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How Kerala got rich

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Re: How Kerala got rich

#231
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's crazy, I wonder what led people to 'donate'. Something like monetary indulgence as has been carried out by the catholic church?

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple_treasur... : > The valuables have been accumulated in the temple over several thousand years, having been donated to the Deity, and subsequently stored in the Temple, by various Dynasties, such as the Cheras, the Pandyas, the Travancore royal family, the Kolathiris, the Pallavas, the Cholas, and many other Kings of both South India and beyond.[10][11][12][13][…

> It's unfortunate that a lot of narratives about India are driven by the North. The South is way more interesting, in my opinion (I'm biased).

It's not from North India though. North India is not on the land-based trade routes between the Middle East and the Far East due to mountains along Myannmar.

It's from Central Asia and the Middle East, who's views are often followed by Indian Muslims for political scoring against Non-Muslims. A lot of the people in Central Asia and the Middle East absolutely hate Indians and South Indians, so they often tend to write narratives that avoid India. So something like discussing direct contact between the Middle East and the Far East but avoiding India. If you want to read about the genuine geopolitics of ancient India then read some historic texts from the Far East.

The idea of there being a strong conflict between the north and the south is something driven by corrupt left wing separatist and regionalist politicians in South India, but most North Indians don't think like that.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#232

The main reason is probably because it is a small state with a majority Christian/Muslim population who work in the Middle East. It allows the state to get to a higher lower income level quickly. But there's very little in terms of actual enterprise in the same way you get in Tamil Nadu or other parts of India. As to why the article is on the front page on HN? Probably because the state has a large diaspora in the Mi…

> why the article is on the front page on HN

Maybe because a lot of Malayalis read HN? We are everywhere.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#233
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In popular US culture the pursuit of wealth, is framed as crass. Movies that some see as promoting wealth accumulation are often actually critiques against wealth. Also, since the mid 60s pop culture has embraced the slacker as being hip and cool. They guy and gal trying to get ahead are portrayed as greedy or at best blindly joining a rat-race forgoing more noble pursuits. Not so for many other cultures.

I think that in almost all western countries, a life spent entirely on hoarding wealth for the sake of wealth, is considered a sad life. Especially if you don't even have any loved ones to share your wealth with. I think the same it true for most of Latin america, where many of my friends and colleagues are from. And when I was in Nepal they thought that, if anything, western people are way too much focused on gather…

It's also commonplace in traditional Buddhist and Hindu cultures, especially a lot of the older upper class in India are obsessed with following Gandhi-like living too. You still find it in many Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka and South East Asia too.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unlike other parts of India such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderbad -- it's tropical and lush with much less pollution than what you might see in those other parts of India. Somewhat ironically these are relatively low pollution as large cities in India go. There is still a good amount of greenery in Bengaluru (it is famous for it) but obviously far less than a few decades ago, as many residents lament.

Bangalore today is a shadow compared to the Garden City it once was. For outsiders not in the know, Bangalore was famous for its beautiful lakes and the lush greenery around them. It was absolutely something else, finding these beautiful water bodies smack in the middle of what is supposed to be a major city. The weather was cool, almost like a warm European summer (which is extremely cool by Indian standards). Then…

I blame a lot of the cesspoll nature of Bengaluru on over-obsession with living a Silicon Valley lifestlye in the middle of a very dense city. Bengalurians should have been copying East Asian lifestyles where cities which have ancient dense cores rather than the suburban sprawl lifestyles that the US offers. A lot of the architectural and socio-cultural concepts are also much more similar to East Asia than they are to the US.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#236
post #69

y is this on HN first page? by wat measure is Kerala rich? No industries if exports bodies to ME, commie rule for decades atrophied all industry. It's a political hitjob against India central gov, HN should keep its standard above this shitshow

Last I checked, Kerala was still part of India. So why should the central government of India feel jealous about an article praising the indian state of Kerala?

Kerala is "diseased" in its current form of governance, it needs to get help and get better . It is a great disservice to the state and the country to hide the malady and paint an opposite picture just to set up narrative - " that look this state is doing good in spite of rejecting and revolting against the Central govt policies " . This is what propaganda sounds like - for context the narrative that is pushed in Indian context is " poor North draining affluent South resources " - this is not based on facts - where does that lead the country to ? The ruling party of the state of Tamil Nadu is openly pushing racist and xenophobic narrative to the populace .

"... North Indians are dirty and breed like pigs . " is an actual statment made by a sitting state minister . This kind of stuff is still unthinkable in West despite all the bitter politics we are seeing there currently.

There is non-stop propaganda , their ideologues are pushing ideas like India is not a single congruous country it is merely a "collective" or "Union" ( the term they are pushing more and more ) of nations currently in a marriage of convenience. They are allergic to the symbols of our nationhood - the flag , the national anthem and they specifically hate the glue elements of the different cultures in India - "Hinduism" is the cultural substrate and continuum that binds the length and breadth of this subcontinent and these ideologues are rabidly against it .

With each passing day and each article with subliminal propaganda like these they are reinforcing and increasingly saying the quiet part aloud .

They are even promoting discredited historical theories like Aryan Invasion theories and ground their claims of 2 nation/race theory to antiquity ( > 5000 yrs) . The follow the "Motte and Bailey" structure -- Motte being "Social Justice" -- they justify their hate claiming caste atrocity of the last 5000 yrs , but they can easily re-target the raw hate to North Indians and Outsiders at will. They are rushing to appropriate the Indus Valley Civilization as the origin of their race .

They even had a ridiculous commemoration of a statue of the British head of the Archeological Survey of India during the Colonial period in whose tenure the discovery of IVC took place , bypassing all the Indian scholars that worked on the ground and did the actual discovery and analysis - that surely sounds odd for a country with a bitter Colonial history like India ? to give undue credit to the erstwhile masters even when the British didnt claim that individual to be discoverer . The reason is more sinister -- The Indian Scholar - RD Bannerji was a northener and doesnt suit the hateful ideology of this govt .

The biggest tragedy is Indian ruling class and elites are blissfully short-sighted or simply are not gifted enough to fight this ideology that is tearing India apart - India will just disintegrate into warring third world states kept into dirt by the ruling families . India will just produce bodies for the First world , for the low end work and for all sorts of experimentation - a guinea pig farm . A big , dirty slum - a guinea pig farm that's the fate that awaits that await 1.5 B humans - controlled by Compradors from their mansions in West .

Low ambition and self esteem did the people in .

Ofcourse the cleverer ones realize this fate and what's their strategy of survival ? to live off the crumbs from the high table of the Compradors and their master . These clever people are ever anxious to display their loyalty to the Comparadors, they are the middle management of the Comparadors today . The writer of these article - flaunting fancy degrees is one such and the foreign publication is nothing but a step towards their ultimate goal and India's final fate.

To the outsider s - this is a stark reality that you should be aware of , nothing is as simple as it looks like - so before forming an opinion or cheerleading scratch the surface a little .

A propaganda and ideology driven society looks rosy from outside . Many people would have cheered and believed 1930s Germany or the USSR .

In many ways , West is also going through same political cycle but i have more hope for West being able to extricate itself than i have for India . The education , awareness and most importantly a millenia of occupation has bred a different docile mindset in Indian people . This crisis is very unlikely to precipitate leaders in India that can take a hard stand , its more likely for that to happen in West .

Re: How Kerala got rich

#237

The main reason is probably because it is a small state with a majority Christian/Muslim population who work in the Middle East. It allows the state to get to a higher lower income level quickly. But there's very little in terms of actual enterprise in the same way you get in Tamil Nadu or other parts of India. As to why the article is on the front page on HN? Probably because the state has a large diaspora in the Mi…

> why the article is on the front page on HN Maybe because a lot of Malayalis read HN? We are everywhere.

Comparitively there are far more North Indians, Kannadians and Tamils in the IT world.

The bias in much of western media is largely driven by White-Muslim politics in places like Europe, which in turn is driven by corruption from the far-left in various forms (including politicians from places like South Asia and Palestine, and I am not saying that there aren't right wing corruption as well). And yes, a lot of those left-wing politcians who claim to be representiving disadvantaged people are corrupt and creating tension for political gain.

The fact is that much of the progressive politics in South Asia just doesn't fit the narratives being built up by the left-wing in the western world.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#238
post #142
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess my main point is that a communist type govt was not exclusively bad for Kerala since they took a lot of effort to improve education and public health. You can look at other sources to see how good kerala is doing wrt other states but I do agree the article over emphasised the good parts without any hint to it's bad parts

To put this in context, during Covid, hundreds of bodies were being dumped in the Ganges river, buried in shallow graves on the sandbars in states like Uttar Pradesh. The state govt took an active role to remove the grave markers so that an accurate estimate of the numbers could not be ascertained. These were covered by local bloggers, vloggers and news channels. Kerala is one of the few states that managed medical s…

Is that because of the communist government, or simply because the state has a lot of money from the Middle East?

Re: How Kerala got rich

#239
post #69

y is this on HN first page? by wat measure is Kerala rich? No industries if exports bodies to ME, commie rule for decades atrophied all industry. It's a political hitjob against India central gov, HN should keep its standard above this shitshow

Well, we know who this guy is. Something good is said about Kerala and he has to jump in to bring it down.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully Uttarakhand can follow Himachal Pradesh, but it is ravaged by national parties as of now, best case scenario, the new youth leadership of UKD actually wins and does some work

Uttarakhand will not develop unless there are incentives to invest outside of Dehradun. HP doesn't have a "Dehradun", which means local netas have an incentive to invest in their zilla instead of hoarding cash and real estate in a major hub. Thus, Himachal benefited from a Pharma and Food Processing industrial policy in the 1990s-2000s that industrialized the rural area around Baddi and Una, and a lot of other smalle…

Agree on the point of Dehradun, as for the number of MLA's, that is due to the growing concerns of the native Pahadi population. The plain regions of Uttarakhand have been settled by desi people in recent decades and due to the difference in population density and fertility rates, their population is growing more and more. Now the Pahadi people have genuine concerns that everything they fought for during the Uttarakhand Movement will go to waste. And this is already happening, the finance minister of Uttarakhand abused pahadi people in the Vidhan Sabha, thankfully due to many protests, he has resigned. But if plain regions get majority seats, it would give approx 18% of UK the right to govern the entire region!
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