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Take the Kerala story with a pinch of salt. Kerala model is loved by the Indian left and is seen as competing model for right's Gujarat model. The state was rul
by tn13 11y ago
Take the Kerala story with a pinch of salt. Kerala model is loved by the Indian left and is seen as competing model for right's Gujarat model. The state was ruled by communists for long time but almost all parties focused on redistribution of wealth including forcibly taking away people's land and giving it away to others. Over years economists like Amartya Sen have spoken about the model using it to demand that Indian government focus on redistribution.
There are pretty good counter arguments against Kerala Model too as outlined by Prof. Bhagvati in his book "Why growth matters".
Kerala in 18th century was ruled by a king named Marthanda Varma who focused on trade. Unlike other states his lowered taxes, invested extensively in building trade routes, waterways etc. Through some clever ideas he also made his kingdom war-proof. This was the period during which Kerala bloomed economically. By the time British colonized India Kerala was already far superior in health,economy and education compared to other states which are ravaged by war, British plunder etc. (British could not plunder Travancore Kingdom in Kerala as much as they would have liked compared to say Kolkata which was another trade port.)
Since 1947 to 2016 Kerala's progress on most parameters is pretty slow despite huge government spending. Kerala spends 7 times more on public health per capita than Punjab to get results only marginally better than Punjab. Despite having the highest per capita government spending on health, Kerala has even higher private expenditure on health than most other states to get results only marginally better than other states.
Despite the focus on redistribution Kerala has highest income inequality in the country.
- sremani 11y agoKerala was third poorest state in India when Communists came into rule in 1953. I will commend the communists for improving the socio-economic indices, not sure but perhaps the only state with 100% literacy in India, which they have done in 90s. But because of the LDF coalition, many businesses have stayed out of the state, on the economic front Kerala has ways to go.
- baytrailcat 11y agoTotally agree. Kerala is probably the most anti-industrial/anti-capitalist state in India. A majority of the working population earn their livelihood abroad (mostly Middle East), sends money and keeps the local economy running.
- titomc 11y agoBeing Anti-industrial/Anti-capitalist is a bad thing ? That is news for me.
- baytrailcat 11y agoIt is if there aren't enough jobs to support the local population and there are only few jobs Government can create. To the people who are not familiar with political atmosphere in Kerala, it's not the 99%/Feel-the-Bern kind of socialism you see in US, but "how dare you start something which will make you rich and also create jobs" kind of communism. For god's sake, it is probably the only place in the world where common people use terms like "bourgeoisie".
- chimeracoder 11y ago> British could not plunder Travancore Kingdom in Kerala as much as they would have liked compared to say Kolkata which was another trade port Incidentally, Kolkata is not just a Communist hotspot, but has had the longest-serving democratic Communist government in the world. That has not worked out so well for Kolkata and West Bengal, sadly. Just pointing that out as a counterexample in another Marxist regime.