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How Kerala got rich

• acuntcalleddan 2y ago
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• jmathai 2y ago
  I was born in the US but my parents are from Kerala and I still have family there that I visit. 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. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India
  • vinay427 2y ago
    > 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. 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.
    • fakedang 2y ago
      Bangalore today is a shadow compared to the Garden City it once was. 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.
      • intended 2y ago
        Hey, Mumbai folks will fight you for supremacy on bad scenery. Course we concede the actual crown to our dearest friends in Delhi.
        • fakedang 2y ago
          I'll be honest, Mumbai is still very scenic, and I say that as someone from Kerala. Marine Drive and the Colaba area really have a very Bombay-days vibe even after all the changes in the area. While Sealink does ruin the sea views a bit, it's still not a grotesque mark on the scenery. 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.
      • Sammi 2y ago
        I'm not usually not the type to be preoccupied with green policy, but this was heart wrenching to hear.
      • anon291 2y ago
        My family is part of the indigenous people of Mumbai, and my mom and dad's pictures of their childhood homes and stories are almost unbelievable if you visit now. My grandparents old bungalow is still on google maps, now surrounded by skyscrapers, but in the pictures, it's all fields and trees.
      • hammock 2y ago
        I had no idea and thank you for sharing. Why did it fall apart?
        • momojo 2y ago
          Source: Grad student from Bengalaru I got lunch with. It became India's Silicon Valley. Acecnture. Infosys. Western IT money came pouring in and never stopped. https://www.businessinsider.com/india-silicon-valley-bengaluru-under-pressure-2024-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/india-silicon-valley-bengalu...
  • p3rls 2y ago
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  • ignoramous 2y ago
    Like many in the diaspora, you may have a romantic view of your roots. > 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-faecal-contamination-reported-in-vembanad-lake/article66707746.ece 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/ 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.
    • guerrilla 2y ago
      > Lieracy surveys aren't as rigorous; likely 5% to 20% drop from reported numbers: https://www.dataforindia.com/measuring-literacy/ https://www.dataforindia.com/measuring-literacy/ 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.
      • 0xbadcafebee 2y ago
        To add to this: the most recent "96.2% literacy" estimate is based on a 2017 survey (not the 2011 census) where they interviewed a little over 2500 households in Kerala, though there are 7.7 million households there. I'm not a statistician, but this feels like too small of a sample size to make a definitive estimation. 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
        • kelipso 2y ago
          Most of the literacy education efforts started in the 1800s in Kerala. For example, > 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-literate-state/ https://livekerala.com/blog/how-kerala-became-indias-most-li...
  • not_kurt_godel 2y ago
    The connection between education and wealth is very strong. Very sad that the US has decided to pursue a trajectory towards poverty in this area.
    • mc32 2y ago
      In popular US culture the pursuit of wealth, is framed as crass. Movies that some see as promoting wealth accumulation are often actually critiques against wealth. 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.
      • paulluuk 2y ago
        I think that in almost all western countries, a life spent entirely on hoarding wealth for the sake of wealth, is considered a sad life. Especially if you don't even have any loved ones to share your wealth with. 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?
        • nick__m 2y ago
          Islam specifically rejects hoarding wealth, so I think that pretty much takes out most of the middle east I don't know much about religions but I don't believe it is that clearly delineated. How would you explain Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, from my limited vantage point they seem pretty much all in on their religion. Are they practicing a perverse form of Islam like the Christian who practice prosperity gospel?
          • blululu 2y ago
  • orochimaaru 2y ago
    I think the focus on literacy is laudable. However, as the article points out the wealth isn’t locally generated, it is basically folks going out to gulf states sending back remittances. So while literacy has helped that there is not much to be said for local industry. I don’t see any startup tech or manufacturing in India falling over themselves to start in Kerala.
• gleenn 2y ago
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• srameshc 2y ago
  In the 1980s, many Keralites were courageous enough to leave the land for better prospects abroad, many in the Middle East and the UK. I remember going to my friends place and find their houses were modern and it was the first time I saw a glass door. Not to mention some of my Keralite friends are the most sincere and hard working and they have risen to very high ranks regardless of their grad scores and academics.
  • jmathai 2y ago
    There's a lot of brain drain in Kerala with people getting educated and leaving. Those that leave do, however, send money back to their families and I know many who return to live in India after 5-10 years. This was the case a decade or two ago and I'm not sure if it's still the case. 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.
    • harichinnan 2y ago
      Remittanced only contribute to 15% of GDSP. 65% is from tertiary sectors of IT, Healthcare and Tourism. Kerala gets substantial investments from private companies instead as opposed to large corporations in Gujarat for example. Investments in Kerala rarely grab news headlines as it’s mostly private investments.
      • TulliusCicero 2y ago
        "Only"? That's more than 4x as high as the overall Indian average: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?name_desc=false https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?na...
    • gopher_space 2y ago
      The guys I knew from Guatemala doing yardwork/construction in the US had the same setup. They’d sleep in shifts in bunk beds and then go home to their new ranch after a few years.
• xnx 2y ago
  Doesn't a Kerala temple contain in excess of $22 billion worth of gold?
  • the_arun 2y ago
    Did you mean this temple in Andhrapradesh? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala
    • sangeeth96 2y ago
      Probably referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasur...
      • the_arun 2y ago
        Never knew, this temple also has so much gold. Thanks for sharing
      • dartharva 2y ago
        I have visited this temple. The security inside the premises is handled by regular police, but the temple also has a strict dress code.. so you get to see shirtless men in dhotis carrying badges and pistols in cloth holsters. It's really funny to look at.
  • harichinnan 2y ago
    Yes. Travancore Cochin remained a princely state and escaped East India company looting. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2015/11/13/a-one-trillion-dollar-hidden-treasure-chamber-is-discovered-at-indias-sree-padmanabhaswam-temple/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2015/11/13/a-one-tril...
  • 2511 2y ago
    you are correct. Padmanabhan temple apparently has gold worth 22 billion dollars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treas...
• kappi 2y ago
  Looks like this is one sided political propaganda article. Googling shows real picture. Unemployment is at 40%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_Kerala 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-the-grip-of-a-surging-drug-crisis-the-state-is-cracking-down-but-the-ground-is-slipping-under-its-feet-why/articleshow/119350880.cms 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=kerala-rooting-on-central-govt-to-solve-states-rs-26000-crore-monthly-expenditure-crisis-1498119 https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/news.php?id=1498119&u=kera...
  • xyst 2y ago
    yup, a definitive “neoliberal”/“neoclassical” economic theory puff piece.
    • harichinnan 2y ago
      Crime statistics are because Kerala Police isn’t as corrupt and registers more crimes compared to rest of India. It’s a good thing as most crimes goes unreported in India as police are corrupted in rest of India.
    • impomura 2y ago
      a neoliberal neoclassical puff piece on the only region in india ruled by the communist party? that's fresh
      • cafeoh 2y ago
        The region has remnants of socialist ideas. The article, however, is indeed a puff piece on the vastly dominant economic theory, which is, as it turns out, not "fresh" at all. 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.
• eamag 2y ago
  how -> through Gulf migration remittances fueling private investment (especially in services), enabled by a skilled population and a more market-friendly political environment
  • thisislife2 2y ago
    "Market-friendly political environment" did not bring the higher HDI that Kerala has now (and still prioritises), even before its economic development started. That was because of its left- (communist / marxist parties) and centre-left public policies. ( https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309363153_A_Comparative_Study_of_Gujarat_and_Kerala_Developmental_Experiences https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309363153_A_Compara... ). As Americans and Europeans today debate about how they can afford to have a family or buy a house, and the rise of right-wing politics due to this, there's something to be said about how bridging income / wealth inequality is important in a society.
• the_arun 2y ago
  Kerala reminds me of California when it comes to natural landscapes. I really love that place. Coming literacy, what does that mean? They all know how to read & write in a particular language? OR they have passed minimum undergrad?
  • harichinnan 2y ago
    Literacy mostly means Reading skills. Goes a long way in a poor country with an abysmal record for primary education. Kerala also has a Higher % of school graduation compared to rest of India.
  • darth_avocado 2y ago
    The definition of literally rate is the ratio of population over 7 that can read, write and do arithmetic and apply it in their lives. These numbers are over inflated tbh because the standards to measure them are pretty debatable. Kerala may have 90% literacy rate, but the average literacy rate of India is supposed to be 80%+.
  • leosanchez 2y ago
    A person aged seven and above is considered literate in India if they can read and write with understanding in any language.
• xyst 2y ago
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• footlose_3815 2y ago
  I chuckled at "Litearcy Rate" written on one of the graphs...
  • shreyshnaccount 2y ago
    the jokes just write themselves
• j0hnM1st 2y ago
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• the_arun 2y ago
  Vasco da Gama, is credited with discovering a sea route to India by sailing around Africa in 1497-1498, though India was not new to the world, and the people of India were not "discovered" by Europeans. He entered India through Kerala (Calicut). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama
  • puckspock 2y ago
    Vasco
• aylmao 2y ago
  There's a lot to this article, but one interpretation of it is that it is a story somewhat similar to China's— a history with communism and gradual opening-up to private capital and the global market. In the case of China, capital has entered due to its huge export market. In Kerala there seems to have been an important capital injection from remittances, and a growing tourism industry. The article summarizes it as such: > 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.
  • mathieuh 2y ago
    As they say, ex-communists make the best capitalists.
    • aylmao 2y ago
      I don't think they'd call themselves ex-communist. The ruling party is the Communist Party of India. 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/vlxxve/comment/idxwmzv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/vlxxv... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/1g5kdgv/socialists_if_marx_said_socialism_relies_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/1g5kd...
• greekanalyst 2y ago
  It's pretty crazy how many new billionaires have been minted in Kerala. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/malayalis-make-into-forbes-worlds-billionaires-list-1.9456602 https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/malayalis-make-in...
  • SandraBucky 2y ago
    you should check the Maharastra list
• MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  Paragraph after paragraph restating the question, then: > 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.
  • readthenotes1 2y ago
    So sending tons of people to be indentured servants in Saudi Arabian was the secret sauce.
    • vishalontheline 2y ago
      > sending 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.
    • kridsdale1 2y ago
      Not the same, but slavery tends to be productive for development. (I reference Indian laborers in UAE whose employers confiscate their passports. Yes they are paid, but they are not free or well treated.)
    • jhanschoo 2y ago
      > Hundreds of thousands of people migrated to the Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar to work in construction, retail and services, sectors that saw a massive investment boom following the two oil shocks of 1973 and 1979. > 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.
• ghoomketu 2y ago
  If Kerala can do it why can't other states like Bihar do it too? (Not asking rhetorically) From what I see from the article the major gains were from investment in health and education which should be a no brainer.
  • blackoil 2y ago
    Poor education at K-12 level. People from Bihar go outside but within India, to big cities like Delhi/Mumbai or farms of Punjab/Haryana.
  • vishalontheline 2y ago
    Not sure about Bihar, but talent / labor export isn't just a Kerala thing. Having a network does help - makes it easy to find a job, find people to live with that speak the same language, help in difficult times etc.
  • dartharva 2y ago
    That's the same as asking "if Singapore can achieve near-zero levels of crime, why can't Brazil do it too?" i.e. a nonsensical question. The culture is different, the people are different and the mindsets are different.
• zkmon 2y ago
  India has a vast variation of cultures. A few states in India look like they are quite detached from mainstream India, in terms of issues, economy, norms, politics etc. This is true for north-eastern states as well and probably J&K too. It's like a colorful patch-work of different cultures. 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.
  • vishnugupta 2y ago
    This statement > India has a vast variation of cultures. isn’t consistent with this. > mainstream India
    • dartos 2y ago
      Is it? You can have a variety and a single largest.
    • sva_ 2y ago
      Mean and variance
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• alephnerd 2y ago
  > Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states 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-Working-Paper_Final.pdf https://eacpm.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/State-GDP-Wo... [1] - https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/505641468034143529/india-economic-growth-and-poverty-alleviation-in-tamil-nadu-notes-on-selected-policy-issues https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-rep... [2] - https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/birth-of-haryana-and-its-initial-years-676763/ https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/birth-of-h... [3] - https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/539281468771688330/india-himachal-pradesh-accelerating-development-and-sustaining-success-in-a-hill-state https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-rep... [4] - https://ras.org.in/index.php?Article=land_reform_in_kashmir https://ras.org.in/index.php?Article=land_reform_in_kashmir [5] - https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-strategic-myth/9788194717560/ https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-strategic-myth/9788194717560...
  • blackoil 2y ago
    As per your 1st document (page 15). Kerala has risen from 84.6 to 152 (~80%) while Haryana from 106.9 to 176.8 (~65%) in addition to the fact that most of the Haryana's growth has come from being in proximity of New Delhi. Same for Tamil Nadu (56%).
• dilawar 2y ago
  Kerala is also the only state in India where the rural population lives longer (2-3y on average) than the urban population!!
• dartharva 2y ago
  The dominant majority of Keralite youth that can, still emigrates to other states and countries. I have come across hundreds of Malayalis outside of Kerala who talk fondly of their homes, but refuse to admit there being any scope of nontrivial academic or professional growth within the state. 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.
• ArthurStacks 2y ago
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• 1zael 2y ago
  My great-grandparents were landowners in Kollengode, a village on the foothills of the Western Ghats. They operated on a system of sharecropping, which the Communist party took away (along with their land) in the 1970s for redistribution. While this eliminated much of our family wealth, most of the next generation family members weren't disturbed by it because they were proud of Kerala's reputation of having the highest literacy rates and human development standards in India due to these reforms. 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.
  • YouAreRONGS 2y ago
    > Many people think of North Indians as the de-facto "business" class in India, 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.
• never_inline 2y ago
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• benced 2y ago
  Kerala has extremely aggressive out-migration (including my entire family): it is a bad place to be ambitious, particularly with the France-like union culture. If India is to become China-rich or Mexico-rich, my prediction is Kerala will regress to the mean of India states. Its model seems geared towards being an extremely good place to be poor (which is a huge achievement to be clear: they dealt with COVID better than the US, universal literacy is amazing etc) but not towards getting richer.
  • eikenberry 2y ago
    I'm curious, how does their "aggressive out-migration" play out? Extremely high, progressive tax system? No funding infrastructure for new business? I can imagine many ways but my thoughts lean toward financial reasons due to your last sentence.
    • inapis 2y ago
      Inability to build a business easily nor allow others to build one. The union culture is way too strong. There is a joke that the Kerala model of development requires a rich oil state nearby.
    • fakedang 2y ago
      Ambitious Keralites move out of the state to set up businesses. The ones who remain usually get rich through a mix of unethical businesses, political party connections and corruption, or the gold and money-lending businesses (which were inherently shady). Keralites are either highly ambitious, in which case they go to more welcoming cities such as Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, or extremely lazy, in which case they stay at home and abuse the welfare state. The welfare state is so abused by lazy government employees who will do anything to block you from setting up your business. And if it isn't them stopping you, it's the pesky political parties who will send their goons after you to charge for every task. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokku_kooli 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.
• snyp 2y ago
  Love Kerala, highly underrated tourist destination IMHO compared to the more traditional Indian destinations.
• __rito__ 2y ago
  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- "Kerala: A ghost town in the world's most populated country" [0]. 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". [0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64936519 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64936519
  • AlgorithmicTime 2y ago
    [dead]
  • goku12 2y ago
    I wasn't planning to respond to this topic, since I'm a Keralite living and earning in Kerala. But this seems a little odd: > 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.
• merillecuz56 2y ago
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• redzedi 2y ago
  y is this on HN first page? by wat measure is Kerala rich? No industries if exports bodies to ME, commie rule for decades atrophied all industry. It's a political hitjob against India central gov, HN should keep its standard above this shitshow
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • thisislife2 2y ago
    Last I checked, Kerala was still part of India. So why should the central government of India feel jealous about an article praising the indian state of Kerala?
    • air3y 2y ago
      While not agreeing to the parent comment, it comes from the domestic politics now playing out in that state. After India got independent in the 40s, communists were the main opposition political party in the country for decades. Now, their presence in power is mostly confined to just this small state. While the center and most states are ruled by a hindu nationalist party. This has led to the politics in kerala moving to a sort of secessionary path. A political alliance of the communist-christian-muslim groups against hindu groups and rest of india.
      • YouAreRONGS 2y ago
        You've also got the mess in Tamil Nadu as well. Despite having two left-wing parties, it's still got one party that Hindus vote for, and another party that Muslims/Christians vote for.
    • goku12 2y ago
      Kerala generally hates divisive and communal politics. Consequently, the alliance currently in power at the national level never makes any significant gains here. Unfortunately, the response to that can get very contrary to federalism and other constitutional values. They went so far as to promote a propaganda movie against the state and one community in particular. Maligning Kerala, even through official channels is frankly a very common thing in India (only from people who support a certain extreme political ideology). The accusations of secession are all part of that campaign. 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.
• geocrasher 2y ago
  The subject of Kerala resulted in one of the most memorable conversations I've had with a doctor that wasn't about medical stuff. My late wife had to have an emergency procedure and her regular doctor was not available, and so she got a wonderful Indian doctor (Context: This was near Seattle WA). Having worked with many Indians, I felt comfortable asking him which part of India he was from and he said "Kerala" and at the same time we both said "God's own country" and his face LIT UP. "OOOhh, you know Kerela!?" "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.
  • shermantanktop 2y ago
    > side to side head bob 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...
    • pepve 2y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble
• malshe 2y ago
  I have visited Kerala a few times and I really loved it as a tourist. However, my company also did some work there and we found local labor unions extremely difficult to deal with. Never acquired any new clients there once we finished initial projects.
• amriksohata 2y ago
  Same old fake caste tropes, article just smells of academic nonsense. The story of Keralas success could be applied to any state in India due to recent government policies, even Gujarat is doing better.
  • thisislife2 2y ago
    you may be right that the economic development of Kerala in the last 2-3 decades could be because of India's overall economic development. But note that Kerala is consistently in the lead to many indian states, including Gujarat, in terms of Human Development Index. Gujarat continues to lag on HDI despite being historically economically richer than Kerala: - 2011: HDI in India rises by 21%: Kerala leads, Gujarat far behind - https://www.firstpost.com/india/hdi-in-india-rises-by-21-kerala-leads-gujarat-far-behind-114044.html 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/malnutrition-mars-gujarats-growth-story-hdi-report/articleshow/10447939.cms 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-behind-developed-states-if-hdi-parameters-are-compared-p-chidambaram/939594/ 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/article5993938.ece 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-development/ https://ceda.ashoka.edu.in/hdi-how-states-fare-in-human-deve...
• 2511 2y ago
  I am not from Kerala but I have spent the last 25 years there. I have family in Kerala. Kerala got rich because of emigration. Sometime during the 80s, Keralites began migrating to gulf in very large numbers. The foreign remittance is the biggest reason why the state is rich. It can be said the proximity to sea and a history of trade with gulf countries enabled Keralites to migrate. And of course, the will and courage of the early emigrants to migrate to a different country. 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-among-the-top-in-indias-youth-unemployment-chart-despite-high-literacy-rate-what-are-the-real-culprits/articleshow/113673214.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/kerala-am... [2] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kerala-is-in-the-grip-of-a-surging-drug-crisis-the-state-is-cracking-down-but-the-ground-is-slipping-under-its-feet-why/articleshow/119350880.cms?from=mdr https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kerala-is-in...
• Nevermark 2y ago
  I find the over use of "socialist" as a negative term to apply to any mutual investment, regardless of returns, so myopic. 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.
  • schnable 2y ago
    Are families socialist, or clannish and nepotistic? I don't think you can run a country like a family, especially a multicultural transcontinental one.
    • Nevermark 2y ago
      I completely agree. I am not suggesting actual socialism, which has failed spectacularly. Added edit to clarify.
    • thisislife2 2y ago
      I would say there is a high socialist elements - a parent doesn't have to sacrifice their economic comfort or even time just to give their kids a better education or better lifestyle. But many do so.
    • nextts 2y ago
      I think family loyalty is deep rooted, where as socialism is something people debate (maybe more a mix of neocortex I.e. planning and lower emotions coming from morality and political identification) No matter what their politics most people will look out for their family especially their kids.
• mempko 2y ago
  Turns out investing in your own people returns dividends. Unfortunately, the current administration is divesting from the American people. DOGE, and it's cutting of federal grants is a direct example of this divestment. What's happening now in the US reminds me a lot of a mixture of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, where the Chicago economists came in and their shock therapy and large divestment decimated the wealth and health of ordinary people.
  • Ray20 2y ago
    >Turns out investing in your own people returns dividends. Unfortunately, the current administration is divesting from the American people. 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.
    • achierius 2y ago
      Interesting that you suggest they had "almost zero support" when 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 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.
• jimnotgym 2y ago
  Needs a Tldr!
• hshshshshsh 2y ago
  * Access to sea routes from west and east. Easy access to ideas from around the world. Christianity and Islam came to Kerala long time back peacefully. * 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.
• seltzered_ 2y ago
  Just sharing bookmarks, see also https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4481 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4481 (talk link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u-OdFBARXHg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u-OdFBARXHg ) (via https://ashfordhall2018.wordpress.com/ https://ashfordhall2018.wordpress.com/ ) for some further research on Kerala, India and economics.
• shelled 2y ago
  These are my personal/anecdotal observations, of course, for a state I love. 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.
• teleforce 2y ago
  TL;DR: "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."
  • air3y 2y ago
    Since the authors are communists, What they left out was that Kerala, especially the southern half of it preserved its independence (though only nominally under the British) from foreign occupations, something most other states in india couldn't.
• Cherian 2y ago
  I was born in the second southernmost district of Kerala, Quilon (now Kollam). I am now a U.S. citizen in the Bay Area. Growing up in Quilon, I attended an Anglo-Indian boy's school called Infant Jesus - in a small strip of land called Thangassery, people predominantly spoke English. I was taught British dialects emphasizing pronunciations that mimicked the world stage. I didn't really understand it until much later in life. 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.
  • anon291 2y ago
    > 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. Christianity in Kerala is much older than European Christianity. Literally the land of the Apostles
    • Cherian 2y ago
      Agree. The Christians that came with the Apostles mainly were Syrians who were traders and kept to themselves for 13-14 centuries. 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.
    • 2y ago
• shw1n 2y ago
  A funny anecdote from my grandfather (I was raised in California but family's from Kerala) related to the migration of Keralite workers to Gulf was from when he went to Bahrain to supposedly build a magnificent church as the lead engineer (he was a civil engineer). 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.
• rehupaa 2y ago
  Namaste!!! Kerala and all India states are very beautifull places of the India. I’d traveling there 3 months in 2017-2018 and only one seroius problem is everywhere, pollution of plastic and all kind of rubbish! Then people burn rubbish in fire! They vsn send space craft to out of the planet but not manage to recycle bio compost, glass bottles and metal cans ext.. people throw to nature all rubbish!! So it is time to stand up and start recycling everything and then edugate all peoples to do that in every day but most importat is fix the infra for recycling. Come to see that procedure in scandinavia!! Compost material is super hood soil for growing yes oy is very easy when goverment is make a infra for ready. I have living all together 1.5 year in India 1990’s and 2017-2018 so have a good understund of Indian way to live and one part of my body and soul is always living and love mama India and humans of every hierarcy andcö relious parts… sorry typo ext.. greetings from Finland!! Dhanyavaad!!
  • sva_ 2y ago
    I'll have what he's having
    • sowhat25 2y ago
      Joy?
      • hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
        Well, anyone that says "all India states are very beautifull places" must be on something. Not denying India has some beautiful places, but it also has some of the most post-apocalyptic places I've ever seen. Gurugram reminded me exactly of the city in Blade Runner.
        • saagarjha 2y ago
          India has plenty of beautiful places, in all its states. It’s a big country. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t also have dystopian nightmares too.
• rishikeshs 2y ago
  Never thought a post about Kerala will reach the front page of HN.
• poisonwomb 2y ago
  These communists sound like they have the right idea; maybe we should try it!
  • goku12 2y ago
    I'm from Kerala and I've been to North America. The 'communism' here isn't what the Americans think it is. You can consider it as socialist liberalism at best. Communism in its revolutionary form did exist at a time when social inequality and injustice was very rampant. Now it's a political movement under India's democracy.
• NoelJacob 2y ago
  Coming from Kerala to Europe for a short Erasmus, I feel here you have to visit a huge chain for buying anything on a discount. What I mean is big supermarket, or electronics or transport chains. Kerala's premature strikes against these were the only reason they didn't grow as Kerala grew. Can't fully say if it's a good thing but it does feel safer not being dependent on a private entities for many basic things.
  • sriacha 2y ago
    Are you saying large chain stores don't exist in Kerala? How are you not dependent upon private entities for basics?
    • NoelJacob 2y ago
      You can still live comfortably without depending on private (I meant large private) entities in Kerala. Also there are supermarket chains but they haven't overtaken normal non-chain grocery supermarkets. Not even close. Of the top of my head I can list three chains near me and most of my household lives without needing to buy from them and just going to regular stores. 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.
      • zozbot234 2y ago
        The dirty little secret is that mom-and-pop stores are extremely inefficient compared to big chain businesses. A big business is also a lot more likely to actually pay taxes to the government, and it still manages to beat the mom-and-pop store on efficiency even after accounting for that!
• Venkatesh10 2y ago
  Never have I ever imagined the state I grew up will end up on the front page of Hacker News. Keralites have a common skill of migrating almost everywhere. They have huge connection with the middle east.
• tyriwetggy5665 2y ago
  [dead]
• omnibrain 2y ago
  Funny seeing Kerala here. Just a few days ago I got a post into my timeline where someone wrote about taking a forest road out of Kerala in the evening and what a bad idea that was, because of Google Maps not working right and wild animals in the woods. That lead me to looking it up on google maps and I noticed something curious: It looks like Kerala has border checkpoints to the surrounding states. Complete with turnpikes. Is this normal in India? Or just Kerala? Are these even border checkpoints? (They are labeled as such on Google Maps, but that could be wrong)
  • basiccalendar74 2y ago
    This is normal for most state border in India. They mostly inspect commercial trucks
  • raincom 2y ago
    If a check point is in a remote area, it is usually a checkpoint manned by forest officials: illegal logging and other stuff.
• kdin 2y ago
  The key question one should ask is where the money came from? 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.
  • anon291 2y ago
    > 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasure 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.
• ricksunny 2y ago
  I wrote about Kerala during a visit there in 2008. Maybe a backpacking tourist's snapshot in time, but hey it's data - some observations on literacy and cultural value of education passing to the younger generation: https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/03/maybe-if-i-disable-this-ships.html 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 https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/05/retrospective.html , observation on intepreting what wealth means)
• codepathfinder 2y ago
  Kerala is a must visit place, The boat house at allepey, long drive through the mountains between Tamilnadu + Kerala is one of the best experience you could have <3
• epolanski 2y ago
  What's interesting is that 50 years ago or so it had one of the highest concentrations in India of Dalits (lowest caste).
• deepsun 2y ago
  And not a single map of Kerala.
• sashank_1509 2y ago
  I keep hearing this Kerala has great literacy rate cope, but I’ve come to realize literacy rate doesn’t matter. Literacy rate is a very white collar, tech bubble bias. People of our social class, cannot imagine being unable to read or write until you realize that American literacy rate in 1900 was 46% (< 96% of Kerala today) and no one is going to claim Kerala of 2024 was richer than America of 1900. 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.
• thrownaway29 2y ago
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• YouAreRONGS 2y ago
  The main reason is probably because it is a small state with a majority Christian/Muslim population who work in the Middle East. It allows the state to get to a higher lower income level quickly. But there's very little in terms of actual enterprise in the same way you get in Tamil Nadu or other parts of India. As to why the article is on the front page on HN? Probably because the state has a large diaspora in the Middle East.
  • your_challenger 2y ago
    > why the article is on the front page on HN Maybe because a lot of Malayalis read HN? We are everywhere.
    • YouAreRONGS 2y ago
      Comparitively there are far more North Indians, Kannadians and Tamils in the IT world. 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.
  • _thisdot 2y ago
    It's a misconception that Kerala has majority Christian/Muslim population. Kerala has ~55% Hindus and ~25% Muslims and ~20% Christians.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • YouAreRONGS 2y ago
      Christians were much more powerful than Hindus though. And the links with the Middle East has given the Muslims a lot of leverage as well. It's likely that with current birth rate trends over the past ten years since the census was taken, that the Hindus have been overtaken by the rest to form a minority too; the NFI stated in 2017 that Hindus would be a minority by 2025.
• nithssh 2y ago
  Isn't Kerala's economy held up by remittances and duct tape?
• goku12 2y ago
  There is one part of the story that any reader should be well aware of, when consuming any content about Kerala - especially public comments on fora like HN. Kerala is deeply against extreme right wing politics. The big RW national coalition has struggled over the decades to grab power in Kerala. The RW has in turn spreads falsehoods, derogatory statements and outright propaganda against Kerala - very often based on misleading, outdated or simply fake data. It often comes in the form of jibes at Kerala's economy, emigration, foreign remittances, businesses, employment, literacy, extremism, etc. You can see a lot of them in this discussion thread - debunking one at a time is a waste of time. So be a bit skeptical about such claims - especially the ones that seem indignant towards Kerala. Some comments display a complete absence of first-hand experience. 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.
• psudohadex 2y ago
  Kerala has a strong pool of high-quality but underpaid software engineers and some of the most active FOSS communities in India. Unfortunately, in today's capitalist landscape, many talented engineers from middle-class backgrounds are compelled to move to other states like Bengaluru for better-paying opportunities.
• glass1209 2y ago
  This article and thread is highly engineered, apart from few comments. This got nothing to do people of kerala. 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.
• j0e1 2y ago
  One thing I find amusing as a Malayali (aka Keralite) myself is how we tend to get excited seeing other Malayalis. One of the first questions usually is "Where are you from in Kerala?" (or in Romanized Malayalam: naatil evideya?)
  • _thisdot 2y ago
    The camaraderie is amusing! When they banned beef in Bangalore, the entirety of Malayalis there continued to collectively call beef something else and that system worked wonderfully!
• vismit2000 2y ago
  At the same time, also check out: How serious is Kerala’s drug crisis? (Data Point) - https://youtu.be/CLkRAmkgEM4 https://youtu.be/CLkRAmkgEM4 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.
• kara4151 2y ago
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