perhaps some insight into the sawicky challenge can be gained from the
following.
according to an article in july/ag resurgence by jay walljasper, which
briefly reviews bill mckibben's "hope, human and wild", the indian state of
kerala, with per cap annual income of $300, 1/70 of U.S., under the
leadership of an anti-globalization left has achieved the following:
life expectancy similar to U.S.
100% literacy
birth rate similar to U.S.
lack of intercommunal strife, tho it is 60/20/20 Hindu/Xian/Muslim
they did this by emphasizing redistribution and effective use of available
resources rather than traditional growth projects and whoring after
footloose capital.
Robert Naiman
Senior Researcher
Public Citizen -- Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
202-546-4996 x 302
I try not to write too often but I feel compelled to write on this
subject. First of all, my basis for writing on this subject is that I
lived in Kerala during the 80s, taught Economics at St Berchman's
University in Changanacherry (100-year-old Catholic University),
read/write and speak Malayalam, am married to a Malayalee and still
have a small house and plot in a small village called Kunnanthannum
and have consulted/travelled extensively throughout Kerala with
scholars from the Center for Development Studies in Trivanndrum.
Further, I was in Kerala when major State Government transitions took
place and have had extensive discussions with individuals from CPI,
CPI-M, Kerala Congress and Congress-I parties.
There is no doubt that some approaches/programs/policies in Kerala
represent some unique approaches and results in the context of India
and when considering other parts of India where less has been done
with much more resources available and less resistance from the
Central Government. But I must say, that some of the accounts about
Kerala, written by some people--I have talked with some of them--who
went on rather sanitized and highly structured tours are highly
idealized and even somewhat superficial. It is true that in Kerala and
Bengal--the two poorest States of India and where Communist/Socialist
forces are strongest-- the levels of literacy are highest,
incidences of certain diseases lowest with access to health care
greatest etc...but...
Those who travel/live in rural areas will still find grossly unequal
distributions of land and outright violations of the land reform law--
through consolidated extended family ownership; you will still find
sharecropping, usurious interest rates and desperately poor people
and conditions; although violence between various religious groups is
generally absent or nothing like the levels found in the north,
groups like RSS, Aryia Samagyuum, Shiv Sena and Muslim chauvinists
are present and active such that religious inter-marriages are rare
and forms/levels of religious integration are still somewhat
superficial; dowaries--which are formally illegal--are still widely
practiced and operate to commodify/degrade women (the darker, less
educated, "uglier" or "less reputatble" the family background of the
woman the higher the dowry); CPI-M (the most progressive of the
various political parties) is not a homogeneous mass and has not been
in continuous power since 1957 and CPI-M has had its own internal
problems and scandals with the result of being periodically turfed
out and replaced by Congress-I which was subsequently turfed out as a
result of their own corruption; university slots are allocated 20%
for "scheduled caste" people but the top jobs and highest educational
opportunities are still going to the non-scheduled caste groups with
people in the "scheduled caste(s)" lagging behind and inqualities
widening; some foreign investment has been rejected but some of the
various State Governments have indeed tried to "whore after" foreign
investment but foreign investors have been reluctant to locate
because of the perception of a "hostile environment" to foreign
investment (high levels of labor militancy, strong unions,
Governmental redistribution schemes etc); problems of high
unemployment and poverty are exacerbated by "Gulf people" or
Malayalees who go abroad, earn high incomes and then return to build
large ornate houses, drive up local taxi fares and do little to
make buisness/job-generating investments; in the language, village
sayings and jokes there is clear evidence that the caste system--or
remnants of it--is alive and well;
Yes Kerala is a beautiful place and exceptional in the Indian
context. However, you well not find some "Island" of Socialism
surrounded by a sea of Indian monopoly capitalism. The dominant
institutions, paradigms, economic relations and categories, State
policies are capitalist to the core with some semi-feudalism
surviving in the rural areas. That is just my opinion but I do wish
that those who presume to write on Kerala would have actually lived
there (preferably in a village for sometime) and could
read/write/speak Malayalam as the people are often guarded with
foreigners (all foreigners are continually under surveillance by the
CBI--and for good reason) and most of all, express themselves more
fully and candidly in the native language.
Jim Craven
*------------------------------------------------------------------*
* James Craven * " For those who have fought for it, *
* Dept of Economics * freedom has a taste the protected *
* Clark College * will never know." *
* 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. * Otto von Bismark *
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