How Kerala got rich
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One thing I found interesting was the pride in literacy and education. Kerala has a 96% literacy rate which is the highest in India [1].
It's one of my favorite places to visit. Unlike other parts of India such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderbad -- it's tropical and lush with much less pollution than what you might see in those other parts of India.
My parents have a home in a rural community which hasn't changed much in the past few decades compared to somewhere like Bengaluru. It's quiet and slow with a high important on family relationships. No doubt it's westernizing, albeit slower than other parts of India - but for now it still holds much of the charm I've known since I was a kid.
Somewhat ironically these are relatively low pollution as large cities in India go. There is still a good amount of greenery in Bengaluru (it is famous for it) but obviously far less than a few decades ago, as many residents lament.
For outsiders not in the know, Bangalore was famous for its beautiful lakes and the lush greenery around them. It was absolutely something else, finding these beautiful water bodies smack in the middle of what is supposed to be a major city. The weather was cool, almost like a warm European summer (which is extremely cool by Indian standards).
Then they got greedy, drained the lakes, built real estate and office properties on them and now Bangalore is an unbearable cesspit just like any other Indian city. Bad weather, bad traffic and a shit scenery.
I still have some photos of my visits to Bangalore in my childhood a couple of decades back, and the visual contrast between past and present is so stark. Of course, locals love to resent the regression of the city, but they also love their coin.
To be honest, my only relatively poor experience in Bombay in terms of scenery was in the Four Seasons hotel in Worli, when I could get a nice view of couples going at it on the rooftops of the chawl nearby, somehow appropriately from my bathroom window.
Delhi does have its own charms too. Assuming you're a strong enough male, it's worth exploring South Delhi on foot solo over autumns, winters and spring, just immersing in the city. Obviously face mask recommended and not recommended for ladies.
It became India's Silicon Valley. Acecnture. Infosys. Western IT money came pouring in and never stopped.
https://www.businessinsider.com/india-silicon-valley-bengalu...
[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/10672gn/til_before...
I also think that there's a strong overcurrent of people wanting to emulate US living standards in a city that's simply designed for a different way of living, more similar to other dense cities in East Asia or maybe even Europe. You need to have skyscrapers and not large low rise estates for example.
hope indian government turn around, because china back then has a smoke problem even in its capital too
its hard to fought stigma but its not impossible
> much less pollution
Comparatively? Perhaps. One look at the Vembanad Lake and you'll know what I'm talking about: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/high-levels-of-fa... It stinks these days.
> Kerala has a 96% literacy rate
Lieracy surveys aren't as rigorous; likely 5% to 20% drop from reported numbers: https://www.dataforindia.com/measuring-literacy/
> still holds much of the charm
As someone who visited Kerala multiple times a year, things have gotten worse both climate wise & pollution wise. Though, the monsoon gods still bless Kerala, it isn't as green as it used to be. I've found (under similar climatic conditions) the Sri Lankan lowlands (West coast) to be more greener. Ditto for rainforests of NE India & SE Asia.
This is very well studied in sociology and anthropology and has been for many decades. Kerala is a major case study in many fields because of this.
In addition, other states got very close to that literacy rate, but are probably managed quite differently to Kerala. Worth considering if people want to try to replicate Kerala's efforts without considering the wider context
> Education in Kerala has deep historical roots, dating back to the rule of local dynasties and the influence of colonial missionaries. The rulers of Travancore and Cochin played a crucial role in establishing schools and promoting learning, especially among marginalized communities. The British and Christian missionaries also made significant contributions by setting up institutions that emphasized modern education.
> In 1817, the Travancore government issued a royal decree stating that education should be provided to all, including women and lower castes. By the early 20th century, Kerala had already built a strong foundation for literacy, ensuring that access to education was widespread.
https://livekerala.com/blog/how-kerala-became-indias-most-li...
Also, since the mid 60s pop culture has embraced the slacker as being hip and cool.
They guy and gal trying to get ahead are portrayed as greedy or at best blindly joining a rat-race forgoing more noble pursuits. Not so for many other cultures.
I think the same it true for most of Latin america, where many of my friends and colleagues are from. And when I was in Nepal they thought that, if anything, western people are way too much focused on gathering wealth.
Islam specifically rejects hoarding wealth, so I think that pretty much takes out most of the middle east and northern africa.
So I'm curious which other cultures you are referring to. Perhaps specifically Indian and Chinese culture?
Islam specifically rejects hoarding wealth, so I think that pretty much takes out most of the middle east
Full disclosure, I worked in Dubai for 2 years(as a disenfranchised expat), working closely with guys from above mentioned countries. I install heavy machinery.
It's true some are treated poorly, but most are there genuinely there out of free will, because they make buckets of money to send back home. One Pakistani foreman I worked with had stashed away 250k Dirhams and was going back home to start his own business.
The gulf states can/could be an opportunity for the poor, see Bin Laden family for a famous example.
More than criticizing the gulf states for using these people as cheap labor, the criticism should be aimed at their corrupt governments not giving opportunities to their own population. Ironically they are not even allowed inside Europe and the US.
FWIW my experience in Dubai changed my views on the region to a much more nuanced one.
The Gulf countries became wealthy because of oil. They don't really hoard that wealth though. They are pretty famous around the world for investing that money, no? They fund universities (with many Gulf countries having their own outpost of NYU or other such prestigious colleges), arts and arts museums (there is a Louvre in the Middle East), tech startups, and of course invest in tourism to diversify their country.
They also have many horrible qualities, which are 100% not condoned in Islam like employing slaves in deadly conditions even though all nations agreed to abolish slavery years ago. Or confiscating the passports of foreign workers. Or their ethnostate mentality (similar to Israel where citizens must be of a specific blood lineage even though the majority of people living in their nation are not of that lineage). I could go on and on.
Anyways, Tl;Dr, I don't think they really hoard wealth. They do spend and invest in the world around them and find lots of charitable things (they have rebuilt Palestine a few times now, a very costly endeavor). Also, being Muslim doesn't mean they don't do anything morally wrong by that religion's standard. Same as the many charlatan "priests" of various religions in the world.
Like many religion it emphasises the importance of being good, and doing good, to enjoy the rewards of that in the after life (i.e. it teaches delayed gratification). But it also recognizes that advocating its adherent to forego all wordly attachment and live like a saint is also not practical for society. Thus, it also pragmatically says that a muslims doesn't have to wait for the afterlife to enjoy the rewards of good deeds - God has given humans the ability to enjoy certain pleasures in life, and achieve a higher sense of spiritual enlightenment, and that too depends on the good deeds you do in this life:
Whoever does good, whether male or female, and is a believer, We will surely bless them with a good life, and We will certainly reward them according to the best of their deeds. (Quran 16:97)
More here: https://islamqa.info/en/answers/12702/is-there-reward-for-go...
That is why no muslim needs to feel guilty about the wealth they have inherited or earned provided it is done through honest means, without hurting others, and they also follow the Islamic obligations of Zakat (charity). This charity is how socialism works in Islam. Islam says that the wealth of the world doesn't belong to anyone but God. And wealthy muslims (and rulers) are just custodians of his wealth. And God commands the wealthy to share their wealth with the poor, and prescribes how this should be done (annually 2.5% of your wealth should be given to the poor and needy). Even here, Islam is very practical - it recognizes how human nature is often suspicious of helping strangers, and thus says to look for people within your own family, your own friends, your own neighbourhood, your own muslim community etc. (i.e. your own social circles) to do this kind of charity.
More on this: https://thequranrecital.com/zakat-obligatory-charity-explain...
And this kind of wealth creation, with charity, is seen in the middle-east, amongst all these middle-eastern countries you mentioned.
Interestingly enough the same forces are at work in kerala, which is one of the most Christian states in India (and the ruling communists are associated with them)
Prior to the mid 60s seeking betterment and wealth was one of the main reasons people migrated to the US replacing religious persecution back home as the main reason to come.
Kerala did not become wealthy from socialism, it became literate and land reform lifted many out of poverty. The actual wealth started accumulating when Keralites took advantage of opportunities to work abroad and send remittances home. That has been a major economic driver for the state and India as a whole, but they did it long before others did, largely because land reform gave people a safety net to fall back on so they could risk going abroad to earn more
I would suggest God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican as for a pop-culture introduction of how the Catholic church aligned itself with fascist states including Mussolini's PNF, the Nazis and the Ustaše.
The Ustaše were particularly closely associated with the Catholic church.
India is so far removed from Europe that things work a bit differently.
The keralites were not communist the way European countries were
If you ask me about communism, I would say its effects were kind of bad - overseas remittence came in as gulf nations flourished but for others from 60s till end of 90's economic opportunities were bleak. It came in power around 1956 in Kerala and a lot of privileged christians migrated to US in the following decades - with the christian cultural background they have, they integrated really well in that society.
Secondly, Catholics are often setting up schools for everyone. India has always had a history of education, especially Kerala, but universal education of even the lower classes is extremely protestant. The church ended up adopting this around the time colonialism started and thus brought universal education to a widespread base in India.
Finally, the idea of touching everyone and treating them equally was against the general zeitgeist of the prevailing feudalistic highly hierarchical indian society. The first conversion attempts of the Portuguese for the south indian brahmins actually were incredibly successful (Nicholas of Tolentino). The Vatican even allows (and still allows as far as I'm aware, although no one does it) vedic rites for Catholics (malabar rites controversy).
However, no one wanted to give up untouchability. The Vatican eventually forced the missionaries to not have separate missions for touchables and untouchables, which basically ended Brahmanic conversions (and is one of the reasons indian Catholics no longer really care to do the vedic rites, since most are now from the lower class. As far as I know, some still do in Mangalore). Caste is still a problem in some christian communities in India but the bishops work to end it and it is officially condemned.
Which is to say, catholicism is associated with labor movement, equal social treatment, and universal education.
Which is also what the communists want.
It's no surprise that Kerala, being way more christian (and Catholic particularly) with a rich and prominent Christian history is thus the center of socialism.
Keep in mind also that communism in feudal countries has basically no relation to the communism you find on university campuses of america.
Now to the west. In the west, the church is seen as conservative, but the church is actually radically left wing in most parts of the world. It's only because leftism (in a global sense) is fundamentally a part of western culture that the church seems right wing because the church does not go as far as some leftist parties in the west.
1. Secondary and tertiary education is not all there is to education. A self-learned software engineer might lack a capital-E education, but has still spent significant time and effort on learning.
2. Education is one of many aspects of a successful life, at least as important is conscientiousness, diligence, intelligence and luck.
3. The US benefits from many virtuous cycles. In regards to the labor force it is able to attract a lot of the best talent in the world.
Given the current political climate in the US, it seems prudent to point out that point 3 isn't just true for business-men, doctors and other nerds, undocumented immigrants are some of the hardest-working people out there. They contribute almost 100b in taxes alone, and get almost no services in return.
More relevant would be K-12
At least in STEM, its all about the ability to get grants. A professor who consistently gets grants is worth their weight in gold in "indirect" costs. Foreigner or otherwise
And given for how many years the US has had sub-optimal results in international education comparison, while the overall economy has done well also doesn't fit.
Too many kids go to other universities and study similar things. It's fine to explore these ideas, but at the end of the day you've got to make someone happy or they won't pay you.
But yeah, if the economy can't use those people its just not effective.
Also, much of typical school history most people learn is incredibly shallow and the waste majority of people barley remember anything. Research show this pretty clearly. So teaching something wrong, is not gone matter much.
(Fun SNL video with similar confusion: https://youtu.be/8h_N80qKYOM)
Outside of the US there are very few countries where being highly educated (as in having an in-demand degree from a prestigious university) nets you anything beyond a small earnings bump over the middle class, and the people who have this are a small elite (no more than a few percent) everywhere.
I don’t see any startup tech or manufacturing in India falling over themselves to start in Kerala.
In my 20s, the contrast hit when I traveled across other parts of India.
Kerala has a mix of Western population that decided to stay back after the Indian Independence that brought with them Christianity, education, hospitals, and the Catholic culture. Kerala is also one of the few places in India where you can eat beef without inhibitions.
The writer hasn't emphasized this enough, but when oil struck the Middle East in the 1960s, the massive influx of blue and white-collar labor (who had the English language and engineering skills) that helped set up what's now Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, and many other countries was built by Malayalees. My father-in-law was one of the earlier engineers at Aramco in Saudi. The Middle Eastern money has flown back to Kerala thanks to high bank interest rates (nearly 10%) and landlocked real estate that helped raise the state's GDP.
Christianity in Kerala is much older than European Christianity. Literally the land of the Apostles
The British Christians were engaged in evangelism and, consequently, set up colleges, schools, hospitals, and other such institutions. They were also involved in conversions that led to the penetration of Christianity from a minor fraction (during the time from the early AD till 18th century) to double digits. This was obviously instrumental for English language inculcation.
Yes:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians
See the History section.
That's literally just a nice story that people claim with very, very, very little to back it up. But I guess they literally claim that.
In fact many European maps contained the belief that there was a Christian kingdom in Kerala. They even had saints from there whose stories made their way over and were recorded.
Thus Kerala is as holy to christians as Rome, Constantinople, Spain, Armenia, Ethiopia, etc.
This talking point is often used by Hindu nationalists who claim that India is not holy to christians and thus christians are foreigners. I'll point out that (1) Kerala is holy and (2) there is more evidence of st Thomas in Kerala than of Parasurama parting the seas to reveal Kerala.
... all
> The story of st Thomas is ancient and even before colonization
So? All Christian communities made up a bunch of nonsense about themselves, often linking themselves to the early church.
> the prevailing attitude in Europe was that st Thomas and st Bartholomew both proselytized India.
Yes and if you actually look up why that is the 'prevailing attitude' you will find that it is at best based on some 3rd century stories that Thomas might have been in Partia. But even those claims are completely baseless of anything before it.
> You'll find references to this in many books and manuscripts.
No you can't. There is one reference in Origen about Thomas maybe having gone to Parthia but that is just as much a story likely based on all the fake gospels people were writting at that time. We know well that by Origen time there were tons and tons of made up stories about all the (supposed) apostles, including about Thomas.
And then Eusebius later claimed he went to India (and India doesn't even mean necessarily mean India as we understand it). And Eusebius is basically the 'myth maker extraordinaire' of the early Christianity, and his claims is basically what almost everything later is based on. Basically anything the Christian believe about their history comes from this 4th century 'source'. So basically anything Eusebius claims is basically accepted by later church tradition as 'the truth'.
Its quite typical of early christian source to grow the story and add increasingly more and more stuff to them. You can see this even in the bible, compare Paul letters to Paul in Acts. Basically just a random wandering preacher, getting transformed into a magical superhero. Pretty typical of all early Christian figures. You start out with few people doing not so amazing things (likely as there is little evidence they existed at all), and 300 years later, every one of those people is basically the hero of their own expanding story. Characters that are not mentioned anywhere, get inserted into a later versions of the text, and then all of a sudden more text show up mentioning them, and couple 100 years later three is a whole textual tradition about all the things that person supposedly did. Basically its the Marval Cinematic Universe. Thomas is basically Hawkeye.
A much more likely story is that Eusebius book (or other gospels about Thomas) arrived in India and then expand on by the locals.
> In fact many European maps contained the belief that there was a Christian kingdom in Kerala.
There are tons of claims about all kinds of Christian kingdoms in the East threw-out the middle ages.
By the time firm knowledge of Kerla existed it was, much much later and is completely irrelevant to the question of Thomas.
I am not denying Christianity came to India pretty early on. That said, I think the claim that it arrived in the first century are not based on much, neither textual nor archeological evidence has ever been found to my knowledge.
> (2) there is more evidence of st Thomas in Kerala than of Parasurama parting the seas to reveal Kerala.
Sure but that's not how history works.
I am not sticking my finger into whatever Indian ideological drama I seem have stepped into.
Clearly I don't agree with whatever nationalist faction you are talking about. I am just point out what we actually know historically.
There are two factions vying to de-link India from early Christianity, the white nationalists and the hindutvas. You've stepped into this mess because in a thread where I pointed out Christianity in India is native to India and as old or older than Europe you butted in to point out that may be the story of the apostles is not true
We can have a debate on the veracity of early Christian claims, but this is really not the place for it. The Syriac church has existed in Kerala for as long as Christianity and they do things their own way
> Christian kingdoms in the East threw-out the middle ages.
Indeed. The difference of course is that, the Syriacs have existed the entire time and are not a story
The english language helped, sure, but it's the lack of opportunities in their own state and the higher education levels that created the conditions for the immigration to Middle East. Kerala also had a long history of trade with Arabs.
Yes, there is restriction on beef consumption in India but nobody protests for pork while in the middle east - it's all about which side the bread is buttered.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokku_kooli
For instance, the richest Keralite, Yussufali MA, made his fortune in the Middle East. His sons-in-law, both billionaires, as well as KP Basheer, Ravi Pillai, PMC Menon and Mohammed Ali of Gulfar made their fortune in the Middle East, all of whom are silent billionaires even most Indians barely know of. Vivek Ramaswamy's parents were from Kerala too, as is Thomas Kurian (head of GCP).
If you look at the West, Keralites are increasingly taking spots in the medical and healthcare sectors, especially nursing, and now even the education sector. There are Keralite teachers in the oilfields of Midland, Texas, because most people are otherwise not ready to work there. Some of my neighbours relatives from back home were even working in Afghanistan for the USG, making bank for working in a warzone. The only groups that are more or equally as prominent as Keralites worldwide might be the Gujaratis (the Patel motel guys and diamond merchants) and the Jews.
You can look at other sources to see how good kerala is doing wrt other states but I do agree the article over emphasised the good parts without any hint to it's bad parts
Kerala is one of the few states that managed medical supplies of Oxygen pretty well. In many other states many died because hospitals ran out of it.
Now, as for Kerala's handling of Covid, that was funded by state govt coffers. So Middle East money had a negligible contribution. What made a difference though is a history of preference for investing in social safety nets and basic infrastructure for people, such as schools, nutrition, hospitals.
It's the same story in east Asian countries where they had the SARS outbreak in early 2000s and so they were prepared for new outbreaks.
India has a lot of other issues, I grant you that the socialist ideology probably had a positive influence in some ways other than economics, particularly socially. But no offense, if you've ever walked the streets Trivandrum and other cities you know there are much more pressing issues.
Btw, for some historic context this part of India used to be extremely rich in the past by global standards, centuries ago. They became rich with international trade. Modern India is nowhere close to its wealthy past, the subcontinent as a whole produced the largest percentage of the world's GDP during Late Antiquity, surpassing China and all others!
A capitalist dictatorship will be every bit as horrible as a communist dictatorship.
Socialists love to add some negative word 'X' to capitalism to highlight that all bad things in the world are connected to capitalism, and if they could finally defeat capitalism, then the world would be perfect. Instead of actually trying to fix 'X' they will tell you that what we really need to change is 'capitalism'. Surveillance Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, Disaster Capitalism and so on.
Trying to fix corruption, to hard, lets just destroy property rights and money instead. Great idea!
Let me give you a tool for your mental toolkit. When you find yourself saying this:
> <some group> loves to
...it's a smell. What follows may be perfectly reasonable, but in my experience it's more commonly unexamined twaddle.
If you happen to be American, see where you get with these:
- many Americans fetishise America - J Edgar Hoover spent 20 years programming Americans to consider socialism to be "un-American"
In this case, I think a little reflection would reveal a J Edgar Hoover homonculus in your head, pulling your levers.
I'm all for emotional arguments. Ultimately, we all have core values, and I like to lead an argument by stating mine.
But hating socialism isn't a core value, it's _at best_ a reaction. Which is to say, if you're from, ooh, Bulgaria or Cuba, then I can indulge you. You may not be logical but you do have cause.
If you merely have a little J Edgar Hoover homonculus in your head, pulling your levers, then refrain from posting, because a J Edgar Hoover homonculus is not an interesting conversationalist.
Just like anything else that can't be back up with solid empirical research in a discussion forum. With is 99% of what we are dissing. (And most books written by intellectuals of both the socialist and capitalist variety).
Communism is originally a utopian social movement, and there is a strong tendency and a very well document intellectual history of communism that asserts that pretty much most problems at its root are an issue with capitalism and that they can only be solved in the absence of capitalism. So much so that it was pretty normal for communist to oppose working with social democrats on any reform of existing systems.
> Americans to consider socialism to be "un-American"
I'm not american and I couldn't care less if something is 'American' or not. And I have no idea what 'americanness' has to do with our discussion. So far as I can tell, nothing what so ever. And I don't hate 'socialism' either.
> But hating socialism isn't a core value, it's _at best_ a reaction. Which is to say, if you're from, ooh, Bulgaria or Cuba, then I can indulge you. You may not be logical but you do have cause.
So unless you are the victim of rape, being against rapist isn't a 'core value'? That's a outright crazy line of argument.
P.S: I really think you are waste overestimate the importance of Hoover.
They know exactly what it is, but they don't wanna say it out loud.
If it makes him feel good not to call that 'capitalism' then that's fine. I guess it wouldn't have played well with the base back then.
But in reality and operations, its is how capitalism has worked in practice.
That's not actually what happened, you should look up some history.
The USSR didn't throw away, communism, the member states just simply left.
And many of those states were then free of the communist party actually did quite well. Russia didn't, Ukraine didn't, but that's the reality when a country splits apart, some parts do well others don't.
> Any China scholar could tell you that China was already implementing market reforms before Deng
Part of it wasn't even voluntary on the party front, they simply accepted what was already happening instead of reversing it again.
> China is still a country operated on the basis of five-year plans.
hose plans are mostly projects of what they hope they can encourage private business to do and some public investment. Guess what many countries do, planning and public investment.
Lots of things they plan don't happen, lots of things that happen aren't planned. The planning is constantly adjust to what actually happens in the economy, including the global context.
> China is still a country where the state owns all land.
Legally maybe, but if you hand out control for 100 years the relevance of that isn't all that great. And that land can be freely traded between people. So in practical terms it works far more like private land ownership then anything the socialist thinkers of the late 19 and early 20th century.
> China is still a country where capital is not allowed to usurp the public interest.
That is just factually false, large companies in China regularly do things that hurt public interest. Unless you mean 'interest of the party leadership' and even then its only mostly true.
> In this, the reforms of Deng and the continued path of Xi are simply the highest synthesis of communism
Lol, they literally copied other East Asian economic models almost 1 to 1. They are just a log bigger and have more people. But I guess copying other successful clearly capitalist countries can be resold as 'highest synthesis of communism' to people who have irrational hate for capitalism.
And China economic growth or wealth isn't all that magically, its simply that China is much bigger then most others who have done it.
> They are the most faithful to Marxism, which has never preached any kind of static dogma, especially as it relates to economic policy.
I love Marxism, since he didn't actually define any outcome beyond maybe 'stateless and moneyless' you can just make up whatever the fuck you want as long as you are claiming to 'get there'. And China doesn't seem to go into a stateless moneyless direction.
Marx's "Historical materialism" is wrong for Western Europe and laudably false for China.
His critic of capitalism seems to be mostly ignored in China. As is his theory of class struggle as in China there is an ever growing Bourgeoisie.
But I guess copying what Taiwan and friends did and calling it 'Marxism' is one way to go.
Ambition doesn't imply exploitation. I think you mean "predatory".
What's the basis for this claim? What is a "mismanaged government" but one that is controlled by narrow private interests? Or is this coming from a "all tax is exploitation" angle?
I never really got why the west is so proud of not establishing basic rights of access to food, shelter, healthcare, and education. I don't quite understand the point of them otherwise.
Without deep knowledge, I'd suggest Switzerland, simply because of the directness of its democracy
A strong business environment, or strong investment opportunities, or a large consumer base is very much needed to have attractive jobs. A strongly educated workforce does little to enable such an environment. Intuitively, it is just very hard to make money off of a small, low income population, and it is even harder to export services built for a local market to a non local market. So the ambitious talent just find opportunities elsewhere.
It also depends how hard it is to migrate out of the region. If there are strong family ties and good standard of living, you'd be surprised at how much talent is willing to stay.
Interestingly enough, Taiwan in 2024/2025 has seen huge growth in wages, for many reasons, but the biggest IMO being the highly educated workforce.
The reality is that in all places the most ambitious people are likely going to move, as such talents usually depend on specific environments.
And with things like TSMC in Taiwan, claiming anything close to 'no opportunities' is a bit ridiculous.
Just sharing my perspective, Taiwan's Software Devs were paid 1/3 of what devs in SG or HK are paid, the biggest reason being there aren't any software companies headquartered in Taiwan that are big/growing fast enough to offer competitive salaries to SG / HK. In SG/HK you have banks, hedgefunds and tech companies all competing for talent—Grab, Amazon, Google, Shopee, DBS, HSBC, etc, pushing up prices to be competitive globally. Taiwan's local companies have to make enough money to pay global salaries for strong talent, or they just get their best talent poached by SG/HK or China (which has plenty of strong tech giants of their own).
But... a tiny 23 million population island where the average wage is low and people are generally happy and content... is not a great business environment for startups. I think some local startups saturated the Taiwan market with like 70% of the island's population in their database... and like $2-5m US revenue/yr? Great achievement but not a large base for continued rev growth.
As a Taiwanese company, you are not winning against bigger tech companies in China. Neither are you building for english speaking audiences of SEA because Taiwan's english is not native... in short, the local market conditions is just unable to pay for global level talent, who leave.
This is a software dev focused view of Taiwan, but it applies to all or most other industries not named TSMC.
Also, the Communist party in power has not stopped themselves from adapting to the new times and dumping older views.
The most recent Econ Nobel showed how institutions create wealthy nations, and Kerala is building those.
Perhaps the statement “not a place to be ambitious” can be seen in a narrower sense, while seeing that it leaves much more space for the median individual.
"Kerala is Hawaii at a tenth the price! You must go. The people there love three things: Alcohol, Food, and side to side head bob Alcohol!"
He was delightful, and he took great care of my wife. I fully intend to visit Kerala at some point.
Does this have a name? I know exactly what it looks like, and I think I get some of the connotations of emphasis and agreement...
I had many aunts or uncles who would leave their family behind in India and work in the middle east for many years before returning to India. This practice helped them shore up savings and build houses.
It was supposed to be his life's work and he said he left with grandiose aspirations.
Only to get caught in the Kuwait War and barely make it back in a bus of refugees.
He always used this as a reminder of "pride goes before a fall", but I personally just found it a fascinating reminder of the sheer random horrificness that life can bestow out of nowhere.
Many laborers from my state- West Bengal travel to ameliorate the labor shortage of Kerala. Because their laborers are in the Gulf. The unskilled labor wage in Kerala is almost twice of my state.
There is a common phrase in Bengal- "Kerala money" to explain big, well-made houses in villages mired with poverty. Many people, mainly Muslims migrate en masse to Kerala to earn a relatively much higher income and save the money to build big houses and buy motorbikes. We call that "Kerala money".
> Kerala is a very empty place. People emigrate parmanently or stay outside for decades. Elderlies live on their own. Schools and home remain empty. It is just intuitively sad. One should read this interesting piece...
I'm writing this from my home here in Kerala. Empty is not how I would describe the place. It's very crowded around here compared just a decade here. My house was surrounded by farm land from 3 sides. Now it's all houses in close proximity. Even remote places were developed into commercial or residential areas. The biggest indicator is that the road traffic is way more than what it was 15 years ago. Schools aren't that empty either - my own sister is a teacher. Job situation isn't that great - in line with the global situation, but the private sector has been growing fast in the past few years - driven especially by a startup boom. We do have problems with some anti-corporate sentiments like 'nokku-kooli' (supervision fees). But it seems to be less of a problem to businesses these days. (Not sure what happened. There is less news about it too)
To add in more context, I lived in a western country for several years before returning to take up a job with a decent pay. I can't say that Kerala is too bad in comparison, considering the cost of living and the general law and order situation.
I am sure what you are saying is true.
Did you even read what I linked? And it was not the only reason I wrote the comment. There are other points in the comment as well.
However, there is nothing good or bad with these variations. Tourism also adds to its economy. Higher per-capita doesn't always mean a good thing. Sometimes it comes at a cost of family separation etc. Kerala is also known for high levels of alcoholic consumption and unhappiness rates.
> India has a vast variation of cultures.
isn’t consistent with this.
> mainstream India
You can have a variety and a single largest.
As we see, in the case of America, these dividends are much larger. So much larger that they are not even comparable to what is described in the article.
>mixture of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, where the Chicago economists came in and their shock therapy and large divestment
But that's not what happened in the USSR. Gorbachev simply make government open and transparent for people, rejected totalitarian oppression, and it immediately became clear that the party had almost zero support.
And since it is impossible to have near-zero support without totalitarian oppression, the tops of the Communist Party (led by Yeltsin) decided to go cash out and simply divided among themselves all the assets under the party's control.
That's it. It had nothing to do with Chicago economist and shock therapy, which was just an excuse for dividing government assets.
And it's not like wealth and health of ordinary people suffered to any significant degree. It's just that before Gorbachev and Yeltsin all the statistics were fake, and people were repressed for contradicting it. But after the coup, no one cared. In fact, the only ones at a loss were middle level party bureaucrats, who did not have any real assets under their control, but occupied an extremely privileged position in the Soviet system and parasitizing on the body of an oppressed society.
1. A referendum with the wording
""" Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality will be fully guaranteed? """
Got 77.85% of the vote, and the union only collapsed after internal political struggles led to the individual republics pulling out of their own accord.
2. Just five years later, the honest-to-god Communist Party candidate won %40.73 of the votes in an election against the incumbent Yeltsin -- despite such allegations of voter fraud that "At a meeting with opposition leaders in 2012, then-president Dmitry Medvedev was reported to have said, 'There is hardly any doubt who won [the 1996 election]. It was not Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin.'"
So clearly your statement
> And since it is impossible to have near-zero support without totalitarian oppression
can't be correct, unless you're alleging that Yeltsin was secretly using totalitarian measures to support his opposition in the 1996 election.
> the tops of the Communist Party (led by Yeltsin)
Yeltsin was an anti-Communist, he opposed the leadership of the Communist party. The actual "tops of the Communist Party" were divided between the Gorbachev-led liberalizing faction and the hardline faction, both of whom wanted to preserve the USSR -- but in the wake of the coup attempt by the latter faction, both were discredited and it was Yeltsin and the other regional leaders, not the heads of the central CPUSSR, who came out on top.
> It's just that before Gorbachev and Yeltsin all the statistics were fake, and people were repressed for contradicting it.
This is just conspiratorial thinking. Here, I found the most aggressively western-capitalist source I could think of: https://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF124.chap4.html -- even Rand Corp. describes a drop of population growth rates from 6-7% to net negative over the course of the liberalization of prices.
Edit: To add to it. In Italy, you eat pasta for lunch. To buy cheap pasta you go to Pam/Conad/Carrefour/Aldi/Lidl supermarket chain and buy Pam/Conad/Adli/Lidl branded ones as usually they are the cheapest buy vary in quality. But here getting cheap Rice, for lunch, is different. In Italy, to buy basic milk you do the same and probably the cheap whole fat one is branded by the supermarket. Here, you go to the diary, which gets from a collection of local farmers. To buy eggs, you don't go buy supermarket branded eggs, you could pay someone in your neighborhood with animals to supply. I've never seen supermarket branded eggs until I reached the west to be honest.
> pay taxes to the government
Here, at their turnover local stores are exempt from income tax
It's actually easier to have meaningful oversight over a single larger firm than a bunch of local stores. The thing is that what people often refer to as "ill social effects" of large businesses are not proven to any meaningful extent. At least the gain in efficiency is quite real and can be readily ascertained.
Corporates have power to sway governments/FDA/X in their personal favor (unlike a common individual for his own personal favor). As bigger the power of entity gets to the power of government, more government looses power over it, more at the discretion of its decision makers its users become. Why would a rational actor not do bad for profits if they can get away with it? Why would an entity, with a power, not exercise it, if net benefit to self is positive?
They don't have everything - but it's quite possible to live here without having to visit a big chain supermarket. Those chains do exist here and we do use them and online shops like Amazon and Flipkart occasionally for the rare stuff. The point here is that the small shops aren't 'large' private entities. These store owners are in a similar social class as you are and often know you personally. They even help you get the best deals and personally deal with product quality issues. A similar 'middle-class' supply and logistics chain also exists behind them - so it isn't easy for any big player(s) to disrupt and (co-)monopolize the market. They all pay their regular taxes to the local government and spend their earnings in the same local economy. Their economic incentives also align with yours - inflation hurts them as much as it hurts you.
The advantage of this is that multi-billionaire chain owners with their own cartels can't decide when to hoard stuff and drive up profits and inflation. This is very useful in situations like the big-chain-driven post-covid inflation and the current anti-oligarchy protests seen in NA. I was in NA during the post-covid situation. It always felt like a part of that inflation wouldn't have happened if small stores existed everywhere there. Boycotts also work better if you have alternatives. So I made it a point upon return to Kerala to tell everyone how important they are. I shop almost exclusively from them these days.
If we look beyond the foreign remittance, there are quite a few issues in the state. Unemployment is much higher than national average[1] Kerala youth are struggling with the drugs problem, in high numbers.[2] Very little industrial investment because its a state with communist government and not industry friendly. There are towns where every household has someone abroad. Only the elderly are living in those big houses.
[1]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/kerala-am... [2] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kerala-is-in...
Coming literacy, what does that mean? They all know how to read & write in a particular language? OR they have passed minimum undergrad?
> The valuables have been accumulated in the temple over several thousand years, having been donated to the Deity, and subsequently stored in the Temple, by various Dynasties, such as the Cheras, the Pandyas, the Travancore royal family, the Kolathiris, the Pallavas, the Cholas, and many other Kings of both South India and beyond.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Most scholars believe that this was accumulated over thousands of years
Remember that most Roman gold ended up in India. India was the main far East recipient and trading partner of Rome, not China (trade with China was mediated by Indian kingdoms). And that was one empire with which South India traded. It's unfortunate that a lot of narratives about India are driven by the North. The South is way more interesting, in my opinion (I'm biased).
It's not from North India though. North India is not on the land-based trade routes between the Middle East and the Far East due to mountains along Myannmar.
It's from Central Asia and the Middle East, who's views are often followed by Indian Muslims for political scoring against Non-Muslims. A lot of the people in Central Asia and the Middle East absolutely hate Indians and South Indians, so they often tend to write narratives that avoid India. So something like discussing direct contact between the Middle East and the Far East but avoiding India. If you want to read about the genuine geopolitics of ancient India then read some historic texts from the Far East.
The idea of there being a strong conflict between the north and the south is something driven by corrupt left wing separatist and regionalist politicians in South India, but most North Indians don't think like that.
I mean even customs that are 'Indian' in the diaspora are often north indian customs. It's fine, but it'd be like asking a new Yorker to make southern bbq
https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/03/maybe-if-i-disable...
(also mentioned in the 3rd image caption of https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/05/retrospective.html , observation on intepreting what wealth means)
Many people think of North Indians as the de-facto "business" class in India, but Kerala's long history of international trade has given its posterity a rich history of merchant knowledge. My parents started a technology company in Kerala and have seen the Communist party swing from traditional land and educational reforms to private market support. This in large part due to remittances from the Middle East fueling the state economy.
The ecological risks from climate change (e.x. the mass flooding that occurred in the past several years) is a real risk that claimed the lives of several employees at my parent's company. Kerala is posed to become the biggest success story out of India, but it needs to remain vigilant in investing in private markets and infrastructure projects to address these risks and maintain sustainable growth.
It's not "North Indians" that people think of but rather "West Indians". Virtually all of the states along the western coast of India can claim to be merchant class because they were trading with places like Europe, Central Asia and the MIddle East.
The majority of trade with East Asia seems to have been done by those on the east coast, notably Telegu, Tamils and the Sri Lankans. There are mountains in the way for substanial land-based trade between Myanmar and China, but I assume that Nepalis/Myanmar/Tibetans also had a role in connecting India and East Asia. Interestingly India has much for cultural and social synergy with East Asia despite this.
The answer is Keralites moved out of the state for work and sent back most of their earnings. What is useful is if Kerala is able to encourage home built businesses that brought in the money while keeping the Keralites inside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasur...
People have a really hard time understanding inflation and time, but, anything that's lasted this long is going to be wealthy.
Kerala is in the grip of a rapidly growing drug crisis. The state’s High Court issued a stark warning about the ‘poisonous fangs of the drug mafia’. And the State Assembly even paused regular business to debate the issue.
Kerala now leads the country in drug-related cases, far ahead of states like Punjab and Maharashtra. The numbers are also far too high to be explained by good policing alone.
- 2011: HDI in India rises by 21%: Kerala leads, Gujarat far behind - https://www.firstpost.com/india/hdi-in-india-rises-by-21-ker...
- 2011: Malnutrition mars Gujarat's growth story: HDI Report - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/malnutrit...
- 2017: Gujarat lags behind developed states if HDI parameters are compared: P Chidambaram - https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/gujarat-lags-beh...
- 2021: If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers in development indicators, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels - https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-gujarat-middle/ar...
- 2021: HDI: How States Fare in Human Development - https://ceda.ashoka.edu.in/hdi-how-states-fare-in-human-deve...
From what I see from the article the major gains were from investment in health and education which should be a no brainer.
As to why the article is on the front page on HN? Probably because the state has a large diaspora in the Middle East.
Maybe because a lot of Malayalis read HN? We are everywhere.
The bias in much of western media is largely driven by White-Muslim politics in places like Europe, which in turn is driven by corruption from the far-left in various forms (including politicians from places like South Asia and Palestine, and I am not saying that there aren't right wing corruption as well). And yes, a lot of those left-wing politcians who claim to be representiving disadvantaged people are corrupt and creating tension for political gain.
The fact is that much of the progressive politics in South Asia just doesn't fit the narratives being built up by the left-wing in the western world.
On the other hand.. yes, Kerala is very beautiful in many ways. I wish I was born there because it's nigh impossible to settle in permanently otherwise.
They have some of the highest debt in india. The government even went as far as to put empty home tax, which is highly uncommon in india.
Lack of industries and job opportunities people are moving out of the state. This is a a propaganda, probably by the state.you just need to do some simple search to validate my comments.
Yea that is a absolutely wrong. A state that had the highest literacy rate at independence will unsurprisingly remain at the higher end of developmental rankings..
In the 1970s Kerala was already comparable to Indian states from a human development and economic standpoint because of a strong shipbuilding and cooperative agricultural program (same with then undivided Punjab) [0] and by 1990 had developmental indicators comparable to Delhi NCR.
Instead, we should look at states that were historically more undeveloped than Kerala but are now within range of Kerala.
As such, a better rags to riches model to dig into is Tamil Nadu [1] or Haryana [2] - both were on the lower end of India's HDI rankings in 1990, and now outperform most states and lead India in GDP per Capita as well.
Himachal Pradesh [3] and Jammu Kashmir [4][5] are two others to also look at, as they are historically undeveloped agrarian Himalayan border states with laggard developmental indicators that used land reform, cooperative agribusiness, mass rural education drives, and specialized manufacturing (Pharma in Himachal, Food Processing in Jammu) to have high HDIs.
[0] - https://eacpm.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/State-GDP-Wo...
[1] - https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-rep...
[2] - https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/birth-of-h...
[3] - https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-rep...
[4] - https://ras.org.in/index.php?Article=land_reform_in_kashmir
[5] - https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-strategic-myth/9788194717560...
> most of the Haryana's growth has come from being in proximity of New Delhi
Not really.
Delhi NCR de-industrialized in the 1970s-80s due to militant labor unionism [2]
Furthermore, much of Haryana's population lives well outside of what became Delhi NCR, and urbanization only began in the 1980s with the development of SEZs in Manesar, Faridabad, and Gurgaon.
> Same for Tamil Nadu (56%).
Tamil Nadu shared similar developmental metrics to Haryana in the 1981 NHDR, neighbored a state in an active civil war that often leaked into the state (Sri Lanka / LTTE), and had severe caste fractures.
[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_states_and_un...
[1] - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/HUMAN-DEVELOPMENT-INDEX-...
HP doesn't have a "Dehradun", which means local netas have an incentive to invest in their zilla instead of hoarding cash and real estate in a major hub. Thus, Himachal benefited from a Pharma and Food Processing industrial policy in the 1990s-2000s that industrialized the rural area around Baddi and Una, and a lot of other smaller food processing and light manufacturing industries across lower Himachal.
Also, Uttarakhand has too few MLAs for the size of population. UK has 70 MLAs but 10 million people, but HP has 68 MLAs with 6.5 million people. This means UK MLAs are much more divorced from local panchayats compared to in HP.
There is a good case study about this at Harvard Business School [0]
[0] - https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/Asian_Survey_550...
Trust me. You don't want that. Ussi najuwane nu khadi pata ni hege (Kangri but translate to your equivalent)
But I do not think it's replicable in most other LDCs due to historical quirks.
Like, Malawi, Guinea, or Afghanistan can't use much of the "Kerala Model" to succeed, as India was unique in that it was subsidizing the UAE's economy with the "Gulf Rupee" [0] (maybe Cambodia/Laos thanks to Thailand, but it ain't a great reason why IYKYK)
[0] - https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%...
https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/malayalis-make-in...
* No big invasions from outside India. North India constantly faced Invasion.
* Tropical weather which makes doing agriculture easy.
* Good rainfall and no need to worry about water. Many Indian states you need to worry about water accessibility.
* No shit given to anyone caste or religion for the most part except for things like marriage.
Unemployment is at 40%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_Kerala
Kerala is in the grip of a surging drug crisis https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kerala-is-in...
Kerala rooting on central govt to solve state's Rs 26,000 crore monthly expenditure crisis https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/news.php?id=1498119&u=kera...
I will say however that I think it's unfair to call professor Roy a neoliberal. Being a neoliberal is merely the expectation for most economic "theorists", but his vocal apologetics for imperalism and colonialism is not.
> Indian Marxists viciously attacked the CEHI, arguing the imperial state's aim was to extract surplus from India, that it withheld the capacity to do good in famines, and deployed the capacity to cause harm at all other times.
> In this void, blog and trade-book writers moved in with a leftist-nationalist political agenda posing as economic history. Most of their claims can be dismissed by subjecting them to the 1980s test: Can economic change be read as an effect of the Empire? The answer remains: No.
This is indeed a very powerful purity test, "Do your claim go against my utterly ahistorical narrative? If not, then I can comfortably dismiss them without addressing them."
> That India's trade surplus meant Britain looted India is bad logic because the surplus did not mean theft but the purchase of services. “Millions of Indians died of policy-induced famines” (Hickel) is bad logic by assuming infinite state capacity was deliberately withheld.
This one is quite rich aswell, it's just blunt unapologetic imperalism denial. It's bad logic because the logic bothers me.
I mean it just goes on and that's just his most recent tweets.
Speaking of the left, I remember being next to a protest circa 1990 against ... computers!
I don't have numbers for the last ten years, but if remittance has gone down, it is also neck deep in debt. I am in Kerala quite frequently, and can confirm that there are no industries there - except for tourism, and some IT which is relatively miniscule compared to neighbouring states.
Table 5.2, pg 51 of https://iimad.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/KMS-2023-Report...
I'm sure there are valid other views than the one presented in the article, I'm not saying there aren't. But as someone who doesn't know much about the region, you aren't really giving me more information about it, or giving me any reasons to take your view more seriously than the one presented in the article.
Basically, Kerala exports a workforce because it can't produce or export anything else. At roughly a third of the GDP (in 2012 according to Wikipedia), it's a remittance based economy. Someone commented that remittances are a smaller part of the economy of late (and that might well be true), but in the last decade or so Kerala is also heavily in debt.
"The state has one of the highest concentrations of startups". I laughed out loud at this one. Of all the half-truths peddled in that article, this was easily the most hilarious and egregious.
What you really need is industry. Kerala on that note has a very low score. Many states have much bigger industry and thus work for the people in those states. Kerala is still a rural farming/ tourism state and the only reason it has any money is because they send people to do blue collar back-breaking work in UAE and get back remittances.
To be fair, this is an India wide problem. India creates far more engineers than it needs, hence they all leave to find jobs elsewhere. There is almost no high quality engineering jobs in India, if they exist they are a part of US based tech companies. All Indian companies are stuck 10+ years in the past. Among that Kerala is a particularly bad offender where it doesn’t have even the existing textile/ steel/ automotive industry that other states do.
> In short ways, four forces of change – Kerala’s reintegration with the global economy, remittances from the Persian Gulf, strong welfare policies from a legacy of Leftist government, and private investment from individuals and businesses who shared the remittance flows – have combined to form the structure of Kerala’s miracle of human wellbeing with economic growth.
Also, to be clear, it's a common understanding in Marxism that capitalism is a stage of socialism. The "capitalism and socialism are opposites" rhetoric is too simplistic.
Socialism is different but built upon capitalism, in a similar way, for example, to how electric cars are different but built upon gas cars. Marxism opposes neoliberalism and other forms of governance that leave capitalism unchecked, but doesn't reject everything about capitalism— "just the motor, gas tank, and other harmful parts" you could say.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/vlxxv...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/1g5kd...
"From a historical perspective, Kerala has at least four distinct qualities that most states in India do not share. First, it has a centuries-long history of trade and migration, particularly with West Asia and Europe. Second, Kerala is rich in natural resources, which have been commercially exploited. Third, Kerala boasts a highly literate, skilled and mobile workforce. Finally, the state has a strong Left political movement. Any story we tell about its advances in health and education or its recent income growth must refer to some of these longstanding variables."
So here is the other side for the sake of completeness. I'm a Keralite currently living and earning in Kerala. I have lived and worked in North America for several years and I have done the same in many other states within India, but for shorter periods. It's not like everything is fine and dandy here - there are still a lot of unresolved issues. Employment situation has to improve. There isn't enough space for big industries. People are generally clean, but large scale waste management needs a lot more effort. There are labor union issues as well. Definitely not at European or NA levels of infrastructure or organization. Roads are often very dilapidated. And the culture is slightly towards the conservative side.
But when discussed online, some of these problems look like exaggerated interpretation of true data. Job situation is not extremely bad - it's similar to the rest of the world, in line with a depressed global economy. But the business sector has seen some growth in the last few years, driven by an a startup boom. I hear fewer complaints about labor unions these days, though I don't know what changed. It's true that a lot of students are moving abroad. One good reason is that they are educated and adaptive. (I didn't find it too hard to adapt to a foreign culture). This is to be expected when you have a reasonably educated and mobile youth population in a developing economy. But not everyone is leaving. We also have young workers with us. Some places are becoming very rich and crowded - like the suburb where I live. People are also exhibiting more civic sense in the past few years (personal observation based on driving and littering).
While Kerala is not comparable to western nations, some things are strictly better here. There are small affordable shops everywhere. The cost of living is quite tolerable, compared to the wages. Public transportation is shabby - but it can get you anywhere. And it's improving. Car culture is not necessary. Education is cheap. Public school education is free if you prefer. Primary education at some level is unimaginably competitive. Almost everyone here reads newspapers in the morning, including in Malayalam and English (I missed it sorely when I was abroad). I took my 4 year engineering (electronics) graduation with a grand total of 300 USD (we had government sponsored seats) - all of which was covered by another scholarship. Professional textbooks have cheap Indian editions - but most cities also have thriving second-hand book markets that will probably cover all your needs. My first monthly salary alone was more than my entire course fee - that too as a launch vehicle avionics engineering in my own home town. All of these are why we find it easy to emigrate abroad. Health sector is reasonably good too. It's free at public hospitals if you can't pay. During the start of the covid pandemic, public health officials were screening patients directly from airports and railway stations and admitting them for quarantine and free treatment. If you're middle class by American standards, you can get treatment at private hospitals with dedicated staff to guide you around. Now the police - if I have to deal with them, I would rather it be the Kerala Police. They are less jumpy and deadly. They're also renowned for solving tough cases when not interfered with. Another surprising factor is how the people coordinate themselves in the face of natural disasters - they are like a force of their own.
The point here is, I wont sell you Kerala as some sort of paradise (though, that is exactly how Kerala is sold as a tourist destination). It isn't. It's a small piece of land with a unique flavor. It's entirely up to you to judge. But I suggest you have a look before judging. Please don't believe the majority narratives. If you want an opinion, at least ask someone who has witnessed the ground reality.
PS: I'm not very comfortable discussing such a divisive political matter in this forum. However, I'm leaving this here since I see some biased opinions being raised without a counter.
"... North Indians are dirty and breed like pigs . " is an actual statment made by a sitting state minister . This kind of stuff is still unthinkable in West despite all the bitter politics we are seeing there currently.
There is non-stop propaganda , their ideologues are pushing ideas like India is not a single congruous country it is merely a "collective" or "Union" ( the term they are pushing more and more ) of nations currently in a marriage of convenience. They are allergic to the symbols of our nationhood - the flag , the national anthem and they specifically hate the glue elements of the different cultures in India - "Hinduism" is the cultural substrate and continuum that binds the length and breadth of this subcontinent and these ideologues are rabidly against it .
With each passing day and each article with subliminal propaganda like these they are reinforcing and increasingly saying the quiet part aloud .
They are even promoting discredited historical theories like Aryan Invasion theories and ground their claims of 2 nation/race theory to antiquity ( > 5000 yrs) . The follow the "Motte and Bailey" structure -- Motte being "Social Justice" -- they justify their hate claiming caste atrocity of the last 5000 yrs , but they can easily re-target the raw hate to North Indians and Outsiders at will. They are rushing to appropriate the Indus Valley Civilization as the origin of their race .
They even had a ridiculous commemoration of a statue of the British head of the Archeological Survey of India during the Colonial period in whose tenure the discovery of IVC took place , bypassing all the Indian scholars that worked on the ground and did the actual discovery and analysis - that surely sounds odd for a country with a bitter Colonial history like India ? to give undue credit to the erstwhile masters even when the British didnt claim that individual to be discoverer . The reason is more sinister -- The Indian Scholar - RD Bannerji was a northener and doesnt suit the hateful ideology of this govt .
The biggest tragedy is Indian ruling class and elites are blissfully short-sighted or simply are not gifted enough to fight this ideology that is tearing India apart - India will just disintegrate into warring third world states kept into dirt by the ruling families . India will just produce bodies for the First world , for the low end work and for all sorts of experimentation - a guinea pig farm . A big , dirty slum - a guinea pig farm that's the fate that awaits that await 1.5 B humans - controlled by Compradors from their mansions in West .
Low ambition and self esteem did the people in .
Ofcourse the cleverer ones realize this fate and what's their strategy of survival ? to live off the crumbs from the high table of the Compradors and their master . These clever people are ever anxious to display their loyalty to the Comparadors, they are the middle management of the Comparadors today . The writer of these article - flaunting fancy degrees is one such and the foreign publication is nothing but a step towards their ultimate goal and India's final fate.
To the outsider s - this is a stark reality that you should be aware of , nothing is as simple as it looks like - so before forming an opinion or cheerleading scratch the surface a little .
A propaganda and ideology driven society looks rosy from outside . Many people would have cheered and believed 1930s Germany or the USSR .
In many ways , West is also going through same political cycle but i have more hope for West being able to extricate itself than i have for India . The education , awareness and most importantly a millenia of occupation has bred a different docile mindset in Indian people . This crisis is very unlikely to precipitate leaders in India that can take a hard stand , its more likely for that to happen in West .
Kerala is by no-means unique in India. It's controversial because the state is communist and majority Christian/Muslim, on top of being one of the thorns for the BJP (albeit a small one at least).
It reeks more of left-wing propaganda being promoted by left-wing narratives in the western world that end up supporting corrupt and divisve left-wing politcians.
HN is great because discussions stand on their merit, not on downvotes. You using a throwaway account just to push an agenda proves the point.
> In short ways, four forces of change – Kerala’s reintegration with the global economy, remittances from the Persian Gulf, strong welfare policies from a legacy of Leftist government, and private investment from individuals and businesses who shared the remittance flows – have combined to form the structure of Kerala’s miracle of human wellbeing with economic growth.
They went on their own accord. They wouldn't have gone had the opportunity not been large enough. Plenty of people from the West have done the same and continue to do so.
> The demand for skilled workers increased as the Gulf economies diversified from oil-based jobs to finance and business services. While offering jobs in the millions, the migration also had a series of broad effects back home on occupational diversification, skill accumulation, changing gender roles, consumption, economic and social mobility, and demographic transitions.
It looks like there they were employed across the value chain and the peninsula, some (many?) of which I do not think typically practices modern-day slavery.
Thonik not sure what the difference is when the servent can be killed with impunity
Compared to many other better states and cities, the places in Kerala have this combination of low expenses, good government/public health care. It’s utter shit in most of India — including other rich states like Karnataka (~Bangalore). The place has no or less hostility to outsiders, a general non-RW political atmosphere, and being less polluted or free from it. While Tamil Nadu (~Chennai) is ahead of Kerala in many ways, it kind of falls behind on integration points and weather (that's just a personal preference).
I see one more difference there (this is kind of specific, and I just wanted to take an example) — all over India, people are scared of cops. Severe chronic fear of the police (from the British times; maybe continued). You don’t get in their way, you don’t talk to them, you don’t argue with them, and you hope they never notice you exist. Mostly! Not in Kerala (and to some extent in Tamil Nadu as well) — in Kerala, police in most cases don’t get that some kind of feared reverence at all. It has always heartening to see police getting questioned by locals there when they demand something from the people. I am someone originally from the Indian North, and it was an alien experience — just like seeing government/public hospitals in villages and small towns that are well-equipped and functioning.
The thing about protest culture and the so-called union culture that right-wingers and/or the "economically progressive" folks accuse Kerala of — is actually a highly educated populace (very close to 100%; let that sink in — because we are talking about India) standing up for their rights and not allowing either the corporates or the government to steam-roll them. Is that ideal? I don't think so. But then they easily forget that Kerala always had a left-leaning ideology and India’s centre never had any left majority Govt (hell, not even significant representation), which means the state has always been at odds with the centre—and still did well literally on its own.
The Indian right-wing loves to hate on Kerala (you might see some right here; veiled or direct; or not; and that's alright - I guess, people just like and dislike things) — calling the state and its people with left-bashing slurs and abuses. There have been concerted efforts to flare up the Hindu-Muslim divide in the state, which has worked almost everywhere — with great success in the North India (which is the mostly uneducated, mostly conservative, mostly poor and backward India) and to good success in Karnataka (~Bangalore) and Maharashtra (~Mumbai). These last two are among the richer states of India, while the North is generally a proper shit-hole (I am originally from there).
One can go on and keep counting the majestically built homes that are empty most of the year because the well-off occupants mostly stay out of the state or India or attribute everything to the Gulf. But the bottom line is it is much better than the hellhole that most of India is. They also conveniently forget that it has been in direct and active trade contact with the rest of the world (especially Europe) from very old times. The state has one of the oldest mosques and churches in the world (not just India). I have seen the tech industry of Kerala very closely. There are some boutique software places in that state - not very big (except one kinda famous FOSS photos, 2fa app shop), some service industry but not gigantic like in other states et cetera. Do I have hopes from the place? Yes. Will it be fast? I doubt it.
Do their socio-economic-political choices have their drawbacks and unflattering outcomes? Yes, of course. But I think Kerala state and its people have realised one thing—that by virtue of being in a third-world country like India, they have two options: either keep working and keep getting better at a slower pace while maintaining a better "quality of life" compared to almost all of the rest of India or give in and become a sweatshop like a lot of India currently is and for them if that means moving out of India to do work and earn money and send money back home then so be it.
Ente photos I assume
The militant labour problem is something even the communists in kerala have started distancing themselves from. Just a small example - Even a few years ago, anyone shifting homes didn't have the right to load and unload their own personal belongings. They could get it done only through unions. Now if they did do it by themselves, and the union got wind of it, they could get beaten up and still have to pay the unions. It was legally outlawed only a few years ago. For industries and commercial establishments, this is still applicable.
>There have been concerted efforts to flare up the Hindu-Muslim divide in the state, ... The state sent the largest number of recruits for ISIS. A national islamic terror group called PFI which was banned only a couple of years back was founded primarily in Kerala and spread nationwide. The state has been a hub of islamic terrorism for ages. It has been a hub for islamist terrorism, especially in south india for ages. Due to the unique demography of the state, with hindus no longer a majority, backlash to these have not been like in other states.
Families are "socialist". Investing in each other and their young.
Wealthy families are even more "socialist". Dramatically so. Investing in offspring through childhood, higher education, and often long after.
For good reason. Education and health have a compounding impact on people's potentials, for themselves and as a benefit to others.
Key word here is: Compounding
That being said, all investments must be prioritized against a total balance sheet. Debt also compounds. And Kerala demonstrates health and education are a matter of prioritization of efforts, even more so than money.
EDIT: Not promoting actual Socialism. Which has been demonstrated to be catastrophically unstable, quickly transforming into an authoritarianism of elites, inevitably economically propped up by a "free market", either ad hoc, underground or as a "dual" system. Critiquing a particular brand of "anti-socialism" in the U.S. that can best be described as anti-national investment in people, without consideration for specifics or benefits, and often agnostic on corporate subsidies.
Added edit to clarify.
No matter what their politics most people will look out for their family especially their kids.