12 SOCIAL SCIENTIST bourgeoisie has threatened to degenerate into a stark marriage of convenience. Of course there are dangers in discussing the Assamese middle class in general. There has been considerable change in the composition and economic role of this middle class since independence. There are hundreds of miles of metalled roads in the districts that help carry the trader to the interiormost village. Schools and colleges have mushroomed, and are overcrowded. There are some industries in the public sector with scores of Assamese technicians and executives where there was virtually none. It has not only bagged the majority of well-paid posts in the new and expanded bureaucracy, but it now has a greater degree of access to and control over the financial resources of the State than it used to have. By a process of a simple plunder from the State treasury in the name of 'development programme', the Assamese middle class has noticeably become more affluent and ambitious. But it does not hold the key to the further development of the region and the people there mainly because of its necessarily subservient relation to the Indian big capital. Vital economic and social reforms—land reform, planned industrialisation, exploitation of the hydro-electric potential of the region, fighting the insidious power of the monopolies—are being neglected by this class in its intoxication with easy money and nervousness about losing its privileges. However, the challenge of the objective situation is confrontation with the monopolies and the Central Government to which it otherwise looks for the protection of its interests. The decisive battle with the monopolies will be waged by the broad masses of workers and peasants of India. The Assamese middle class can expect to bring about the needed transformation of the economy and society of this region only if it takes its place on the side of the toiling masses. A consideration of the historical evolution of this middle class accounts for some of its salient characteristics. For one thing, in spite of half-hearted and superficial attempts at modernisation, in fields like education, there is a profound inertia that cannot be overcome. The Assamese middle class is now a helpless witness of the ruthless march of big capital rather than the advance guard of capitalism. Its base is so narrow that it cannot hope to transform the productive forces in agriculture. At the same time it has been alarmed at the growing demand of the poor peasants for land. The rapid increase in the number of the educated unemployed has also shaken it badly. The reaction to it has assumed the form of acute xenophobia. There has been a revival of old fears of domination by outsiders. At the same time the synthetic culture of Bombay films seems to sweep all before it, and turn the yearning for the culture of the past into a pipe-dream. The only way out of this dead end would be a renunciation of privilege, for which it is not prepared. Behind the frantic scramble for money and status symbols one discerns suppressed fears. Behind the apparent lack of