Mapping the Elite: Power, Privilege, and Inequality
Surinder S. Jodhka and Jules Naudet
Abstract
India is being widely seen as an emerging economic and political power on the global scene. Despite having the largest population of chronically poor in the world today, it is home to a sizeable number of thriving rich and flourishing middle classes. They are reshaping the country’s popular image and its self-imagination. Equally important are its political dynamics. With increasing participation of erstwhile-marginalized sections in the electoral process, the social profile of India’s political elite has been changing, making way for those coming from the middle and lower strata of the tradit ... More
India is being widely seen as an emerging economic and political power on the global scene. Despite having the largest population of chronically poor in the world today, it is home to a sizeable number of thriving rich and flourishing middle classes. They are reshaping the country’s popular image and its self-imagination. Equally important are its political dynamics. With increasing participation of erstwhile-marginalized sections in the electoral process, the social profile of India’s political elite has been changing, making way for those coming from the middle and lower strata of the traditional social order, thus broadening the social base of political power. Mapping the Elite seeks to expand the understanding of processes of formations and transformations of the Indian elite. The contributors explore the emergent elite spaces, the new idioms of power and inequality, the diverse strategies in which symbolic boundaries of privilege are traced in everyday lives, as well as the class mobilities in an age of proclaimed meritocracy. They do so by using the sociological frames of caste, class, gender, community, and their intersections. Exploring India’s Elite: This series provides a platform to scholars working on elite dynamics in India. It seeks to enable an understanding of the nuances of inequality, power, and other emerging social structures.
Keywords:
elite,
power,
privilege,
inequality,
capitalism,
caste,
class
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199491070 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2019 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780199491070.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Surinder S. Jodhka, editor
Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Jules Naudet, editor
Research Fellow, CNRS Paris
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