Framing India’s new middle class politics of lifestyle in the globalisation era

The chapter keeps state and market forces as structural forces in the background and explores the everyday individual’s consumption practices and values in broader narratives of culture and identity of the new middle class in India. Presentations of a few of the examples among the salaried professionals and managers in National Capital Region help to convey the cultural orientation, attitudes and experiences of new middle class people in India. The analysis shows the two distinct styles of life, old and new middle class, are represented by the contrasting values of prudence and comfort. New consumption practices are significant in re-shaping middle class culture and identity through shared symbolic consumer practices.