ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the complexities of middle-class politics in contemporary India. It provides the electoral preferences of middle classes. The chapter summarizes the nature of change occurring in politics that can be traced to the rising influence of the middle classes. It analyses the political role of India's middle classes in the context of class theory. The chapter assesses the possible links between the middle classes and the politics of Hindu communalism. All political confrontation takes place around the issue of communalism vs. secularism. The displacement of questions of economy and poverty from the arena of political competition is the main feature of politics since the mid-1980s. The composition of the middle classes in India is becoming considerably diverse. Besides, there has been a sizeable body of radical, anti-establishment background among the new entrants to the middle classes— the women, dalits and OBCs.
