Surinder S Jodhka writes:

At the time of independence, Indian agriculture was an example of everything that was wrong with the economy of an “underdeveloped” country. Even when nearly three-fourths of its working population worked on its vast farmlands, served by an extensive spread of rivers and a wide range of climatic conditions, India could not produce enough food for its population. The newly independent country had to import a considerable amount of foodgrains from the “developed” countries of the First World, with the United States being the chief supplier. While the food-surplus countries of the Western world eagerly agreed to sell, or even give away food as aid, their supplies came with “conditions,” unfavourable to a nation trying to restore its lost dignity after a long history of colonisation.