Indian muddle class: Reforms produced a large middle class. But it hasn’t played an emancipatory role July 22, 2021, 9:11 PM IST The writer is Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor and Asia Programs Director at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University One of the consequences of economic liberalisation was a major change in the size and composition of India’s middle class. Earlier it was largely a creature of the state, comprising mostly government employees. But with government employment basically stagnant since then, expansion of the private sector has been the primary driver underlying its growth. And the vast majority of the lower-middle class are the first generation of their family to belong to this group, having ridden the escalator of economic growth. But many are sliding back, the victims of India’s economic crisis.