Which caste leads India in business (Billionaire data by caste and varn)

Hindu caste system contains primarily 3 upper castes: Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishyas.

Traditionally, Brahmins are priests who obtain highest place in the hierarchy. Followed by Kshatriya followed by Vaishya.

This article discusses this in detail:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616 

Brahmins are typically divided into following sections:
Gaur Brahmins, Saraswat Brahmins, Mohyal Brahmin, Brahmin Pandits, Maithili Brahmin, Bhumiar Brahmin, Deshastha Brahmin, Garwali Brahmin, Iyer Brahmin, Goswami Brahmin and Tyagi Brahmin.

Kshatriya community is divided into following sections:
Rajput, Kurmi Kshatriya, Lohana, Thakur, Jat, Patel.

Vaishya community is divided into following sections:
Vaishnav Vanik (Gujarati Vaishya), Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya), Baniya, Teli, Arya Vysya, Mahajan.

There are 2 more groups: Khatri and Kayastha which are unclassified.
In 1921 caste census, Khatri were included as Kshatriya. In 1931, they were counted among Vaishyas.

As per current scenario, the caste is likely to be classified as a Kshatriya.
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Billionaire analysis:


As per analysis of billionaires from Forbes 100 list in India, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Gulf nations, UK, Canada. We found that:

1. Kshatriya caste has the highest number of billionaires (49) followed by Vaishya caste (42) followed by Brahmins (15).

2. As a community, Khatri community leads with 28 billionaires followed by Maheshwari (Marwari Baniya) with 18 billionaires.

3. Per capita wise, Parsi community from Gujarat leads followed by Khatri community.


The source of data is as follows:

Top 100 richest people in India as per Forbes list 2022: India's 100 Richest People

Richest people in Canada: The 67 Richest Canadians in 2023

Indian billionaires in USA: Only 4 Indian Americans Make it to Forbes 2022 List of Richest Billionaires in USA

UK rich list: The Sunday Times Rich List 2022

Forbes Richest in Singapore: Singapore’s Richest 2022

Forbes richest in Hong Kong: Hong Kong's 50 Richest 2022

Richest in Japan: Fourteen richest Indians who are settled in abroad. - BBC Migration

Richest managers in USA: Jayashree Ullal tops list of richest Indian professionals, holds Rs 16,600 cr wealth - The Statesman

GCC billionaires:

Here Are the Top 10 Indian Billionaires in the GCC | Al Bawaba

Naveen Jain:

Billionaire Naveen Jain had $5 in his pocket when he came to the U.S. Here are his secrets for success in business

SPS Oberoi:

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/diaspora/life-of-nri-surinder-pal-singh-oberoi-on-silver-screen-405422

Neerja Sethi: Neerja Sethi

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List of billionaires by Varn (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya):

	Vaishya	Kshatriya	Brahmin
1	Gautam Adani	Hinduja brothers	Narayan Murthy
2	Mukesh Ambani	Bajaj family *	Sridhar Vembu
3	Ramakrishna Damani	Sunil Bharti Mittal **	Akshata Murthy
4	Savitri Jindal	Burman family	Nithin Kamath
5	Dilip Shanghavi	Kuldip Singh Dhingra	Srinivasan family
6	Kumar Birla	Vikram Lal	Senapati Gopalakrishna
7	Bajaj family*	Kapil Bhatia	Venu Srinivasan
8	Sunil Bharti Mittal**	Ramesh Juneja	Kavitrak Ram Shriram
9	Laxmi Mittal	Falguni Nayar	Brian Sheth
10	Madhukar Parekh	Chandru Raheja	Jayshree Ulal
11	Ashwin Dani	Pawan Munjal	Leena Tewari
12	Ravi Jaipuria	Vivek Chand Sehgal	Acharya Balakrishna
13	Mahendra Choksi	Vikas Oberoi	Arvind Tiku
14	Sunil Mehta	Ramesh Kumar Dua	Bharat Desai
15	Anil Rai Gupta	Rajan Raheja	Ravi Pillai
16	Hasmukh Chudgar	Anand Mahindra
17	Benu Gopal Bangur	Inder Jaisinghani
18	Rekha Jhunjhunwala	Micky Jagtiani
19	Bawri family	Sanjeev Bhikchandani
20	Pawan Jain	Jitendra Virwani
21	Anil Agarwal	Sundar Genormal
22	Hari Bhartia	Jay Chaudhary
23	Ajay Piramal	Vinod Khosla
24	Dilip Surana	Ramesh Wadhwani
25	Satyanarayan Nuwal	Aneel Bhusri
26	Arvind Poddar	John Kapoor
27	Sanjiv Goenka	Neerja Sethi
28	Anurag Jain	Nikesh Arora
29	Yadu Hari Dalmia	Bill Malhotra
30	Ashok Boob	Simon Bobby Arora
31	Harsh Goenka	Jasminder Singh Bal
32	Vinod Saraf	Surinder Arora
33	Bhadresh Shah	Surinder Vaswani
34	Rakesh Gangwal	Rishi Sunak
35	Niraj Shah	Raj Kumar RK Hiranandani
36	Sai Prakash Lohia	Ashok Kumar Hiranandani
37	Binny Bansal	Harindarpal Banga
38	Salil Singhal	Ryuko Hira (Kamlesh Punjabi)
39	Lachman Das Mittal	MP Lodha
40	Kiran Mazhumdar Shaw	Chauhan family
41	Ravi Modi	Singh family
42	Naveen Jain	Kushal Pal Singh
43		Karsanbhai Patel
44		Pankaj Patel
45		Uday Kotak
46		Raghuvinder Kataria
47		Vidya Chhabria
48		SPS Oberoi
49		Harsh Vasanji Mariwala

*Bajaj was born as Agarwal, adopted by Khatri-Arora.

**Sunil Bharti Mittal is inter-caste (mother Khatri, father Baniya).

	Muslims	South Indian non-Brahmins	Parsi
1	Azim Premji	Shiv Nadar	Cyrus Poonawalla
2	MA Yusuf Ali	Murali Divi	Shapoor Mistry
3	Rafique Malik	Murugappa family	Godrej family
4	Yusuf Hameid	PP Reddy	Nusli Wadia
5	Feeroz Allana	Muthoot family	Sandeep Engineer
6		Joy Alukkas	Anu Aga
7		Kalanithi Maran
8		K. Dinesh
9		RC Chandramogran
10		Prathap Reddy
11		Reddy family
12		Thomas Kurian
13		Byju Raveendran
14		Sunil Varkey
15		BR Shetty

	Rai Sikh
1	Kuldip Rai Sahi
2

Unclassified: Nirmal Minda, Abhay Firodia, Arun Bharat Ram, Vakil family, Apporv Mehta

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List of billionaires by caste (Khatri, Maheshwari, Baniya):

Categorization of Brahmin billionaires by caste

	Name	Ethnicity
1	Narayan Murthy	South Indian Brahmin
2	Sridhar Vembu	South Indian Brahmin
3	Akshata Murthy	South Indian Brahmin
4	Nithin Kamath	South Indian Brahmin
5	Srinivasan family	South Indian Brahmin
6	Senapati Gopalakrishna	South Indian Brahmin
7	Venu Srinivasan	South Indian Brahmin
8	Kavitrak Ram Shriram	South Indian Brahmin
9	Brian Sheth	South Indian Brahmin
10	Jayshree Ulal	South Indian Brahmin
11	Ravi Pillai	South Indian Brahmin
12	Leena Tewari	North Indian Brahmin
13	Acharya Balakrishna	North Indian Brahmin
14	Arvind Tiku	North Indian Brahmin
15	Bharat Desai	North Indian Brahmin

Categorization of Vaishya billionaires by caste

	Name	Ethnicity/Caste
1	Gautam Adani	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
2	Mukesh Ambani	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
3	Dilip Shanghavi	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
4	Madhukar Parekh	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
5	Ashwin Dani	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
6	Mahendra Choksi	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
7	Sudhir Mehta	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
8	Hasmukh Chudgar	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
9	Pawan Jain	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
10	Anurag Jain	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
11	Vinod Saraf	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
12	Bhadresh Shah	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
13	Rakesh Gangwal	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
14	Niraj Shah	Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)
15	Radhakrishna Damani	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
16	Kumar Birla	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
17	Bajaj family	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
18	Laxmi Mittal	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
19	Ravi Jaipuria	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
20	Benu Gopal Bangur	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
21	Rekha Jhunjhunwala	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
22	Bawri family	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
23	Hari Bhartia	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
24	Ajay Piramal	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
25	Dilip Surana	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
26	Satyanarayan Nuwal	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
27	Arvind Poddar	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
28	Sanjiv Goenka	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
29	Yadu Hari Dalmia	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
30	Ashok Boob	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
31	Harsh Goenka	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
32	Sai Prakash Lohia	Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)
33	Savitri Jindal	Baniya
34	Sunil Bharti Mittal	Baniya
35	Anil Rai Gupta	Baniya
36	Salil Singhal	Baniya
37	Lachman Das Mittal	Baniya
38	Binny Bansal	Baniya
39	Anil Agarwal	Baniya
40	Naveen Jain	Baniya
41	Kiran Mazhumdar Shaw	Teli
42	Ravi Modi	Teli

Categorization of Kshatriya billionaires by caste

	Name	Ethnicity/Caste
1	Burman family	Punjabi Khatri
2	Kuldip Singh Dhingra	Punjabi Khatri
3	Vikram Lal	Punjabi Khatri
4	Ramesh Juneja	Punjabi Khatri
5	Pawan Munjal	Punjabi Khatri
6	Vivek Chand Sehgal	Punjabi Khatri
7	Vikas Oberoi	Punjabi Khatri
8	Ramesh Kumar Dua	Punjabi Khatri
9	Falguni Nayar	Punjabi Khatri
10	Anand Mahindra	Punjabi Khatri
11	Jay Chaudhary	Punjabi Khatri
12	Vinod Khosla	Punjabi Khatri
13	Aneel Bhusri	Punjabi Khatri
14	John Kapoor	Punjabi Khatri
15	Neerja Sethi	Punjabi Khatri
16	Nikesh Arora	Punjabi Khatri
17	Bill Malhotra	Punjabi Khatri
18	Simon Bobby Arora	Punjabi Khatri
19	Jasminder Singh Bal	Punjabi Khatri
20	Surinder Arora	Punjabi Khatri
21	Rishi Sunak	Punjabi Khatri
22	Harindarpal Banga	Punjabi Khatri
23	Ryuko Hira (Kamlesh Punjabi)	Punjabi Khatri
24	Bajaj family	Punjabi Khatri
25	Sunil Bharti Mittal	Punjabi Khatri
26	SPS Oberoi	Punjabi Khatri
27	Raghuvindar Kataria	Punjabi Khatri
28	Vidya Chhabria	Punjabi Khatri
29	Hinduja brothers	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
30	Kapil Bhatia	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
31	Chandru Raheja	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
32	Rajan Raheja	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
33	Inder Jaisinghani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
34	Micky Jagtiani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
35	Surinder Vaswani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
36	Sanjeev Bhikchandani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
37	Raj Kumar RK Hiranandani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
38	Ashok Kumar Hiranandani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
39	Jitendra Virwani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
40	Ramesh Wadhwani	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
41	Sundar Genomal	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
42	Uday Kotak	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
43	Harsh Vasanji Mariwala	Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)
44	MP Lodha	Rajput
45	Chauhan family	Rajput
46	Singh family	Rajput
47	Kushal Pal Singh	Jat
48	Karsanbhai Patel	Patel
49	Pankaj Patel	Patel

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Billionaire comparison among caste:

Ethnic group	#Billionaires
Punjabi Khatri	28
Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)	18
South Indian non-Brahmins	15
Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)	14
Lohana(Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)	13
South Indian Brahmins	11
Baniya	8
Parsi	6
Muslim	5
North Indian Brahmins	4
Rajput	3
Patel	2
Teli	2
Jat	1
Rai Sikh	1

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Billionaire comparison per-capita:

Population of various groups is estimated to be following:

Brahmins are 5.6 crore, out of which 1 crore are South Indian Brahmins and rest are North Indian Brahmins.

3.8% population of Gujarat belongs to Vaishya caste (around 2.5 million people).

Maheshwari are also around 5% of Rajasthan population (3.5 million people).

Khatri caste migrated from Pakistan in around 8 lakhs in number and estimated to be 28 lakhs today based on population growth of 3.5x in Punjab, Haryana, etc.

Sindhi Lohanas were estimated to be 28 lakhs, out of which 10 lakhs are Memon. Which leaves us 18 lakhs Hindu Sindhis. Add 6 lakh Gujarati and Kutchi Lohana, we get 24 lakh Lohana. 

Teli caste is estimated to be 22 million in number, 2.2 crore.

Agarwal community is estimated to be around 1.4 crore. Out of which, 7 lakhs are classified as Maheshwari.

Gupta surname has 28 lakh name bearers in India.

Jain are around 44 lakhs, out of which 28 lakhs are Gujarati or Maheshwari.

Baniya (as per definition above) comes out to be 1.8 crore.

South India has 28 crore population (20% of India) out of which upper caste are around 8.4 crore. And non-Brahmin upper caste are 7.4 crore.

14% of India's population is Muslim which is around 19.6 crore.

85 lakh Patels are there. 2.2 crore Jats and 60% of Punjabis are Sikhs (2 crore) out which 10% are Rai Sikhs (20 lakhs).

India has roughly 4 crore Rajputs.

And just 57,000 Parsis.


Source of population data:

1. Sindhi population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindhis_in_India

2. Memon population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memon_people

3. Brahmin population: https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/brahmins-in-india/234783

4. Agarwal population: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490109/

5. Jain population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism_in_India

6. Gupta population: https://forebears.io/surnames/gupta2.8%20million

7. Gujarati Vaishya population: https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/groupdetails.aspx?peid=48027

8. Maheshwari population: https://www.peoplegroups.org/Explore/groupdetails.aspx?peid=49516

9. Khatri population: https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/17161/IN

10. Khatri population: https://casteanalysisindia.blogspot.com/2022/12/what-is-khatri-and-arora-population-of.html

11. Patel population: https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/groupdetails.aspx?peid=48344
12. Parsi population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis

Ethnic group	#Billionaires	Population (millions)	#Billionaires per million
Parsi	6	0.057	105.26
Punjabi Khatri	28	2.8	10
Lohana (Sindhi or Gujarati/Kutchi Lohana)	15	2.4	6.25
Vaishnav (Gujarati Vaishya)	14	2.5	5.83
Maheshwari (Marwari Vaishya)	18	3.5	5.14
South Indian Brahmins	11	10	1.1
Rai Sikh	1	2	0.5
Baniya	8	18	0.44
Patel	2	8.5	0.24
South Indian non-Brahmins	15	74	0.2
Teli	2	22	0.09
North Indian Brahmins	4	46	0.086
Rajput	3	40	0.075
Jat	1	22	0.045
Muslim	5	196	0.025

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Discussion:

India's most prominent business community:

Brahmin caste which was number one in historic India is now not number 2, but number 3. Both Vaishyas and Kshatriyas have replaced Brahmins from modern day hierarchy.

Overconfidence, laziness and hard work done by other communities all contribute to this.

Kshatriya caste is now leading India on billionaire count. However there is huge inequality among Kshatriya caste. On one hand, Rajputs have only 3 billionaires with 4 crore population, Khatris from Punjab have 28 with 28 lakh population.

Even among Vaishyas, inequality exists. Teli (also known as Bihari Baniya) has just 2 billionaires with 2.2 crore population. On other hand, Gujarati Vaishya caste has around 14 with 25 lakh people.

The inequality is primarily due to lack of development in Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These two states have 37 crore people, 15x more than states like Haryana, Punjab. And have majority of Teli or Rajput population.

Even in Rajasthan, most of it is undeveloped and desert area where there is significant Rajput population.

We expect Rajputs and Bihari Baniyas to close this gap as BIMARU states in India reach Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat on levels of development. 

Currently, it is well evident that Kshatriyas are the richest varn out of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya. And Punjabi Khatri is the richest caste of India in overall numbers and second on a per capita.

Special note that Parsis which are originally Persians or Iranian have higher per capita billionaire count than Khatris.

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Domination of refugees communities:

The refugees from Pakistan (Khatri and Sindhi) completely dominate the list here.

Along with Parsis like Ratan Tata, who are again, mid-East or Persian by caste.

That is bad news for India as communities with origin outside of India like Khatri, Sindhi (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) or Parsi (Persian or Iranian) are now so far ahead of native Indian castes.

At the time of independence, these people were forced to leave their homes and migrate to India. At the time, 8 lakh Khatris and 5 lakhs Sindhi Lohanas migrated to India. Which now make up 45 lakh people.

They were poorer than SCs and STs. But slowly with time, improved their position from last to first.

Historically, Khatris have been much richer than Baniyas since 17th century AD as can be seen in the artilce below:


https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/how-to-excel-amidst-disruption-indias-khatri-community-shows-the-way/articleshow/71358027.cms

But from 1947 to 2015, Baniya community, especially Marwari, possessed more wealth and power than Khatris. But now, again, Khatris have established highest position in India.

In old Forbes list (of 2000 and 2010), we do not see this where Marwaris are above Khatris on total number of billionaires.

But now (2022), Khatris have 10 more billionaires than Marwaris. And lead on total and per capita basis, both.

Out of 28 lakh Khatris, 5 lakhs actually live in Jammu and Kashmir. Yes, J&K has more Khatris than Punjab itself. And there is a huge wealth inequality between Kashmiri Khatris and Delhi Khatris. This section still has to replicate the success of Khatris living elsewhere.

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Baniyas in Delhi/Punjab/Haryana:

Per capita wise, Baniya community living in Delhi/Punjab/Haryana have been overtaken by South Indian Brahmins. This is something new as Baniyas have been traditionally a business community associated with trading skills.

Out of the 3 Vaishya communities (one living in 7.7 crore populated Gujarat, one living in 6.8 crore populated Rajasthan and one living in 6.7 crore populated Punjab/Haryana/Delhi),

only Gujarati and Rajasthani Vaishya community is now successful.

Delhi/Punjab/Haryana one is now below 0.5 billionaires per million mark. A number 20x below Khatris. And are at par with Sikhs and Patels.

This is then reflected in per capita income stats in Delhi, where Khatris now lead Baniyas and are rather increasing their lead and Sikhs are almost as rich as Baniyas:

https://www.india-seminar.com/2004/534/534%20sanjay%20kumar.htm

The same has led to a divide in Vaishya community where Marwari and Gujarati Vaishyas now consider themselves to be superior to Baniyas. And many a times, do not intermarry with them.

Rather, Maheshwari have now started calling themselves as Rajputs and KK Birla even said this in his book that they should not be treated as Baniya.

This is evident in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maheshwari
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=pDlj7rwlDK0C&pg=PT40&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Personally, I have seen many a times that Maheshwari now do not intermarry with Baniyas. But freely intermarry with Kshatriyas like Khatri. And declare their caste as Rajput on matrimonial bio-data. A bad news for entire Baniya community.

The biggest disappointment in our list is Mahajans and Agarwals in Madhya Pradesh.

As per government reports, Mahajans have 2x more population than Khatris in Punjab, JnK. 

This is evident in following news articles:
https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/mahajan-khatri-sikhs-deprived-of-sale-purchase-of-agriculture-land-in-some-areas/

But unlike Khatri which have 28 billionaires, Mahajan have 0 billionaires.

Baniyas living in Madhya Pradesh have same population or rather 30% higher as Vaishyas from Gujarat, Rajasthan or Delhi/Punjab/Haryana. But are yet to have their first billionaire.

This large section of Vaishya Baniya society (Mahajans and Madhya Pradesh Agarwals) are yet to have their first billionaire.

As a Baniya living in Delhi, I feel there is a great need to uplift the Baniya community to be at-least at par with our Gujarati and Rajasthani counterparts. If not with Khatri.

Many of us are arrogant about success of our Rajasthani Baniya community with the likes of Birla, Jhunjhunwala, Lohia, Damani and Bangurs. That we tend to forget about how badly have we failed.

When will we see Gupta, Mahajans or Agarwal having respectable number of billionaires. When will Agarwal in Madhya Pradesh replicate the success of Rajasthani Vaishyas.

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Domination of Keralties:

People from Kerala are increasing their dominance in business in India. Out of 26 South Indian billionaires, Kerala contributes at-least 10. Making communities from Kerala, on par with Gujaratis and Marwaris per capita.

With high level of development and education in Kerala, the list or dominance is likely to grow.

Just like, Khatri and Sindhi, this increasing Kerala billionaires is something that is new. And was not seen 10 years back.