Mapping Private Affluence in the Developing World: The Case of India’s Superrich

This chapter locates the issue of growing private affluence in the developing world, or more specifically the “rising nations,” within the framework of global affluence. The powerful agency of the superrich in this part of the world brings forth the key question: should the superrich bear some responsibility for poverty and inequality afflicting these countries and elsewhere? The chapter then builds on the specific case of the processes, patterns and implications of the emergence of the superrich in India. The rise of the superrich represents a distinct break in India’s modern material history from the dominance of non-material values to embracing private affluence. The chapter develops a comprehensive sketch of the political economy of the superrich in India, locating momentous changes in social, political and economic structures both before and after the implementation of neoliberal reforms. The chapter also explains the broader contours, characteristics and patterns of the emergent “Indian plutonomy” attributed largely to the decentralisation of global economic policies and the state’s increasingly pro-superrich posture. It traces the sources and patterns of distribution of the superrich wealth across various sectors marked by rent-seeking, entrepreneurship and inheritance. The chapter further presents a critique of “explanatory entrepreneurialism” as the dominant mode of explanation for the rise of plutocrats in India. The sharp patterns of increase in superrich wealth in rent-thick sectors and inheritance further problematise popular beliefs and assumptions. Towards the end, the chapter identifies the emerging facets of, and mutations in, the “superrich-politics interface” in India.