Mid Rift

You will agree it is a foolish person who does not pay any attention to the middle. To fight to gain control over it, lose and keep struggling is the general condition. To just agonise also suggests awareness. But to behave as if it does not exist? Even Kareena Kapoor does not do that and god knows she can afford to. Which is why, when an elected government turns a blind eye to the middle class, as borne out by Budget 2018, it makes one wonder.

Size Matters

Depending on what parameters you are looking at, the size of India's middle class could be anything between 10 and a little over 20 per cent of the population. Bangladesh's would be 20-plus. Pakistan's, close to 40. Only 4 per cent of China's population comprised the middle class in 2001, but today the same stands at 70 per cent. In this matter, China is now very much in the league of stable economies such as Denmark, Finland and Germany. The UK and US figures stand at 67 and 59 per cent, respectively.

Modern Prometheus

The term middle class was coined in 1913. In a report, British statistician T.H.C. Stevenson identified it as that falling between the manor-born folk and those working in unskilled professions. India's middle class is the creation of the British. And going by B.B. Misra's 1961 book, a Frankenstein of sorts.

Bamboo Mission

In recent times, experts have defined middle class as an ideological grouping. Middle class is normative, slow to anger, easy to scare. Middle class knows ISRO from Ishrat, the 80C from Section 377, but often can't tell swachh from jhooth. Middle class understands the power of the bamboo, bunks work for the indelible ink mark and votes at will - ask the exit poll guys. A new study pegs its size at 600 million, about half the country's population. Still not toe-touching?