Mapping the Elite

Book excerpt: This edited volume is dedicated to the study of social, economic, and political elites in India. It's contributors address some fundamental questions regarding India's social and economic elites, the change in their composition in recent years, their relationship with each other and with the rest of the social body, and the role of caste in the configuration and reconfiguration of social and economic elites by analysing elite discourses and representations and what they reveal of their social inscription in contemporary India. The editors have sorted this book into three broad themes. The first theme concerns elite spaces which explores the uneasiness of elites to handle public and private spaces and interests. The second theme concerns the trajectories of particular elite groups such as the dominant caste called the Kammas of Andhra Pradesh, the Jats of Uttar Pradesh, and Urban elites. The third and final theme concerns elite lives and practices of diverse elite groups. This book is addressed to not only the scholar community interested in the sociology of India's elites, but to any reader interested in knowing how recent social and economic change in India affects the lives and trajectories of its elites.