The Hindu Business Line : A worthy experience

KERALA: A ruined State? This near-rhetorical question is the subject line of an ongoing debate in an email discussion list on the Internet. Writer after writer - some happily (and others unhappily) ensconced in cool foreign climes - trot out incidents and examples to buttress the argument that, culturally, socially and ethologically, Kerala is long past its prime.

Some even go as far as to assert that there will not be a next generation of Keralites. The Kerala they knew in their childhood no longer exists and cannot be revived, and it would be better for right-thinking Keralites to migrate to other lands, leaving Kerala to become a pristine green destination for Arabs, Japanese and even Chinese.

They believe that the Malayalam-speaking Keralite is as doomed to extinction as the lion-tailed macaque, in the changed prospects for surviving in a permanently altered Kerala.

It is not difficult to unearth the genesis of such deep and widespread discontent. Witness the recent spate of public demonstrations, disruptions and social unrest that swept the State and got manifested in whatever forms you chose to label it - strike, hartal, bandh. In the capital city, schools and colleges were closed for a whole week recently. Coupled with the few extra days of closure due to earlier political protests, some of Kerala's students - as one youngster gleefully pointed out to a harried parent - got to enjoy a de facto vacation that turned out to be longer than the normal school holiday.

And as if to add its two-paisa bit to this gospel of negativity, pessimism and cynicism, a leading weekly newsmagazine recently tried to unearth the "hoax" of Kerala's claims to be "God's Own Country". Never mind that the editors of that worthy publication seemed to have no inkling of the origins of that phrase and its intended audience.

As proof of the hoax of Kerala's claim to being superior in terms of human and social development, the following were some of the prime exhibits: Kerala has the highest rate of suicides in India, the highest incidence of alcoholism, the highest crime rate, the highest rate of unemployment, a great deal of domestic violence and atrocities against women, and rising female foeticide. Thankfully, the writer seemed to have forgotten about road accidents and other, less publicly mentionable, sins.

While no one can deny that, as a society, Kerala has a slew of problems, the fact is that these are so widely known - ironically enough - only because of the essential strength of the citizens of the State: their high level of awareness and the high degree of reporting. What would go largely unrecorded in another State, is quickly unearthed by the news desks of the local media.

Now sample these headlines, all from the pages of a daily newspaper on a single day: `One of the two men who allegedly raped a married woman in a moving car...' `Man accused of raping minor daughter' `MAMC gang rape case'. No, they do not refer to Kerala, but to the national capital Delhi.

Therein lies the rub. It is easy to seek succour in comfortable stereotypes. For instance, which ranks higher as the leading cause of deaths in the United States - homicide or suicide?

Most people, egged on by Hollywood and television serials, will promptly choose homicide.

But they are wrong. More people die from suicide than homicide in the US. Suicide was the 11th overall leading cause of death in 2000, with 29,350 deaths. Homicide was the 14th leading cause, with 16,765 deaths. Among some age groups, suicide ranks even higher as the cause of death, according to Mayo Clinic.

It is such lazy stereotypes that lead to obfuscation. And since aspiration levels are high in Kerala, any flaw is quickly magnified for a closer examination of the supposedly jaded Kerala model.

Thus, to reject the `Kerala model' would be foolish, though it may be warranted in another sense. As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen himself has said, "Kerala's experience has indeed been spectacular - in fact, stellar. And yet to call an `experience' a `model' can be very misleading - and even politically reactionary." Sen explains why: "The excellence of an experience does not indicate anything like perfection or flawlessness. To call something a model is to hint at some alleged un-improvability. That is not the case with Kerala's experience."

Plain common sense - so conspicuous by its absence in the exaggerate-then-simplify brand of social analysis and journalism. In the face of the general developmental morass in the country, discerning citizens can only say this - Give me Kerala any day, warts and all.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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