British South Asian Middle Class Politics

The rapidly increasing middle class profile of British Indians, in particular, has been said to explain both their recent shift towards the Conservative party, and their greater levels of political participation relative to other UK ethnic minority groups. This has been attributed, in part, to changing policy concerns among these groups which have made them less attracted to Labour’s traditionally welfarist platform. Having explored various facets of social identity, particularly class identity and its co-constitution with class background and ethnoracial identities in previous chapters, with reference to existing literature and primary survey as well as interview data, this chapter will focus on the politics of the British South Asian—and particularly Indian—Diaspora, in relation to changing class positioning and interests.