PEOPLE in Kerala enjoy literacy & overall educational levels, fertility control, basic health standards and achievements of political organisation that are the envy of many southern countries.     Still India, but with difference.  Many  visitors are fascinated to see how Kerala people lead the who country in weaving together a tolerant, diverse society incorporating Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Jew and atheist.  Kerala's history reveals waves of cultural influence from the north, south, east and west.  The first people in the world to elect a Marxist government, Kerala remains a place where ordinary communities take up political and social challenges with some sense of idealism.

THIS is despite a substantially under-developed economy. There is little industry in Kerala.   Cash crops like rubber, coffee and coconuts are ever more vulnerable to globalisation as India liberalises its economy.   There are millions of landless labourers who typically work just 100 days in the year.  Kerala is unable to grow enough food to feed its own population.   It relies on its' greatest export - the talented people who work throughout India and abroad, remitting funds to support their relatives at home.

ELSAMMA belongs to the 'dalith' Christian community.   'Dalith' is the word which people from India's lowest castes now use to describe themselves - formerly they might have been described as 'harijans' or 'untouchables'.    Daliths in Kerala converted to Christianity in the 18th Century as a rebellion against their caste status.    Today they remain a poor, marginalised group, most are landless agricultural labourers.    Elsamma has a strong background as social justice and development activist in the dalith community and so can provide guests with a lot of background information in Kerala society today.

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