Living class in urban India /Sara Dickey.
- New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, (c)2016.
- 1 online resource
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: the everyday life of class -- What is class in Madurai? -- Four residents, as I know them -- Consumption and apprehension: class in the everyday -- Debt: the material consequences of moral constructs -- Performing the middle -- Marriage: drama, display, and the reproduction of class -- Food, hunger, and the binding of class relations -- Conclusions: nuancing class boundaries.
Sara Dickey considers how urban Indians' notions of class and caste are rapidly transforming in the wake of globalization. Introducing the reader to four residents in the city of Madurai from varied backgrounds, she documents their palpable day-to-day experiences of class. By analyzing the intertwined symbolic and economic importance of phenomena like wedding ceremonies, religious practices, and loan arrangements, Dickey's study reveals the material consequences of local class identities.
9780813583938 9780813583945
2015043870
Social classes--India--Madurai--Longitudinal studies. Social stratification--India--Madurai--Longitudinal studies.