Page 303 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes Britishers introduced modern education which was secular, utilitarian and open to get educated
Indians as staff for their administrative institution. The intention was to create a native middle
class that would become the carrier of western culture in India and act as interpreter. With expansion
of education professional middle class emerged they included doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists
etc. Their size grew in late 19th and early 20th century. The western educated youth brought the
new liberal values of democracy, equality, liberty etc. They started reforming Indian society. All
those reform movements in 19th century were led by these western educated middle class
individuals.
Britishers created institutional system for emergence of new professionals by establishing new
legal system, new judiciary, new administrative system, revenue system, civil services, etc. This
prepared the ground for the professional middle class in India.
In early twentieth century industrial middle class started developing. Earlier British government
discouraged industrialization in India and kept it as a captive market deliberately. But after first
world war it realized the need for some industries here. Emerging Indian bourgeoisie also put
pressure for setting industries here. So different industries started functioning like textile, jute,
paper, cement, iron, plantation etc. establishment of railway also facilitated for trade mercantile
activity. The swadeshi movement was started by the nationalist leaders to give a boost to native
industries. It was nothing but a demand for industrialization in India. All this led to the emergence
of industrial and mercantile middle class.
Politics of Middle Classes during the Freedom Movement
The emergence of middle class in India was a consequence of British rule. These English educated
middle class themselves questioned the legitimacy of British rule in India. They played a very
crucial role in bringing social reforms and creating a sense of Indian nationalism. The Indian
National Congress, initially was dominated by professional, English educated middle class only.
Majority members of the Congress were lawyers, journalists, teachers and educationalists. Mahatma
Gandhi who put effort to transform the National Congress into a mass movement was a lawyer
and typically belonged to professional middle class. The freedom movement in India in its course
was guided by the middle class leader only. They forced the Britishers for industrialization in
India, expansion of educational institutions and social reforms.
After independence, this middle class took the responsibility of nation building. They became the
political elite. The Indian middle class who were working for the British government they continued
to play their role in governance of the country after independence also.
Size and Composition : In India middle class includes body of merchants, bulk of salaried
executives, managerials, supervisors, bankers, traders, civil servants, public servants, shop-keepers,
entire body of secondary school teachers etc. during independence the size of middle class was
very small. Income was not the criteria to define the middle class rather education, knowledge of
English and high aspiration level were the important characteristic of middle class in India. They
played a very significant role in the modernization of our country. Today the optimistic estimation
states that in India, middle class constitute about sixty million households.
Growth of Middle Classes after Independence
After independence, it was the middle class who became the political elite and captured power.
The process of nation building was started. It was a state led exercise. For this, we embarked upon
the planned development. The government of India made several plans and programmes for
different sectors of our economy. For the execution of these plans, the services of huge trained
people were required. So there was massive expansion of government services.
To meet the demand of trained personal, higher and technical educational institutions and
universities were started in different regions of our country. It created more professional middle
class.

298 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY