Kerala, Kerala, Kerala

Kerala is a state in south western India. It’s different from anywhere else I have been in India – and also quite different from anywhere else in the world – and it’s quite a delight.

Stepping off the plane from Mumbai, the difference was immediate. The air was fresh and clean, the airport was calm and tranquil, and people just seemed to be doing okay here. One of the most striking matters about Kerala is its government. Elected in 1957, Kerala had the first freely elected communist government in the world. The state has been more or less communist since then, and unlike most anywhere else I can think of, it has been a good thing. Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India (around 92%), is the only state with the correct male female ratio (female infanticide is a huge problem in India), has the lowest divide between rich and poor, one of the most diverse religious populations (about one third Christian, Hindu, and Muslim), good public transit, low cost health care, schools, etc., etc. etc.

It’s hard to point out why Kerala is so different – speaking to Keralans they give credence to the long history of colonization and trade – with early contact from the Portuguese, Chinese, Dutch, British and more, but most of India has had multiple colonizers over time. They give credit to the large spice industry here which has provided great wealth over centuries, but many regions in India have shipped high value goods for just as long. Many give credit to the divine – the state slogan is “God’s Own Country” - and that might just have to be enough.

The greatest part of being in Kerala thus far has been that doing research here is as easy a picking fruit off a tree. And picking fruit off a tree here is as easy as choosing what fruit you want to eat from the dozens of fruit trees everywhere, then taking it. While in Delhi I would often have to play phone tag for days to get meetings, here they have just fallen into my lap. People seem to sense what I want to talk about and tell me just the sorts of things I didn’t quite know how to ask. Then they tell me they have a friend I should talk to and set up a meeting with the friend. And so on and so on.

While quite idyllic in many ways, Kerala is currently facing many of the troubles that the West is facing. While poverty hasn’t been eliminated, disease of affluences such as hypertension and diabetes are taking the place of disease of hunger. As per usual, farmers are being pushed off land, imports are rising, packaged food is becoming a big seller and to blame is the push for convenience. At the heart of the troubles is my friend wheat.

Keralans traditionally eat a lot of fruit, fish, and rice. The local diet has just about everything you need to be healthy and strong, but many of the people who I have been speaking to over the past week or so have told me that their local diets are losing popularity with children, who are quickly growing into picky adults. The mixed blessing of being a progressive state with a disposable income has meant two working parents and enough money to eat out of serve prepared meals. Bakeries are everywhere here – on leaving a meeting with someone who had just warned me as such I happened to notice six bakeries in my first block of walking. The bakeries serve North Indian sweets and western style cakes, cookies, and muffins. Maggi noodles (ramen) which previously were unheard of are now top sellers in the corner stores and emerging super markets. Perhaps most interestingly has been seeing that while western fast food isn’t here in full force yet, Indian fast food is. Poor imitations of North Indian cuisine abound with oil soaked mains and white flour chapatti. While able to enjoy the local seafood and native type of rice in the homes of many, I have had a harder time finding either in restaurants.

Fortunately, it seems that unlike the West, Keralans seem to be interested in doing something about their problems of diet. Non-governmental and quasi-governmental organizations abound here which are trying to help save small farming, teach nutrition, and preserve the local food culture. People here are relatively well informed about their own lives – it seems that everyone is constantly reading the newspaper. (Though a huge percentage of people in the state speak English, almost everything here is written in Malayalam, the local language, first. Malayalam has the quikiest sript and pronunciation I have heard or seen. The letters are all circles of various types and the language sounds like circles of ‘la’ ‘ba’ and ‘ma’ with no breaths or breaks for words or sentences. It amazing.) People seem to authentically want what is best.

Self Help Groups, Microfinancing, Cooperatives, Umbrella NGOs, any sort of development aid you can think of is going on. The people running these organizations at least claim to be seeing a change – or at least a slowing of the somewhat inevitable effects of growth in their small state because of the work they are doing.