Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
dosulfan, to assist with increasing agricultural outputs throughout the
state. Early state leaders were enthusiastic supporters of India's Green
Revolution. Given the importance of cash crops to the economy, the state
government also exempted several plantations from the new landholding
ceilings imposed by land reforms. Coffee and tea plantations, for example,
were among the exceptions to the five-
to twenty-ive-acre ceilings of the
1963 act.
After building momentum for land redistribution, the Communist-
led
coalitions focused on workers' pensions and labor rights, education, and
health. Herring argues that today the outcome of these reforms and ac-
tions “is an interventionist and welfarist political economy that atempts
to keep the market in its place.”27 The Communist-
led mobilizations and
reforms created new norms and institutional structures that continue to
prioritize redistribution to this day. Several studies have documented that
Kerala's radical leftist activity, such as its land reforms, has improved the
quality of life for people across the state.28
In short, Kerala's social movements and progressive past have been
major contributors to the state's high HDI, as well as its exceptionalism
in development.29 Yet the state's social and political orientation could
not prevent the government's fiscal crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, when
the economy stagnated. Compared to the rest of India, Kerala's share
of national exports fell, agricultural output declined, and growth in its
manufacturing sector slowed. Unemployment also increased.30 Said for-
mer state finance minister Thomas Isaac, in an article with a colleague:
“Kerala is one of the states that did not share in the acceleration of the na-
tional economy from the late 1970s. Not only was the growth rate of SDP
[state domestic product] markedly lower than the national average but it
was also significantly lower than the SDP growth rate achieved during the
previous decade.”31 Kerala's economic slowdown led several scholars of
economics to question whether the state was a true and comprehensive
model for development
and whether or not it could continue to prioritize
redistribution.
People offered a number of explanations for the economic slowdown.
Some political leaders and academics contended that Kerala's Commu-
