Middle Class In India

In ancient India, the criterion for the social division was very different—the concept of the Indian middle class did not exist. Instead, the position of individuals was dictated by their caste and the amount of agricultural land and livestock they owned. In today’s world, however, the primary yardstick against which an individual is measured is their material wealth. This shift in values has been due to a shift in power, from the hands of kings and religious leaders to elected representatives and secular government institutions. This also led to the integration of rural and urban areas in cities, resulting in prosperity for a larger populace. In this article, we will focus on the different theories on class, compare the middle class in India with the West, and understand the growth of the middle-class population in India after independence.

Theories on the Middle Class: Marx vs Weber

Karl Marx gave one of the first few theories on social class. Marx postulated that the middle class forms a social group—he called it the “petite bourgeoisie”of the individuals who possess private property but enough to employ people in wage labour. Marx believed that this group would disappear as the capitalist system progressed. Max Weber’s theory on class was similar to Marx’s idea in many ways. Weber, like Marx, believed that the middle classes can be defined by economic criteria. However, he also believed that classes in a market economy share the same economic position and thus received the same rewards. Weber also differentiated non-property owning classes into two groups: individuals with marketable skills, termed the middle class and those without it, called unskilled labour. Unlike Marx, he believed that the middle class would expand as the capitalist system grew. 

Origin of the Middle Class in India and the West

In the West, the merchant class of the 14th-16th centuries established the roots of the middle class. By the 18th century, the merchants, industrialists, doctors, etc. separated themselves from the aristocracy and poor classes. With industrialisation and the French Revolution, this new social class grew even bigger while aristocracy declined. With an increase in urbanisation, the direct interaction of merchants and consumers declined, leading to the growth of new financial and trading institutions. Smaller classes of doctors and engineers began growing and became known as the new middle class. In India, the social conditions that led to the growth of middle-class families were different from the West. Western ideas of administration and modern industrial activity emerged under British rule in India. But unlike the West, the average Indian middle-class family was not a merchant or a business owner, but a lawyer, doctor, or civil servant, because of the high demand for employees in the new administrative institutions started by the British. 

After independence in 1947, many of these British institutions were carried forward by Indian leaders, and it was the Indian middle class who took on leadership roles in these institutions. Thus emerged three classes in Indian society: unskilled and skilled manual labour— clerks, peons, etc., who were at the lower end of the spectrum; big industrialists and zamindars, who formed the upper class; and finally, the middle class made up of government officers, doctors, professors in universities, etc. An uneducated but rich trader in India would not be considered middle class. Thus, the Indian middle class was defined more by education than income. 

Post-Independence Changes:

After independence, government policies directed towards equitable growth led to significant changes to the Indian social demographic. Some of these include:

• The green revolution, establishment of industries in backward areas, and spread of education led to the rise of big farmers as well as individuals who were stakeholders in industries
• The new Indian government laid more emphasis on the growth of the service sector than the industrial sector, which led to an increase in the demand for professionals in banks, hotels, financial companies, etc
• Reservation policies also led to increased social mobility for repressed classes, like the Dalits, in government schools and offices. This led to the emergence of a Dalit middle class in India

Conclusion

In India, on the other hand, a change in administrative structures led to the growth of the middle class. The British needed a large pool of employees to govern their administrative offices, and so, many new educational institutions were opened. As a result, an average middle-class family in India was more likely to be a doctor or a lawyer than a business owner. These changes continued even after independence, as many of these structures were carried forward by the new Indian government. The middle-class population in India today is defined more by education than material wealth.