Maryam Aslany is a Postdoctoral Researcher and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and an Associate Researcher at Paris Diderot University. Her research focuses on theories of class, emerging middle classes, rural capitalism and political economy of climate adaptation in South Asia.

'Aslany analyses the making of an Indian rural middle class, at the intersection of caste, class and status by combining quantitative and ethnographic methods. Her book is a rather unique contribution to the study of 'rurbanisation' in India. Comparing two villages of Pune district, it shows how their inhabitants depend less and less on agriculture, but commute to nearby factories. A great work on an understudied key subject!' Christophe Jaffrelot

• List of figures and maps; List of tables; List of abbreviations; Foreword Barbara Harriss-White; Acknowledgments; Introduction. The problem of the 'rural middle class(es)'; 1. Trajectory of the Indian middle class: its size and geographical variations; 2. In search of the rural middle classes: from village stratification to rural household variations; 3. Marx: capital, labour and the rural middle classes; 4. Weber: marketable capital, status and the rural middle classes; 5. Bourdieu: cultural capital, self-perception and the middle-class identity in rural India; Conclusion. Understanding the rural middle classes; Appendices; References; Index.

Maryam Aslany is a Postdoctoral Researcher and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and an Associate Researcher at Paris Diderot University. Her research focuses on theories of class, emerging middle classes, rural capitalism and political economy of climate adaptation in South Asia.

'Aslany analyses the making of an Indian rural middle class, at the intersection of caste, class and status by combining quantitative and ethnographic methods. Her book is a rather unique contribution to the study of 'rurbanisation' in India. Comparing two villages of Pune district, it shows how their inhabitants depend less and less on agriculture, but commute to nearby factories. A great work on an understudied key subject!' Christophe Jaffrelot

• List of figures and maps; List of tables; List of abbreviations; Foreword Barbara Harriss-White; Acknowledgments; Introduction. The problem of the 'rural middle class(es)'; 1. Trajectory of the Indian middle class: its size and geographical variations; 2. In search of the rural middle classes: from village stratification to rural household variations; 3. Marx: capital, labour and the rural middle classes; 4. Weber: marketable capital, status and the rural middle classes; 5. Bourdieu: cultural capital, self-perception and the middle-class identity in rural India; Conclusion. Understanding the rural middle classes; Appendices; References; Index.

Maryam Aslany is a Postdoctoral Researcher and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and an Associate Researcher at Paris Diderot University. Her research focuses on theories of class, emerging middle classes, rural capitalism and political economy of climate adaptation in South Asia.

'Aslany analyses the making of an Indian rural middle class, at the intersection of caste, class and status by combining quantitative and ethnographic methods. Her book is a rather unique contribution to the study of 'rurbanisation' in India. Comparing two villages of Pune district, it shows how their inhabitants depend less and less on agriculture, but commute to nearby factories. A great work on an understudied key subject!' Christophe Jaffrelot

• List of figures and maps; List of tables; List of abbreviations; Foreword Barbara Harriss-White; Acknowledgments; Introduction. The problem of the 'rural middle class(es)'; 1. Trajectory of the Indian middle class: its size and geographical variations; 2. In search of the rural middle classes: from village stratification to rural household variations; 3. Marx: capital, labour and the rural middle classes; 4. Weber: marketable capital, status and the rural middle classes; 5. Bourdieu: cultural capital, self-perception and the middle-class identity in rural India; Conclusion. Understanding the rural middle classes; Appendices; References; Index.