Within the Limits : Moral Boundaries of Class and Gender in Urban India

Delving into the social location of middle classes in India, this work explores what it means to be middle class in the south Indian city of Hyderabad. Taking into account aspects such as education, marriage, community values, and contemporary trends, the book highlights the centrality of moral discourses in the co-production of class and gender in urban India. Through the lens of moral respectability, the author discusses how middle class sensibilities are embraced and reproduced by the Hyderabadis.

The post-liberalization era of the Indian economy has given birth to a burgeoning middle class who has gained increasing prominence in the political and cultural imagination of the nation. Many erstwhile scholars have attempted to concretely define the size and scope of the middle class in India only to accede to the extraordinary variety of people living in multiple socio-economic circumstances, identifying with this class. This book thus explores what being middle class means to those who claim to belong to this class. Drawing on ethnographic material from the South Indian city of Hyderabad, the author highlights the centrality of moral discourses in the production of class and gender in urban India. She explores school education patterns, shifting marriage ideals, and youth cultures such as dating and fashion to understand the new middle class world view. This world view, the work asserts, is built around developing cosmopolitan sensibilities within traditional caste-class and gender boundaries. The work also looks at the power of such a world view to naturalize and legitimize gender and class-caste hierarchies.