Kerala’s exceptional human development record is deservedly well known What is less well known, however, is the extent to which this record owes to Travancore’s monarchs Consider these statistics from 1951 (as Amartya Sen has pointed out, this was well before the CPI-M).
I recently discussed Travancore’s performance on the @IdeasofIndia podcast with @srajagopalan. We talked about Sen’s observation that Kerala’s human development owes much to the enlightened policies of its monarchs.
Have a listen here
The most important book to read on Kerala’s historical development still remains Robin Jeffrey’s outstanding, Politics, Women and Well-Being: How Kerala became ‘a Model’
Sadly, it is now out-of-print and needs to be republished. It is a treasure trove!
For more on Madhava Rao and the “Progressive Maharajas” he tried to foster see.
Reposting the 1901 slide As life expectancy wasn’t measured in 1901, I was extrapolating from (doubtful) survival rate data So I’ve replaced that statistic with hospital beds per million (vs Malabar) The broader point being: evidence of early and sustained social investment.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @rahulsagar on June 6, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
