[vhanda]

> I wonder how did they get into poverty in the first place. A lot of areas that are now declared as poverty zones today may have been poor in the past, but were self-sufficient and self sustaining.

Well, when the British left in 1945, roughly 15% of the country was literate [0], now that is up to 77% [0]. From here [1], it seems that poverty was around 45% of the population (361 million). It also says the rate varied based on how the monsoon season went, which makes sense for a primarily agrarian society, especially one which had to import food to meet their needs till 1965 (roughly).

so, basically, the British didn't leave India in a good place. See [2]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India#/media/File:...

[1] - https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACR801.pdf

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943