India’s central government views the state of Kerala with suspicion and disdain. Politicians from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) often present it as an internal, fifth-columnist enemy.
Kerala has for decades been a vital heartland of the country’s communist movement. Despite its increasingly isolated status, the state continues to regularly vote for the communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), most recently in 2021. The year 2021 was the LDF’s sixth election victory since 1980, and the first time it won two consecutive terms.
What is it that has made the movement so enduringly successful at a time when Indian politics has veered sharply to the right at a national level? And are there lessons for the international left to learn?
Fort Kochi is a sultry Kerala fishing port on the Laccadive Sea, where egrets tread carefully through the surf and vendors wait in the shade of giant banyan trees for takers. They are selling ice cream, fruit juice, chaat, or sliced pineapple scattered with chilli powder.
The humid still of afternoon is cut by beckoning calls from the fishermen, poised high in the precarious scaffolding of their bamboo fishing nets. Curious tourists watch them, waiting for a demonstration of their craft. Ming Dynasty admiral and diplomat Zheng He first brought the nets they cast here in 1410.
When Zheng He arrived, foreigners had already been visiting the Malabar Coast since the time of the ancient Sumerians, including Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks. The Romans were particularly keen on the…
Auteur: Ben Morris
