ABSTRACT
The leverage of national governments in determining the future of cities is gradually getting restricted. There are distinctive difficulties in trying to weave a concept of class formation into the Indian context where, even with the advent of industrial capitalism, social relations have continued to be shaped by a heterogeneous mix of influences including caste, religion and region. The power of the upper middle class lies in its capacity to continue dominating key social networks and symbolic resources and to leverage these resources in a discerning and prudent manner. The various institutions that comprise the state have historically been important sites through which the Indian middle classes have leveraged power. At the start of the nineteenth century, commerce in Bombay was dominated by European companies along with the Parsi community who acted as ‘agents for European houses, contractors to government for the supply of troops, importers of English provisions and wines and finally shipowners and traders on their own account’.
