Question

Industrialisation in the west is associated with the growth of a middle class. Discuss the Indian experience of the growth of this middle class.

Answer 1

1. The substitutes offered by the East India Company and subsequently by the British government were land ownership and facilities for education in English.
2. The facts that the first remained unconnected with agricultural productivity and the second with the mainstream of Indian cultural traditions amply show that the alternatives were not sufficient in the sense that they could not create any genuine middle class.
3. We know only too well that the zamindars become parasites in the land and the graduates job hunters.
4. Industrialisation is, thus, about the growth of new social groups in society and new social relationships.