India, Oct. 11 -- How are middle class women at the forefront of mediating a new class politics?

In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about an emerging 'New Middle Class' in India, usually attributed to the socio-economic changes brought about as a result of the adoption of the New Economic Policy of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation in the 1990s. Some scholars critique this 'success story' and argue that there is a discrepancy between the imagination and the reality of the New Middle Class. Even as patterns of consumption change, as reflected in new lifestyles, particularly in urban India, most who supposedly belong to the New Middle Class are still struggling for secure lives. In this context, women are sy...