Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Interesting comment from Tyler

Another difference between India and Pak - Human capital at the very top

The intellectual elite in India ranks not too unfavorably with the best in the world, unlike Pak

Pak in contrast has less extreme poverty than India

marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…

To drive home this point, one only needs to look at the top American universities -

Count the # Pak students in top courses vs the # Indian students

Count the Indian professors in faculty vs Pak professors

You'll find a huge gap even if you adjust for population size

There are several reasons for this -

For one thing - The region that is Pakistan today had a significant Hindu population no doubt prior to Partition

But this H population was concentrated in the large cities, and among the bourgeoisie classes

Cities like Lahore, Karachi were about 50% Hindu, where industry and trade was dominated by Hindu elites

This class moved en masse to India circa 1947

And yes - to some extent this class was replaced by the Muslim elites who moved from the Gangetic plain to West Pakistan (the so-called Mohajirs)

But I don't think the replacement was anywhere close to commensurate

Second reason perhaps lies with Hindu endogamy and varNa system, where you have a more self-conscious elite, aspiring to a high intellectual culture and held up to a higher behavioral standard

In Pakistan you have biradiri culture (tribal system) as opposed to a caste system

Which is why what you get in Pakistan is a society of several tribes, with communal justice, less inequality

In India, you have a more individualistic society, and a somewhat less egalitarian culture, with enclaves of excellence at the top with several overachieving elite groups