ABSTRACT
Over the past quarter century, numerous volumes that take up the question of identity have been published, and indeed, identity has become a question of central importance within the fi eld of South Asian studies, as in the human and social sciences more broadly.1 Some have addressed the question on epistemological or ideological terms, privileging the role of institutions and other structuring entities (such as the state or the market place) upon constructions of identity. Recent studies of the middle classes in India, for instance, have debated their characterization as a product of consumerism and/or market forces, of emerging forms of political culture, or of a Westernized subculture that enjoys privileged access to global transnational capital (or information) fl ows. Others have sought to remedy this problem by prioritizing empirical and experiential evidence over purely structuralist frameworks of analysis.2
