The last Nizam of Hyderabad

Who is India’s all time richest man? It is not the Ambanis, Tatas or Birlas. Stumped?  It is Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. While the Nizam died in 1967 at the age of 80, the new inflation adjusted list of all-time world’s richest people, ranks him as the sixth.

14th century African King, Mansa Musa I of Mali with an inflation adjusted fortune of $400 billion was named the richest person in all History. The current richest man, Carlos Slim has a fortune of $68 billion but in this list, he ranks 22nd! This list was compiled by the Celebrity Net Worth website ranking the world’s 24 richest people of all time, spanning 1000 years. Looks like, there were no rich women in History as there are no women on the list. Only three of the 24 in the list are alive today and fourteen out of twenty-four people are Americans.

Interestingly, Osman Ali Khan, India’s last Nizam had ruled a state of 18 million people, was chief of a 22,000 army, had a baffling fortune King Kothi palace, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls.  The Time news weekly on Feb 22, 1937 published that the total value Nizam's wealth that at the peak of his "earning" period in 1936, to be $2 billion. $5,000  was his approximate daily income in 1936, his jewels had an estimated value of $150,000,000, and he had reputedly $250,000,000 in gold bars and his capital totalled some $1,400,000,000. Most important fact  - he did not have to pay any tax on his vast income.

He had his own mint, printed his own currency - the Hyderabadi rupee. He had a rare Jacob diamond, valued at some £60m today, and used by the Nizam as a paperweight. He had hundreds of race horses and dozens of Rolls Royce. And yes, the Nizam had  34 children, of which two sons and three daughters are still alive while there are a total of 104 grandchildren.