ABSTRACT

Members of the middle class in colonial Malabar left behind a copious amount of writings. These are to be found, among other places, in magazines, autobiographies and diaries. This book explores the social history of the middle class in the region during the British period on the basis of these writings in combination with archival sources. It delves into how they conceptualized domesticity, forged new friendships cutting across caste, and sometimes, even racial lines, and the new forms of leisure they envisaged. The author also analyses the dilemmas the group faced as it responded to the changes unleashed by colonial modernity at their work places, in the public sphere, and inside homes, where they desperately clung on to tradition even while accepting much of what the West had to offer.

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chapter |23 pages

Introduction The Middle Class

The Context and the Contours

chapter Chapter 1|27 pages

The World of the Middle Class

chapter Chapter 2|35 pages

Domesticity

In Theory and Practice

chapter Chapter 3|27 pages

Changing Forms of Leisure

chapter Chapter 4|16 pages

Caste and the Middle Class

chapter Chapter 5|26 pages

Negotiating Tradition and Modernity

chapter |6 pages

Conclusion