ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a comparative exploration of middle-class values in India and Western Europe. It explains the rise of the old middle classes in India in the twentieth century. The book also concentrates especially on two aspects concerning the middle classes. One is that legislation in the nineteenth century through its various taxes and pensions supported the formation of a class structure. And second, that the existing middle class in Germany preferred to identify itself with a well-defined concept of education. It also discusses the significance of the English-speaking schools in India and how far the entry to universities was formed by the self-understanding of the middle class. The book then describes the importance of the Grandes Écoles for the self-generating maintenance of middle-class values in France. It explains the societal change and transformation of the middle class in Germany after 1945.
