Kerala Benchmark

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Six, Number Six
September/October 1997

Some Definitions

The numbers and variety of life forms which populate Earth are balanced within the ecosystem. All life forms and all physical aspects of Earth share in this balancing process. As we look at any one life form, we may observe that it grows in numbers to fill its niche. The maximum size of that niche is the largest amount of throughput which the ecosystem allows that life form. Throughput is ordered matter and energy — sunlight, air, water, and most life forms (natural resources) taken from Earth's ecosystem by humans, run through the digestive tract of human civilization, and returned to the ecosystem in a disordered condition which the ecosystem allows that form.

Zero Throughput Growth (ZTG) is an annual amount of throughput which has a top limit and does not increase. This amount is defined as being sustainable when the throughput is within the range of Earth's ecosystem to regenerate itself, to convert on a continuing basis the human high-entropy wastes of energy and matter into low entropy matter and energy (Daly's steady state, 1991).

Zero Population Growth (ZPG) is a number of humans which does not increase above a top limit. At zero population growth, the number of births is balanced by an equal number of deaths. In stable societies — in and out migration being equal — ZPG can be measured as a Total Fertility Rate of 2 or less. In the recent two centuries humans have been very successful in increasing the size of their niche. Nevertheless at some future date zero throughput will force zero population growth for humans.

We have learned that when the wellbeing (contentment, happiness) of human societies reaches and surpasses some minimum level, instead of the death rate rising to match the birth rate, the birth rate declines to match the death rate. We have also learned that wellbeing is created in a process combining a non-material element, human thought and activity, with materials, matter and energy.

In first world countries we are not accustomed to speak of wellbeing. Instead we speak of welfare (per capita incomes within a society, which create standards of living; an economist's term for average incomes). Gross national product is used in standard economics to compare the welfare of one nation with another.

Like the first world, in India the focus is on per capita income, but unlike the first world, per capita throughput has declined to the level of zero throughput growth. The throughput (natural resources) available for the human niche of India is fully utilized. The level of wellbeing is too low to encourage Indian parents to choose small families. The product of this low wellbeing wrapped in welfare is India's growing population.

How is Kerala different?

With a population of 29 million, Kerala is a small, densely populated state in the Republic of India. The capital is Trivandrum. Its major sea port is Cochin. Malayalam and English are its languages. Stretching for 360 miles along the Malabar coast of the Arabian Sea, on the southwest side of the subcontinent, Kerala has always been open to foreign influences, and somewhat isolated from the rest of India by the mountains of the Western Ghats. Averaging 118 inches of rainfall annually, it exports spices, coconuts, fish and rice.

The following table of 1996 data comparing India as a whole and three of India's 25 states (Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh) shows the striking differences between Kerala and the others. In Kerala's population there are more females than males, as in the first (industrialized) world. Infant mortality rate is one fifth that of India as a whole. Life expectancy is higher. Male literacy rate is 94% and female literacy rate is 86% . Total fertility rate is 1.8 (zero population growth). On the other hand, the economic growth per capita in Kerala is 0.3%, much less than India as a whole.

Comparative Data for India and Three States Within India, selected from the statistical appendix of Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, *Economic and Social Opportunity*, Oxford University Press, 1996.
	INDIA	Kerala	West Bengal	Uttar Pradesh
Females per 100 males	93	104	92	88
Infant mortality rate	79	17	66	98
Female life expectancy	59	74	62	55
Male life expectancy	59	69	61	57
Female literacy rate	39%	86%	47%	24%
Male literacy rate	64%	94%	68%	56%
Economic growth	3.1%	0.3%	2.5%	2.2%
Total fertility rate	3.7	1.8	3.2	5.1
Population, millions	884	29	68	139

The Kerala phenomenon is explained by the state's cultural history. Religious toleration and gender balance have led to the demise of the oppressive and rigid caste system. Low infant mortality rate, high literacy rates which have led to efficient distribution of knowledge, and a sustainable use of natural resources, have produced a high degree of wellbeing, in spite of low per capita income. The birth rate has declined to match the death rate, resulting in zero population growth.

Religious Tolerance and Gender Balance

Gender balance and appreciation of feminine values has been consistently maintained for hundred of years in Kerala through the matrilineal inheritance system, while in the rest of India power relationships shifted to patriarchal domination. The patriarchal changes introduced into the religions of India, manifested in the creation of caste structures, did not penetrate with full force into Kerala. Two threads reach into the depths of Kerala history and suggest a background for the Kerala differences.

The first is the continued importance of the Hindu mother goddess, Bhadrakali, supporting female values against the patriarchy of caste. Teyyam is a combination of dance, music and ritual still performed in poor villages to assure the prosperity of villages and persons seeking divine blessing of Bhadrakali. A second thread reaching through Kerala history is Buddhism, the dominant religion of nearby Sri Lanka. The ritual egalitarianism of Buddhism contradicts the Hindu practice of caste.

Thanks to seafaring traders from Mediterranean countries visiting the Malabar coast, Kerala has had long exposure to Christianity and Islam. A Syrian Christian community was established in 190 A.D. The power of the Christian community was augmented by the British raj in the 18th century, accompanied by the evangelism of the London Missionary Society. As in the rest of India, conversions came largely from among those with no caste status to lose, the Untouchables.

The Christians saw caste as a heathen institution and taught their outcaste constituents a fresh, revolutionary concept — equality before God. Secondly, the evangelical Christians promoted health care and universal education for all castes and for both sexes. The example of Christian-sponsored education was quickly taken up by Hindus and Moslems, creating a highly literate population.

In 19th century Kerala, the Nambudiris (super-Brahmins, the priestly caste) owned and ruled the land, using lower caste Nairs as warriors and administrators. The mercantile, trading and shopkeeping functions were carried out by the Moslems and Christians.

Most members of the lower castes were menial workers, the Ezhavas. Ritually the Ezhavas were clearly separated from the Nairs. Like the Untouchables, the Ezhavas were excluded from the temples and otherwise treated as a polluting caste.

In the patriarchal Nambudiri Brahmin family system only the oldest son was allowed to marry and inherit family property. In contrast to this patriarchy, the Nair families followed the ancient Malayalee matrilineal system. Family property was held in common and inherited through the female line. The appreciation of the Nair matrilineal customs (offensive to the patriarchal tenets of British land law), even among the poorest with no property to inherit, as well as among the Moslems and Christians, reflects a common heritage, an appreciation of balanced male and female values.

Empowerment of the Oppressed and Demise of Caste

As India began to move toward institutions of democratic government in the 20th century, the Brahmins and Nairs accounted for one fifth of all Malayalees. Outside this power elite stood four fifths of the Kerala population, roughly divided into Christians, Moslems, the low-caste Ezhavas and the Untouchables. During the 1930s the non-violent struggle of the Ezhava Social Reform Movement included the great temple entry marches which led to a 1936 proclamation compelling the opening of Hindu temples to all Hindus.

The India independence movement for parliamentary democracy, led by Mahatma Gandhi, plus communist attacks on caste oppression as an evil associated with British imperialism, bore fruit together in Kerala. In their struggle for their right to worship in Hindu temples, the oppressed castes had overcome the Hindu power elite.

The major change event in 20th-century Kerala (and not in India) was the destruction of caste in all of its economic and political applications, including ownership of land. Most important was the freeing of the flow of knowledge across the boundaries of castes and multitude of subcastes, and between Hindus and others. This large knowledge flow in Kerala is the main explanation for the efficient distribution of goods and services, creating the high wellbeing of Kerala.

The Kerala Benchmark

We have defined the Kerala Benchmark: the lowest known per capita use of natural resources (close to zero throughput growth) in a large society which has a Total Fertility Rate of less than 2 (true throughout Kerala). This benchmark is an optimal scale of the economic subsystem, the scale beyond which further conversion of natural into manmade capital costs us more in terms of natural capital services lost, than it benefits us in terms of manmade capital services gained (Daly 1994).

Appreciation of feminine values in the society encourages lateral knowledge flow and undermines hierarchical restrictions on it, thus increasing the nurturing of all the small communities in Kerala. It is this, in addition to religious tolerance and democratic government — not economic growth — that has increased the wellbeing of the society, and explains the low fertility rate of Kerala.