(coming soon)
Society
The fact that the children ask for pens makes a comment on Keralan society. The state has the highest literacy rate in India — said to be over 90 percent and still climbing — as well as India’s lowest birth rate, highest life expectancy, least inter-religious quarreling, highest per-capita income, highest percentage of population owning land, and a host of other social superlatives. The citizens of “The Land of Green Magic” are justly proud of their state, and unabashed boosterism is rampant.
There have been Christians in Kerala for virtually the entire 2,000 years of the religion’s history (beginning with the arrival of the disciple, Thomas). Jews have been on the Malabar Coast half a millennium longer (note 16th-century synagogue, in the lower left of the picture set).
The maharajas of Kerala had a very egalitarian approach to the populace, in contrast to other parts of India, which is just another of the factors that make Kerala such a mellow place.
