ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the formerly widespread usage of 'westernized middle class/élite', the in-depth and devastating attack on the concept by David Washbrook and the ensuing situation of confusion and methodological uncertainty. The westernized middle class wanes like a nightmare at the moment of awakening and the attention of the analyst shifts to the interaction between the British and those indigenous magnates who, according to Washbrook, dominated Indian society at the local level. The politicians of the Congress appear deeply involved in all-out confrontations among themselves with the aim of taking over both the Congress organization and the self-governing bodies created by the British. The concept of intellectuals has the advantage of including the politically aware and politically active vernacular literati, whose great importance in the political evolution of late colonial India is now universally acknowledged. However, the imperial commitment eroded slowly but irreversibly the very bases of the colonial regime.