Culture of Consumption in Urban India: A Study of the Middle Class in Hyderabad

Abstract

Braudel, in his three-volume work, The Wheels of Commerce gives a fascinating account of the economic processes of the world and of the development of capitalism since the early 15th and 16th centuries. The second volume deals solely with the issue of consumption. He examines consumption of material culture, which has developed as part of capitalist process of development. Consumption, according to Falk (1995:95) means using up, expenditure, and eating - generic concepts to do with natural and cultural life processes. According to Williams (1985:78), the word 'consume' had "an unfavorable sense, it meant to destroy, to use up, to waste, (and) to exhaust". One also consumes to survive. In this regard, the idea of production is not far behind. What is consumed also needs to be produced. As a twosome, consumption and production can be situated historically to gather insights into economies and societies. Consumption, according to Appadurai (1995 :79), evolves as "the phenomenological marker of time left over from work, produced by work, and justified by work". Consumption is what comes after work, it's the leisure time well deserved which constitutes consumption. Production is situated in the economic base as in the mode of production, while consumption as a process is situated in the superstructure comprising of such things as culture. In this sense, consumption is epiphenomenal. However, the two are interrelated. One is either always involved in the production process or is engaged in consumption.