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Kerala, Economy & Culture: The Imminent Danger and an Approach Towards a Solution (Dr. AKB Pillai)

Published on 23 November, 2016
Kerala, Economy & Culture: The Imminent Danger and an Approach Towards a Solution (Dr. AKB Pillai)
Kerala provides globally a model case study of an ecologically rich region that has become barren.

    The historical casual factor at the core of this has been the inability of Kerala’s political leadership to recognize and effectively combat, first colonialism in Kerala’s past, and now a rapacious neocolonialism, led by international corporate capitalism, whose aim is to wipe out regional cultures and languages, so that every region of the world becomes uniformly deprived of natural sustainable resources, creating new markets for corporate products.  At the same time international corporate sectors draw to their needs the natural and human resources, wrecking the human sustaining environment as well as creating brain drainage.     
   
In Kerala intense politicization, with parties vying for power has created blindness to the above situation.  The draining of natural and human resources has resulted in a region that until the 1950s had been exporting rice and vegetables but must now import all food items, even fish which it once had in abundance, being blessed with expansive backwaters (Kayals) and rivers, as well as an extensive ocean on its West Coast.
   
Internal political conflicts and its associated problems are quite serious.  Governmental development policies are opposed by the opposition parties.  Party politics and groupism in all parties have created a conflict situation even in rural areas.  The cooperation between intellectuals is very low.  This situation has affected the growth of Malayalam literature and the care of cultural institutions.  Frequent agitations by political parties and governmental bureaucratic corruption have prevented industrial investments resulting in native investors turning to service industries such as taxi services, appealing to Keralites who have been absorbed abroad for work with better earnings.
   
One consequence of a building boom was the depletion of river beds from sand mining, resulting in forty one rivers of Kerala becoming dry, with fifteen in danger of disappearing within fifteen years.
   
Large amounts of money have poured into Kerala from workers abroad, expanding the corrupt hoards in private hands derived from central government grants, and creating a culture of artificial affluence ,as I theoretically conceive, the culture of neomaterialistic sensuality, while materialistic sensuality is the core character of industrialized cultures.  Luxury goods, silk, gold and foreign goods cater to the people’s desire for ‘pleasure,’ and create sensual materialistic syndrome – with its attendant steady increase of illnesses like cancer, heart diseases, blood pressure, obesity, and arthritis, as well as widespread psychological disorders.  The degree of stress in the daily life of people is probably the worst in the world, stress syndrome being the reason for Kerala becoming the capitol of alcoholism in the world.  Changes in diet from what was a once dominant vegetarianism to one which includes animal foods, and increased alcoholism with women added to the ranks of the drinkers have contributed to this health crisis.   The ‘food crisis’ is a major tragedy as the diet of the Keralites has become non-vegetarian, in contrast to their  healthy traditional diet of vegetables, coconut products, heavy use of legumes and beans, spices, yogurt, and fish, which in this writer’s analysis is equal to or even better than the health endowing Mediterranean diet acclaimed in Euro–American medical circles.
   
The traditional rice fields, coconut, and vegetable farms have been neglected increasingly from the 1950s, with increasing imports of chemically produced white rice, chicken, beef, and vegetables.  Part of the reason for the neglect of farms has been a scarcity of farm labor created by the recruitment of workers by Gulf corporations to toil abroad.  This willingness to emigrate in search of a job is unsurprising, especially among young people.  Youth in Kerala make up 23% of the population.  In rural areas their unemployment rate is 21.7% [Kerala Economic Review 2015, Employment, 3.206]. 

    The trend has been to bring in heavy industries with corporate control, but even in this area the government has been not very successful.  At the outset any industry, present and future, should be free from ecological pollution.  Further, priority should be given to develop the native farm products including fisheries and extensive traditional handicrafts which can earn high prices in Euro-American markets.

    Tourism, the most important industry in Kerala, is being threatened by a poisoned natural ecology, unhealthy water and food, and by social apathy.

    The breakdown of Kerala’s remaining sustenance ‘potentialities’ are imminent, unless the new government takes radical steps to forecast the problems as much as possible and respond with regenerative economic, social and cultural programs.  The new government has the resources to carry out the above goals.

    Next to natural ecology, theatrical arts provided the greatest attraction to tourism .  Kathkali is the greatest globally of the preindustrial agrarian Theater Arts, while Mohimiyatram and other arts are also significant.  The uniqueness of Kerala’s theatrical arts is that they emerged through the natural and cultural ecology of Kerala through hundreds of years of evolutionary adaptation.  This topic also provides extensive applied research in universities.
   
Kathkali provides not only integration of music and performance, but also the most valuable embodiment of the expression of all human feelings, which make it singularly valuable today when most human feelings are either weakened or lost in today’s culture of sensual materialistic syndrome, providing it with unique contemporary global value.

Summary

    Kerala, which was globally outstanding for natural ecological blessings, from the 1950s has been deteriorating due to natural ecological destruction and exploitation.
    (1) Fifteen rivers will become extinct in the next fifteen years
    (2) Its forests are two thirds depleted from their former glory
    (3) Many animal and botanical species are becoming extinct, especially in the forests of Kerala, affecting biodiversity

    -A lack of investment has created high unemployment.
    -Unemployment is particularly high among women, and in rural areas reaches 47.4% (Kerala Economic Review 2015, Employment, 3.206).
    - Shadowing the great disparities in unemployment is a great pay gulf between female and male workers.  The pay rate for women in harvesting/winnowing/threshing is only 67% of their male counterparts, for general labor 70%, and sowing 69% ( Kerala Economic Review 2015, Labour Welfare, Table 3.6).
    - Nor does the mistreatment stop there; the rate of sexual harassment of women and children is around 50%, including sex trafficking.
    -Educated and uneducated persons have been going abroad for work.  It’s historically proven that no country can sustain its economy and culture when people are driven to higher education for work abroad.  This trend, besides the impact corporate capitalism has in wiping out native cultures, has resulted in a deterioration in the use of the mother tongue Malayalam, which itself is increasing cultural alienation and even health.
    -An influx of money from those who have gone abroad has produced an economy of artificial affluence, creating markets for gold, silk, and luxury goods.
    -The change in dietary habits from vegetarian to non vegetarian, to the extent of neglecting the consumption of health giving native fruits like the Jackfruit, mango, papaya, etc. has created dangerous health risks.
    -Two thirds of paddy fields are lying waste, many contaminated with dangerous pollutants.
    -Pollution of water and food items is so intense that they create increasingly dangerous diseases and negatively affect tourism.
    -Above all, I would like to remind all concerned that global warming generating the rising waters, will swallow one third of Kerala, i.e. the coastal, near coastal areas, in approximately thirty years.

The Developmental Approach
   
    Based on long range research adapted to comparatively with other regions of the world this writer has developed a Plan:
    a) To wipe out the ecological, economic, and intellectual problems
    and
    b) To direct Kerala toward affluence as soon as five years from now based on the development of the natural ecological resources.  The drying up of the waterways can be prevented and even to some extent can be reversed.  By reviving the rice fields and the fisheries, the whole of Kerala can be brought into organic farming, engendering food self-dependence, and even making exports possible.  Kerala has been traditionally rich in the intellectual resources of its people.  There is an excellent opportunity to create a globally outstanding intelligentsia.
    I pray for the immediate concern of all the Keralites all over the world.

Dr. AKB Pillai, MA, Mphil, P.hD (Columbia Univ., NY)
email: drakbconsultancy@gmail.com
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Dr. A.K.B. Pillai, the author of this paper has been involved in the totalistic research of Kerala, comparatively with the other regions of the world, for the last many years.
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