Today, on the 1st of November, 2020, Kerala celebrates its 64th birthday.
Post independence in 1947, the three constituent kingdom that formed Kerala was under the Madras Province. And it took almost 10 years for the state of Kerala to come into existence.
The Travancore dynasty of south Kerala, the largest among the constituents, has been an extension of the long-standing AY kingdom. The Kochi kingdom could be deemed as an extension of the Chera dynasty and the Zamorins up north, ruled from one of the most ancient cosmopolitan cities of the world, Kozhikode; which controlled the most famous trade destination on Indian subcontinent, the well known Malabar coast.
When the state got formed, Kerala was indeed a loser. The most Important part of Travancore, Nagercoil and Kanyakumari, should have been very much part of Kerala (remember, the Travancore Kingdom’s ancestors came from Padmanabhapuram which is in Tamilnadu today). The indifference of Tiru-Kochi Chief Minister Pattom Thanu Pilla was the reason for the loss. We ended up in having a part of Karnataka (Kasargod) with us in lieu of Kanyakumari (in fact majority of people of Kasargod do not speak Malayalam even now, they speak Tulu & Kannada. Malayalam went there only after Christian farmers from central Kerala started migrating to Kasargod along with the Muslim traders from Kozhikode / Kannur.
The democratic process of the state happened with a world record, of Communist party getting elected to power for the first time in the world. And even today, it continues to be the only state in the country with an elected communist party led government.
So, in addition to Communism what are the other unique features of Kerala?
1. High HDI, comparable to the developed nations of the world
2. A sought after tourist destination of the world with the sea-backwater-hill combo; all connected by the picturesque green background
3. A fairly distributed religious representation having balanced communal harmony.
4. The migrant Malayali, dwelling all over the world, sending record remittance back home, year after year, for his state and people to survive
5. Highly literate state with high-end cerebral manpower
6. Less corrupted system with democratic power devolved all the way down to the villages.
What are challenges the state is facing now?
1. A fast ageing population with the able-bodied people away, working elsewhere
2. Poor infrastructure developments with a financially crippled state
3. No sustainably productive economic system, we are mostly consumer centric !
4. Decreasing quality of education system (which produced best professionals once), having failed to catch up with the best in the world
5. Higher political uncertainty, high unemployment and politically induced narrow casteism / communism rearing its head now trying to destroy the State’s social fabric.
Success of Kerala so far had been due to the strong basic fundamentals in education, Health and the practise of societal equality (Communism being responsible for that). Whatever being touted during the formation of the State such as the revolutionary land reforms act, militant labour etc., are now standing as hurdles to the economic progress of the State. Lack of production capability had retarded our exports and foreign exchange earnings.
For Kerala to come out of the stationery position prevailing for long, a totally out of the box thought process and innovations based on that must happen here. We are stuck for a long time, with the messy bureaucratic policies. There is a huge leadership vacuum that exists in our executives.
It is time, we revamped the existing policies and adapted ourselves to imbibe the fast moving future trends into the state’s future strategies.
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