Rise of Middle Class Intelligentsia

British administrative and economic innovations gave rise to a new urban middle class in towns. According to Percival Spear, “The new middle class was a well-integrated all-India class with varied background but a common foreground of knowledge, ideas and values.... It was a minority of Indian society, but a dynamic minority.... It had a sense of unity of purpose and of hope.”

This class, prominent because of its education, new position and its close ties with the ruling class, came to the forefront. The leadership to the Indian National Congress in all its stages of growth was provided by this class.