 The latest world inequality report is out from inequality labs and it paints a very grim picture of India. India is one of the most unequal countries in the world. This should not be news to any of us because whatever our age might be, we've seen the extreme riches and extreme poverty in India, but the numbers are still very staggering because if you look at it, the top 10% of Indians, the top 10% he owned 5 times what the bottom 50% own. And if we take the total wealth of the bottom 50% and compare it to what the top 1% own, then the top 1% own 1.7 times what the bottom 50% own. That's the kind of disparity that we have in India. And if I look at what an affluent person in the top 1% owns compared to an average person in the bottom 10%, it's almost 1000 times. It is almost 1000 times the annual earning compared to those who are at the bottom 10% of the economy. If I take the bottom 10% and compare the wealth with the top 1%, we can't because the bottom 1% actually have negative net worth because they are in debt. So let's take the average of the top bottom 20% and compare that to the top 1%. The wealth owned by the top 1% is almost 1500 times. It's more than 1400 times the wealth owned by the bottom 20%. That's the kind of disparity that we see in India and I'm talking about average wealth here. Okay, as I said that this is not new. We all know about the gap between the rich and the poor, but there's something interesting here. From 1951 to 1981, which we can call the period of Nehruvian socialism or Indira Gandhi's left turn in the 70s, the gap between the rich and poor actually narrowed. What happened was that if I take real income in today's prices, real income means inflation has been taken out of it so we are comparing apples to apples. In 1951, someone in the top 1% on an average earned about 3.6 lakh rupees per year. This is in today's prices, not in 1951 prices. Someone who was in the bottom half of the India's economy, they earned approximately about 11,000 rupees, slightly more than 11,000 rupees, about 11,500 odd. By 1981, and we know that there was planning state control of the economy, what has been called Nehruvian socialism, state capitalism and in the 1970s an even bigger left turn by Indira Gandhi at that time. The bottom 50%, their income, real income actually almost doubled. It went to almost 22,000 rupees, in fact slightly more than 22,000 rupees. The top 1% their income actually dropped, their real income dropped to about 3.5 lakh rupees, slightly more than 3.5 lakh rupees. So obviously the gap therefore was narrowing. Wealth of course still would not have, because wealth is something that you acquire over generations but still that gap was narrowing. And then in the 1980s when Indira Gandhi came back to power after being defeated in the emergency, she opened up the economy gradually with her finance minister at that time Pranab Mukherjee and there was a general trend thrust towards privatization, supporting middle class consumption, opening up the economy, reforms. So that's the beginning, not really 1991 as various economists have shown us and that process got strengthened, accelerated under Rajiv Gandhi. And if we take the 1981 to 2021 period, you see that the economic growth actually improved significantly. But what happened to the bottom 50%? Now we are going to compare the growth rates of income. As I said between 1951 to 1981, the average income of the bottom 50% almost doubled. It is a long period of 30 years. So they grew at about 2.2% per year. Their real income grew at about 2.2% per year. For the top 1% their real income dropped marginally, very slightly. So it was broadly flat, 0% growth, so no real growth. What happened from 81 to 2021? Real income growth of the bottom 50% remained exactly where it was, 2.2%. But the real income growth of the top 1% was 6.5% every year. For 40 years it has averaged 6.5% for the 1% at the bottom. And this is real income. This is after we've taken inflation out. If you add inflation, it is double digit growth for the top 1% for 40 consecutive years. And that is what happened. And that is why if you see it, what has happened because of that? In 1951 the richest 1%. I'm just going to look into my computer where the numbers are. I'm going to put them on your screen so that you can follow it up as well. The richest 1% owned 1 eighth of the nation's wealth. By 2021 it has gone to 1 fifth. From 12% now they own 22% of the nation's wealth. For the bottom 50%, what has happened? The bottom 50%, they have actually lost out sharply. Because the 50% have literally lost their control. They again had broadly about 1 fifth of the wealth. Till about 1981, in 1951 the share of wealth of the bottom 50% was approximately 21%. It continued to about that in even 1981. And now it has dropped to just 13%. So you're seeing a significant drop. From 1 fifth it has dropped to approximately about 1 eighth. That is the change we're seeing. So the bottom 50% their control over wealth and productive assets has dropped sharply. And the top 1% their control over productive assets has gained significantly. So what does that mean? That is this 1% and if you extend it to 10% then 2 thirds of the wealth is owned by the top 10%. But this 1% can actually control everything. Not just productive assets like factories, offices, mines, ports, airports, power plants. Not just them. But they can also control institutions. They with their money can control the media. They can manufacture consent. They can by funding political parties decide what politics is going to exist in the country. They can decide policies. So we've seen what happens when democracy is controlled by our nation state is controlled by that 1%. It kills democracy because the 1% moves everything towards them. They control media. They control the dominant ideologies, dominant ideas and the poor have no voice. And that is why we see that every media house, every public intellectual, every commentator says that these policies which have made the rich even richer, exponentially richer, increased inequality, these are the policies that are good. Reforms are good. Anything that helps the poor is bad and that is what is all around it. That is the core of the weakening of India's democracy. That is what has happened. And unless we realize this, unless we learn that we need to share more with the rest of India, our democracy cannot survive. That's the show today. Keep watching NewsClick. Like us. Subscribe to us.