Hegemonic developments: the new Indian middle class, gendered subalterns, and diasporic returnees in the event of neoliberalism

• Published in: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Vol. 36; no. 1; p. 127
• Main Authors: Bhatt, Amy, Murty, Madhavi, Ramamurthy, Priti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2010
• Subjects: Cultural Characteristics; Gender Identity; Hierarchy, Social; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; India - ethnology; Power (Psychology); Social Class - history; Social Conditions - economics; Social Conditions - history; Social Conditions - legislation & jurisprudence; Social Mobility - economics; Social Mobility - history; Socioeconomic Factors; Women's Health - ethnology; Women's Health - history; Women's Rights - economics; Women's Rights - education; Women's Rights - history; Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - education; Women, Working - history; Women, Working - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - psychology; India
• ISSN: 0097-9740; 1545-6943
• DOI: 10.1086/652916

The "new middle class" as a political construct is valuable for feminist theorizations of international political economy, particularly those concerned with development. The rise of the new middle class is usually juxtaposed with neoliberalism, so we offer a new theorization of neoliberalism-as-event and analyze an array of new-middle-class signs and subjects in India. Questioning the repetition of the figure of the new Indian woman in resolving the sociotemporal and spatiotemporal paradoxes of the nation, we argue, first, that the figure of the subaltern woman is a necessary counter to the new Indian woman. The arrival of the gendered subaltern on the national stage is celebrated through discourses that articulate and disarticulate the subaltern woman and bear the traces of subaltern struggles. Her gendered body constitutes the line between who can be new middle class and at the vanguard of neoliberal development and who cannot. Second, we argue that new-middle-class formation is taking place in the households of diasporic returnees through class practices that involve speaking to and for domestic servants. Returnees hold in tension urges to encourage class mobility and to discipline their servants through neoliberal governmentalities that draw on global discourses of corporate responsibility, professionalism, and empowerment. These development scripts are interspersed with reflections on the poor material conditions of domestic service work. The implications of this article for feminist theorizations of international political economy are methodological, analytical, and political.