The vast majority of the Indian population is in what we would consider desperate poverty. There is also a pretty significant Indian population in the highlands at a considerable altitude. There are many hills and mountains. There is a very strong tradition of walking and asceticism, good bases for distance running. And it was a British colony and so you would think that the Brits had introduced distance running (of course, who wants to run distance where there are tigers around?). But alas, there is no athletic tradition in India at all with the exception of cricket and field hockey, I believe.

"According to this revised methodology, the world had 872.3 million people below the new poverty line, of which 179.6 million people lived in India. In other words, India with 17.5% of total world's population, had 20.6% share of world's poorest in 2011."