ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to understand the question of what it means to be middle class for Indian Muslims in current circumstances. This question is prefaced, historically speaking in terms of what is termed as the delayed and depleted formation of the middle class among Muslims in India. The implication of the delayed is in terms of the historical reluctance among Muslims, especially in the late 19th century, to acquire a secular Western education. Access to such education was vital to the formation of a middle class as this paved the way for government employment or ‘service’ as it has often been referred to in India. The Aligarh Movement initiated by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan represented an impassioned appeal to Muslims to take up such education as it was felt that they were lagging behind in the race for government employment and consequent middle-class status. The depleted refers to the corrosive impact of Partition on Muslims in terms of a diminishing of their numbers, as large numbers of educated middle-class Muslims opted for the Pakistan side of Partition to thereby result in a haemorrhaging of already small numbers in middle-class ranks in India.
