The World Inequality Database recently published a report that showed how extreme the wealth disparity has become in India, even going beyond what it was during British colonial rule.
The income disparity in India reached unprecedented heights between 2014 and 2023, according to a report titled “Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj.” The richest 1% of the population in the nation commanded the highest share of the country’s income, accounting for 40.1% of the total, marking the highest level in history.According to the report, while inequality in India decreased after independence until the early 1980s, it began to rise again in the middle of the 1980s and has been skyrocketing since the early 2000s.
“In terms of wealth concentration, the rise in top-end inequality has been especially noticeable between 2014–15 and 2022–2023.” The report went on to say that by 2022–2023, the wealth and income shares of the top 1% (40.1% and 22.6%, respectively) are at their highest points in history, and that India has one of the highest income shares in the world, higher than that of the US, South Africa, and Brazil.