<P> In 1975 India's GDP (in 1990 US dollars) was $545 billion, $1,561 billion in the USSR, $1,266 billion in Japan, and $3,517 billion in the US . </P> <P> Before independence a large share of tax revenue was generated by the land tax . Thereafter land taxes steadily declined as a share of revenues . </P> <P> The economic problems inherited at independence were exacerbated by the costs associated with the partition, which had resulted in about 2 to 4 million refugees fleeing past each other across the new borders between India and Pakistan . Refugee settlement was a considerable economic strain . Partition divided India into complementary economic zones . Under the British, jute and cotton were grown in the eastern part of Bengal (East Pakistan, after 1971, Bangladesh), but processing took place mostly in the western part of Bengal, which became the Indian state of West Bengal . As a result, after independence India had to convert land previously used for food production to cultivate cotton and jute . </P> <P> Growth continued in the 1950s, the rate of growth wasa less positive than India's politicians expected . </P>

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