Prospect: India's middle class failure

sep 2nd, 2007

moderately interesting article. better than the usual tripe written by the sepoys of indian origin who inhabit english departments in the west.

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From: mk


Prospect Magazine: Issue 138,
India's middle class failure

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad is professor of comparative religion and philosophy at Lancaster University

INDIA'S 200M-STRONG MIDDLE CLASS IS THE MOST ECONOMICALLY DYNAMIC GROUP ON THE PLANET, BUT IS LARGELY UNINTERESTED IN POLITICS OR SOCIAL REFORM. UNTIL IT BEGINS TO ENGAGE POLITICALLY, INDIA WILL SUFFER FROM A LOP-SIDED MODERNISATION

Discuss this article at First Drafts, Prospect's blog Jaya Mary is a cleaner. Tall and thin, with some English, and at least two Indian languages, she quietly challenged her main employer, a medium-sized company, when it recently threatened to fire her without the pension to which she is entitled. When she works in a private house, she has no contract, and depends on the goodwill of the householder. She is a Christian, but also adheres to many cultural expressions of Hinduism. Her husband left her with two small children, and she relies on the support of her mother and brother. Her boy is in a local-language state school, but her clever daughter is in a private English-language school, which costs Jaya 20 per cent of her income. She has...

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You can see the entire article at:
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9776