Mobility through affinal relations bangladeshi middle class, transnational immigrants and networking

MOBILITY THROUGH AFFINAL RELATIONS: BANGLADESHI
‘MIDDLE CLASS,’ TRANSMIGRANTS AND NETWORKS




SEUTY SABUR
MSS (DU), M.A. (Hiroshima University)




A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPY




DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2010
MOBILITY THROUGH AFFINAL RELATIONS: BANGLADESHI
‘MIDDLE CLASS,’ TRANSMIGRANTS AND NETWORKS

SEUTY SABUR








NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2010


i
Acknowledgements
I am not too sure whether to feel happy or sad writing this acknowledgement. This
Ph.D. has never been about academic accomplishment for me. Rather, it was part of
the journey which started almost a decade ago. These years were all about ‘living’
every acknowledgeable idea, pushing the boundaries and unleashing ‘selves.’ None of
these would have been possible without the individuals I have encountered all these
years.
My thesis is dedicated to the families who allowed me to intrude upon their lives both
in Bangladesh and the U.K. over these years. Their patience, enthusiasm and support
made this thesis what it is today. Their courage to share the complicated narratives of
convoluted pasts and intimate lives were the most precious moments I have
experienced as a researcher. Their enormous trust humbled me. I am indebted to my
colleagues and friends, especially Shayda, Elma, Mithu fuppi, ma and my mother-in-
law for connecting me with these families both in Dhaka and London. I am grateful to
Samya, my research assistant who shared the burden of recording my short

interviews.
Thanks would be too short of a word to show my gratitude to Tarefa fuppi and Jasim
fuppa who not only offered their homes as my base in London, but also introduced
me to the members of their social networks (both British and British Bangladeshi)
and showered me with their affection. It may sound like a cliché but I truly
experienced living the British Bangladeshi professional’s life whilst staying at the
Rickmansworth’s home. Thanks to Habib Bhai for looking after all the small details
of my everyday life and providing me with gastronomic delights everyday during my
Brit days. Finally, I want to thank Taiyan bhai and Samya (Glasgow), Yamima and
Nasim bhai (Liverpool), and Adnan and Samia (London) for being wonderful hosts
and letting me stay in their respective dens.
I want to thank NUS for providing a generous scholarship and research fund that
allowed me to push my limits as a researcher and conduct a transnational
ethnography. Thanks to the admin staff in the Department of Sociology for their
constant logistical support. Special thanks go to Ms. Raja who always came with a
reassuring smile taking care of all of our problems.
I want to thank our Head of the Department Prof. Chua Beng-Huat for chasing me to
finish my thesis on time. Thanks also go to Prof. Bryan Tuner for training us in
critical Social Theory, thereby providing a solid foundation for my thesis. Thanks go
to A/P Vedi R. Hadiz, A/P Roxana Waterson, A/P Anne Raffin, Dr. Leong Wai Teng,
Dr. Misha Petrovic and Prof. Tong Chee Kiong for registering my existence and
keeping track of my progress. My heartfelt thanks also go to the members of my

ii
thesis committee, A/P Eric Thompson and Dr. Jennifer Jarman, for their interest in
my thesis and constant encouragements.
Most importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, A/P
Vineeta Sinha. She allowed me to have space to grow as an independent researcher
and provided me the outmost support (both intellectual and emotional) whenever I
needed it. Her faith in my work and constant encouragement boosted my confidence.

She did a magnificent job as an editor and helped me to get best out my data.
My life revolved around this thesis for last four years. While I was challenging the
norms and every social relationship theoretically, together with my friends I tried to
create a social space which we could call our own. My graduate clan provided me
with a disproportionate amount of love and respect beyond words. I want to thank
Sahoo for being a loving elder brother from day one until now, advising me about
academic life. I want to thanks my previous roomies Alka and Sanja for making me a
part of their family. I want to thank Eugene, Dan, Yong Chong, Sheela, both Good
and Bad Lou, Nic, Weida, Bon, Pam, Hui Hui, Fiona, Johan and Saiful in making the
grad room a happening place and providing me with daily dose of laughter. I also
want to thank my MOD Squad—Chand, Audrey, Mel, Kritti, Shantini, Mamtu and
Becky Boo—for their unconditional support, love, smiles and hugs. It has always
been reassuring to have Alex and Joyabi around.
I want to thank Thom, Zdravko and Rahul for providing me with a non-gendered
space in which to live in and helping me to create a ‘home’ full of grace and humility.
I have tortured Z the most in the last one year and a half with all my new ideas about
my thesis and beyond and we created a precious emotional/intellectual landscape of
our own. I want to thank my sunshine and constant companion Nuh Bee who
validated my existence every day and brought out strongest person in me. And I am
not ashamed of torturing you either with all the editorial work mutual slavery.
I want to thank my parents and parents-in-law for being the magnificent people they
are and allowing me to live my life in the way I imagined. Thanks to Ato and Adi for
being patient sisters and taking care of my responsibilities in Dhaka when I was not
around. I am forever indebted to Shaian for bearing with me, understanding me and
entertaining all my whims and fancies and let me be. Without you, I would not have
been able to make it and still be sane.
Finally, my heartiest gratitude goes to A/P Manosh Choudhury who questioned all
my ideas and shattered my intellectual entity, making me think critically about the
norms I have accepted unquestionably, which eventually instigated the birth of this
thesis.

iii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement
i
Summary
v
List of Tables
vi
List of Figures
vii

Chapter One: Introducing the Research
1.1 Towards the Research Problematic 1
1.2 Emergence of the ‘Middle Class’ in Bangladesh 6
1.3 Conceptual Framework 13
1.3.1 Middle Class in the Industrial and Post-industrial West 13
1.3.2 Social Networks: Marriage and Friendship 23
1.3.3 Diaspora and Transnational Connections 35
1.4 Thesis Outline 43

Chapter Two: Introducing the Research Framework and Locales

2.1 Engagement with the ‘Field’ 46
2.2 Research Locales: Dhaka, London, Glasgow and Liverpool 49
2.3 Research Framework/Methodology 52

2.3.1 Phase One (January 2005 to July 2007) 53

2.3.2 Phase Two (August 2007 to March 2008) 55

2.3.3 Phase Three (April to July 2008) 60
2.4 A Gyno-centric Methodology 64
2.5 Unit of Analysis 65
2.6 Challenges of Research 65
2.7 Insight for Future Ethnographic Work 67

Chapter Three: Bangladeshi Class Society
3.1 Prelude 69
3.2 Class Formation in Bangladesh 70

3.2.1 The British Empire and the Emergence of the Salaried
Middle Class
70

3.2.2 From Pakistan to the Birth of Bangladesh: Middle Class
taking Centre Stage
80
3.3 Spatial Distribution of the Metropolitan Middle Class in Dhaka 88
3.4 Introducing the Actors 93

3.4.1 Cultural Capital: Education 94

3.4.2 Economic Capital: Occupation 97

3.4.3 Domesticity and Consumption Patterns 100

3.4.4 Social Capital 104
3.5 Introducing the Main Protagonists 106

iv
Chapter Four: Tying Knots: Transcending Boundaries through Affinal
Relations
4.1 Prelude 125
4.2 Marital Bliss: Social Construction of Marriage 127
4.3 Matchmaking Ventures 132

4.3.1 Criteria for Choosing a Potential Partner 133

4.3.2 Pattern of Matchmaking 142
4.4 Actors and Collaborators 151
4.5 Journey to the Unseen and the Unknown: Marrying Abroad 160
4.6 Failed Marriages: Disjuncture 165
4.7 Affinal Relations, Familial Network, Marriage and Class Oligarchy 169

Chapter Five: The ‘Family’ Extended: Friends, Social Networks and the
Power of the ‘Middle Class’
5.1 Prelude 172
5.2 Middle Class Composition and Mobility 174
5.3 Rights and Rituals of Friendship: Composition and Social
Resources
186
5.4 Familial Friendship: Succession of Social Capital 201
5.5 Women as Keepers of Social Networks 208
5.6 Distribution of Power 210

Chapter Six: Home away from Home: British Bangladeshi Professionals and
their Social Networks
6.1 Prelude 216

6.2 South Asians in the U.K. 217
6.3 Trajectories of Bangladeshi Middle Class Transmigrants in the
U.K.
224
6.4 Class Composition of British Bangladeshi Professionals 234
6.5 Making ‘Home’ away from Home 240
6.6 Social Networks of British Bangladeshi Professionals 246
6.7 ‘Home’ in Transmigrants’ Narratives 254

Chapter Seven: Conclusion: New Elite Formation in Bangladesh
260


Bibliography
266


v
Summary
My doctoral thesis is infused with the assumption that the affluent sections of
Bangladeshi ‘middle class’ have formed their oligarchy over three decades. Their
networks have been instrumental for them in the consolidation of their power, while
new forms of alliances have been forged through marriages, thus forming and
reproducing power at ‘home’ and abroad. My thesis traces the process of ‘middle
class’ mobility through affinal relations. The endeavour was to examine how
marriages are instrumental in strengthening, or weakening, alliances among the
dominant sections of this affluent group of the ‘middle class.’ Thus, the research
seeks to unpack strategies of networking—through a focus on affinal relationships—
of the metropolitan middle class over the last three decades. As such, the central
research queries are: How are marriages preferred among the middle class? How do

social arrangements of a marriage secure social power and status at a particular
moment? How does this social power transcend the nation-state through personal
networks at home and abroad? Eventually, my research addresses these questions by
focusing on members of the metropolitan ‘middle class’ in Bangladesh and their
cosmopolitan counterparts in London.

vi
List of Tables
Table 1: Spatial distribution of middle class 92
Table 2: Occupational profile of the informants 99
Table 3: Fixed assets of the informants 100
Table 4: Monthly expenditure 102
Table 5: Transformations in education, occupation and inherent
property in three generations
176
Table 6: The distribution of schools according to their ‘clan’ 211
Table 7: Estimate of the growth of the Bangladeshi population in the
U.K., 19612001
224
Table 8: Structure of employment (% by column) and Bangladeshi
representation
236
Table 9: Transformations in education, occupation and inherent
property in four generations across multiple locations
238


vii
List of Figures
Figure 1: Research locales: Dhaka, London, Glasgow and Liverpool 51

Figure 2: Network used for selecting the research population 54
Figure 3: Female-centric social gatherings 56
Figure 4: Map of Dhaka City 90
Figure 5: Gender distribution of HH 101
Figure 6: Monthly consumption in Taka 104
Figure 7: Wedding photo 127
Figure 8: Sample of Matrimonial Biodata (groom) 140
Figure 9: Sample of Matrimonial Biodata (bride) 141
Figure 10: Marriage pattern 142
Figure 11: A wedding group photo – Family and friends from three
continents
164
Figure 12: Showing 689 links among 114 friends of the author 200
Figure 13: Social network 203
Figure 14: Structure for potential oligarchy 214
Figure 15: Reasons for migration 230
Figure 16: Gathering of family members and friends from the U.K.,
Luxembourg and Bangladesh at Tarifa’s Garden
(Rickmansworth) in the Summer of 2008
258


1
Chapter One
Introducing the Research

1.1 Towards the Research Problematic
Being born and raised in Bangladesh, I am well aware of the existence of a group of
people—a rather affluent section of Bangladeshi society—who rely extensively on
their social networks to accomplish a variety of goals. My sheer inquisitiveness for

understanding the process of forging connections amongst this particular group led
me to conceptualise this piece of research in specific ways. At a theoretical level, I
was looking for an entry point that would make sense of these networks and for
helping to understand the ideological positions and practices of this group. It seemed
to me that it sensible to approach marriage as such a trigger through which networks
(both kin and non-kin) are set in motion and core alliances made. As such, I focus
primarily on affinal relations in order to understand how these groups are formed,
how they are connected to each other, what their incentives are for establishing and
sustaining these connections and being part of these networks, and how these
networks function and are extended. In short, I suggest that the everyday practices of
this group carry enormous sociological insight for understanding the phenomenon of
class relations. This is my primary motivation for constructing a research project
around my initially lay observations.

Given my training as an anthropologist and having attained some familiarity with
contemporary sociological theories, many questions about how to approach this group
surfaced at the outset of my research. To begin with, I have struggled with the
question of what to label my interest group. Initially, I thought of using the

2
description ‘middle class’ to denote members of the group; however, as a student of
sociology, I am well aware that this is a loaded term and carries specific meanings in
sociological discourse. I am also aware of the controversies entailed in the invocation
of the ‘middle class’ as an analytical tool and that it is important to avoid
essentialising and homogenising the category. However, a thorough reading of
existing theories and especially the literature on class formation has provided me with
the justification to use the concept of ‘middle class,’ but with certain caveats. I must
emphasize, however, that when using this term I am consciously and specifically
referring to the affluent sections of the Bangladeshi middle class, the community I
focus on in this research project.

From my initial reading of ‘Euro/American-centric’ class theories, it seemed to me
that a great deal of time, energy and resources have been spent theorising the concept
of class, specifically that of the ‘middle class.’ Given that the concept of ‘class’ has
been the subject of much sociological discussion, what could be the justification for
further analytical scrutiny. Although, these theories of class have been helpful in
understanding the formation of new classes in post-colonial states, in my view they
are not entirely satisfactory for a variety of reasons. Most of these theories have
seldom addressed the issue of complex class formation in former colonial societies.
Thus, they have failed to see the legacy of administrative interventions by the former
colonial rulers in my view and how these reconfigured subsequent class relations in
society. Scholars like Karl Marx
1
(1853) even thought that the colonial project was

1
“England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan, was actuated only by the vilest
interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is
can mankind fulfill its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia? If not,
whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing
about that revolution” (Karl Marx on ‘The British Rule in India,’ published in the Herald Tribune, 10
June 1853).

3
perfectly legitimate for civilising the subject population. Complex class formation in
post-colonial states has been a later development in class theories.

Within the Indian subcontinent, systematic research on class-related issues occurred
somewhat later and, in comparison to the Indian context, little scholarly research on
class has been done in the Pakistani context. However, across the border, the Indian

subaltern study group has contributed to a new surge leading to the deconstruction of
Indian socio-political history and realities. As the interlocutors were from Bengal, so
their research was concentrated mostly in colonial and post-colonial Bengal. Some of
this research has focused on state and class formation, while others have addressed
women’s issues. In short, class theories in post-colonial contexts have over-
emphasized the Indian situation at the expense and complete marginalisation of the
Pakistani and Bangladeshi situations. Hence, my thesis strives to fill a vacuum on
class theories in South Asia that have largely emerged from Euro-American theories
on class and some research done by South Asian scholars themselves but, in my view,
neither entirely account for the complexitiy of the class contexts within Bangladeshi
society.

The impulse for studying ‘class’ occurred as a very late development in the
Bangladeshi social science community. Anthropologists who have tried to grapple
with the dynamics of the social reality in post-colonial Bangladesh were either
concerned with analysing society on the basis of kinship,
2
or on the basis of mode of
production
3
within an agrarian context. Meanwhile, the emergence of the group I am
labeling ‘middle class’ and their oligarchic nature remained completely unnoticed by

2
See Abul Khair Nazmul Karim (1956).
3
The research of Abul Khair Nazmul Karim (1956) and Helaluddin Khan Shamsul Arefeen (1975)
falls under this category.

4

social scientists. This neglect happened partly because of a deep-seated discomfort
amongst academics to critically analyse their own class and partly because they were
possessed by the ghost of Euro-centric thinking. Collectively, these have inspired the
study of ‘others’—largely made up of the rural and ethnic communities. It was not
until the mid-1980s that critical analysis
4
of Bangladeshi class structures began to
appear.

This body of research has prepared the ground for further studies in this area;
however, I also discuss some limitations in my closer reading of these existing
theories about the Bangladeshi ‘middle class,’ which even my own previous thesis
5

did not address. The critical works on the middle class I have read were entangled
either with the idea of state formation or with gendered processes. These studies
provided an immaculate and unproblematic image of the transition that the
Bangladeshi ‘middle class’ cluster had experienced historically and were going
through. That said, they did not provide details about the agents of change who were
making history in their everyday lives through their thoughts and practices. Here, I
have picked up some threads of the tapestry that my predecessors were trying to
weave and added new elements of my own. For instance, this affluent middle class, in
my view, was also morphing into a ‘transnational class.’ Given this recognition, in
this research, I try to detail the various elements and patterns I identified amongst the
group in question. I focus on their aspirations, their privileges, the mechanism through
which they make social connections, and their networks at home and abroad, as well
as any ontological crises they may experience. My thesis is infused with the


4

Chowdhury and Ahmed (1987, 2001), and Burhanuddin Khan Jahangir (1986) were the pioneers in
presenting critical analysis on middle class formation.
5
Seuty Sabur (2003) thesis submitted to IDEC, Hiroshima University, Japan, in 2005.

5
assumption that the affluent sections of the Bangladeshi ‘middle class’ have formed
an oligarchy
6
over the last three decades. Their networks have been instrumental for
them to consolidate their power, while new forms of alliances have been forged
through marriages and friendship and, thus, considered and reproduced power at
‘home’ and ‘abroad.’

This thesis will trace the process of ‘middle class’ mobility in Bangladesh through
affinal relations and friendship. The endeavour is to examine how marriages and
friendships are instrumental in forging alliances among the dominant sections of this
affluent cluster within the ‘middle class.’ Thus, the research seeks to unpack strategies
of networking (through affinal relationships and friendships), by the metropolitan
middle class over the last three decades. Thus, the central research questions are: How
are marriages preferred among the middle class? How do the social arrangements of a
marriage and friendship secure social power and status at particular moments? How
does this social power transcend the nation-state through personal networks at home
and abroad? Eventually, this research will address these questions by focusing on
members of both the metropolitan ‘middle class’ in Bangladesh and their
cosmopolitan counterparts in London.

In order to answer the questions, I needed to address two major issues of marriage and
friendship which provided me with a the road map for navigating these middle class
social networks and understanding the alliances, as well as patterns of mobility

amongst this community, both within the Bangladeshi context and transnationally.
Hence, a survey on theories of class, social networks, marriage, friendship and

6
Since 2003, Manosh Chowdhury has constantly been arguing about middle class dominance, its
characteristics and how it is functioning in the political and social arenas.

6
transnationalism was necessary to address the limitations of existing theories. I offer a
survey of the existing literature with a view to framing the contours of my own
research problematic. In fact, I critically engage the discourse on class, social
networks, marriage and friendship so as to highlight both the potential and limitations
within. I briefly introduce these sociological discourses regarding the middle class
cluster in first section, followed by my research framework, in an attempt to produce
an ethnography of the metropolitan middle class in Dhaka.

1.2 Emergence of the ‘Middle Class’ in Bangladesh
As a lay description term, ‘middle class’ has been part of Bengali vocabulary for
some time. However, discourses about the ‘middle class’ made their way into the
Bangladeshi social science scene only very recently; until then, very little research
had been done on class formations. Existing studies failed to see that Bangladesh has
emerged as a ‘classed-based’ society since colonial intervention. Since the 1980s
there has been a substantial amount of work done in Bengal on the issues of class
formation; however, some research also focused on class formation as an integral part
of the formation of state and national identity. In the interest of a focused discussion,
my research concentrates on Bangladeshi middle class formation
7
as I highlight some
important scholarly contributions.

By adopting a neo-Marxist stance, B. K Jahangir (1986) tried to figure out the
problematic of nationalism in Bangladesh. Jahangir used Gramsci’s concept of
hegemony to understand the complicated struggle for nationalism, exploring different
aspects of class conflict and collaboration. Making an argument about the

7
In my Masters thesis, which dealt with the formation of the metropolitan middle class in Bangladesh
in great length, I tried to review the research work done on both sides of Bengal. Therefore, it is not
considered necessary to repeat a similar review for this thesis document.

7
bureaucratic process of class interest, he posits that the rich peasantry was already in
the process of emerging before the British (and the Pakistani) colonial impositions.
Their development was blocked due to colonial conquest and subsequently by
Pakistani administrative manipulations. While a stagnant industrial development
could not produce a capitalist class, the administrative growth fostered a competitive
bureaucracy.
8
Local trade was in the hands of a rich but illiterate bourgeois. The
colonial crisis bought these two antagonistic classes into competition for power, with
a victory for the bureaucracy being the outcome. Jahangir argues that the petty
bourgeois were overwhelmingly prioritised because they monopolised the state in its
major areas of functioning. Quoting Kamal Hossain, he contends that the people who
ran the bureaucracy, in senior banking and commercial positions, possessed lucrative
import licenses and ran industries taken over (from their former Pakistani owners),
emerging as the bourgeois after the political liberation of Bangladesh. He argues that
the state became the dominant instrument for class creation during this period. My
stance overlaps with Jahangir’s on this crucial issue. He invokes two terms, namely
‘petty bourgeois’ and ‘middle class,’ switching between them and describing how
they dominated the political scene and nationalist movement in Bangladesh. This

particular research was crucial for understanding the formation of the middle class in
Bangladesh as it paved the way for further exploration.


8
B. K. Jahangir (1986) identified two groups among the dominant class in colonial Bengal on the basis
of their relation to hegemonic forces and relations, namely the Pakistanis and Bengalis. He divided
these groups further. The Pakistani hegemonic group was comprised of people working in government
(non-Bengali bureaucrats, staff of the colonial state); and governmental and non-governmental sectors
(industrialists, traders, tea planters, owners of agricultural farms). Bengali hegemonic groups were
subdivided into two groups. One was superior civil servants of the colonial beureacracy and a few
bourgeois involved in trade. The second group consisted of people with regional interests—the first
segment was the Bengali part of the Pakistani bureaucracy, while the second segment consisted of
Bengali businessmen, industrialists, tea-planters, owners of newspapera, and rich peasants.


8
S. M. Shamsul Alam (1995) explored the various outcomes of the development
endeavour undertaken in post-colonial Bangladesh. He argued that during the colonial
period an emerging bourgeois class (consisting of both Hindus and Muslims) existed
in India, but the Bengali bourgeois class was non-existent. There was also an uneven
growth of the Muslim social classes in colonial India. Various factions of the Bengali
Muslim middle class wholeheartedly supported the idea of Pakistan but they were
soon disillusioned by Pakistani colonial policy. This resulted in them fighting for
Bengali linguistic nationalism and paved the way for the creation of Bangladesh.
Throughout all the changes in state structure (the Awami League regime ruling in
19711975; different military regimes ruling from 1975 to the early 1990s; and the
democratic government ruling since 1991), the different factions of the middle class
gained control of the state. This class had its roots in trade and commerce and various
administrative works, not in production. According to Alam, during the various

struggles of independence, the petty bourgeois managed to win the nationalist
struggle. He argues that this particular class was able to articulate the nationalist
discourse hegemonising the whole of society both ideologically and politically
because of two reasons: (a) the landlords and bourgeois were generally weak to
counter the petty bourgeois hegemonic discourse; and (b) the subaltern social class
(peasants and workers) were unable to pose any threat, structurally or subjectively, to
petty bourgeois hegemonic attack. This argument was crucial for my research to
understand how this class has led the rest of the society.

More recently, Ali Riaz (2005) has tried to understand the complex process of state
formation in the Third World. He identifies three decades of transformation in
Bangladesh, comparing the Bangladeshi experience with Tanzania, focusing on

9
exploring the complicated relations of social class and state. Riaz argues that direct
colonial rule changed class relations, making possible the emergence of a new class.
New forms of alliance and conflicts within and between dominant and subordinate
classes were an essential part of these class formations. According to him, the conflict
and collaboration of the middle classes with the colonial state enabled them to emerge
as a political agent. The middle classes who were subjected to colonial hegemony
became the moral leaders of the subordinate class, partly because of the weakness of
the other classes and partly because of the appropriation of hegemonic ideology of
Bengali nationalism. As such, his argument about petty bourgeois dominance is very
similar to Shamsul Alam’s. He argues that, in the 1960s, an array of urban middle
classes emerged—ranging from petty traders, shopkeepers, a salaried class serving the
state and private enterprises, professionals like doctors and engineers, and an
intelligentsia—and was involved in different educational and research institutions in
urban areas. He also argues that the first middle class generation in Bangladesh was
completely dependent on their education and skills, unlike their predecessors who had
economic relations with the rural areas. He refers to Gankovsky’s (1972) data which

say that in 1971 there were about 500,000 small scale merchants, as well as about
225,000 intelligentsia employed (with low pay) in different state institutions, private
firms and elementary schools. He illustrated the process by which the intermediate
class reached the center stage of politics over a period of time in Bangladesh.
Eventually, the intermediate classes, led by the petty bourgeois, gained state control in
post-liberation Bangladesh (1971). I explore the lives of these actors in my research
closely and present their biography and genealogy of three generations, juxtaposing it
against the broader historical context to make sense of middle class formation and
transformations.

10
I have tried to present the different discourses that emerged around the concept of
‘middle class’ in the 1980s and noted some of their shortcoming. Summarising the
arguments of the above-mentioned research, it can be said that the petty
bourgeois/middle class clearly had its roots in agriculture and trade. In the early 20
th

century, education and occupation (civil service, professions like doctors, bankers,
engineers, lawyers, teachers, intelligentsia, and executives in non-governmental
organisations) defined the middle class. By the mid-20
th
century they had also evolved
as active political agents. With the liberation of Bangladesh they gained state control
and hegemonised society both economically and politically. Issues like transformation
of gender roles within this class remained unattended in these discussions. These
issues were partially addressed by the following authors.

Hilary Standing (1991) discussed the formation of a salaried middle class and the
position of women in Bengal, based on extensive fieldwork within the households of
Kolkata. She examines the impact of women’s employment on households and on

family relationships. Standing considered the roles of family cycle and class position
in mediating the impact of employment and places the issue within a historical
perspective. She argues that the ideological restructuring of the domestic domain has
been as far reaching for Bengali women as they were for women in Victorian Britain
(Standing 1991, 69). To substantiate her argument she notes that at least “three major
elements in this transformation can be detected. First, there was the transformation of
pre-existing, ‘inside-outside’; female–male divisions of space into world of
employment and public affairs; second, there was a reconstruction of gender
ideologies in relation to the duties of the sexes in their separate worlds. Third, there
was the rise of ‘housewives’ both as consumers and as conveyers of the new values

11
and attitudes that were essential to the reproduction of the new middle class”
(Standing 1991, 63). Religious and social reformism reinforced the image of women
as primarily dutiful wives and mothers, while emphasizing a new vision of marriage
as one of companionship and mutual respect. The agents I am talking about within the
Bangladeshi context went through similar transitions while consolidating their class
positions.

Similarly, Chowdhury and Ahmed’s (2000) work resonates with Standing’s idea. The
former claims that “with the emergence of Muslim middle class the idea of
conjugality became part of the idea of domesticity. Woman in this framework is a
housewife and her role is moral and ideological. Sexual purity is a major constituent
of her conscience. Men’s identity in this structure is economic. His work concentrated
in public (political, economical and cultural); his purity is not as vulnerable as it is of
women. Through restructuring, public and private honour and character became very
important for the middle class, and women become central to nurturing modesty”
(translated from Ahmed and Chowdhury 2000, 155). Ahmed argues elsewhere that
the opportunities for education may even be found in employment, freedom and
mobility, and that these discourses constituted a middle class identity—the subjective

and collective sense of self—which distanced its members from the ‘uncivilized,’
‘uneducated’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘large masses of poor’ (Ahmed 1999, 111).

To understand this new role and the complex attributes of the educated ‘middle class’
in contemporary Bangladesh, it is essential to reflect on Chowdhury's account which
emphasizes the global attributes of the middle class. According to him, “… this
includes the global expansion of production along with their global consumption

12
patterns, their new perception of liberalism, motivation of discovering ‘selves,’
‘locating the selves’ within the culture or rather revealing it as to be the culture,
identifying various ‘others,’ and offering them ‘leadership’” (translated from
Chowdhury 2003). He defines the variations in characteristics of the middle class as
multiple cultures and stresses that even with variance there is affinity (those attributes
without which the class could not be identified) among members of the dominant
class.

Hence, against these discussions collectively, I present my specific understanding of
the category ‘middle class.’ By this I mean a group of individuals with certain levels
of education, engaged in specific professions, sharing a set of core values, and who
have a sense of security and stability. In the past, I have often used the term
‘metropolitan middle class’
9
to refer to the affluent sections of the middle class living
in a metropolis. These individuals have a surplus of income and with it they maintain
a particular lifestyle, as well as accumulate resources through the modern means of
savings and credit. By ‘lifestyle,’ I do not necessarily imply patterns of consumption
to categories in a system of social classification; rather, I use it to signify an all-
encompassing way of living desired by and aspired to by this group. This includes the
consumption of exotic foods, buying clothes from local and international brands,

intellectual goods (books, CDs, DVDs), travelling to exotic locations and being
recipients of certain values (liberal, accommodative, sexuality)—all manifesting their
acquired cosmopolitan taste. This enables the group to identify with fellow group
members and strengthen the networks among them. The social networks of these
individuals are not limited to a single nation state, but rather transcend national

9
This term was first used in the Bangladeshi context by Manosh Chowdhury (2003).

13
boundaries. The very lifestyle, values, and enormity of the transnational network
show distinct signs of a ‘cosmopolitan’
10
class in the making.

1.3 Conceptual Framework
Here, I present the theories of the middle class in general. I argue that class habitués
provides the base for social networks; it structures and is structured simultaneously. I
will also argue that class homogamy is one of the salient features of the network,
prompting members of this particular class to form alliances with others that they
have a distinct affinity. Thus, class homogamy creates a way to expand networks both
at home and across national borders. I substantiate my arguments with existing
theories of class, migration and transnationalism, marriage, friendship and network. I
will use the experience of the Bangladeshi middle class and their extended British
Bangladeshi counterparts as case illustrations in my thesis.

1.3.1 Middle Class in the Industrial and Post-industrial West
Class has been one of the pivotal theories in sociology and has received renewed
attention in the past few decades. It has been under tremendous scrutiny and was
continuously in use for explaining both the past and the present; it has also been

demonised when it failed to explain the economic domain of society. Theories of class
have also not been static since Karl Marx’s exposition, but have taken on different
forms in the ever-changing economic, political and intellectual situations. In this
section, I present the different positions and debates vis-à-vis theories of class since

10
“… cosmopolitanism descriptively to address certain socio-cultural processes or individual
behaviours, values or dispositions manifesting a capacity to engage cultural multiplicity” (Vertovec and
Cohen 2002, 3). They suggest that the very concept of cosmopolitanism has been coupled with a
handful of elite who were fortunate and eager enough to explore new territories, learn new languages,
maintain specific lifestyles, and accommodate other cultures.


14
the inception of the ‘concept’ and which helped me to formulate my concept of the
‘middle class’ in the Bangladeshi context.

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle,”
proclaimed by Marx and Engels in 1848, became the foundation of class analysis.
Marx’ work provided a persuasive picture of class relations and its conflicting model.
The industrial revolution in England, when Marx was formulating his theories, is
marked as the period of great transformation in the socio-political and economical
structure of European society. In an emerging capitalist context, he witnessed how the
working class was ruthlessly exploited, how their labour was manipulated for
producing excessive surplus, and how the bourgeoisie emerged to consume every
drop of this surplus. Marx envisioned a theory and praxis of class which was not only
aimed to analyse exploitative class relations, but also provided an exit into a classless
society. Marxist notion of class was defined by ownership, the control over means of
production, and the relationship to the means of production. These ownership
relations were the basis of class relations in property and labor markets. The

exploitative nature of class relation forges to form the conscious social grouping –
class for themselves. These antagonistic class struggles against each other in the
political, economic and ideological spheres shape history. Marx’ classical work was
thus seen to be important to compare and contrast the processes of class formation in
Bangladesh.

Max Weber’s (1993, 2004) work was also influential in formulating the notion of
class. Like Marx, Weber emphasized the economic dimension of class. Besides
property ownership, he also emphasized the significance of market situations. These

15
included the individual skills, qualifications which would enhance the life chances
compared to who did not possess them. He rightly gauged the potential of Marx’
argument to understand historical change apart from its determinism. Furthermore, he
dismantled the concept of Marxist ‘class’ into ‘class,’ ‘status’ and ‘party,’ to which he
added authoritative relations within the state that defined the ruling and subject social
strata
11
(Weber 1914). The independent significance of social status (social honour
and prestige) is the hierarchical system of cultural differentiation which identifies
particular persons, behaviours and lifestyles as superior or inferior. Both Marx and
Weber remain influential in the conceptualisation of class in social theory, and
although class and status are two different and distinct concepts analytically, it is
often difficult to separate them empirically. Therefore, it was relevant to use these
classical texts and reconfigure them to the Bangladeshi context.

In a related view, Gramsci (1978) wanted to gain explanatory power with respect to
superstructural institutions. The concept of ‘hegemony’ is at the very core of
Gramscian thought in understanding dominance. In hegemony, a class succeeds in
persuading the other classes of society to accept its own moral, political and cultural

values. This concept assumes plain consent given by the majority of a population to a
certain direction suggested by those in power. However, this consent is not always
peaceful and may combine physical force or coercion with intellectual, moral and
cultural inducement. It can also be understood as ‘common sense,’ a cultural universe
where the dominant ideology is practiced and spread, i.e., something which emerges
out of class struggles and serves to shape and influence peoples minds. It is a set of
ideas by means of which dominant groups strive to secure the consent of subordinate

11
Cited in Scott, John (ed.) (1996) Class, Critical Concepts, Vol. I. New York, Routledge.

16
groups to their leadership. In the previous section of this thesis, I showed how the
middle class emerged as the hegemonic class and shaped the dominant ideology from
the earlier research.

Different trends in class theories were inextricably associated with capitalist industrial
development in the West. Marx’ and Weber’s theories of class were formulated
during the industrial revolution when feudalism was being outmoded by capitalism.
New forms of industrial management produced new types of hierarchy. In addition,
there have been new forms of non-manual work emerging, especially in the service
sectors. These changes have resultingly affected the personal and collective identity of
people.

Class theory and research in 1970s were affected by the different and contradictory
influences of Neo-Marxists and Neo-Weberians though, becoming divided into
culturalist and economic approaches. Until the 1960s, Weberian social stratification
dominated American sociology, completely ignoring the economic aspects of Marxist
themes of class. Class was seen as synonymous with social strata in American society,
while structural functionalists re-defined it in normative terms and conceptualised it

simply as status. For Talcott Parsons and other mainstream proponents of American
sociology, social stratification was a matter of social ranking in relation to shared
cultural values, and it was these normative relations that gave rise to ‘class’ relations
(Davis 1942, cited in Scott 1996).

The redefinition of class by Parsons and his disciples was challenged by C. Wright
Mills (1970) who tried to see how class and social relations were associated with the