The engineering of India’s middle-class politics

Abstract

Engineering education at the service of economic growth has long been regarded as a policy imperative for developing countries. This paper offers a theoretical analysis of how the ascendancy of engineering education, particularly in post-liberalization India, has played a role in consolidating middle-class narratives of economic liberalism and social conservatism. It shows how a focus on apolitical problem-solving in engineering disciplines can feed into hegemonic discourses on apolitical good governance and meritocracy, propagated by political parties such as the ruling BJP. This assumes significance in light of recent comparative scholarship that educated and professionally oriented middle classes in India and other developing countries, unlike their Western counterparts, tend to be socially illiberal and politically authoritarian.