Re: Kerala

[djones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (rakesh bhandari)]

>Wasn'tthere a special issue of Monthly Review devoted to Kerala sometime
>in the last few (maybe five?) years? --Justin

Hi Justin:

Yes there was.  As I read through it sometime back, I think I remember
reading a piece by a M Rao (?) who pointed to the beneficient impact of the
remittances from the migrant oil proletariat in the Middle East.  That is,
he suggested that some of the progress in Kerala was due to such external
factors, not only the land reforms which I believe he argued was not as
radical as usually claimed.

I think Louis mentioned that there was a book by Food First.  It is by
Franke and Chasin, but I haven't read it in years.

Oh, another point: A little while back Amartya Sen gave a talk here at
Berkeley on population policies in the 20th century.  He outlined a
comparison between China's repressive attempts to slow population growth
and Kerala's more radical and especially more feminist measures.  I think
he also made this argument the New York Review of Books in December of 1994
or January of 1995.



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