Low caste but middle-class: Some religious strategies for middle- class identification in Hyderabad

Abstract

This article examines some religious means that socio-economically mobile low caste families use to identify themselves as 'middle-class people' in an urban setting in the south Indian city of Hyderabad. Special attention is paid to the situation of ex-Untouchables whose religious strategies, through partly specific to them, nevertheless reveal tendencies that are general among low caste Hindus in urban areas. The portrait of an ex-Untouchable family in Hyderabad and the arrangement of the ritual of Sri Satya Narayana wratam illuminates the Hindu religious strategies that they consider pivotal in the acquisition of social respectability. Although low caste middle-class people share certain of the cultural concep tions of the wider Indian (and Hindu) scene, they interpret ritualistic Hinduism in a non hegemonic frame, emphasising features that may differ radically from the ideologically dominant version of cultural competence. The article shows that new middle-class people seek to create a 'middle-class Hinduism' devoid of caste, and focussed on auspiciousness, rather than purity and pollution.