
Appropriately Indian: Gender and Culture in a New Transnational Class
Smitha Radhakrishnan
Radhakrishnan explains how this transnational class creates an Indian culture that is self-consciously distinct from Western culture, yet compatible with Western cosmopolitan lifestyles. She describes the material and symbolic privileges that accrue to India’s high-tech workers, who often claim ordinary middle-class backgrounds, but are overwhelmingly urban and upper caste. They are also distinctly apolitical and individualistic. Members of this elite class practice a decontextualized version of Hinduism, and they absorb the ideas and values that circulate through both Indian and non-Indian multinational corporations. Ultimately, though, global Indianness is rooted and configured in the gendered sphere of home and family.
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About Smitha Radhakrishnan
Reviews for Appropriately Indian: Gender and Culture in a New Transnational Class
Unna Lassiter
International Social Science Review
“Smitha Radhakrishnan gives us a textured account of members of a new transnational class represented by India’s skilled knowledge professionals who have indeed played a leading role in the global IT industry. Her wide-ranging interviews reveal the ways in which they craft their identities by bridging Indian cultural practices with Western work practices and values.... I find this book to be timely, engaging, and a valuable insight into a group that belongs to a growing class of transnational professionals.”
Indermohan Virk
Contemporary Sociology
“This book is a strong rebuttal to the popular argument that neoliberal economic policies have opened the doors of opportunity for all. Instead it offers important insights into how local cultures and internal hierarchies shape the nature of cultural and economic globalization.... [T]his is an exceptionally well written and theoretically rich book that will be a great addition to graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on transnationalism, globalization, culture, development, sociological theories, or South Asian studies.”
Jaita Talukdar
American Journal of Sociology
“Appropriately Indian is an innovative sociological study of Indian IT professionals, mainly women, and the cultural and social changes in post-liberalization India that are revealed by their narratives about their work and personal experiences…. the monograph is a must-read for scholars of contemporary south Asia, globalization, and the sociology of work, class, and gender.”
Carol Upadhya
International Review of Social History