Why Brahmins lead Western firms but rarely Indian ones
The irony of this article is sorely missed by the Economist and most Western commentators in this thread.<p>On one hand the Economist spreads tropes like &quot;Brahmins have a tendency for bookishness&quot;. Replace Brahmin with Jew and it becomes anti-semitic but saying it for Brahmins is ok?<p>Should&#x27;nt the fact that the Brahmins who are poorer on average than the other two castes who &quot;follow&quot; them in the hierarchy disprove the notion of hierarchical caste system?  If they really did dominate the hierarchy, could they not marshal capital given their abundant intellectual resources to dominate commerce in India? This reminds of the various Jewish world control conspiracies which are simply falsified by pointing to the horrific suffering that the Jews have suffered at the hands of said conspiracy theorists for over two thousand years. Similarly, the fact Brahmins that they do not dominate commerce or wealth generation prove that the so-called hierarchy does not exist?<p>Commerce in India, as the Economist points out but then glosses over, is dominated by guilds just like it did in most of the world including Europe, China and Japan. It is pretty easy to get into the Diamond business if you are from one of the <i>few</i> families who were traditionally in the Diamond business from the State of Gujarat or Rajasthan. Even better if you were from the village of Palanpur [1]. Why? It is easy to apprentice in the industry, get access to capital, know-how etc. etc. Ditto if you want to get into one of the traditional industries that have a long history of being dominated by guilds. This even holds true in the US today - it is easier to start a Motel if you are a Patel because you can find someone in the extended family who is in the business, whom you can tap into for advice, funding or partnership. Same for starting a Donut join in SoCal if you are SE Asian, Retail if you are Syrian Jewish, etc.<p>Brahmins have long been dominant in education because their traditional profession requires learning complex concepts and memorizing tens of thousands of pages. This was similar to how Ashkenazi Jews but not Sephardic Jews came to dominate the sciences and the Nobels [2]. I suspect that the selection pressures experienced by Brahmins are similar to those experienced by Ashkenazi Jews.<p>Not a Brahmin, FWIW and neither is Parag Agrawal who is the CEO of Twitter. Another fact that should dissuade people from the notion of Caste-dominated industries is that 3-4 of the top-20 industrial families in India, (Tata, Wadia, Godrej, Shapoorji Pallonji, etc.), are Zoroastrians who came to India from Persia 1500 years ago fleeing Islam and are still practicing Zoroastrians.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rediff.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;special&#x2F;how-palanpurs-diamond-merchants-conquered-the-world&#x2F;20200207.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rediff.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;special&#x2F;how-palanpurs-diamon...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.mit.edu&#x2F;fustflum&#x2F;documents&#x2F;papers&#x2F;AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocsci.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.mit.edu&#x2F;fustflum&#x2F;documents&#x2F;papers&#x2F;AshkenaziIQ.jb...</a>