Anupam Nath/Associated Press. An Internet cafe in Guwahati, Assam.

An article in India Ink today explores the odd (from the perspective of non-Indians, at least) phenomenon of elites downgrading their socio-economic status in the interest, apparently, of a stronger sense of community belonging:

If you are an Indian reading this, you are very likely among the top 10 percent in the country, since you have Internet access. It is also very likely that you, just like me, consider yourself middle class, though we are not anywhere close to the middle of this country in income or standard of living. We may well have trended the hashtag #IamSoMiddleClass last month, but being in the top decile of a 1.2 billion population, perhaps it’s time to ask #WhyICallMyselfMiddleClass?

“The elite in many parts of the world do not like to be called the elite,” said Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist. “In the U.K., they called themselves the nobility; in current American discourse, the elite are called the job creators. In India, the elite call themselves middle class.”

Read the rest of the story here…