Lessons From Kerala, Hindustan Times

I first went to Kerala in 1993, in the company of the ecologist Madhav Gadgil. We had been asked to speak at a meeting organized by that remarkable peoples’ science organization, the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad. We were received at Ernakulam Railway Station by the zoologist M. K. Prasad, a doyen of the KSSP. Despite his high status in society, Professor Prasad had come by bus, and he dressed very simply, in bush shirt and rubber chappals.

I have been back to Kerala many times. As a histori...