed, manipulated and controlled) and how one’s to claim the field (rules governing the social and physical space of the neo-urban). The strategies of EMC to shift the monopoly of legitimate violence from symbolic capital of caste to embodied capital of urban sophistication and embodied globality represent the Bourdieusian idea of “partial revolution” (Bourdieu, 1993b: p. 74). These strategies represent the partial revolutions that reinforce the game’s premise; landowners have a legitimate claim to neo-urban’s social and physical space, and that rootedness is a prerequisite for middle-class identity, distinction and power. As a result, the partial revolutions of EMC, as much as frictions between LAAC and EMC, shape the social and physical space of New Gurugram. It results in an urban form with closely guarded islands of globality punctuated by vast stretches of rurality that represent contrasting sovereignties that EMC only crosses past but never engages with. The axis of distinction shifting to embodied capital of educated (Englishspeaking) urban sophistication yields itself to the cultivated disposition of colonial and post-independence Nehruvian “modern” middle class (Baviskar and Ray, 2011; Joshi, 2012). It picks a possibility already inscribed onto the individuals of EMC through their inherited primary habitus through their linkages with the colonial and post-independence middle class. It invokes an already available aspect from the broad possibilities of being middle class in the Indian context historically. Therefore, the axis of distinction exists within the inexhaustible possibilities for the pursuit of distinction within the broad dispositions associated with the Indian middle class. In essence, the axis of distinction will be chosen from the possibilities that exist within middle-class disposition depending upon the dynamics, fractures and struggles of players in the field. In this case, since the LAAC and EMC have comparable material

232 Conclusion

and symbolic capital, the axis of distinction becomes embodied capital. One cannot make sense of post-liberalisation, neo-urban EMC’s class distinction (as globally oriented without connecting it to the primary habitus of being English-educated individuals with urban sophistication) outside of the tensions that the neo-urban post-liberalisation middle class experiences in a neourban context with competing groups. Therefore, it is important to think of the social class as socio-spatial and co-constitutive. In this case, since EMC is comparable to LAAC in symbolic capital and economic capital, it digs up the embodied capital to distinguish itself and establish it as a superior way of claiming the city space. EMC’s distinction produces curious ways of combining primary habitus tied to caste and secondary habitus acquired through mobilising caste privilege to gain class status dialectically to produce a contextually relevant distinction. While EMC’s distinction retains castebased elements of being propertied; embodied capital of being “cultured”; combining it with savarna middle-class capital of English education and salaried employment, it simultaneously distances itself from being a rentier (distance from labour being signification of caste privilege). And, even as EMC positions itself as “working” individuals, the distinction is built on privileging mental over manual labour (associated with caste privilege). Therefore, EMC’s axis of distinction is a collective function of socio-spatial fractures of the neo-urban context as caste dynamics and the educated middle class’ primary habitus. What emerges from the study is that while Bourdieu’s framework emphasises the value of being mobile as opposed to social deprivation characterised by fixity, it may need contextual re-examining. Fixity being social deprivation gets complicated in a context where caste entitlements privilege “­belonging” over being mobile (Bourdieu, 2008b; Bourdieu, 1999). This is further nuanced by the distinction in neo-urban spaces being tied to having and holding a place of one’s own and being connected to the global circuits of capital and information. The study proposes that fluidity (characterised by the idea of globality), in addition to fixity and mobility, to the understanding of the relative distinction. Socio-spatial fixedness (being able to find a foothold) is integral to EMC’s distinction. At the same time, fluidity (within global circuits of capital) determines one’s fixedness or mobility with respect to spaces of social deprivation. However, as FDI-driven real estate development in New Gurugram increases, it would lead to greater homological unity between the embodied capital of EMC and the Neo-Urban landscape, and the increased everyday interactions between LAAC and EMC would facilitate the blurring of the boundaries. This is a shift that has already begun showing in that rural Haryanvi culture is being sanitised and appropriated for aesthetic consumption in Gurugram in the form of ethnic farm retreats. Offering mud cottage, tubewell baths and charpoys alongside trampolines and air-conditioned rooms.

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In Sum On the whole, the study revealed the notion of middle-classness in terms of an intersection between class, space and culture, which paved the way for identifying a distinct social group, the educated middle class. While the thrust and scope of the study had been very narrow, it threw some light on the cultural practices the middle class seeks to adopt to reproduce its class character and identity. Classness or the operative concept to approach class seeks to bring out the crucial role that context plays in class as a social stratification system. The study raises some pointers for future researchers on the notion of middle-classness in general and various aspects of the specific middle-class fraction called the “educated” middle class. Issues such as the changes in the class distinction among educated middle class over time, educational aspirations and choices among the educated middle class, gender and socialisation among educated middle-class families need further exploration as this study was constrained by its methodological as well as thematic focus. Further exploration of the nuances of life, behaviour and changing character of the middle class may provide some useful frames to understand the very structural change that is impeding Indian society and other developing societies worldwide. Notes 1 Müller, M. (2007). A divided class? Peasants and peasant communities in late medieval England. Past & Present, 195(Supp. 2), 115–131. 2 Point 34 of Macaulay’s minutes. Retrieved from www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/ pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html. Accessed January 20, 2014. 3 The conceptual usage of educated middle class to define a distinct social group that distinguished itself on the basis of their education and their participation in the affairs of the state is not new. The first employment of a similar term to describe a distinct group of people emerged in Germany in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. German society during this time was divided into three prominent class fractions that each had their distinct “social source of status” (Steinmetz, 2008: p. 49). These were “the modern economic bourgeoisie, based in wealth and property; the nobility, based in titles and land; and the middle-class intelligentsia or Bildungsbürgertum, based in educational culture” (ibid.). The centrality of education to the identity of Bildungsbürgertum continued through the nineteenth century (Turner, 1980: p.  105). The Bildungsbürgertum distinguished itself from Besitzbürgertum, a propertied section of the middle class that originated in German industrial and commercial expansion (Turner, 1980: p. 105).

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Annexure I

Respondent Profile

S.No.Name 1 2

3

4 5

Age Education

Institutions attended

Occupation

Religion

Caste

Native place Spouse

Education

Occupation

Software Engineer College Faculty

Hindu

Baniya

Ghaziabad

Syrian Christian

-

Kerala

Samar Aggarwal Alan John

Bachelors of Engineering Bachelors of Technology

Srinagar Banker Women’s College University of Kashmir Correspondence Teacher

Muslim

Syed

Srinagar

Asif Syed

Masters in Law

Business Hindu Baniya Consultant Consultancy in Syrian architecture Christian and decors for office spaces Lawyer Muslim Syed

Hindu

PunjabiKhatri

Palwal

Prashant Grover

Bachelors of Technology

Business of Electricals

University of Delhi

Hindu

Yadav

Delhi

Rahul Yadav

Masters of Partner in Business Real estate Administration company In Marketing

Deepika 33 Bachelor of Technology Patricia 48 M.Phil. (English) University of Delhi

Azra

31 Bachelor of Science Master of Business Administration Nikita 34 Master of Science in Mathematics Jahanvi 34 Bachelor of Arts

Homemaker

Religion

Caste

Hindu

-

Hindu

Yadav

6

Karan

7

Manisha 38 Master of Science (Physics), Ph.D. Education Mona 50 Bachelor in University of Science Home Delhi science

8

29 Bachelor of Technology

9

Milind

28

10

Mudit

29

11

Nandini 36

12

Poorvi

40

Uttar Pradesh Technical University University of Delhi

Software Engineer

Hindu

Rajput

Teacher Educator, Hindu Baniya College Faculty (is that important?)

Jewellery Designer Floor In-charge part of Human Resource Management team Bachelor of Indian Institute Country headTechnology, of Technology, India for an Master of Indian internetBusiness Institute of based service Administration Management provider Bachelor of Indian Institute Software Technology of Technology Engineer/Chief Operations Officer at own internet-based real estate startup Bachelor of Arts. Lucknow Head of the Master of Arts University Department Bachelor of (Hindi) Education Bachelor in University of Marketing & Commerce Delhi Customer Relations at Real Estate and Home Developers Company

Meerut

Unmarried

Delhi

Ankit Singhal Masters in Corporate Hindu Business job at Administration Multinational Corporation Mahyar Dittia Masters in Owner, Soft Parsi Business skills training Administration Consultancy Diploma from XLRI

Baniya

Delhi

-

-

-

-

Hindu

Punjabi

Hindu

Sinha Delhi Kayastha

Unmarrried

-

-

-

-

Hindu

Gujar

Meerut

Unmarried

-

-

-

-

Hindu

Brahmin

Lucknow

(Expired) Vikrant Singh

Masters of Arts. Hotel Management

Hotel Manager Hindu

Rajput

Hindu

Yadav

Delhi

Rohit Kaushal Chartered accountancy

Chartered Accountant

-

Hindu

-

(Continued)

(Continued) S.No.Name

Age Education

Institutions attended

13

Pragya

35 Master of Engineering

14

Rishabh 27 Bachelor of Technology

15

Rachna 48 Ph.D.

16

CRSCE Murthal, DRDO Indian Institute of Science Bangalore Assam Programmer Engineering Institute Teacher of International baccalaureate at Private school Amity Doctoral Student University, University of Delhi

Sanjana 30 Bachelor of Technology, Master of Social Work, Ph.D. Supriya 38 B.Ed., M.Ed., Kamrah M.Sc. International (Computer Institute of Science), M.A. Technology, (Psychology) Gurgaon Siya 31 Ph.D. (English) University of Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia Sanjay 48 Bachelor in Dronacharya Science College Soumya 38 Bachelor of Mumbai Commerce University

17

18 19 20

21

Occupation

Religion

Caste

Native place Spouse

Education

Hindu

Yadav

Rewari

Pankaj Yadav

Yadav

Hindu

OBC

Guwahati

Unmarried

Bachelors of Business Hindu Engineering, Manager in Masters of Multinational Business Corporation Administration -

Hindu

Khatri

Delhi

Angad Gulati

Ph.D.

Service sector Hindu job

Kshatriya

Hindu

Brahmin

Basti, Siddhant Uttar Pandey Pradesh

Graduation

Merchant Navy Hindu Shipping 2nd Officer

Brahmin

Working at Hindu Registrar’s office Maharshi Dayanand University Lecturer Hindu

General

Delhi

Raj Tanwar

Bachelors of Technology

Working at a private firm

Hindu

General

Punjabi/ Khatri

Delhi

Vikas Dudeja

Bachelors of Engineering

Business

Hindu

Punjabi/ General

AroraKarnal Aarti Pahuja Kshatriya Haryana Kayastha Mumbai Atiq Husain

Bachelors of Arts Bachelors of Engineering (Civil)

Homemaker

Hindu

Arorakshatriya -

Brahmin

Bachelors of Engineering

Post Office Hindu Superintendent Self Employed Hindu

Suraiyya 33 Bachelor of MBES College of Marketing Engineering, Engineering, Professional Master of NDIM Business Administration

Hindu

Srinagar, Rohit Kaul Kashmir

Occupation

Religion

Employed Muslim with a construction firm Software Hindu Professional

Caste

-

Brahmin

22

Sneha

23

Shreya

24

Shruti

25

Srijoyi

26

Trishna 29 Bachelor of University of Curriculum Hindu Elementary Delhi, Schools developer and Education, of distance Teacher Master of Arts learning Vishal 30 MBBS SpeJawaharlal Nehru Doctor Hindu cialisation in Medical Ophthalmology College, Sawangi, Wardha, Maharashtra 

27

29 Master of Amity Business University, Administration Lucknow 32 M.Phil. B.Ed. 27 Pursuing Master IGNOU of Arts in English 36 Bachelor of Science

Kolkata University

Unemployed

Hindu

Rajput

Kanpur

Ajay Singh

Teacher

Hindu

Brahmin Kaushik Baniya

Bhiwani

Brahmin

Kolkata

Aakash MBBS Kaushik MD Sanjay Sharma Post Graduate (Engaged) Diploma in Management (Events) Arijit Bachelors of Chakraborty Commerce

PunjabiKhatri Brahmin

Web Content Hindu Developer for educational website Team Leader Hindu - Graphics

Jaipur

Bachelors of Technology

Software engineer Team lead Doctor

Hindu

Rajput

Hindu

Brahmin Kaushik Brahmin

Event Manager HIndu

Brahmin

Gurgaon

Deputy Hindu Manager at a Privately Owned Bank Dhiren Arora Undergraduation Business Hindu

Gurgaon

Unmarried

-

-

-

-

Punjabi

Index

locators in italics refer to figures; locators with ‘n’ refer to notes aberration 68 – 9, 87 – 8, 96 absolute outsiders 72 – 3, 78, 88, 89 academic performance 135, 177, 203 acceptability 141, 147; limits of 143; margins of 178 active placemaking events 56 ad-hoc employment status 93 administration, simplification of 223 aesthetic superiority 131 agrarian: and economic systems 222 – 3; middle class 119; relations 224; social-economic structure 223; structures, transformation of 222 – 4 agricultural/agriculture 34, 119; activities 29; entrepreneurs 214; labour 118; land 9, 36 – 9 alienation, sense of 86 Alkazi, A. M. 60 allegiant outsider inside 73, 88, 89, 91, 93 – 4 all-round personality 202 amphitheatre 8, 60 – 1 Andreotti, A. 54, 99n4 anonymity 22, 67, 70, 84, 200 antecedent middle class 111 anti-colonial movements 3, 225 anti-Mandal Commission agitation 229 anti-Muslim rhetoric 228 anti-reservation policy agitations 228 anxiety 113; gendered nature of 93; sense of 18 apartments 51 – 2, 84, 93, 94 apprehensive consent 21 – 2 Aravalli Biodiversity Park 59 – 60 arbitrary employment 93

Aslany, M. 5 aspired globality 50 assets 3 – 5, 26, 48, 120, 122, 124, 126, 199, 214, 217, 230 authenticity 18 – 20 authoritative parenting 182 awareness 11, 19, 58, 68, 87 Ayodhya Kar Sevak mobilisations 228 Babri Mosque demolition 229 bad boy behaviour 190 Ball, S. J. 192, 193, 199, 201, 210n6 Banaras 20 – 1 Bangalore, communities of 15 Beck-Gernsheim E. 169, 174 befriending 66 behavioural/behaviour 191, 215 – 16; bad boy 190; discipline 179 belonging/belongingness 2, 10, 11, 24, 29, 45, 51, 58, 95, 232 Bentham, J. 99n1 Bertaux, D. 167 Béteille, A. 221 biodiversity 8, 59 Bombay 224 Bourdieu, P. 13, 31, 32, 117, 217 – 19, 221; about class 220; approach 14, 217; class, idea of 219; culture, understanding of 4; dispositional philosophy of actions 221; engagement with field 219; field, ideas on 219; field theory 13; framework 11, 167, 232; habitus, ideas on 12, 218; highbrow culture 180 – 1; high culture, terminology of 229;

Index 263 ideas on class distinction 217; occupational categories 218; partial revolution, idea of 231; perspective 84; reconversion strategies 118; sense 101; social class 211, 212 bourgeois environmentalism 60 Brahmin caste 143 breach of trust 90, 92 breakneck urbanisation 9 – 10 Brenner, N. 33 Brosius, C. 5 bureaucracy 3, 14, 24, 35, 39, 42 business/entrepreneurial ventures 118 Butler and Robson 151 Calcutta 224 Caldeira, T. P. R. 71, 75, 77, 78, 94 capital: assessment of 122; distribution of 231; forms of 12, 218, 219; global circuits of 100, 101, 105, 106, 232; urbanisation 8 careers: choices 195; orientation 145, 146 caregivers 142, 145, 186 – 8 caste system 40, 73, 134, 140 – 1, 144, 172, 194 – 5, 222, 226; affiliations 35; anxieties 147; and class 23; within class and similarities 25; disturbance in 223 – 4; dynamics 232; economic structures and domination of 228; groups 227 – 8; hierarchies and limits of 142; historical restrictions on vulnerable 224; relationship 143; and religion-related privileges 110; and religious references 133; reservation 134; role of 143; social entitlement 231; symbolic capital 23, 231; upper 224 centralised security 86 Chatterjee, P. 226 Chaudhary, R. 210n2, 210n3 Chief Technical Officer (CTO) 123 childcare 26, 187; responsibility of 124; support 124, 186 childhood/children 74, 152, 182 – 3, 202; academic performance 203; academic schedule of 206; acceptable behaviour for 147 – 8; approach 186; bad influence

179 – 80; defiance of 195; discipline 178; discourses of 168; within educated middle-class families 175; education 204; enabling environment for 209; future success 204; futurity 196; life projects 147; from middleclass families 167, 169, 182 – 3, 193; parenting 175; performance by 176; planning of 197 – 203; rearing practices 186 – 90; routine management 204 – 5; of schoolgoing age 208; social group 207; social institutions for 207; socialisation of 110; talent-based careers for 200 – 1; witness of 171 Chitkara, V. 61, 63n20 choices 53; broadening of 140; marriages 160 citizen initiative 58 – 9 city-dwellers, community of 67 city space 8, 57; of New Delhi 27; of New Gurugram 27; privileged habitus 56; socio-spatial dynamics of 77; usevalue 59 Civil Lines in Delhi 63n13 civil social order 45 class 194 – 5, 215; analysis, cultural turn to 4; approach 212; boundaries of 190, 218; consciousness 11, 216 – 17; consolidating 49 – 54; cultural aspects of 215; cultural practices of 2, 4, 12; definition of 122; differences 214; disposition 102; distinction 12, 25, 43 – 9, 72, 100, 168; dynamics of 25; existence of 215; gentrification 104; habitus 31; identity, nuances of 26; individualisation of 123; manifesting 54 – 7; material and non-material basis of 14 – 15; membership 11; mobility 128; objective markers of 2; othering of 25; parenting practices 103; positions 163, 213; practices and norms of 218; production and reproduction functions 146; reproduction 167; security 117; social reproduction of 168; social status 213; and space (see space/spatial); spatial understanding of 100, 101;

264 Index stability 126, 128, 167; status 126, 158; system, uniqueness 126; terminology of 214 class analysis 212 – 13; adaptation of 221; cultural turn of 216; limits of 221 – 2; socio-spatial turn to 221; traditional frameworks of 222 class-appropriate socialisation: child 197 – 203; enabling environment 203 – 9; father as symbol of taste and personality 193 – 7; mothering and child rearing practices 186 – 90; self-discipline 177 – 80; strategies 182 – 6; template of motherhood 190 – 3; values 180 – 1 classed morality of middle: description of 150 – 1; ethics vs. practicality 153 – 5; morality 151 – 3; poverty and crime 155 – 7 class habitus: reproduction of 167; transmission of 92 class identity 66, 146, 162; expression of 69; internal fractures of 67; production of 167 classness, performative essence of 216 class reproduction 117; description of 164 – 9; life as project 169 – 70; marrying well 171 – 3; planning parenthood 173 – 4; successful transition 170 – 1 client-patron relationships 223 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras 94 closed condominiums 77 coaching centres 120 co-curricular activities 200 co-curricular programmes 200 co-curricular shadow system 199 cognitive discipline 179 collective conscience 85, 157 – 62, 195 collective critical gaze 161 collective gaze 198 collective pools 75 – 6 collective voluntarily 86 college education 140 colonial/colonialism 226; administration 223 – 4; advent of 223; education 224 – 6; middle class 6 (see also middle class); movements 225; urban centres, spatial forms of 5; urbanisation 6

colonial India: blunted growth of industries in 226; middle class in 6 commercial middle class 214 – 15 communication 81 – 2; non-verbal 21; with respondents 20 – 1 community 103; belongingness, dynamics of 94; of choice 55; identities 110, 129; resources for 74; sense of 59; support systems 85; units 50 competitiveness 133 – 6 compliance 179 concept-sound pattern relationship 99n2 condominiums 77, 84, 94, 104 conjugality 173 consciousness 8, 11, 26, 140 consistency, discourses of 107 – 8 consumer durables 129 content, form of 69 context, interaction of 221 contraceptives 173 contractual basis 22 control and restriction, spatial practices of: description of 86 – 7; spatial practices of 86 – 7; surveillance 87 – 8 controlled areas: boundaries of 36; definition of 36 controlled environment, designing of 206 – 7 core identity 67 corruption in RWA 96 cosmopolitan employee 95 cosmopolitan subjectivity 131 – 3, 162; attitudes towards money and materiality 137 – 9; of EMC 133; globality 139 – 41; merit and competitiveness 133 – 6; Waldron ideas on 132 cost-effectiveness 129 crime/criminal /criminality 69 – 70, 72, 155 – 7; allegiant outsiderinside 93 – 4; description of 88 – 90; domestic workers 90 – 3; impending sense of 88, 89; tendencies 89, 92 – 3 critical collective conscience 160 crucial life decisions 125 cultural capital 119, 120, 126, 129, 139, 141, 145, 146, 148, 189 – 92, 201, 230; appropriate 175 – 6; forms of 199

Index 265 cultural cosmopolitanism 132; description of 141 – 2; gender, sexuality and educated middle class 146 – 50; marriage 143 – 6 cultural/culture: Bourdiuesian understanding of 4; differences 143; embeddedness to 216; exchange 139; field, time/ routine as 108 – 10; omnivorism hypothesis 180 – 1; practices 12, 26; repertoire 191; value system 181 Cyberabad 10 cybercity 63n18 cyclovia 63n19

distinct habitus 54 distinction 12 – 13, 55, 110 DLF see Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) DLFcybercity 63n18 domestic workers 90 – 3 domicile bodies 211 Donner, H. 4, 149, 184, 186 Donthi, P. 38 DRDO see Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Drescher, A. W. 62n1 drugs respondents 179 dutiful child 178, 209 – 10 dutiful progeny 178, 188, 191

daily schedules 108 Dalits: neighbourhoods 203; politics 228; reservation for 229; respondent 143 data collection 17; challenge for 19; process of 20, 21 Davis, D. E. 15 deductive thinking 183 Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) 189 Deleuze, G. 68, 69 Delhi 15; Development Authority 35 – 6; middle class 2; neighbourhood 41; rape case 155; satellite towns 35 Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) 37, 55, 62n9 Delhi Land Holdings (and Ceilings) Act 35 – 6 delinquency 69 democratic politics 3 Deshpande, S. 111, 113 de-spatialised globality 85 – 6 Devine, F. 134 De Wet, C. 62n11 Dickey, S. 4, 5, 11, 113, 121, 126, 130n1, 162 – 3, 200 differences 95, 120 digital space 81 Dinzey-Flores, Z. 52 dirt 73 discrimination, forms of 212 – 13 disorganised capitalism 114 disposition 54, 221; philosophy of actions 12; reflective of 100 dis-proportionality of payment 73 distances from necessity 219

economic/economy: activity 227; capital 124, 189 – 90, 192, 201, 218 – 19; exchange 139; expenditures 124; liberalisation 3; power 126; status 124 Edgerton, J. D. 183 educated middle class (EMC) 44 – 5, 47, 52, 55, 56, 59, 61, 66, 72, 73, 75, 88, 90 – 2, 99, 108, 111, 113, 119, 121, 126, 128 – 9, 140, 143, 151 – 4, 158, 160, 169, 173, 175, 183 – 5, 198, 201, 229 – 32; axis of distinction 232; childrearing and parenting narratives 203; claim of 61; class 98, 146, 190; conceptual usage of 233n3; context of 54; cosmopolitan subjectivity 131 – 3, 140 – 1, 146, 157; cosmopolitan values 133 – 4; defence mechanism for 134; dispositions and distinction among 68; distinction 101, 143, 230, 232; domestic space 92, 169; employers 156; event among 59; families 141, 149 – 50, 180, 188, 194; in Gurugram 114; homes 187 – 8, 205, 208; identity 198; inconvenience for 81; maintenance of habitus 92; middle class for 146; order of life and self for 100; ordinariness of 160; organising principles of living 67; owner migrantresidents 96; parents 183, 206; parents/parenting 168, 174, 175, 203 – 4; perception 67, 187; performative and social

266 Index reproduction practices 168; performative astuteness 137; positionality of 68; preference for 114; preferred living arrangement of 86; prudence 197; psychic landscape of 137; rationality 146, 162; residents 78, 90; respondents 156; role in disciplining, controlling and claiming 56; savarna sections of 133; self and subjectivity of 132; sexuality in 147; social class distinction 53 – 4; social persona of 136; socio-spatial context of 100; spatial exclusivity of 77; status 191; strategies of 231; subjectivity 146; traditionalism of 180; treasures 70 – 1; values and subjectivity 131; see also middle class educational/education 119, 173; centrality of 233n3; of children 26; institution 117; policies 228; see also educated middle class (EMC) elective belonging 53, 63n14 electoral politics 3 embeddedness 216 embodied capital 231, 232 embodied criminality 90 EMC see educated middle class (EMC) emplacement 62n11 employee/employment 140; demands 116; inefficiency of 91; liability on 144; market 162; opportunities 224 empowerment, sense of 140 enabling environment 204, 205 English education 102, 224, 225, 227 entrepreneurship 118, 128, 174 epochal shift 3 Erickson, B. 180 – 1 erode caste 225 ethical/ethics 154; vs. practicality 153 – 5; self 208 ethnographers 19 everyday spaces 101 exchange value 59 exclusivity 66 – 7; eyes wide open 68 – 73; private lives in shared premises 85 – 6; spatial practices producing 67 – 8 exploitation 156

expressions, forms of 69 external reality 99n2 extra-familial responsibility sharing 199 extra-marital affairs 151 extraordinary regularity 215 facility management services 89 families 109 – 10, 150, 170; closeness of ties 141; cohesion 142; composition 174; as functional units 141; future goals of 173; life histories 123; social institution of 169; structure in Indian context 173; support 142, 144; ties within EMC 142; unity 152; see also parental/parenting/parenthood Faridabad 38; agricultural productivity 38 – 9; formation of district 39 farmers 36 – 7, 47 father: approval 194; definition of 194; expectations 195 – 6; personality and individual self 193; as symbol of taste and personality 193 – 7; see also parental/ parenting/parenthood Fauzan, A. U. 98 fear 177 female respondents 109 Fernandes, L. 226 fertility assistance 173 field 230; definition of 220; relationships 101 Field-Habitus-Capital triad 220 financial: cushioning 124; planning 127; self-dependence 171; stability 173 – 4 fixed capital 129, 181, 214 fixed deposits 127 flats 84, 85, 88 foreign ownership 9 foreign vacations 106 forest garden 60 fortified enclaves 75 Foucault, M. 99n1 French society 211 friendship: cost of 136; networks of 140 future dispositions 102 gande log 72 gated communities 49 – 54; in flat/ apartment/condominium complexes 52; nature and character of 50

Index 267 gated enclaves 15, 17, 49 – 54, 66, 75, 94 – 5, 205, 206; benefits of staying in 72; controlled space of 51; as domestic workers 88; functioning of 90; homes 88; infrastructure and facilities inside 76; intercom at building entrance in 82; maintenance and security of 96; in neo-urban 98; order and control within 94; preferred residence in 47; premises of 89; private paved streets inside 77; Resident Welfare Associations in 99n7; restricted access 73; security screening at 79; social and physical space of 67; space of 94; surveillance and gates of 69; visitor’s gatepass 79; see also community gaze 158; of collective conscience 158 – 9; collective critical 161; favourable opinion of 159; observer’s limited 124; public 123, 161; social 161; of social onlookers 163 generalised other 157 geriatric care 174 global/globality 139 – 41, 180; capitalism, social-political processes of 10; definition of 140; economy 129, 139, 162; exposure 103; islands of 100; networking, foundation for 103; persona 129; schools, preference for 175; urbanity 68, 100; work culture 107 good parenting 171, 180 good school 103 good self 208 good taste 218 – 19 Goswami, B. 210n4, 210n5 governance/government: qualitative engagement in 96; residential colonies 100 grandparents 187 Green Revolution 38 Griffith, A. I. 186 Guattari, F. 68, 69 Gujjars 63n16 Gurgaon/Gurugram 3, 8, 10, 13 – 14, 30, 32 – 3, 55, 75, 121 – 2, 144, 176; administration of 58; aesthetic consumption in 232; changing

administrative spread in 40; communities of 15; district map 44, 46; economic reforms 33; educated middle classes of 52, 204; EMC in 114; features of 38; gated enclaves in 49 – 54; geopolitical boundaries 33 – 5; job opportunities in 42; legislation 35 – 7; liberalisation phase 43; middle class in 24 – 5, 43; modest growth for 35; neo-urban 48 – 9; peri-urban 38; physical and social space of 56; population in 42; post-liberalisation urbanisation of 41; roads of 2; settlement 40 – 3; significance of 35; state bureaucracy 42 – 3; urbanisation in 30, 36 – 40; urban socio-spatial landscape of 39 Gurgaon Utsav 60 Gururani, S. 36, 62n6 habits, inscription in 216 habitus 12, 31, 32, 43, 91, 101, 111, 141, 146, 162, 175 – 6, 230, 232; Bourdieu ideas on 218; of educated middle classes 90, 92, 140; inculcating 190; interaction of 221; middle-class 58; situation and dispositions 13 Haryana: Ceiling on Land Holdings Act of 1973 37; Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act 1975 36; growth of city 38; second-generation settlers in 23; Urban Estate Development of 37; Urban Land Ceiling Act 1972 36 Hauz Khas house 81 Hays, S. 192 helplessness-shamelessness, sense of 151 Hemer, S. 62n11 higher education 135, 162, 177, 202 Hindu 143, 228 Hindu-Muslim riots 229 holiday destinations 106 holistic development 103, 202 home environment 81, 203 homeownership 125 – 7, 129 homes 84, 92 homogenisation, benefits of 50 homogenous social profile 172 homosexuality 152 – 3 horizontal faction 113 – 17, 119

268 Index households 104, 210n1; functional needs of 205; low-income 202; social institution of 169 human capital 143 – 4 IamGurgaon initiatives 57 – 60 Iaquinta, D. L. 62n1 identity 28 – 9, 66; consent and establishing 18 – 20; politics 229; sense of 57; space and (see space/ spatial); urban form and 211 – 12 in-class bad influences 179 – 80 independent house 104 India/Indian: class in 2 – 3; Indian Civil Services (ICS) 226; Indian Councils Act, 1909 34; middle class 3 – 5, 7, 113, 159, 221 – 2 (see also middle class); neoliberal urban restructuring in 29; neourban 9, 30; post-liberalisation 3, 9, 230; socio-spatial category in 2 – 3; urban revolution 9, 29 individual/individuation: achievement 181; sense of 86; social reputation 193; vulnerability 86 inductive thinking 183 industrial entrepreneurs 214 industrial middle class 119, 226 inequality 3, 8, 32 information, exchange of 20 information technology (IT) 22, 184, 198 infrastructural exclusivity 78 inheritances 4, 122 – 9, 170 inherited liabilities 124 institutional authorities 47 intellectual appeal 145 – 6 inter-caste marriage 143, 144 inter-class distinction 202 intergenerational advantage 126 intergenerational transfer of class 26 intermediary castes 23 intermediary classes 213 internal social divisions 211 international/global schools 102, 103, 210n7 interrelationship 29 inter-religion marriage 143 intersectionality, class and gender 93 interview process 96 intimate partner violence 148 intra-class competition 21 invisible expenses 123

invisible support 123 islands of globality 75 Jacobs, J. M. 56 Jaffrelot, C. 225 Jajmani system 223 Jakarta, study of 98 James Rule 85 job security 114 – 15 Jodhka, S. 222, 223 knowledge, global circuits of 100, 101, 105, 106 Krishna, A. 207 Kundu, A. 6 LAAC see local ancestral agrarian community (LAAC) labour/labouring: associations 57 – 8; bodies 91; markets 213, 214; obligations of 206; as parents 189; responsibilities 202 LaDousa, C. 113 Lancy, D. F. 169, 199 land acquisition 33, 35, 36, 39, 63n16 Land Ceilings Act of 1976 36 landowners 37, 223 land-use pattern 36 land use regulation policies 29 languages 3, 19, 24, 48, 49, 54, 90, 92, 99n2, 115, 121, 158, 165, 175, 176, 178 Le Gales, P. 54, 99n4 legitimate violence 230 – 1 Lenin’s effort 213 liabilities and returns, framework of 123 – 5 liberal economic policies 3 liberation, sense of 85 – 6 Liechty, M. 4, 5, 11 life-history biography 94 life project 26, 145, 147, 169 – 71, 192, 201 linguistic abilities 183 linguistic development 191 literary communication 225 living space, optimisation of 86 local ancestral agrarian community (LAAC) 25, 37, 42 – 5, 51, 53, 54, 59, 175, 230 – 2; behaviour and conduct of 48; caste and gender enforced by 45 – 6; castebased feudal and rural habitus

Index 269 of 56; claims of 66 – 7; class distinction against 66; distinction against 48; fixity of 53; habitus 54; perceived culture of 49; perceptions of 45; rural-feudalcaste-based sensibilities of 46; social norms of 52; in symbolic capital and economic capital 232; threats and competition from 67 Lockwood, D. 216 logical reasoning 183 logic privileges 73 low-income households 202 Macauley, T. 224 maintenance 18, 39, 74, 92, 97, 98, 190, 191, 205 malls 104 – 6 Mandal Commission 229 Mann, M. 217 marital partners 195 Market Information Survey of Households (MISH) 114 market relations 223 marriage 141, 142, 149; centrality of 148; choices 147; partner, choice of 145; readiness for 171 – 2; urgency and inevitability of 171; well-matched partner for 173 Marxist/Marxism 212, 216; analysis 212 – 13; claim 213; class analysis 212; theory 212, 213 Marxist-Structuralist approach 11 Marx, K. 216 mascullinity 46 Massey, D. 12 – 13, 32, 56, 221 matchmaking 172 material/materiality: attitudes towards 137 – 9; wealth 161 Mazzarella, W. 227 McCracken, E. 210n5 Mead, G. H. 157 media technology 81 mediocre academic grades 115 megacities 9 men, sexuality and marriage for 147 mental classification 121 mental vocabulary 191 mentoring 170 merit 133 – 6 meritocracy 134, 135 meritocratic competitions 168

metropolitan habitus 29 micro-historic framework 15 middle as either-or 113; horizontal faction 113 – 17; inheritances and liabilities 122 – 9; reconversion strategies 118 – 20; vertical factions 120 – 2 middle class 14, 49 – 54, 110, 112, 145, 225; agitations 228; appearance and mannerisms 24; average capital 122; changing/ changed disposition of 103; changing scenario of 228; characteristics of 4, 225; child 170 – 1, 201 – 2; composition 227; consumerist-nationalist 5; context of 213; cultural practices of 13; definition of 2; in Delhi 2; discourse 177; distinction 129; elements of 139; empirical size and objective boundaries of 3; families 140, 149, 170, 174 – 5; fractions of 105; in gated enclaves 17; generations of 100; in Gurugram 24 – 5; habitus 58, 111, 209; homes 92; homogenous space of 66; horizontal fractions of 113 – 14; identity, reproduction of 185; individuals 100, 154, 173; kinds of 215; life, principle of 168; living 158; macro narratives of 100; migrant-residents 96, 99n6; mothering 186; narrative 185; in New Gurugram 2; nomenclature of 222; nuclear family setup 172; parents/parenting 104, 129, 177, 183, 198, 208 – 9; planning 121; political-economic-social histories of 162; political participation of 225; propertied section of 233n3; rationality 135; salaried 20; study of 139; subjectivity 131 – 2; synopsis of 228; urban form and 6 – 9; urban living spaces 21 middle-classness 11, 26, 151, 233 middle income, households 202 migrants 42, 95; category of 95; middle class 48 MISH see Market Information Survey of Households (MISH) Misra, B. B. 222

270 Index mixed class type 213, 221 mobility 140 moderation 19 modernity, nationalist discourse of 133 money, attitudes towards 137 – 9 moral/morality 26, 28, 139, 151 – 3; cultural inferiority 131; degradation 151 – 2; ethical concerns 155; identifier 154; reflective thinking 92; superiority 113; vulnerabilities 153 mothering/motherhood 186 – 93 Muslims 225, 228 Nambissanm, G. 130, 227 nannies 187 National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) 114 nationalism, politics of 6 natural belongingness 94 near-belongingness 2 need and wants model 178 – 9 negative belonging 214 Nehruvian: leadership 3; modern middle class 231; vision of nationalist modernity 7 neighbours/neighbourhood 7, 53, 80, 86, 103, 104, 122, 127, 131, 200; popularity of 63n13; relationships 80 – 1, 84 neoliberal globalisation 29 neoliberal policy experiments 29 neo-urban 49 – 54, 69, 104, 175; boundaries and administrative control 34; cities 5; contexts 8, 30, 77; fractures in 175; gated enclaves in 51, 67, 98; Gurugram 53; Indian Middle Class 9 – 10; landscape 107; post-liberalisation 232; socio-spatial dynamics of 33; underclass in 105 neo-urban spaces 30, 32 – 3, 61, 98; in Bengaluru and Hyderabad 22; emergence of 25; integration of 50 networking ability 206 – 7 neutrality 51 ‘new economy’ service sector 100 New York, middle class 211 non-discursive multiplicities 69 non-traditional work schedules 174 non-verbal communication 21 non-western contexts 211 normalcy: illusion of 197; social appearance of 160

normality 112 notices at entrance 70, 71 not-so-privileged vernacular groups 224 nouveau riche 55 objective competition 134 objective-moral position 154 Ocejo, R. E. 13, 19 OECD see Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) offices/workplaces 107 – 8 old middle class, consumption practices of 3 online social media 106 order, sense of 108 ordinariness 112, 157, 160, 173, 178 organised events 57 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 62n1 Ortner, S. 169 otherness/othering 13, 25, 31, 49, 66; aberration through 88; of insiders 94 – 8; process 98 outsider inside 73, 88, 89, 91, 93 – 4 ownership rights, hierarchy of 222 – 4 paid employment 116, 188 paid tuition classes 199 Panopticon 68, 99n1 paradoxical effects 86 parental/parenting/parenthood 8, 152, 171, 180, 182 – 3, 198, 201, 205 – 6; anxiousness 179; authoritative 182; behavioural and linguistic template of 175; collective sense of understanding 208; cultural practices of 203; decisions 199; efficient coordination among 198; financial liability to 170 – 1; humility 179; interactive possibilities between 109; planning 173 – 4; practices 167, 168, 175; promiscuity of 173; resilient practices 169; sacrifices 177; sense of distinction 173; strategies of 178, 182; work schedules 176 parenting cultures 174 – 7; child 197 – 203; enabling environment 203 – 9; father as symbol of taste and personality 193 – 7;

Index 271 mothering and child rearing practices 186 – 90; self-discipline 177 – 80; strategies 182 – 6; template of motherhood 190 – 3; values 180 – 1 Park, R. E. 81, 84 partial exit hypothesis 54, 73, 76, 99n4 partial revolution 231 participants 19 partner: employment status 172; preferences 145 patriarchal control 149 perceptions 73, 157, 217 performative commitment 103 peri-urban 62n1; context 10, 68; development 10; dynamics 40; fringes 3, 9, 10, 25, 30, 77; space 29, 100, 101 Perry, C. 50 personality, symbol of 193 – 7 physical environment 209 physical labour 187 – 8 physical space 13, 31, 45, 52, 219, 220; congruence of 219 – 20; properties of 219 – 20 physical violence 148 place, geographical concepts of 32 political/politics: administration 225; authority 35; communities 58; economy 226; morality 228; participation of middle classes 225; state of 154 positionality, reflexive notes on 20 – 6 post-independence: industrial development 227; urbanisation 7 post-liberalisation 13, 35; change 29; middle class 8, 23, 25, 228 – 30; policies 8; urbanisation 8, 9, 25 poverty 155 – 7 power of relaxation 36 pre-colonial middle classes 226 predictability of life 78 prejudice 73, 155 pre-marital relationship, distractions 196 – 7 premium services 75 preschools 192 – 3 primacy 136 primary: habitus 12, 169; parents 194; relations 81 prison form 68 – 9 privacy 85; definition of 99n8 private-collective goods 72 private lives in shared premises 85 – 6 problem-solving techniques 200

production for market 223 projects 190 proper mothering 186 propertied middle class 214 property class 214 property-less classes 214 psychological distance 84 psychological domain 21 – 2 public domain 834 public gaze 110 – 11, 161 public infrastructure, development of 30 public resources 54, 77 public sector: middle class 3; projects 7 public spaces 54, 61 Punjab Scheduled Road and Controlled Areas Act 62n6 Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act 1963 36 purposive sampling 16 quality of life, definition of 75 Raahgiri 58, 63 Radhakrishnan, S. 4, 135, 140 Rajasthan 34 Rajput caste 143 rape 154 – 5, 160 rational-practical choice 146 rational reasoning 152 real estate 39; corporations 14; development 232; foreign direct investment in 29 realisation 185 Reay, D. 193 reciprocity 136 reconversion strategies 118 – 20, 219 recreational activity 104 recreational industry 139 reflexive knowledge 19 relative positions 10 religion/religious: backgrounds 172; boundaries 144; hierarchies and limits of 142; identity 134; relationship 143; role of 143; rules 194 – 5 researcher 19 – 20; institutional affiliation 18; perspectives 19 residence/residential/residents: buildings 33; camera outside door of 83; complexes 15; features of 98; property 42; spaces 50 Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) 51, 56, 58, 86 – 7, 95, 96;

272 Index corruption in 96; members 96; negotiating powers with 96; participation in 96 resources 95, 122 respondents 19 – 20, 22, 28, 85, 86, 103, 104; comforting for 24; communicating with 20 – 1; parents 175; with religious minority profiles 23; shared familiarity with 24 response, flexibility and deference of 20 responsive inquiry 19 restriction: interactions, reasoning on 80; spatial practices of 86 – 7 revanchism 57 revenue bureaucracy 223 reverse disciplining 175 – 6 reverse socialisation 175 Roberts, L. W. 183 routines 108 – 10; differences in 114; enforcing and maintaining 109 – 10 Rowlatt Committee Report of 1918 34 Rudolph, L. 227 Rudolph, S. 227 rural community 40 rural local bodies 29 rural middle class 5, 68 rural politics 35 rural-urban transition zone 62n1 RWA see Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) Säävälä, M. 5 sacrificing parent 209 – 10 salaried/salary: employment 114, 118, 119, 125; expectations against payment of 91; middle class 20 sample selection criteria 22 sampling technique 16 Savage, M. 63n14, 63n15, 84, 94, 112, 123, 133, 134, 217 savarna culture 162 scepticism 19 Schmid, C. 33 scholastic achievement 103 schools 102 – 4 secondary habitus 12 security 86; guards 78, 86; of life and property 85; of order 69 self 8; advancement 218; individuated sense of 193; self-conscious 157 – 62; sense of 136 – 7

self and identification: description of 100; everyday spaces 101; middle as either-or (see middle as either-or); middle as neithernor 110 – 13; space and (see space/spatial); ways of being middle 110 self-destructive tactics 179 self-discipline 177 – 80, 185 self-employment 118, 174 self-identification 4, 11, 14, 110, 112 self-sacrifice 177, 188 semi-structured interview 16 sexual/sexuality 141, 150; autonomy 88; freedom 151 – 2; and marriage 145; violence 148 shadow education: institutions 120, 203; market of 120; systems 199 shared attitudes 157 shared habitus 24 shared infrastructure 205 shared premises, private lives in 85 – 6 shopping, experience 104 – 5 siblings, expectations of 181 signifier, concepts of 99n2 Simone, A. 98 skilled/skills: inclusion of 214; labour force 41 smartness 138 Smith, D. E. 186 snowball sampling 16 social: barriers 19; bonding 136; capital 117, 118, 146, 189, 193, 207; contacts 17, 18, 81, 85; context 32; and economic backgrounds 120; encodings 23 – 4; entitlement 52; gatherings 109; gaze 161; group 17; identity 32; initiatives 57; interactions 23, 25 – 6; life, feature of 11; media 17, 106; networking, website profiles 18, 106 – 7; networks 198, 207; norms 144; opportunities, managers of 199; order 45; organisation 48, 57, 224; perception 136 – 7, 193; reforms 227; relations/relationships 28 – 9, 32, 197; reproduction 118, 169, 199; reputation 160; source of status 233n3; space 32, 45, 49, 52, 58, 181, 219 – 20; structure 11; superiority 131 social class 4, 12, 13, 180, 219; Bourdieu’s ideas on 211;

Index 273 description of 211; dynamics 214; hierarchy 10 – 11; identity 212; Marxist theory of 213; practices of 217; recognition of 10; socio-spatialness of 14; theories on 212; theorisation 212 socialisation 26, 175, 180; cultural practices of 203; process 70 society, organic members of 157 sociology 32 socio-spatiality of class: blunted growth of industries in colonial India 226; category 8, 13, 25; class analysis 212 – 21; classness 10 – 13; colonial education policy 224 – 6; description of 211 – 12; distinction 163n1; dynamics 10, 33, 43 – 4; fixedness 232; hierarchy 67; Indian middle class 221 – 2; post-liberalisation middle class 228 – 30; relevance of middle class in post-independent India 227 – 8; socio-spatial middle class 230 – 3; transformation of Agrarian structures 222 – 4 socio-spatial middle class 230 – 3 solidarity, sense of 59 South Asia 11, 29 space/spatial 2, 12, 55, 100, 101 – 2, 211; amphitheatre 60 – 1; Aravalli Biodiversity Park 59 – 60; category of 2 – 3; colonisation and restructuring of 100; concept of 32; consolidating 49 – 54; description of 27 – 9; disassociation 101; disparity 100, 101; distinction, emergence of 43 – 9; dynamics of 25; entitlement 52; everyday 101; geographical concepts of 32; Gurugram 32 – 40; holiday destinations 106; IamGurgaon 57 – 9; and identity 211; malls 104 – 6; management 208; manifesting 54 – 7; neighbourhoods and households 104; offices/workplaces 107 – 8; practices of class identity 66; purification, principles of 15; schools 102 – 4; social organisation of 44; sociology 61; spatial practices and social organisation of 44; time/ routine as cultural field 108 – 10;

urbanisation trends in India 29 – 32; virtual space 106 – 7 spatialised 5, 13 – 15, 32, 67, 85, 105, 211; see also space/spatial special control 94 special power 94 Sridharan, E. 114 Srivastava, S. 3 – 5, 224 state administration 3 state-driven urban development 7 state infrastructure 62n8 state-led urban development 39 status 215 strong culture of neighbouring 81 structural identity 218 structure-action duality 216 structured physical space 107 structure space 56 subjectivity 26, 146, 158; definition of 163n1 subsistence 223 supplement childcare 142 surveillance 68, 87 – 8; practices and values 89; through deference 94 suspicious people 72 sustainability 58 symbolic capital 117 Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. 181 taste, symbol of 193 – 7 tenant migrant-resident 96 thinking, sense of 90 Thompson, P. R. 167 Thukral, L. 57, 59 – 61 time: management 208; and money 138; pass 184; waste 184 Torri, M. 227 trade relationships 34 traditionalism 180 traditional values, custodians of 180 transients 63n15 transient-spiralists 53, 95 – 7 transnational corporations 95 transnational trends 51 transportation 81 – 2 trouble makers 72 unconscious attitudes 215 – 16 underclass 154; domestic workers 92; individuals 179 – 80; labouring bodies 92; marker of 73; moral fabric of 151; in neo-urban context 105; outsider-inside body of 91

274 Index undergraduation 153 Upadhyay, C. 3 upper castes 224; middle class 231 urban-educated middle classes 225 Urban Estate Development of Haryana 37 urban form: and identity 211 – 12; possibilities of 212 urbanisation, privatised modes of 68, 72 Urban Land Ceilings and Regulation Act, 1976 36 urban/urbanisation 5, 6; administration 30; breakneck pace of 8; centres 6; colonial centres 6; development narrative 34; expansion of 7; forms of 6 – 10; historical trajectory of 6; middle class 6 – 9; patterns of 9; phases of 7; population 29; post-independence 7; privatised modes of 9 – 10; process of 39, 41; restructuring 8; revanchism 56; revolution 9; sophistication 7, 231; spaces 29 – 31, 33; spatial islands 77; trends in India 29 – 32; villages 43 values: of consumption 139; globality of 105; judgement 92 van der Veer, P. 225 Verick, S. 210n2 vertical factions 113, 120 – 2 Vidyarthi, S. 63n13 village social-economic system 223 Vincent, C. 170, 186, 187, 192, 193, 199, 201, 210n6 virtual media, identity on 106 – 7 virtual social networks 18 virtual space 17, 18, 106 – 7, 183 – 4, 198 visitor pass 71

visitors/guests 88 vulnerability 20, 111, 142; conscious of 22; EMC perception of 67; of middle-class status 26; neutralising 70 – 1; sense of 21, 86 Wacquant, L. 31 Waldron, J. 132 waste time 184 water, usage and wastage 95 Weber, M. 119, 213 – 16; analysis 214, 215; class analysis 216; cultural formations and lifestyles 216; property and power 215; traditions 216 Weedon, C. 163n1 western education system 224 whimsical labouring body 90 wilderness 25 women: class security of secure choices 146; within educated middle class 189; gatekeepers of class status 146; life narratives 148; love and marriage among 149; sexual agency of 148; sexuality 149; sexuality in middle-class homes 147; see also parental/ parenting/parenthood workplaces, experiences in 107 – 8 work/worker 108; cultures 107; organisations 57 – 8 world-class ambience 103 world-class pedagogy 209 world/international schools 209 Wright, E. O. 119, 213, 216 Yadavs 35, 63n16 Young, M. 135 zamindars 223