From 1973 to 1984, every year I had the assignment of spraying prophylactic chemicals on rubber plantations, by chopper, during April and May, all through the God’s Own Land. The lush greenery, aromatic air, serenity of the plantations coupled with backwater fish meals are incomparable.

In admiration of your, a piece from the master of perfectionism.

soorkhan.

Brig Surinder Singh

Before I seek to explain this paradox, a few lines about me.

I was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, and lived there for the first 11 odd years of my life. Then I moved to Ahmedabad with my parents and sisters, and later after graduation at the Gujarat University, joined the Corps of EME, Indian Army. I took premature retirement in 1996, and then for the next 15 years worked with 3 private software companies — the last of them based in Trivandrum. After a along gap, I came back to Trivandrum in 2005, and am now permanently settled in this city. Yes, I would rather stay in Kerala than anywhere else!!

Let me begin with two facts that got left out in the earlier two essays about Kerala.

a) In 1963, Kerala was the 3rd poorest state in India — with visible poverty, and streets replete with destitute beggars. (Refer to an Interview with Amartya Sen at https://qz.com/557199/amartya-sen-india-cant-become-a-global-economic-power-with-an-uneducated-unhealthy-workforce/)

b) By 2011, Kerala has already caught up with the richest states in India in terms of Per Capita Income/GDP, as per the UNDP Publication of 2011 titled, “Inequality adjusted Human Development Index for India’s States”. (Refer to table at page 18 of the pdf file that can be downloaded from the link http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/inequality_adjusted_human_development_index_for_indias_state1.pdf).

The above is not a mere statistic. Today, even casual visitors to Kerala as struck by the near absence of abject poverty and street beggars. Many of them assume that this is due to the natural bounty that the state enjoys by way of plentiful rains and consequent greenery.

The above assumption is obviously naive. With the same resources, poverty was rampant in Kerala till the 1960s. It is true that even then, the southern regions of modern Kerala, though with widespread poverty, enjoyed higher standards of literacy and health standards than the rest of India, including the very backward northern region (Malabar, that was integrated within Kerala only in 1956, having been directly under the British rule before independence). Indeed, the catch up of Malabar with South Kerala — both in terms of social and economic indicators — is among the more amazing achievements of the “Kerala Model”!

Thus, some kind of explanation is required to understand how Kerala has managed to successfully tackle the problem of poverty, even as it started off as one of the poorest states in India. And we need an explanation as to how today, Kerala is among the richest states in the country.

Amartya Sen’s view (as indicated in the interview that I linked earlier) is as under:-

//
Q: India has a lot of lessons to give the rest of the world and vice versa, but you write about how India can learn from itself—could you tell us more about that?

Sen: Look at Kerala’s policy for universal education and universal healthcare. The Communist Party first come into office in 1957; they declared their policy in 1960. (In) 1963, I’m in Delhi teaching at the Delhi School of Economics (DSE) and people ask me, “Do you think it’s feasible?” I said “absolutely feasible.” Primarily for one economic reason, namely that you need far less money than you would need in, say, Britain to provide that level of healthcare and education.

This argument is not very sophisticated, but, on the other hand, it could make a dramatic difference between life and death. Many of my colleagues at DSE said that I’m just leading people up the garden path, as an economist I should criticise, because Kerala was the third poorest state in India then. How could they afford it? And my claim was the economic argument. Also, there being externalities and the “public good feature” as economists call it.

I was certain that on top of that, for reasons which we began with, that the policies would also stimulate economic growth and development. In the latest round of national sample survey, if you put the urban and rural together, Kerala has now the highest per capita income in the whole of India. I would have thought some people who thought I was leading people up the garden path would say that they were mistaken. Have I got such statements? I’m afraid I have not!

Am I happy that my expectations have been fulfilled? Yes, very happy indeed. Not for myself, that’s a trivial thing. But the fact that a people-friendly education and health policy could make a difference, not only to their lives—which happened immediately, life expectancy shot up in Kerala straight away—but also ultimately on economic growth.
//

There is another reason that is often given to “explain away” the exponential rise of Per Capita GDP and Per Capita Income (so drastically contrary to the predictions of doom by many). This is, “remittances from abroad” — as if that is some kind of foul play!

There is an art festival just now in Kochi… the Biennale. The first hosting was two years ago and was well received, so it was decided to continue. The present one posts a lot on FB, but I have not paused to read. All modern art and has brought in lots of artists and tourists, so they have decided to continue with it.
Venice has an art biennale .

Kerala is different …agriculture was prominent ,and clusters of houses into a village is not seen as in T Nad.
Houses were farm houses with land around each house. As such each household disposed of its waste in their own grounds.
Composting of land produce , using cow dung ,and ash from the kitchen for fertilising plants around the house…..so organic farming.
Also each house had its own outdoor latrine.
My childhood memory of going to Kerala by overnight train from Chennai is to wake up seeing the lush greenery and beautiful wild flowers along the railway line and knowing instantly that we are in Kerala.

Education and literacy was and is high.

Kerala also benefitted from interracial and interculture mix due to trade across the Arabian Sea and into the East Coast of Africa.

According to Michael Wood,a historian and BBC presenter, the people along the west coast of India are a blend of people , Phoenicians, Africans , Arabs etc. There was also an immigration of Persians into Kerala.

My own conclusion is that Persians who were Cians came to Kerala and Parsees settled in Mumbai.

A Malayalee settled in USA wrote a book saying that Armenians came to Kerala, cos he had a lot of Armenian neighbours ,whose names mostly ended in ..ian ..e.g. Tharian, Cherian, Kurian etc. Modern Armenians have names ending in ian and they are instantly recognised as Armenians.

Then of course Kerala had Jews……And trade with China.

Kanji …is it Chinese or Indian ? Guillain is said to be the Kanji /Congee capital of China. The city has a banner proclaiming this.

The synagogue in Kochi has floor tiles from China, chandeliers from Belgium, and wood used within the synagogue is olive wood from Israel.

Kochi is an ancient sea port and so had several influences .

The king of Kochi let all these people settle so that trade of spices can continue.

BTW…..
.the story is that British stole tea plants from China and took the plants to the hill stations in Malaya, Ceylon ,India and Kenya.
Also stole rubber seeds from (the Portuguese) in Brazil….and brought them to London and onto India and Malaya.
Ships had become faster, and also botanists learnt how to transport plants within large bottles to maintain humidity.
Eventually the rubber from India and Malaya and manufacture of rubber products here killed off the rubber trade from Brazil,as it had to travel a long distance downstream on the Amazon before it could reach the Atlantic..

Dad used to say that the British were very surprised to see Keralans all very neat and tidy in white garments.
One of my friends ,when I worked in Kerala would say that her cook at the end of his day’s work would always bathe and change into white clothes before he left and no one outside the house would ever know that he was a cook .

Mom used to make a ” white lime pickle ” … . somehow this was a Christian recipe! I used to wonder about this until I saw a BBC programme of world food. The Middle East food, and N African food add salted limes to their food. I guess the ones who came to Kerala added green chillies too ( Not red dry chillies as in traditional recipes )

The climate, geography, agriculture plus education and cleanliness marked out Keralans plus of course a very enterprising spirit.

regards,
J T

Enjoyed various Videos put together on Kerala. Can be a great help to anyone planning a holiday there.

I don’t have Thomas’s ID . Pl convey my regards and appreciation to him.
Love
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