New Delhi, April 27 -- For decades, India's growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group-roughly 40 million income-tax-paying households-is now under acute strain. Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the middle class may no longer be the engine of growth it once was. That is the argument of Break Point: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work, by Saurabh Mukherjea, Nandita Rajhansa, and Sapana Bhavsar. Mukherjea and Rajhansa discussed their provocative thesis on a recent episode of Grand Tamasha, a weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mukherjea is...