EXPECTATIONS OF A MODERN MIDDLE

CLASS YOUTH
INTRODUCTION
Certain old habits of Indian family life are touching: the young still
greet their elders by bending down to touch their feet, they defer
to their parents by not answering back and not smoking or
drinking in front of them, and they follow time-honoured customs
obediently rather than sneer at them as old-fashioned.
But obedience and conformity to tradition can be taken too far.
For a start, it shows a lack of spark. And if the young behave like
middle-aged pragmatists opting for the line of least resistance,
then youth is wasted on them.
INTEREST OF YOUTHS
The findings of a new survey by the Hindustan Times newspaper
of young middle class men and women in India paints an
intriguing picture of this generation. They like to shop and
consume, are brand-conscious, socialise in bars and cafes, look
out for the latest gadgets and largely approve (61 per cent) of
premarital relationships.
To all intents and purposes they look and sound modern, even
westernised. And so they are, superficially. But look deeper at
their attitudes towards the things that really matter relationships,
behaviour towards the poor, expectations of women and marriage
and they are not as modern as they appear.

SURVEYS
There are two broad streams of discussion about the Indian
middle class: theres the economic angle, which is related to
Indias global image, but also geared to push particular kinds of
policies to cater to the middle class, for example, urban
restructuring or educational reform. The notion of the middle class
is also associated with consumer culture and behaviour.
My interest and long-term association has been with families and
localities (at the neighbourhood level) so I have a different picture
than what surveys and research on consumption present. An
emphasis on new patterns of consumption, socialising, or youth
cultures presents subjects in an individualistic mode. But when
you talk to the same person in their family surroundings, a very
different picture emerges, and that picture complicates
understandings of being middle-class in India today.
Suddenly,you sense moral tensions between being an individual
and being part of a family; between traditional outlooks on gender
roles and the desire to be part of a hip, modern youth culture; and
practices and moralities promoted in the media and local
discourse, for example where arranged marriages and love
marriages are presented as opposed to each other.

OPINIONS OF THEIR OWN

Of the 5,214 middle class men and women aged between 18 and
25 who were surveyed by the newspaper this month, only four per
cent would override their parents objections to marry the person
of their choice; seven out of 10 said the onus was on women, not
men, to save a marriage from divorce; 67 per cent said they

preferred joint families to nuclear ones; and 68 per cent said they
always listened to their elders.
Alarmingly, more than six out of 10 said they felt the giving of a
dowry was acceptable. Giving a dowry is a crime in India. It has
been banned for 53 years because it reduces women to the
status of a commodity. Yet, instead of rebelling against it as a
custom that militates against equality and oppresses women,
young Indians approve of it.
CASTE AND COMMUNISM
Had the survey asked about the caste system, I dread to think
what the findings would have been. You would think the younger
generation would be up in arms about a social system that
degrades people purely because of an accident of birth and
proceeds to humiliate them mercilessly. But there are no
campaigns or protests against it.
A senior McKinsey & Company consultant who was in charge of
recruiting in the Delhi office is said to have remarked on the
difference between the companys Indian and European
graduates. The Indians we recruit are brainy but so one-dimensional and boring. They have never done a gap year,
worked for a charity or taken up some wacky hobby. All they do is
study and work for a lucrative career, he said.
Now, I am not advocating rebellion for rebellions sake, the
overthrow of customs just because they are old, the undermining
of authority just for the hell of it, or the pursuit of rampant
individualism at any cost because it is a cool thing to do. That
would be tiresome and a waste of energy.

MODERNITY OF MIDDLE CLASS

But I do believe that every new generation needs to bring in
something new by questioning old certitudes and conventions and
re-examining values. It is this which energises a culture and
keeps it dynamic and vibrant.
Of course, too much change too fast can be destabilising. Most of
us need some continuity to feel secure. Yet the reason why Indian
society can often feel stagnant at times is the sheer weight of the
past which new generations have failed to remove.
The point that middle-class youths have failed to understand, as
they happily embrace modernity is that real modernity lies in the
mind: how you behave towards others, whether you treat them
with respect as equals, and how willing you are to discard
customs because they are unfair and discriminatory and adopt
new ways of being.
This unthinking acceptance of the status quo might be
understandable if the status quo was in pretty good shape. But
failing to find fault with a social order marked by all the poverty,
squalor, and injustices of India? That is mystifying.
Amrit Dhillon is a freelance journalist in New Delhi
MARRIAGES OF MIDDLE CLASS
According to the National Council for Applied Economic
Research, Indias middle class will have burgeoned to
include 53.3 million households or 267 million people by 201516. Within a decade, by 2025-26, the number of middle-class

households in India is predicted to double to 113.8 million

households, or 547 million individuals. No doubt, the rapid growth
of the middle class will challenge traditional notions of kinship,
family values, gender roles, and reproduction. This series draws
on recent research published by LSE faculty and fellows to
examine how marriage norms among middle-class Indians are
evolving with Indias liberalisation policies.

CONCLUSION
The series kicks off with an interview with Dr Henrike Donner, author of
Domestic Goddesses: Maternity, Globalisation and Middle-Class Identity in
Contemporary India. Since 1995, Donner has conducted fieldwork in
Kolkata (Calcutta), focusing on the transformation of marriage and conjugal
ideals, food consumption, and the impact of privatised healthcare and
education on middle-class lifestyles. She is interested in the role women
play in middle-class constructions of identity and the way in which their
everyday practices as well as institutions like marriage and the family

reproduce class boundaries. Here she discusses the growth of the Indian
middle class, changing expectations of marriage, and modes of social
differentiation among middle-class Indians.