Educated, white-collar urban middle class — what do they want?
The economic liberalization ushered by Mr. Manmohan Singh has created path-breaking social change in India, which many a case is not fully understood or debated. It created an entire community of urban middle class, who work in the services sector, are cosmopolitan, affluent, and probably more global than any other segment of society.
While we have a broad idea as to who they are, where they work and live, and how they spend — I think very limited work has been done to explore how they think, whether they form an interest group, what is their view on the country and society; or what role they are going to play in the future of the country.
Before we get into discussing the above issues, let us look at the genesis of the community. Clearly before 1991, India had two dominant classes — the rich and powerful on one side, and the poor. There was of course a small middle class primarily engaged in the public sector, or involved in activities like retail, trading, etc. However, the middle class was insignificant, and hardly had any power: both economic and political.
The economic liberalization unleashed the growth of the new middle class, fundamentally by creating an ecosystem where one can leverage their education to create opportunity. This made a lot of them affluent, and quite a few rich. And this is a sizeable community.
So beyond the rich and powerful (which comprised the traditional industrialists, the politicians, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and a section of the media), and the poor (who were pretty much everyone), we now have a third group — the educated middle class.
What are some of the characteristics of this segment?
1. People are primarily from idle class backgrounds, who have grown up in the metros and cities — and belong to parents who were primarily in government jobs. They have come up excelling in academics and coming on top through competitive exams
2. Most of them are living away from their place of origin, and many outside the country. Many of them are widely traveled and exposed to various cultures — at least professionally
3. The relative affluence in the last few years has primarily gone into having a better life — with a special focus on house and car, education for children, healthcare, and procurement of electronic gadgets. All these have also made these communities disconnected from society at large — a gated community, air-conditioned cars, air travel, and online transactions are making a world that is isolated and cocooned from the outside world
4. These have given rise to a peculiar situation, where the community identifies itself with a very small community in the country (like them only). The connection is rather with a global community, which shares similar characteristics.
What is that we have net net — a set of highly educated, proficient, affluent people; who are not in tune with the vast majority of the country.
White this itself is not a happy situation, the bigger question is — can this community continue to live like this? How will the future pan out for them? Can it exist forever, or a utopia that will crumble in time to come?
What do you think?
