Indian Class System
I came across this book called “Class: A Guide Through the American Status System” yesterday. I have obviously not read the book yet (which means: a lot of what I say here could be wrong). But the Wiki page for that book was insightful enough to make me think:
When I mean made me think, it is from its applicability to Indian context. Why Indian context? Because that is what I understand best. To be clear, I am no expert about the class system in India. Of all class systems I can speak of, within my own bounded rationality, it is the Indian system that I am most comfortable speaking about. Clear? Good.
Next, I want to be cognizant that we have thousands of years of history with caste and at least a thousand year history with religion being class markers. However, I suspect money is an equalizer on many fronts. So, keeping it restricted to money might give a good-sense to compare with the American system. Caste/Religion are all important but we restrict only to money here. (Btw, this Manu Joseph article on ‘who are the equivalents of the blacks in India’ is worth a read).
With the usual disclaimers, under-promises and plausible deniability stuff done, let us get to the discussion.
This screenshot from Wiki will help us glance through the various classes identified by Paul Fussell:
Who would be these people in India? I layout a few examples here and as one of the important signals of where they belong, identify what schools their children might go to.
- Top out-of-sight: People like the Tata-Birlas, Ambani-Adanis belong here. Here, out-of-sight does not mean we do not know such people exist or we do not even hear about them. It means we do not seem them anywhere in our lives. Only in newspapers, TVs etc. Their children might go to Doon School? Or just home-schooled? Or somewhere outside India?
- Upper: These are people who live on huge inherited wealth. These may not be the top business houses in India now but they could be business houses of an old-era, the Kings/zamindars of a small princely state etc. An example could be Karan Johar, Karthi Chidambaram? We may meet them in high-end resorts that we occasionally stay at using saved-up miles and loyalty points as a once-in-a-life-time event. Their children might go to Doon School or one of those similar boarding schools in hill stations? Or may be the Aditi Mallya kind of schools in Bangalore?
- Upper Middle: These are people who made it big by themselves — entrepreneurs, TV stars, movie stars etc. I may probably place senior executives (with salary of >X crores per annum) here, who might still be employees but not an ordinary one. That is, their own background was modest and likely ‘middle’ but they have moved up through their work (and of course luck) within their lifetimes. Would these be Mukesh Bansal (Myntra founder), Chetan Bhagat, Arnab Goswami etc.? Again, we may meet them in a business class lounge or at a high-end resort. Their children might go to the ‘Aditi Mallya’ kind school? May be one of those international schools (not just in names) with real international syllabus (IB that is, not IGCSE or ICSE) and ones with children of ex-pats (foreign senior executives of MNCs living in India temporarily). Say, Greenwood, India International, Inventure etc. in Bangalore?
- Middle: Like Fussell says about the US, I believe a certain ‘Prole Drift’ has happened in India as well (and mean it in a good way). About 30 years ago, I think there was a clear differentiation and a class-divider between the middle class and the proles through college education. But with proliferation of colleges (even the so-called ‘professional’ colleges offering engineering degrees), that divide is not as clear anymore. The bank employees of the 90s (or the clerks of that era) had college education and were clearly different from say a Class-4 employee at a government office. But both their children became engineers and have similar jobs now. As much as the middles would like to believe they studied in ‘better’ colleges, can speak ‘better’ English, work in ‘better’ companies (say ‘product’ company versus ‘services’ company within the IT industry) etc., it does not matter much in the larger scheme of things. Beyond a stage, an engineer, or an ‘IT-guy’ is what sticks. Even the ‘Ivy League’ thing that Fussell talks about is not as relevant IMO. Even the IIT, IIM types get stuck here, unless they did something and really moved to upper-middle as an entrepreneur or became a senior exec. Unfortunately, not all the middles are able to move to the upper-middle category and that causes significant dissonance in them. In a sense, some proles have seen a more-than-secular growth in their social mobility (i.e. the normal move that happens within one generation) while the middles have been stuck with just a secular growth. Beyond education and jobs, you can see it in the kind of houses people live, the kind of phones they use, the apps used, and so on. As much as the middles want to be seen different and closer to the Upper-middles, they keep seeing the proles in their vicinity. Coming to schools, these would be the Vibgyors, PSBB, Kumarans of Bangalore (the CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE schools)?
- High-Proletarian: My guess is that these are the people from the past who have drifted into the middle. Children of erstwhile Class-4 employees who did well enough to become the ‘IT-ITES-professional’ (or the clerk of this era). The current set of high-proletarian would be the manager of a retail outlet, service engineer for appliances etc. Their children would go the private aided/unaided CBSE schools with fees ~50K per year (though the ones who have drifted would go to the previous list).
- Mid-Proletarian: These are the people who you see driving the Ubers and Olas (and own those vehicles). Or having a small mom-and-pop shop. Their children go to the government-aided private schools, likely with state board syllabus.
- Low-Proletarian: This is the domestic-help you have at home. Or the local carpenter. Their children likely go to a state-government school nearby.
- Destitute: These are people you see picking rags. Their children likely do not go to school.
- Bottom out-of-sight: Probably those guys you occasionally see lying on the road-side. Or the statistics you read about rural distress. Otherwise out-of-sight. School is beyond question.
Before we end, I want to highlight a couple of bar-charts I showed to my daughter a while ago when she asked if we were ‘rich’ or ‘poor’. This is somewhat related to the ‘Class’ discussion we had above.
When she wanted to feel rich, I asked her to see this:
When she wanted to feel poor, I asked her to see this:
[End-Note: In the class structure above, where do you think you belong? Where do you think I struggled to identify myself? Hint: Get lost, I am not telling you.]
