---Kettuvallam

-- Motor Launch

-- Chinese Fishing

-- Society

-- Village Procession

-- Coir1

-- Coir2

-- Copra

-- Market

-- Kochi (Cochin)

-- Dance

-- Kovalam

-- Fish Dinner

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-- Copyright © Don Douglas
-- http://www.dondouglas.com

Coir making is a communal activity. In this village, they tend to the trees, harvest the coconuts, soak and pound the husks, and spin the fiber into twine. From there it is carted to a coöperative where the twine is processed. Kerala’s version of “communism” looked to me more like a farm coöp than any “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Perhaps the coöperation between the villages and the state, which functions like an oversized village, helps contribute to the boosterism you find among Keralans for their Land of Green Magic.

When I asked my guide, Suresh, about this egalitarian sense of community, he confidently said that it was due to the maharajas of the old days. “The maharajas in Kerala were different from those in other parts of India, especially those up north. They didn’t build opulent palaces for themselves or wear gaudy finery while their people were in rags... There never has been much class struggle here, so there was no need for a revolution.”