Here is a peep into the undercurrent of social and economic changes currently on in God’s Own Country. These changes are a long haul but are on track and the result, I am sure, will be a more evolved, more mature and better-balanced society- one where sectarianism and playing to the vote bank politics would vanish forever.
Kerala would be a case study with possible fallout across India.
Let us open the magic chest and see the what and the how of these changes. Kerala society has evolved over the past century and more. The changes have become more rapid and intense in recent decades. All for good, from a sociological point of view.
Though equality was always present in the leftist sloganeering in the heartland of Kerala, the pathbreaking changes in the fields of education, health and community development were due to a combination of factors, not all linked to the leftist thought stream and its influence on the educated class.
Colonial education, Christian missionaries and a Royalty with pro-western bias all contributed to the spread of affordable public education into the interiors of Kerala. This along with the leftist influence and the underlying proletarian sympathies made the ground for an equitable society.
The proselytization by the Christian church emboldened lower castes to rebel and break the chains of servitude. It is a different matter that when people moved to Christianity, many of them, from high and low classes, carried their biases and prejudices with them!
Communist inroads into the villages also immensely contributed to the empowerment of the downtrodden. The rebelliousness brought with it a trail of disruption and discord, but these were inevitable.
A major social change happened with the surging emigration. The Christians were the first to move to where the opportunity was in India and abroad. There was a visible demonstration effect of this and in the Central Travancore area, many Hindus, especially from Nair and Ezhava communities also took to emigration. This brought in the first wave of prosperity, remittances and upward mobility.
The decisive and emphatic spread of ascendancy in the rural society came with the Gulf boom and the demand for low and medium-skilled jobs aplenty in the GCC countries of the Middle East. This phase saw for the first time massive migration and consequent uplift of the Muslim population. They had missed the first emigration wave but that was compensated emphatically by the Gulf-induced flow of workers.
Another development over the past decades has been the independence and assertion of the middle-class Christians who ceased to be silent herds and instead morphed into demanding followers who would question injustice and misgovernance in the church. The Christian community at large are today at a higher level in the social maturity curve.
As for economic changes, we find Kerala’s economy having three subterranean community-anchored levels of Hindu, Christian and Muslim segments, each at different levels of ascendancy in incomes, employment, remittances, business proneness and wealth creation. There is competition and an urge to bridge the gap. It is largely a healthy trend in social development.
Socially, the Muslim community of Kerala with better education and higher aspirations is now at a take-off stage that is comparable to where the Christians largely were a few decades back.
Over the next few years, I foresee a sure upgradation of the independence, assertion and aspirational thrust in the Muslim community too. As a result, by 2047, when we celebrate our century of Independence, Kerala society will have gone past the sectarian divide. Ambition, drive, global aspirations and indifference to religious divisiveness would be well and truly part of our collective culture.
Such a transformed Kerala potentially can be the pole star to guide the national upswing to an egalitarian, inclusive society. In that society, I hope personal life and individual choices will not be coloured by the overhang of religious bigotry. Politics and religion would be demarcated by a lakshman rekha that would be respected by all as impregnable.
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