Do Indians hate rich people? Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath answers

Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath’s recent comments at TechSparks 2024 in Bengaluru prompted a discussion. He shared his opinion on “Why do Indians hate rich people?” During the discussion, Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory spoke on the contrasting perceptions of wealth in the United States and India.
She noted that in the US, successful individuals who amass wealth and have luxury purchases like cars and jets are celebrated rather than criticised. In contrast to this, she pointed out that, in India, when someone makes money, people are very judgemental, and their first reaction often is, “There must be something wrong.”
Putting out his opinion, Kamath replied, “(The) US is a pure bread, capitalistic society while we are socialist, pretending to be capitalistic society. At the heart of it, we are all socialists.”
He further expressed his doubts about changing attitudes in India in future. “I don’t see it changing. Because as long as there’s going to be as much inequality in terms of wealth, I don’t see anything changing around this.”
The video shared by Kamath on his social media has attracted contrasting views. Though some appreciated Kamath’s transparency, some criticized the wealth gained through favouritism and corruption. Some others added that they don’t dislike rich individuals like Ratan Tata.
One user said, “Socialist aur capitalist tel lene gya income inequality aasam pe hai and every person know how difficult it is to earn good money in India. That’s a simple answer.”
Another user said, “It’s not we hate rich…we don’t hate Ratan Tata. The methods employed to reach there is not hustle but favouritism and corruption of govt. Idea oriented richness is never criticised but lobbying oriented richness is criticized and idea based rich is less in India”
One more user wrote, “India has disproportionately more billionaires Vs Wealth created. Check any data. Points to excess greed and unwillingness to share wealth. This is not the case in US.”
Another added, “That’s the reason why Top 1% of Indian population hold 40% weatlth. Reality is no one can become multimillionaire in ethical way in this country.”
A user appreciated Kamath’s answer and said, “The trasperancy and the ease with which it is delivered.”
Another argued, “Making wealth is not the problem, but showing it off and behaving like an entitled person where not following rules like others is the problem. Such things don’t happen in the US or other developed countries.”