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I don't really see clan/familial ties playing that big of a role here.
As I must stress, India is not Africa. You aren't expected to share all your wealth with your extended family even if it's considered laudable to at least contribute to those who are struggling.
My immediate family is significantly wealthier than at least my dad's side, and while he has made sizeable contributions (dowries, which if nominally illegal are often extracted through gifts or wedding fees, college tuition, bankrolling their businesses), at no point has he been expected to meaningfully devalue our quality of life or jeopardize his own business.*
The typical Indian with cash to spare hands out maybe 5-10% to their relations, not "$950 or worse $1050 of that $1,000". That would be considered laughable, at most people, or at least your family, would disapprove if the rich uncle didn't consider helping his impoverished nephew and niece through school, and maybe college (the fees are nowhere near as bad as in the US).
Is this a minor drag on accumulation of capital? Sure. Is it so bad that it motivates our best and brightest to flee so that they aren't milked dry? Hell no.
*And I don't resent it. It's his money, and if it wasn't for the assistance of his horde of siblings and cousins, who often faced financial privation so that they could scrounge up enough money to put a promising student through med school (a full-ride scholarship is still expensive when you have about zero money since your farm was stolen and your village genocided), to the extent some of them compromised their own higher education, then he would never have become a doctor. It's the least he could do that, when their bet on him paid off, he goes to the trouble of making sure their kids can enter whatever college or field they like.
Overall, Indians have an attitude towards entrepreneurship and redistribution of wealth that would be unremarkable in comparison to China, if not the West.
Valuable context, thanks. The attitude you describe wouldn’t be unknown in the west even if it isn’t exactly mainstream, at least once you adjust a few cultural details(eg there’s no dowries here).
You're welcome! Some people here are prone to make less than well informed proclamations about the proclivities of a nation of 1.3 billion people, including some particular ones that are hilarious to someone who knows better.
One of the reasons that Indians assimilate so easily in the West is because the fundamentals of our culture or general mindset isn't that different. It causes me severe pain when someone thinks the relevant comparison is something like Africa. Our dysfunctions are significantly different.
Of course, I don't ascribe malice, just ignorance, and that's a far more forgivable sin. I'm sure I've made sweeping claims that people better informed would disagree with.
What do you see as the main causes of India’s dysfunctions?
HBD, corruption, subversion of meritocracy and egalitarianism through affirmative action, religion, factionalism that encourages populist pandering.
Basically, the electorate is too dumb and uneducated to hold the government accountable, and while that's vaguely true everywhere, it's more true here.
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