The billionaires of Rajasthan

The desert breeding ground of India’s billionaires

8 September 2007

‘This is backwoods, really backwoods,’ says Aditya, as the rackety, jam-packed bus pulls into Rajgarh, a small town in the north-west of Rajasthan, India’s desert state.

Sooni thinks the desert might have something to do with it: ‘We have a scarcity of water here. There’s an old saying that how we learnt to use water is how we learnt to use money.’ There might be some truth to that. The barren landscape forced these towns to live off the major trade route that passed through north Rajasthan; local traders became prosperous financiers, acting as bankers to the Great Mughal himself. When the British began asserting control over the region the Marwari were quick to ally with them against the region’s Rajput rulers. Soon Marwari traders were spread across India’s towns and cities, acting both as traders in their own right and as brokers to the British. By the late 19th century the largest Marwari firms, such as Tarachand Ghanshyam Das, founded by Bhagoti Ram Poddar, rivalled British companies in size.

Their riches have left Shekhawati the lavish havelis, or mansions, that cluster in even the smallest towns. Marwari who made their fortunes in Bombay and Calcutta competed to build the most opulent palaces back in their home villages, complete with garish murals depicting the India of the late 19th century. There are British redcoats, steam trains, even flying machines — everything that the newly sophisticated Marwari urbanites wanted simple country folk of the region to understand.