Introduction--
The Middle Class:The Context and the Contours--
1.The World of the Middle Class--
2.Domesticity :In Theory and Practice--
3.Changing Forms of Leisure--
4.Caste and the Middle Class--
5.Negotiating Tradition and Modernity--
Conclusion--
Glossary--
Bibliography--
Index--
Plates.

Members of the middle class in colonial Malabar left behind a copious amount of writings. These are to be found, among other places, in magazines, autobiographies and diaries. This book explores the social history of the middle class in the region during the British period on the basis of these writings in combination with archival sources. It delves into how they conceptualized domesticity, forged new friendships cutting across caste, and sometimes, even racial lines, and the new forms of leisure they envisaged. The author also analyses the dilemmas the group faced as it responded to the changes unleashed by colonial modernity at their work places, in the public sphere, and inside homes, where they desperately clung on to tradition even while accepting much of what the West had to offer. About the Author Sreejith K. teaches History at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Government College, Kolkata. He did his Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and has published numerous articles, among other places, in the Economic and Political Weekly and the Social Scientist.