Page 81 - EducationWorld Feb 2021 Low

would benefit aspiring The entry of a range
diplomats and the general of new social categories MIDDLE CLASS, MEDIA &
reader alike for the wealth into the middle class, MODI: THE MAKING OF A NEW
of information it con- divided broadly in social ELECTORAL POLITICS
tains and the freshness and spatial terms across Nagesh Prabhu
of insight that the author India has made it difficult SAGE PUBLICATIONS
brings to bear on every to estimate the size of this Rs.350; Pages 374
decisive moment of his class. Not surprisingly, the
enriched life. author says its size could
AMITABHA BHATTACHARYA range from a meagre 78
(The Book Review) million to a massive 604 and political stability by
million. Whatever the promoting social cohesion A revealing book
India’s fickle numbers, the great Indian and mitigating tensions about the rise of
the middle class, its
between the poor and
middle class is bigger in
middle class size than the entire popu- rich”. The middle class political and economic
implications for
lation of most European
is also credited by the
countries, and is almost as author for being “drivers contemporary India
HE ‘exceptionalism’ big as the US population. of economic growth” as it and the media-fuelled
of the book under The author refers to nurtures “entrepreneurs rise of Narendra Modi
Treview according to multiple criteria used by who create jobs and foster
its author, a senior jour- analysts for enumerating productivity”. It is this
nalist, lies in the fact that the middle class which consumerist class that by creating a ‘new India’
it seeks to unravel the rise remain debatable due to propels reforms. caught the imagination of
of Modi’s leadership “from the fuzziness of the social The author also refers the middle class in the new
the middle class perspec- category itself. He prefers to “ideological and cultural millennium.
tive” without adhering to the ‘objective’ criteria of shifts” in the ‘new’ middle While one agrees
“any ideological point of possession of cultural class which have fanned broadly with the book’s
view”. A reading of the (education) and material the winds of neo-liberal- arguments, there are still
book reveals, however, capital. ism. Pursuing the good a few questions that could
that it is more about the The expansion of the life marked by upward have been answered.
rise of the middle class middle class is attributed mobility, security, luxury First, how come the Modi
and its political and to the following factors: and choices, it is this class regime has succeeded
economic implications for creation of new oppor- with its clout in the new in gaining wide support
contemporary India, than tunity structures in an social media that has lent of the marginal classes
about the media fuelled increasingly urbanising its uncritical support and despite adopting policies
rise of Narendra Modi. and industrialising India prowess to the transi- primarily for serving the
More tellingly, the vol- poised for growth leading tion towards a market middle class? Second,
ume raises important ques- to social and economic economy. what explains the signifi-
tions about the specific mobility; the process of A significant political cant cultural and ideo-
“role of the middle class in agrarian change in the outcome of the rise of the logical shifts towards a far
Indian politics”. Who con- form of land reforms and new middle class is the right wing, ultra-national-
stitutes the middle class? green revolution; and the BJP’s ascendancy to power ist and pro-market ideol-
What can be the criteria introduction of liberal in the 1990s. This was the ogy within the erstwhile
for identifying the middle economic reforms. decade when despite be- liberal middle class of
class? What is the size of Explaining why the ing the prime beneficiary post-independence India?
the middle class? Why middle class matters and of State-led economic Third, what prompted the
does this class matter? as to how it stabilises growth, the middle class same ‘apathetic’ middle
How does the middle class and strengthens democ- drifted away from the Con- class which during the
stabilise and strengthen racy, the author not only gress, disenchanted with Anna movement seemed
democracy? What are the agrees with modernisation its rhetoric of a secular, so disenchanted with
political implications of theorists that the middle socialist and bureaucratic mainstream parties to
this ever-expanding class class is the “backbone of state. The BJP with its enthusiastically support
on politics? Are they the democracy”, but goes on right wing economic the BJP and Modi?
drivers of recent economic to make the grand claim policies and avowed aim ASHUTOSH KUMAR (The
growth? that it “ensures economic to recapture past glory Book Review)

FEBRUARY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 81