Thread by @shrikanth_krish

DId an analysis of the Top 50 richest Indians in this list of 100 from Forbes

Some observations

1. 46 of the 50 richest Indians are richer than Donald Trump
2. 15 of the top 50 are Gujaratis or have their ancestral origins in Gujarat

(Contd..)

forbes.com/india-billiona…

Here's a break-up of the ancestral roots of the top 50 (so far as I could make out)

Gujarat (incl Parsis) - 17
Punjab / Delhi - 9
Rajasthan - 8
Haryana - 3
Kerala - 2
Tamil Nadu - 2
Bihar - 2
Andhra Pradesh - 2
Sindh - 2
Nepal - 1
Karnataka - 1
Uttar Pradesh - 1

However in the top 10, the Gujarati dominance is far greater -

Gujarat - 6
Rajasthan - 2
Sindh - 1
Tamil Nadu - 1

Now let's look at the religion break-up

Hindu - 42
Parsi - 4
Muslim - 2
Jain - 1 (this could be more as I might have misclassified some Jains as Hindu)
Sikh - 1

Now let's look at caste. This has been done to the best of my knowledge

Bania: 13
Marwari: 7
Khatri: 4
Parsi: 4
Sindhi: 2
Jat: 2
Lohana: 2
Patel: 2
Reddy: 2
Rajput: 1
Bhumihar: 1
Brahmin: 1
Nadar: 1
Isai Vellalar; 1
Sikh: 1
Kerala Muslim: 1
Nair: 1
Shetty: 1
Unclear: 3

Baniyas and Marwaris between them constitute 40% of India's top 50 richest.

But I suspect the % share of Baniyas and Marwaris in the top 50 has gone down significantly in the past 30-40 years

Brahmins are conspicuous by their near absence in the top 50.

There is just one person (whose caste I am guessing to be Brahmin) from Nepal, and another who is a Bhumihar

Parsis and Sindhis remain the remarkably successful micro-communities.

These two groups have 6 representatives in the top 50

Seven of the top 50 are Southern Indians

There is not a single Bengali in the top 50 though there are some Marwaris from Bengal (Eg : Lakshmi Mittal)

However Western India remains extremely dominant.

With the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab together accounting for 37 of the top 50

Please note that the regions have been identified based on their ancestry and not their birthplace.

So someone like Kumara mangalam Birla has been associated with Rajasthan (by virtue of being a Marwari) and not with Bengal where the Birla family was based.

Post-script : Some pointed out that it is wrong to regard Marwaris as a caste

Here the term Marwaris was merely used to distinguish Marwari Baniyas from other baniyas.

Even Non Marwari Baniyas can be further broken down into Gujarati, Punjabi, and other baniyas. Not done here

Here are the excel screenshots (2) for those interested

The analysis has been extended to 100 richest. Here is the thread for the same -

https://twitter.com/shrikanth_krish/status/1069300204447379456