Comment by gjkood
10 years ago
For anyone interested, Kerala is a small state in the southern tip of India. It has a huge historical importance to Western Civilization. You could almost say (I may be exaggerating a little bit) that the America's were discovered by the Europeans in its effort to find a cheaper route to the produce and wealth of the Indies. Kerala is home to the Malabar Hills or what is commonly called the Spice Coast of India.
Kerala is where most of the spices such as Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves etc have been grown for centuries. The ports of Kerala, Calicut (Kozhikode) has been the main gateway of trade all the way back to the Phoenicians.
BTW, as HN visitors, you may be interested in the fact that Kerala is now also home to a vibrant Startup culture. Just in the last few months, Menlo Park and Kochi (the city mentioned in the article) has announced that they are going to be sister cities.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/kochi-to-sign-sist...
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-10/news...
Now back to the article being discussed. Some of the factors that made this case possible are the fact that the key players who were being exploited are from Kerala. This may seem strange but let me explain.
Kerala, along with West Bengal, can be considered as two of the most intellectually forward states of India. By that I mean, very high literacy (almost 100%) and as a result of that a very keen awareness of when they are exploited and have a fierce willingness to fight all forms of injustice. Communism is a very bad word in America, but it has helped these two states rise up from the feudal system that was prevalent in these states and is still prevalent in most of the poorest states in India. The downsides of a Communist approach (militant labor) is very evident in these States also, as being the worst states to create a labor based business in. The day after you start a business there, you can be guaranteed that labor will start an agitation and bring the business to its knees.
The article also mentions the attempted suicide, which is also one of of the disturbing aspects of life in Kerala. The state is very affluent compared to other states, but there is huge social pressure (perceived or otherwise) that forces people to take extreme measures to avoid failure. Whole family suicides are not unheard of if something bad happens.
Thanks to the effort of the tragic few who were willing to stand up to the exploiters and risk everything to bring this to court. Their efforts will have an impact far beyond their own.
This is one of the reasons that I try and contribute to organizations like the ACLU whenever I can. Henceforth I shall do the same for the SPLC.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who will guard the guards themselves).
> You could almost say (I may be exaggerating a little bit) that the America's were discovered by the Europeans in its effort to find a cheaper route to the produce and wealth of the Indies.
Isn't that what is normally taught in schools?
This strange history is poetically recalled by Salman Rushdie in the first pages of The Moor's Last Sigh:
I repeat: the pepper, if you please; for if it had not been for peppercorns, then what is ending now in East and West might never have begun. Pepper it was that brought Vasco de Gama's tall ships across the ocean, from Lisbon's Tower of Belém to the Malabar Coast: first to Calicut and later, for its lagoon harbor, to Cochin.
English and French sailed in the wake of that first-arrived Portugee, so that in the period called Discovery-of-India -- but how could we be discovered when we were not covered before? -- we were 'not so much sub-continent as sub-condiment', as my distinguished mother had it. 'From the beginning, what the world wanted from bloody mother India was daylight-clear,' she'd say. 'They came for the hot stuff, just like any man calling on a tart.'
As someone who lived in Kochi for six months in 2004 when I was 19, I find this really interesting.
Do you live there now?
I remember we were going to leave Kochi and go for a trip to Munnar (the hills where all the spices grow and tea estates are), but on that day the labor unions had declared 'hartal', which was somekind of statewide halt which meant that if you were driving on the road that day, it was open season for people to throw rocks at your car.
Our guide just wiggled his head, smiled and said that we'd be fine :) And we were. Saw no signs of rock-thowers by the road. But instead our chauffeur drove like a maniac up those hills in that old Ambassador, and I didn't have any medical insurance at that time. That's when I learned the art of praying :D
I don't live there but I do have family there and try to visit whenever I can.
Hartals, an effective non-violent form of protest against British occupation, is a double edged sword. Now its mainly used to bring the country or state to its knees. If there is any violence it is usually politically motivated or by militant student movements. It is a weapon used by both the left and right sides of the political spectrum. But generally non-violent.
Bad driving unfortunately is universal. I wouldn't risk driving there myself.
What's interesting is that Kerala was the first state to ban Bandhs (a decision upheld by the Supreme Court). A similar measure to enact a total ban on Hartals failed.