what is Keralas secret?
Development experts have debated for years about whether or not a “Kerala model” exists and, if so, whether or not that model can be exported to other countries or even other Indian states. Whether or not Kerala’s development experience can be categorized and replicated, a few things stand out about its political and economic history. In the first place, the state had a matrilineal and even a matriarchal society, with a line of forward-looking queens that still ruled much of Kerala in the early days of the British Empire. The Queen of Trivandrum, for instance, issued a royal decree in 1817 declaring that “the state should defray the entire cost of the education of its people in order that there might be no backwardness in the spread of enlightenment.” Not until the latter part of the 19th century would countries like Britain and the United States provide such services for their own populations. A single party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), has ruled Kerala for much
