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Written by J. Ajith Kumar
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Monday, 26 April 2004 |
During pre-independence days it used to be “What Bengal thinks today,
India will think tomorrow”. With the advent of a leftist government in
Kerala, it became “What Kerala does today, India will do tomorrow”.
Progressive legislations in land reforms, health and education sectors
placed the Kerala Model on centre stage with many admirers among world
intelligentsia. Seminars followed and reports were prepared on the
newly discovered model for achieving development despite poverty.
Subsequent governments followed the same policies irrespective of their
colors and apparently we did make progress in all fields. But suddenly
we find ourselves in a sinking ship with the much lauded Kerala Model
turning out to be a hollow one. Right now atleast a dozen other states
are far ahead of us in development and everyone knows that all
Keralites in neat & clean dresses are not necessarily rich enough.
Nature has endowed us to be God’s Own Country but we are turning it
around to be Greed’s Own Country.
Kerala has always been a favorite destination for foreigners and in
return, Keralites are fascinating travelers for ever. No wonder we had
the first ‘divine’ conqueror to culturally integrate India in Adi
Sankara (contrast him with the ‘bloody’ conquerors Alexander and
Genghis Khan who killed in thousands to conquer). It was only natural
that we found a relief valve in the Gulf in seventies and eighties when
our small state was reeling under unemployment, poverty and Naxalism.
But for this timely opportunity the history of Kerala would have been a
bloody one by now. Thousands of our educated youth could fetch ready
employment in the Gulf countries (booming with oil industry) was a made
for each other situation. America and Europe supplemented this exodus
by providing opportunities to hundreds of others in specialized
categories. The results are in front of us to see. Things have reached
such a state that about half the population of Kerala has something to
do directly or indirectly with Non-Resident Keralites (NRKs –
pravasis). Except for the ‘adivasis’ and other marginalized sections of
the society, almost all households have someone outside Kerala. The
cult of “pravasi Keralites’ is overwhelming in the social and economic
realms of our lives. It will not be completely out of place to say
“What pravasis do today, residents will do tomorrow”.
Expat Traits
Any person who lives in a foreign country is an expatriate. But in the
Gulf, the term is commonly used only for Western nationals. The entire
labor force is divided into three major categories – Expatriates,
Nationals and TCNs. All the South Asians and Filipinos fall under Third
Country Nationals (TCNs) and other two categories take up the first and
second positions. Qualifications, position or salary do not change
one’s category and it depends solely on the passport. It was a
different ball game for Indians in Europe and USA. But 9/11 has changed
all that for good. The same type of classification will eventually seep
in and all the charm of the ‘melting pot’ is slowly getting drained.
Finger printing and constant surveillance would make the ‘high-tech
coolies’ of the West no different from the ‘low-tech coolies’ in the
Gulf. Already there is talk of making a ‘Coolie Valley’ out of
Bangalore and the recent trend of outsourcing all the lower end IT jobs
to India will make this come true sooner or later.
Wherever they are, expatriates (pravasi) as a group are always
insecure. They have to be not only good in what they do but also have
to keep their temperament if they are to survive in a foreign land.
Given the uncertainties that envelope them, one cannot blame them for
being servile, opportunistic and selfish. These are the traits that can
make or break their careers in a highly competitive environment.
Confined to a very small social domain for years together, it is no
wonder that these very same traits become the group characteristics of
the pravasis as well. The fine art of successful survival forces them
to develop two distinct facets – the front end for their days abroad
and back end for the days at home. In alien lands they are embodiments
of hard work and sweet talk. And at home they put aside all those
qualities for venting their frustrations. It is not uncommon to find
our erstwhile fire spitting trade union leaders laboring it out in the
Gulf without any demur and returnees from Gulf making it to leadership
of political parties advocating right to strike work. Thus pravasi
personalities develop a decorated courtyard and a dirty backyard. Very
rarely we find people who have transparent personalities with no
hypocrisy to expose their dirty backyards to outsiders.
Pravasi Backyard
For a state like Kerala which is fast becoming the collective backyard
of a pravasi crowd, the junks are beginning to pile up. Most of the
educated youth go outside for work and spend their productive years for
betterment of other’s societies. Of course, the individuals earn money
that finds its way to Kerala banks. But all those monies are again used
for generation of wealth and assets outside the state. No new
production centers are coming up in Kerala and all that flourishes are
mere super markets and gold shops. Trading and tourism will never
generate wealth for the state. And growth in services sector will only
boost the coffers but never sustain the socio-economic development of
any society. Kerala has been stamped as an unfriendly state for
investment and it is not going to change in the foreseeable future.
Even those who swear that it is not like that will invest only in
Nagercoil or Coimbatore but never in Trivandrum or Palghat. Current
trend is that all pravasi money is flowing into real estate investments
in Chennai and Bangalore. Barring a house at one’s own home village to
maintain the foothold, no one is willing to invest even in Kerala land.
Another happening in the pravasi backyard is the skewed population
pattern. The educated youth is out of the state and what remains are
only the children and their aged grand parents. These parents have
already done their work and they are back home looking for rest. Both
the children and grand parents are hardly bothered about what is
happening in the society at large. They are in their own worlds. This
gives an unhindered playground for undesirable elements to rise in
leadership in all fields including politics. It is hardly surprising to
note that not even a single good leader has emerged in any political
party in the last two decades. There is sheer dearth of talent and
interest to take the lead in public life.
The pravasi effect is also accelerating many undesirable trends in
Kerala society. All parents want their children to become engineers or
doctors. Gulf money has helped many parents to overcome the old
limitations of meeting heavy capitation fees. With only two children in
each family and most of them becoming doctors or engineers, there will
be strain on the arts and literature that keeps our culture alive.
Malayalam littérateurs of tomorrow will be either part-time efforts or
junkies who couldn’t get through the science stream. The result of such
an input into political arena is presently in front of us to see. Same
fate awaits the vital fields of arts and literature. This can have
serious consequences in our very existence as a distinct culture.
Environment of Kerala is also taking its toll on account of lack of
interest on the part of its inhabitants. Most of our 40 odd rivers are
mere waste water channels during summer. Forests are cut down because
there is crisis of identity among conservators and poachers. Water
table in most parts of Kerala is fast going down and scenes of poor
villagers trekking miles to fetch dirty water (to drink) is haunting.
Pravasis have already started thinking in terms of setting up
desalination plants in their own villages because that is what they are
used to.
Bleak Future
In any way one looks at it, the future of Kerala looks bleak. While
huge inflow of pravasi money has helped sustain Kerala economy for the
last two decades, the direction of growth is not in a sustainable
fashion. Youth of today who should take the lead tomorrow is simply not
available and children of today are disinterested in Kerala. They are
already looking for their productive years outside the state like their
fathers and grand fathers. In the vacuum that is created, the less
brained and short sighted political leadership is taking the state into
easy highways of apparent growth in service sectors like tourism,
higher education and five-star hospitals. It is like building up a huge
hangar without proper foundations. The visual effects will be quite
attractive but consequences can be tragic when a cyclone hits the coast.
The vital question to ask now is whether another Sree Narayana Guru or
Mannam or Ayyankali will come up in the new society that is emerging.
With everyone looking for good life outside the state, the chances are
very little. A degenerating culture with groups of old men interested
in promoting their own agenda will lead us to a blind alley in the not
so distant future. An unexpected development in the world scenario that
will force people back into their own territories may sound retrograde
and unfortunate. But in Kerala’s case this may be the only way to keep
it God’s Own.
– J. Ajith Kumar,March 28, 2004
Reprinted from http://www.boloji.com/opinion/0069.htm
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Sunday, 20 July 2008
