Review by Choice Review
Navlakha examines the socioeconomic background of the educated-professional Indian elite, focusing on top government bureaucrats, managers of major industrial corporations, and university academics. The author provides a succinct historical and social structural context of elite formation and identifies the changing role of elites in modern India. The major portion of the book reports the findings of a national survey (1969) of more than 1,400 elites. An overwhelming majority of this group was from upper-caste strata, and originated from relatively well educated and economically well off urban families. Continuity rather than change of status was characteristic of occupational movements at the elitist level of society. Navlakha argues that despite modernization little improvement has occurred in the laboring stratum to favor their upward mobility to elite ranks. The content of this study is dated, and it is more descriptive than analytical. Of interest to those engaged in comparative study of elites, social stratification, and mobility, upper-division undergraduate level and above. Recommended for libraries specializing in Asian studies.-D. A. Chekki, University of Winnipeg
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
