Doing Gender, Class, and Nation in Northern India: Student Aspirations and the New Middle Class

ABSTRACT India’s new middle class is important in establishing a hegemonic culture and structure that legitimizes what it means to be a successful, modern Indian man or woman. This study examines the extent to which, and how, the aspirations of educated, non-cosmopolitan young people in the Garhwali hills of northern India reflect and embody these hegemonic ideals. These questions are important because these ideal constructs, largely based in the realities of elite, transnational middle-class lives, are held up to be the legitimate ones that reflect a vision of India as a modern nation. My findings draw from 38 in-depth interviews conducted with students at five colleges in the Garhwali area of Uttarakhand. The aspirations and expectations of college students in this area largely reflect, and thus reinforce and legitimize, dominant constructs of gender, class, and nation. This is the case even though the chances of obtaining a position in the transnational middle class are relatively low for young people in this area. Moreover, the particular constraints faced by female students make it especially unlikely that they will ever reach new-middle-class status. The implications of these findings are discussed.