Who are the Middle Class in South Asia?
The measurement and identification of the middle class in South Asia, including India in particular, remains subject to significant debate, academics point out. With high GDP growth but also high levels of inequality, South Asia identifies an elusive middle class by either exaggerating or diminishing its size, nature or effectiveness. As anthropologist and researcher of middle class consumerism in India, William Mazzarella observed, “Since the mid-1980s, one of the more noticeable symptoms of the process of social and economic liberalisation in India [...]