This qualitative study asks whether structural transformation brought about by modernization in contemporary urban India can induce growing equality in the sense of mutual respect between the lower and the middle classes. From the idographic context of female domestic workers and their employers in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) a general type of modernity for the periphery is outlined. Even though changes in this relation are apparent and various forms of respect and recognition are developing, the deep hierarchical differences persist despite - or precisely because of - modernity in the form of capitalism. Johanna Vogel (Dr.) studied Intercultural Business Studies at the University of Passau and received 2017 her PhD in Human Geography at the University of Bayreuth.