This article examines the ways in which religious practices play a critical role in formulating middle-class identities among upwardly mobile Hindu women—members of what I call the “aspirational middle classes”—in Pulan, an urban neighborhood of Udaipur, Rajasthan. It focuses on ritual practices surrounding the Gaṇeśa Caturthī festival, a ten-day festival honoring the elephant-headed god Gaṇeśa, which has become increasingly popular in Udaipur in recent years. The article shows how taking up these new practices enables women to form and perform new middle-class identities within the neighborhood. Yet, as the concluding practices of Gaṇeśa Caturthī require the ritual community to leave the neighborhood for visarjan (ritual immersion of the festival image), outsiders can evaluate their performance of middle-class status and may perceive it as a display of lower-class status. In tracing the shifting meanings of festival practices, both within and beyond Pulan, the article shows how the urban neighborhood emerges as a localized religious space within which nuanced definitions of middle-class identity are constructed and made meaningful.

中文翻译：

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Gaṇeśa Caturthī 和拉贾斯坦邦有抱负的中产阶级的形成

本文探讨了宗教实践在形成中产阶级身份的过程中如何发挥关键作用，在拉贾斯坦邦乌代布尔的一个城市街区普兰，向上流动的印度教女性——我称之为“有抱负的中产阶级”的成员。它侧重于围绕 Gaṇeśa Caturthī 节的仪式实践，这是一个为期十天的节日，以纪念象头神 Gaṇeśa，近年来在乌代布尔越来越受欢迎。文章展示了采用这些新做法如何使女性能够在社区内形成和发挥新的中产阶级身份。然而，由于 Gaṇeśa Caturthī 的最后实践要求仪式社区离开社区前往 Visarjan（节日形象的仪式沉浸），局外人可以评估他们中产阶级地位的表现，并可能将其视为下层阶级地位的表现。在追踪普兰内外节日实践的变化意义时，本文展示了城市社区如何成为一个本地化的宗教空间，在其中构建了对中产阶级身份的细微定义并使其变得有意义。