Lost in the Middle

Indian Middle Class and Consumerism
Jayabrata Sarkar

Globalisation has not only reshaped institutions and organisations but also the fabric of identity and personal life. There is an emergent 'new individualism' centred on self-actualisation and instant reinvention, a continual enlargement towards a personalised freedom seen throughout the western world; though one can observe a similar phenomenon taking place in the expensive cities of the developing world. There the upwardly mobile class of professionals and the middle class reside. Consumerism puts pressure on us to transform and improve every aspect of our lives; 'not just our homes and gardens but our career, our food, our clothes, our sex lives, our faces, minds and bodies'. It legitimately denotes a psychic frame to be fickle-minded and impressionable in a never ending sequel of seduction and mesmerisation.

On a purely economic plane the new consumerist ethics enhances to a significant degree the productive capacity of the 'market' the catalyst for providing a bewildering range of 'product-choice' through aggressive and competitive marketing strategies orienting individuals to ever yearn for 'variety, novelty and disposability'. A fundamental element of a privatised-personalised liberty and choice seemingly emerges from the more definitive and traditional categories of liberty, rights and justice.

India's rapid economic growth has been brought about by the globalising policies of economic liberalisation set in motion since the early 1990s. Two significant features can be observed. One, the 'realm of civil society' has steadily evolved whereby the corporate capital is hegemonic, as distinct from 'political society' that consists of the urban and the rural poor, which is the space of management of non-corporate capital. In civil society the logic of accumulation, expressed in contemporary times is the urgent need to maintain a very high rate of national economic growth and that the 'requirements of corporate capital' be given priority. Corporate India's sway over civil society would mean the ability to influence the vast and expanding urban middle class. Two, ideological and cultural shifts that are associated with liberalisation of the Indian economy have vindicated a distinctive social and political identity that both 'represents and lays claim to the benefits of liberalisation'. There is no binary opposition between state and market, as noted, say, in the Nehruvian era, from dams, planned cities, industry and factories to being supportive of a consumerist ethics of cell phones, washing machines, colour TV, cars, trips abroad and designer brands. The success of global consumerism in India rests on the middle class, a social group that is integral to producing the state-led strategies of market restructuring. 'Middle class agency' is being constituted by a range of state and private strategies which are mutually dependent and productive; to create a middle class imagination of 'consumer-citizen'. They are, thus, the 'darling of the official discourse and policy-makers'.

Evaluating 'Values'
The Indian middle class is highly differentiated internally and it would probably be appropriate to speak of 'middle classes' rather than a single comprehensive category of a middle class in India. The internal differentiation of the middle class pivots around education, occupation, income and importantly, language, religion and caste. Middle class 'incumbents' filter through the educational system and the differentiation of the occupational system is to some extent matched by the differentiation of the educational system, that is reflected in differences in consumption and lifestyles. Economic reforms post 1991 have certainly changed traditionally accepted middle class values that were generally centred on 'austerity, frugality' and of one shy of unabashed materialism. Liberalisation has certainly altered the 'currents of life'. Appearing as a 'consuming agency' the Indian middle class, according to a recent survey carried out by McKinsey Global Institute would reach 250 million in five years and by 2025 per capita consumption in India will increase from US $334 to $1064 making India the fifth largest consumer market in the world. Yet, such is the variation in education, occupation and income among the middle class that aspects of liberalisation and global consumerist culture would be 'welcomed by some members of the same class and opposed by other members of the same class'. It becomes difficult to relate them systematically to the 'deeper differences of location within the middle class'. Thus, it is natural to expect differences between academics, civil servants, clerks and school teachers on the one hand and on the other business managers, traders and shopkeepers.

The new Indian middle class is largely defined by professional, administrative, managerial, clerical and other white collar occupations that is part continuum from the pre-liberalisation period, but is essentially diversified in magnitude and proportion in the post 1991 period. The new Indian middle class that emerged from the erstwhile mercantile class and agricultural, artisan and peasant class is not only defined by occupation but also its 'investment in education'. Both 'men and women spend more time in school, college, university and other specialised institutions of education and training to be equipped to qualify for an entry into the new occupational system'. The new middle class stresses achievement and success and the 'need to push ahead' without too much consideration for others and freely violate rules which they want others to observe in office, profession or service. There appears to be not an absence but a conflict of values, or rather an affirmation of a different kind of value related to kinship, caste and community. Perhaps, to the defence of the middle class, that manages the modern institutions whose welfare rests with the middle class, is the social and rather adverse environment in which this class finds its bearings; an environment steeped in hierarchical values and by divisions in language, religion and caste, which forms an inseparable part of existence and environment. The new middle class rejects the notion that one is obliged to remain in the station to which one was assigned to in birth, and thus, symptomatically, undermines traditionally ascribed attitudes towards gender and caste.

The Indian middle class is one of the most insular sections of society in the world engendering the most enduring and contradistinctive image of 'middle class professionals who cavort through shiny glass malls, private cars, alcohol, fitness centres and luxury condominiums'. The middle class is largely immune to transparent deprivation; of being 'morally neutral to inequity'. They are unable to correlate the magnitude of the crisis that is unfolding before them to their 'own world' and to their future aspirations. An added invective could be that it has been witnessed that middle class participation in democracy is insipid, 'politically invisible' and certainly does not cater to factors that would facilitate community and public-spirited action going beyond one's immediate interests.

Dabbling in Consumer Culture
The social insensitivity of the Indian middle class has been fuelled by the impact of the global media culture that has brought a decisive shift in the values of this social class through the images of the consumerist world that effectively shuts out the realities of India. With the rise of disposable income there is increasing availability of a large variety of commodities in the market, primarily western styled clothes and accessories, cosmetics, cuisine, electronic gadgets and music products and further access to select brand and services. The middle class has thus become an agency of consumption aspiring for privileged lifestyle. It is continuously 'redefining status distinction in society and strengthening and reinvigorating its social and class identity' adopting particular manners and ways of living distinct from other sections of society. The Indian market is flooded with variously priced products and services, so that different strata of the middle class with their distinct priorities and spending capacities are included in the 'target group of consumers'. Interestingly, sections of middle class in India seize on these distinctions to differentiate one from others, to imbue meaning in their lives and create personalised identities based on status and economic affluence.

The referents of consumer culture—consumer products, alternative shopping habits, new adopted lifestyle, artificial display of one's body etc. now regulate social relationships. For instance, consumer culture has ensured that young people feel more distanced from their kin group, such as, one between parents and siblings and become close to their friends with whom they share consumption patterns.

The new middle class embodies a self-gratifying image of 'a globalising city and nation', that is, associated with hi-tech, managerial efficiency and global economic competitiveness. At the same time it aspires to be cosmopolitan in outlook and lifestyle, 'time-investing and risk-taking in job and demanding in leisure-time services'.

Such is the significance of the new middle class that increasingly India's urban landscape is being immaculately spaced by international brands of consumer goods, restaurants, leisure and gaming zones, cinema halls etc. that is bringing forth the notions of contestation, definition and practices of exclusion and participation of other sections of society solely guided by the ambition and interests of the Indian middle class.

The ambit of an enlarged personalised freedom has not been witnessed in its magnitude and scale even among sections of upwardly mobile Indian middle class, the frontrunners in global consumerist culture in India. Family, institutions of marriage, religion, communal solidarity, a semblance of security against social risks, traditional values and gender norms continues to hold sway and shape 'private' lives in India. For the same reason anxiety, uncertainty and ambivalence that is conspicuous of myriad range of choices that globalisation offers and the consequent dilemma of choosing a more rewarding life and its attendant risks to be negotiated by the individual, may inflict a significantly less or rather a miniscule number of people among the Indian middle class. This contention holds true at least in the present stage of restructuring of the economy by the Indian state. ooo

Suggested Readings :
1     Charles Lemert, Anthony Elliot, 2009, Surviving the New Individualism: Living Aggressively in Deadly World, Routledge, 2009, UK, pp. xi-xii; 79-106; 158-196;
2.   Anthony Elliot, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, Routledge, UK, 2009, pp. 241-5;
3.   Barkha Dutt, "Lost in the Din", Hindustan Times, New Delhi Edition, Saturday, December 25, 2010, p. 14.
4.   Partha Chatterjee, Democracy and Economic Transformation in India, Economic and Political Weekly, 43, 16, April 19, 2008, p. 58;
5.   Canadian Journal of Sociology online, Sept-Oct 2007, pp. 1-3 URL: http//www.cjsonline.ca/pdf/indiamiddleclass.pdf;
6.   Nita Mathur, Shopping Malls, Credit Cards and Global Brands: Consumer Culture and Lifestyle of India's Middle Class, South Asia Research, 30, 3, November 2010, p.211-215, 222-3.

• See articles of Andre Beteille and Pawan Varma in ImtiazAhmad, Helmut Reifeld, Middle Class Values in India and Western Europe, Social Science Press, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 73-75, 77, 79, 83-5, 87-8, 91.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 39, Apr 7-13, 2013

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