• Dr. Anand B

ABSTRACT Today India is a leading economy in services sector and is reckoned as the “back office of the world”. India is also poised to become the manufacturing hub of the world economy. The leading corporate consultant Deloitte has visualised India as being poised to become the second largest manufacturing economy of the world. The Indian manufacturing sector is expected to create 90 million domestic jobs and would grow six fold by 2025. This is possible because of two propelling forces. The first propelling reason is the tremendously rising consumption and industrial demand in India. And the second reason is the desire of the multinationals to diversify and include low-cost plants in countries other than China. This undoubtedly is the pleasant part of the story. The other side of the story is equally a sad story. Despite the tremendous economic growth, the economy is still marred by the wide-spread poverty and a big number of people are still compelled to live a treacherous life. It is estimated that as at present in India there are almost 220.1 million people (about 25% of the population) living below the poverty line. This constitutes a whopping proportion of poor population living below the poverty line. This reveals the gravity and seriousness of the persisting problem of poverty in India. The dichotomy of the situation is that on one hand, India is poised to become the leading economy of the world and is all set to be reckoned as the “back office of the world”, and at the same time, it cuts a very sorry picture by being marred by a whopping proportion of population (over 25%) living below the poverty line. It is in this background the present paper has made an attempt to trace the historical roots of poverty in India. The paper presents a glimpse of journey through the processes and phases that have gone on continuously for thousands of years in the Indian history. A journey into Indian history has revealed that India was not marred by the mass poverty in ancient times. It was even not there during the Sultanat period and Mughal Period. The study reveals that it was the destruction of Indian industry, shift of trade from Indians to British traders, deindustrialization, ruralisation and pauperization of the Indian economy during the colonial rule which led to the onset of mass poverty in India. Displacement of people from trade and industry to agriculture and drain of wealth augmented the pace of pauperisation and finally pushed the Indian economy in the clutches of poverty.

KEYWORDS: Poverty, Ancient India, Mogul, Sultan Period Colonial India

"IDENTIFYING THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF POVERTY IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 1, page no.g403-g413, January-2023, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2301650.pdf

"IDENTIFYING THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF POVERTY IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 1, page no. ppg403-g413, January-2023, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2301650.pdf