ThirdWorld Quarterly, Vol 17, No 5, pp 941± 957, 1996

The` Keralamodel’ of development: developmentand sustainability in the Third World

GOVINDANPARAYIL

If achievingradical reductions in infant mortality and population growth rates andeliminating acute poverty without signi® cantly eroding the ecological balanceare corroboratingevidence for practising ` sustainabledevelopment’ , thenthe Indian state of should be counted as anearly example of a state/societywhich practises ` sustainabledevelopment’ . Althoughserious re¯ection on an idea called ` sustainabledevelopment’ was invogue earlier, 1 it was onlyafter the publication in 1987 of the World Commission on Environ- mentand Development (or Brundtland Commission) Report known as Our CommonFuture thatthe concept achieved programmatic shape and international recognition. 2 However,the de® nition of the concept was vagueand it was couchedin controversial concepts like economic growth borrowed from neoclas- sicaleconomics. I willnot attempt a critiqueof the received views of sustainable developmentin this paper. 3 Myobjective, however, is tooffer an alternative examinationof theconcept by arguingthat, rather than following a metaphysical approachof postulating a priori howsustainable development ought to be practised,it is betterto follow a practicallyre¯ exive approach of looking for a paradigmaticcase ofa stateor society that has some characteristicfeatures of whatmight be deemed sustainable development. The idea then is topropose waysto improve that prototype to bringit closer to theideational content of the conceptof sustainable development, and then explicate ways to replicate it elsewhere.I willargue that, despite its limitations, the ` Keralamodel’ of developmentshould be counted as apossibleidealisation of a sustainable developmentparadigm. TheIndian state of Kerala, with a populationof 29 million (larger than Canada’s), has becomean enigma to analysts of international development, socialprogress and peaceful social change in the Third World. In less than30 years,Kerala has madea transitionfrom a societywith high infant mortality rates,high fertility and population growth rates, and a highcrude death rate to onewith a lowinfant mortality rate, very low population growth, 4 and a low crudedeath rate. According to recentestimates, Kerala has achievedaverage life expectancyof 74 years forwomen (Indian average, 60 years) and71 years for men(Indian average, 59 years), an infant mortality rate of 16.5 per thousand

GovindanParayil, Division of SocialScience, HongKong University ofScience andTechnology, Clear Water Bay,Kowloon, Hong Kong.

0143-6597/96/050941-17$6.00 Ó 1996Third World Quarterly 941 GOVINDAN PARAYIL

(Indianaverage, 91) and almost full literacy. 5 Whilethere are 1040females per thousandmales inKerala, there are only928 women per thousand males atthe nationallevel. 6 Whilegrowth-based and planned development programmes did notmake a dentin reducing poverty, population growth, inequalities in income andresource distribution, and ecological destruction in the Third World, Kerala has stoodout in demonstrating through democratic means thatradical improve- mentsin the quality of life of ordinary citizens are possiblewithout high economicgrowth and without consuming large quantities of energy and other naturalresources. Althoughthe intellectual roots of the Kerala model of development may be tracedto modernisation theory, its programmatic content and ideological basis, andthe human and physical resources tocarry out the project, were indigenously developedand mobilised. The project was carriedout under great constraints; furthermore,the state had to manoeuvre within the limited autonomy guaranteed bythe Indian federal structure for mobilising economic and political resources. Infact, the development work of the state was severelyhampered by hostile Congress-ledfederal governments until recently. The roadblocks of development includednon-disbursement of eligible central funds for development projects, anderection of bureaucratic barriers to implementing programmes like land reforms andfood distribution to the needy through fair price shops. 7 It is being arguedthat it is verymuch a newmodel of development that came aboutas a resultof the unique historical experience and agency of the Third World. It bodeswell for other states inIndia and many Third World nations to pay attentionto the lessons fromKerala in order to follow a newdevelopment path thatwas chartedwithin the South, especially given the lack of a credible alternative.As SamirAmin, re¯ ecting on Kerala’ s achievementscomments: ` it isincorrectto thinkthat nothing can be doneuntil revolution, and that until then ªtheworst is thebestº . Onthe contrary, there is roomfor progressive reforms ¼whichtherefore has tobe spelled out’ . 8

Abrief socioeconomicand political sketch ofKerala Keralais oneof 25 constituent states ofthe Indian union. It occupies 1.18% of thetotal land area ofIndia with a populationof 29 million, which is 3.43%of thetotal population of at the 1991 census. 9 Keralacame intoexistence in 1956by integrating the -speaking former princely states ofTravan- coreand Cochin and the of the British constituted province of Madras.Kerala is atropicalland of some 38850 square kilometres (about 15 000square miles) in area, situated on the southwestern tip of the Indian subcontinent.The population distribution of Kerala, according to religious af® liationsby birth is: 57%Hindus, 21.5% Christians, 21% Muslims, and the remaining0.5% Buddhists, animists, and others. 10 Witha populationdensity of 747persons per square kilometres, Kerala has becomeone of the most densely populatedregions in the world. Thepopulation growth rate in Kerala during the 1950s was thehighest in India,but by the 1970s the rate had become the lowest in the country. 11 The populationgrowth rate fell from 44 per1000 in the1950s to 18per1000 in 1991 942 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1 Infant mortalityrate (per 1000)

YearKerala India

1951 128 140 1961 94 129 1971 61 114 1981 34 110 1991 16.5a 91

a16.5is theaverage of17 for male and16 forfemale infants.

TABLE 2 Birthrate (per 1000)

YearKerala India

1951 44 40 1961 39 41 1971 32 37 1981 26 34 1991 18 30

(lowerthan ’ s 19per 1000), and Kerala’ s populationas apercentageof India’s fellfrom 3.88% in 1971 to 3.44% in 1991. 12 Whatis remarkableis that thisreduction was achievedvoluntarily and without any coercion. The success ofKerala in bringing about radical reductions in population growth rate, and improvingother indicators of progressive social change, occurred because the policiesthat brought about these changes were implemented without coercion by democraticallyelected popular state governments. argues that Chinacould have achieved its population targets without resorting to draconian coercivemeasures, hadits leadership followed non-coercive persuasion through theinstruments of democracy by guaranteeing the political rights and freedom tochoose of its people, as thecase was inKerala. 13 By1985, the population growthrate of Kerala stabilised to a demographicreplacement level net repro- ductionrate ( NRR) of 1.14 Kerala’s femaleto male ratio is 1.04to 1 as opposed totheIndian average of 0.93to 1 andChina’ s 0.94to 1. 15 Tables1 to5highlight theindicators of social progress of Kerala contrasted with the Indian average duringthe past four decades. WhileKerala has achievedalmost full literacy, the average Indian literacy rate islittleover half of Kerala’ s. Keralaboasts the largest consumption of newspa- pers,magazines and books per capita in India.Per capitaspending on healthcare andeducation in Kerala is thehighest among all the states, which translates into highindicators of social development. According to Franke & Chasin,by thelate 1970s, Kerala ranked number one in 15 out of 21 selected infra- 943 GOVINDAN PARAYIL

TABLE 3 Lifeexpectancy at birth: (in years)

Year Kerala India Female MaleFemale Male

1951 45 43 32 33 1961 50 48 41 42 1971 61 60 45 46 1981 68 64 50 51 1991 74 71 60 59

TABLE 4 Literacyrate (%)

Year Kerala India Female MaleFemale Male

1951 32 50 8 25 1961 46 65 13 34 1971 63 77 19 40 1981 76 88 30 56 1991 87 95 39 64

structuraland basic services amongall Indian states, as indicatedin Table 6. Asigni®cant facet of Kerala’ s highsocial development is thatit came about despitevery low per capita income. The meaninglessness of incomeand GDP per capitaas measures ofsocioeconomic development become obvious when we comparethese ® guresfor different states withinIndia. States with per capita incomehigher than that of Kerala fared very badly in social indicators of development(see Table7), which clearly shows the inadequacy of income per capita as the measure of` development’.16 Indicatorsof development, such as PhysicalQuality of Life Index ( PQLI)andHuman Development Index ( HDI) measure `development’relatively better than economic growth indicators like GDP per capita.17 In1991± 92, the state of Punjab, with more than twice the per capita income ofKerala, had 33 PQLI pointsless thanthat of Kerala. Kerala’ s PQLI was 53 pointsmore than the all-India average, while the national income was about one-®fth more than Kerala’ s. AnthropologistRichard Franke calculated that, whileKerala had a PQLI of82 in 1981, the USA indexstood at 96. 18 Also, the HDI ofKerala was morethan twice the national average. While the HDI was 0.925 forthe USA in1994, Kerala stood at 0.775, with a percapita income about one-hundredthof the former. 19 Averyimportant facet of Kerala’ s developmentwas thatthe achievements mentionedearlier were effected through peaceful and democratic means. Elec- tionsare heldregularly and both leftists and centrists are electedto of® ce. The leftistand socialist governments that governed the state were responsible for 944 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT

TABLE 5 Sexratio in population: (females/ 1000males)

YearKerala India

19511028 946 19611022 941 19711016 930 19811034 935 19911040 928

Sourcesfor Tables 1 to5 : L Gulati, Fisherwomenon the KeralaCoast: Demographic andSocio-economic Impact of a Fisheries DevelopmentProject , Geneva: InternationalLabour Of® ce, 1994;B APrakash, `Demographictrendsin Kerala’ ; Kannan, et al., Healthand De- velopmentof RuralKerala ; V K Ramachandran,` Anoteon Ker- ala’ sdevelopmentachieve- ments’ ;AKSen,` Populations’ and` Freedomsand needs’ ; SN Agarwala (ed), India’s Popu- lation:Some Problems in Per- spective Planning , Westport, CT:GreenwoodPublishers, 1975;B Ghosh, The Indian PopulationProblem: A House- holdApproach , New Delhi: SagePublications; R HCassen, India:Population, Economy, Society,New York:Meier Pub- lishers;and World Bank, World DevelopmentReport 1993 , New York:Oxford University Press. implementingsome ofthemost comprehensive land reform and other redistribu- tiveprogrammes outside the communist world. The elimination of absentee landlordsand the return of land to the tiller was thekey feature of the land reformprogramme. The most notable part of the land reform and redistributive programmewas theright given to the tenants of the households to retain full ownershipof their dwellings plus full title to one-tenth of an acre ofthe house-compoundland. 20 Somesurplus land, mostly rice ® elds,appropriated from largeland-holders was distributedto thepeasants as well.The land reforms were enacteddespite ferocious opposition from reactionary landowners and religious groups,and a hostileCongress-led central government. 21 Thestate government spentlarge amounts of the state budget for primary and secondary education, healthcare, immunisation, agricultural credits and housing targeted at poor citizensof thestate. One of themost widely cited reasons forthe improvements inthe quality of life of poor Keralans is attributedto the establishment of 945 GOVINDAN PARAYIL

TABLE 6 Provisionof selectedbasic services among all Indian states, by the late1970s

Percentageof villages covered Feature Kerala’s rankin Kerala inall-India

Withintwo kilometres All-weather roads 1 98 46 Bus stops 1 98 40 Post of® ces 1 100 53 Primaryschools 1 100 90 Secondaryschools 1 99 44 Fair-priceshops 1 99 35 Health dispensaries 1 91 25 Health centres 1 47 12 Within® ve kilometres Highereducation 1 97 21 facilities Hospitals 1 78 35 Fertiliserdepots 1 93 44 Agriculturalpump 1 65 19 repair shops Veterinarydispensaries 1 82 45 Creditcooperative banks 1 96 61 Commercial banks 1 96 40 Seed stores 2 63 40 Railway stations 8 23 18 Inthe village Drinkingwater 5 96 93 Electricity 3 97 33

Source:RWFranke& BHChasin, Kerala:Radical Reform as Developmentin an IndianState , p 13. fair-priceor ` rationshops’ through which essential staples were made available atsubsidised rates. School lunch and feeding programmes have also helped to improvethe nutritional standards of youngchildren. 22 Aspartof theland reform programmes,the state government introduced a comprehensiveAgricultural WorkersReform Act in the 1970s that provided permanency for labourers attachedto the farms, aprovidentfund and old age pensions, greatly reduced hoursof work(between six and eight hours per day), scheduled breaks, tea and lunch,and a minimumwage which is thehighest in India. 23 Theevolution of a coalitionof tenants, landless labourers and industrial workers into an active labourmovement (which has stakeda claimin the governance of the state) facilitatedthrough democratic institutions has becomean enduring feature of the radicalisationof the working class movementin Kerala. 24 Besides activelytaking part in electoral politics, large number of Keralans haveshown an interest in social movements and NGOsworkingin the areas of environmentalprotection, culture and education. The well-organised citizens movementmay be a directindication of the dialectical relationship between improvedliteracy (which again is aresultof the active participation of social 946 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT

TABLE 7 PQLI, HDI andper capita state domesticproduct (SDP)for15 major Indian states forthe year1991

States PQLI HDI SDP (Rupees)

AndraPradesh 42.700.3397 5570 Assam 44.030.2542 4230 Bihar 18.170.1334 2904 Gujarat 58.380.5453 6425 Haryana 55.680.5995 8690 Karnataka 39.550.4772 5555 Kerala 89.110.7749 4618 MadhyaPradesh 16.08 0.1863 4077 Maharashtra 53.270.6430 8180 Orissa 6.70 0.2132 4068 Punjab 66.280.7115 9643 Rajastan 28.410.2294 4361 Tamil Nadu 48.090.4873 5078 Uttar Pradesh 15.390.1095 4012 48.310.4176 5383 All-India 36.140.3974 5424

Source: EPW Research Foundation,` Socialindicatorsof develop- mentÐ II’ , Economicand Political Weekly ,21May 1994, pp1300± 1308. The sdp values are at currentprices forthe year 1991±92. movementslike the Kerala Sastra SahityaParishad or KSSP (aboutwhich more later)and other NGOsengagedin literacy promotion, environmental protection andrural development campaigns among the population), 25 andthe deepening of democratictraditions and values in the civil society of Kerala. Parallel lessons canbe drawn between the development of civic traditions in postwar Northern Italythat Putnam describes, 26 andthat of Kerala’s. Therole of socialmovements inKerala’ s socioeconomicdevelopment needs to be emphasised in the descrip- tionof the Kerala model. One of the most active social movements which organisesenvironmental conservation, science and literacy popularisation cam- paignsis the KSSP,whichmay be loosely translated into English as Kerala Scienti®c LiteracySociety. 27 Armedwith a campaigntheme of ` sciencefor socialrevolution’ , the KSSP urgesthe government to adopt a `prudent’appli- cationof science and technology for development. The measure ofsuccess the KSSP has hadin in¯ uencing development policies to follow an environmentally sounddevelopment path is borneout by its ability to stop or modify numerous ecologicallycontroversial industrial and energy projects. 28

Kerala,a modelof sustainable development? Althoughthe development literature is repletewith suggestions as tohow sustainabledevelopment ought to be practised, no coherent articulation of the theoryand no easily implementable method of achieving it can be found. Sustainabledevelopment may soon become another rhetorical ¯ ourishin the vast 947 GOVINDAN PARAYIL developmentliterature. Analysts of environment and development seem tohave unre¯exively developed their own criteria of sustainability. It is categorisedas aconditionto be achieved ex ante withoutrealising that a state/societycan be judgedto be following a sustainablepath only ex postfacto .Whatis urgently neededis tolook for a case whereit is beingpractised (even in a minimalist sense) inorder to make further improvements and a possiblereplication of the modelelsewhere after making modi® cations based on particular contextual factors. Themost widely accepted de® nition of sustainable development is `develop- mentthat meets theneeds of the present without compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their own needs’ . 29 Theobvious emphasis here is on intergenerationalequity, while intragenerational equity becomes secondary in importance.This legitimates an interventionist, and thus, a globalmanagement thrustto addressing global development and environmental problems. 30 The WorldCommission on Environment and Development goes on to claim that `{W}esee ¼thepossibility of a newera ofgrowth, one that must be based on policiesthat sustain and expand the environmental resource base. And we believesuch growth to be absolutely essential to relieve the great poverty that is deepeningin much of the world.’ 31 Theover-emphasis on economic growth is implicitin the Commission’ s prescriptionfor attaining sustainable develop- ment.32 Itisnotclaimed that growth itself is bad,although it can be shown(e.g. inBrazil, Mexico and Venezuela) that countries which continue to promote policiesfor achieving growth by anymeans, without prioritising social develop- ment,tend to experience hyperin¯ ation and other economic woes. This skewed developmentthus hurts the poor and those on constant wages because of structuralproblems like extreme inequalities in income and wealth distribution. Economicgrowth policies practised through export-led development are having adevastatingeffect on the environment, particularly the disappearance of rain forests inmany countries. Growth policies that led to indiscriminate borrowing bythe previous military regimes in Brazil and the Philippines forced these countriesto turn to their tropical forests fortimber and minerals as sources for earningexport income to pay off huge debts owed to foreign banks. 33 Normativeand methodological critiques of are le- gion.34 Thedevelopment theory embedded in sustainable development models containsthe same positivisticand metaphysical assumptions that neoclassical economicstakes for granted, such as value-neutralmarket mechanisms, pollution as anunavoidable externality of industrialisation which is outsidethe cost function,private property as anaturalcategory as opposedto a particular arrangementof social valuation, capital accumulation, and wealth and income inequalitiesas naturalisedstimulants of economic activities and institutional legitimation.Instead of adjusting the economic models to ® tthesociocultural andenvironmental realities of ThirdWorld societies, the people there are blamed fornot achieving sustainable development because of `populationexplosion’ and consumingtheir ` ecologicalcapital’ , supposedlywithout any concern for inter- generationalequity. 35 Aseriousde® ciency of theof® cial development qua sustainabledevelopment policyis itsneglect of the political± economic dimensions of the international 948 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT developmentdebate. It shouldlocate sustainable development within the locus of theglobal economic trajectories rooted in speci® c historically-basedsocial and politicalformations of modern nation-states, and the adverse post-colonial economicrelationship maintained between the states oftheNorth and the South. Ameaningfulsustainable development policy should locate the international linkagesbetween the transfer of capital,labour and natural resources, and should attemptto correct the unequal exchange practices between the two spheres. Formulatinga sustainabledevelopment policy without paying attention to the structuralrigidities and the exploitative relationship between economic agents withcontradictory class interestswithin the Third World and between the Third Worldand the economic powers of the North leads only to the exacerbation of theiniquitous international economic order. Besides thesepolitical± economic considerations,sustainable development projects should pay attention to the crucialrole of social movements in negotiating with the state and capital the rightsand survival of indigenouspopulations and weaker social groups affected bythe process ofmodernisation and the reorganisation of traditional modes of production. 36 Inorder to be a meaningfulalternative development discourse, sustainabledevelopment should expose the ideological bankruptcy of economismin development. Oneof thefallacies of developmenteconomics that the sustainable thesis still retainsis thebelief that, by maximising economic growth, poverty can be eliminated.And, doing that in an`environmentallyprudent’ way would suppos- edlygive us sustainabledevelopment. As HermanDaly persuasively argues, ` it ispreciselythe nonsustainability of growth that gives urgency to the concept of sustainabledevelopment’ . 37 TheKerala story tells just the opposite. Achieving growthshould not be deemed as anend in itself, as Keralashows. At most, achievinggrowth ought to betakenas ameans toasocialgoal of increasing(or providingequal opportunity to the means of)the wealth of every citizen in society.Paying attention to themeans ismoreimportant than aiming for the end (growth)in itself in achieving sustainable development. Kerala is criticisedfor itslabour militancy, which discourages outside investors, or as ®nancially inef®cient, or dismissedas ananomaly, or explained away as auniquecase that has nothingto offer for others to learn from. 38 Infact, Heller argues that the democraticmobilisation of the working class andits allies and their success in translatingthis into electoral politics and becoming part of the government has createdan ideal investment climate, because of what Heller describes as the `class compromise’pragmatism adopted by the working class movement.The reluctanceof outside capital to move into the state was basedon unfounded prejudiceon the part of the capitalists against organised labour, while studies haveshown that Kerala workers are themost productive and least prone to wildcatstrikes in India. 39 Heller’s argumentsare borneout by the recent in¯ ux intoKerala of outside investors in the information and engineering sectors to takeadvantage of its highly educated human resources. What slows outside investmentin Kerala is thestagnation and lack of adequate investment in the electricpower sector more than anything else. 40 Thedevelopment project in Keralahas onlyjust begun, and the Kerala model is far fromperfect, despite the fact that Kerala has attainedindicators of social 949 GOVINDAN PARAYIL developmenton a parwith European and North American levels. However, thereare severalgroups of people, such as members ofthe large ® shing community,female domestic helpers and some femaleagricultural workers, migrantworkers from other states, and some tribalpeople, who have yet to bene®t fromthe development programmes, despite the fact that ` Kerala’s achievementshave largely transcended caste, class, rural/urbanand gender limitations’. 41 Itshould be reiterated that reducing social and economic inequalities through democraticand peaceful means is thebest way to practice sustainable develop- ment.And to a largeextent, Kerala has shownthat, despite tremendous odds, it was ableto eliminate acute poverty and deprivation without attaining rapid growthin per capita GNP asis `expected’of all economic development models/ theories.Kerala is aparadigmaticcase becauseconventional development modelslegitimated through quantitative growth measures like GNP and income percapita fail to account for the indicators of social progress in the state, as is amplyillustrated by the indicators of social development cited earlier. It is thus importantto look for sustainability indicators not in quantitative measures alone,but in qualitative indices as well.If increasingper capita income is the ultimatemeasure ofeconomic development, then Kerala should be categorised as anextremely poor state, poorer than several other Indian states. However, itspopulation growth rate, infant mortality rate, crude death rate and literacy rateare ona parwith many rich nations (in terms ofper capita income), while theseindicators remain very low in most other Indian states (whoseper capita incomeis higherthan that of Kerala). This inevitably leads one to conclude thatgrowth-based per capita income as anindicator is probablya meaningless measure ofdevelopment. The important question for industrialised nations and therapidly industrialising nations of East Asia is, can the very high GDP per capitathey enjoy be sustained (or increased at a secularrate) with rapidly risingthroughput and environmental stress? Thefactors responsible for Kerala’ s achievementscan be attributed to: meaningfulland reforms; `foodfor all’ schemes throughfair-price shops and feedingprogrammes for school children, infants and mothers; providing easy access toprimary and preventative healthcare; promoting high literacy, particu- larlyamong women, through free anduniversal primary and secondary edu- cation;high mandated agricultural and farm wages; cost-effective transportationfacilities; rural electri® cation; engaging the poor and working peoplein democratic processes, suchas inlabour and civic organizations; fosteringpublic dialogue on environmental conservation issues; anddeveloping socialmovements through the establishment of a civilsociety to promote environmentalconservation and other grassroots projects. Various analysts attributeeither one or a combinationof the following factors for Kerala’ s `success’ :Kerala’s abilityto undertake public action through the mobilisation ofpeasantfarmers, tenantsand industrial workers by leftist parties; 42 the spread ofliteracy, particularly among women; 43 maintainingwomen’ s rights(though theserights were mostly a resultof historically contingent factors); 44 reducing socialinequality and decreasing inequalities in income and consumption; 45 and indigenousevolution and popularisation of social movements concerned with 950 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT environmentand development issues. 46 Accordingto Franke & Chasin,the best descriptionthat can be ascribedto Kerala’s experienceis a`socialjustice model’ ofdevelopment. 47 Itis beingargued that the Kerala model may be taken as anearly prototype ofsustainable development because of the following factors: (1)improvements inthequality of lifeindicated by sustainedand progressive improvements in the standardof livingevidenced by the reductions in infantmortality and birth rates, substantialincreases inlife expectancy at birth and overall improvements in the statusof women; (2) improvements in environmental stability indicated by the disappearanceof irreversible ecological changes and frugal and ef® cientuse of energyand natural resources; (3)improvements in relative social and economic inequalityand the importance accorded to social justice as aprerequisitefor development;and (4) decline in politicalstrife orchestrated by theestablishment ofdemocratic institutions, and traditional communal harmony maintained be- tweenthe three major religious groups. 48 These® ndingsare basedon thechanges that have taken place in Kerala during thepast three to four decades that Alexander, Amin, Ramachandran, Heller, Sen, Jeffrey,Ratclife, Franke & Chasinand numerous other analysts have pointed out.To support the sustainability thesis from the environmental point of view, ®ndingsfrom the author’ s own® eldresearch inKerala, and the natural resources accountingsurvey conducted by the KSSP andthe comprehensive Peoples ResourceMapping Programme provide empirical support. 49 ThePeople’ s Re- sourceMapping Programme mobilises villagers and village-level institutions to developdetailed maps oftheir resources. These maps andinformation are combinedwith scienti® c datato forma geographicalinformation system ( GIS) to conductmicro-level planning for development. Environmental considerations, optimaluse oflocalresources andlong-term consequences of resourceuse form thebasic thinking on achieving sustainable development. Electricity in Kerala is producedexclusively from small-to-medium-scale hydroelectric projects. Large- scale deforestationdid not take place as aresultof these projects. 50 The state governmentclaims that almost all households (about 2.5 million) in Kerala are electri®ed. Energy for cooking comes, mostly, in the form of bioenergy which is derivedfrom household plots and renewable marginal forests andhills. Coconuttrees providenearly 30% of cooking energy in the form of renewable palmfronds, coconut shells, husks, dried stems andshoots of coconut bunches. Cookingfuels like bottled gas andelectricity are alsobeing used by a growing segmentof the population. Although the acreage of rain forests has declined frompre-independence ® gures,popular campaigns to preserve the existing forests seem tobe successful. It appears that the energy use andconsumption patternis stableand sustainable. Itis hopedthat further studies will be able to corroborate the above claims. As KarlPopper eloquently pointed out, theories and hypotheses cannot be provedas trueor false. 51 Theycan only be corroborated as statementson the probablestate of reality. There is nonon-circular way of af® rminga metatheo- reticalclaim that the Kerala model of developmenthas paradigmaticfeatures of sustainabledevelopment based on the historical (empirical) observations enu- meratedhere, given the radical contingency of all knowledge claims. The 951 GOVINDAN PARAYIL historicistturn taken by social theorists like Marx, and most recently, Thomas Kuhn,among others, has weakenedthe divide between such dualism as theory± observation,fact± value, normative± empirical and prescriptive± descriptive. Nevertheless,the normative can be retainedby resortingto apracticallyre¯ exive theorising;that is, theory should re¯ ect or correspond to practice(praxis). 52 The normativeclaim that the developmental trajectory charted by modern Kerala sincethe inception of theradical development programmes shows a resemblance toa possible` sustainabledevelopment model’ is verymuch in solidarity with thisre¯ ection.

Conclusion Asarguedearlier, criteria for sustainability should include not only environmen- talstability and improvement, but social, political and economic justice, im- provementin the quality of life of vulnerable sections of the population at low cost,and an improvement in the overall status of women. Though Kerala has a lowthroughput, the indicators of social progress have not suffered because of sustainedefforts to limit population growth rate and social inequality, and to conserveresources frugallyand use themon a sharedbasis. Environmental analystslike Hazel Henderson and Herman Daly argue that managing with low throughputitself is anindication of sustainability within a steady-stateeconomic framework.53 WilliamAlexander argues that Kerala may be a prototypeof sustainabledevelopment because of its low throughput and the high rate of sharingof resources amongmembers ofthe extended family and community. 54 Thetest of practisingsustainable development should be basedupon a society’s abilityto maintainand further improve upon the quality of life of itscitizens by livingwithin its own resource means. It is thusstill debatable whether Kerala has entereda maturestage of self-sustainingdevelopment. It canonly be hoped that thepolitical leadership and the policy makers concernedwill continue to implementpolicies to take it to the mature stage. We can only share the optimismof SamirAmin that ` Kerala’sachievements are thebest way to prepare forthe next stage, if only because they result in strong popular organizations, andgive reasons forhope, and something to guard’ . 55 Theobjective here is notto romanticise and take out of context the Kerala modelof development. As pointedout earlier, Kerala’ s developmenthas just begun,and a lotmore has tobe done to make it more enduring, and most importantly,to make it more inclusive of those who were left out of the earlier developmentprogrammes. The fact that industrial and agricultural growth has to beachieved to improve the material standards of living of all Keralans is undeniable.But the high indicators of social development and a highlyliterate populaceare conduciveto rapid industrialisation of the state, which is essential forcreating more jobs and material outputs to meet local needs. 56 As E M S NamboodiripadÐthe veteran communist leader and the ® rst democratically electedChief Minister of Keralawhose administration initiated much of the land reformand other redistributive development programmes mentioned earlierÐ warns,a countryor statecannot prosper without industrialisation, modernisation ofagriculture and the ` developmentof modern secular and scienti® c edu- 952 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT cation’ .57 PKVasudevanNair, a communistleader and a formerChief Minister, correctlypoints out that the Kerala model needs follow-up, while duly acknowl- edgingthe major positive indicators of development in the state, which he, amongothers, helped to bring about. 58 Thecase beingmade here is thatthe ` Kerala-model’is notbased on any one oftheexisting theories or models of developmentand modernisation. Costa Rica (a nationwith a fractionof Kerala’ s population)or Sri Lanka or might havesome interestingcomparative features. However, the East Asian ` tigers’are specialcases ofexport-led development, made special by their political and economicdependence on the industrialised West for speci® c historicalreasons. Thesustainability of the` spectacular’growth and development of these nations is dependenton the economies of the West. Also, the ` development’of these nationsand states is occurringat a veryhigh cost, such as deteriorating environmentalconditions and poor civil and democratic rights for workers and ordinarycitizens. 59 Sincethe Third World is litteredwith failed development models, the Kerala modelshould be studied earnestly for improvements and possible replication. ThatKerala has comeclosest to the sustainable development ideal in practice makes itmore interesting to study. Thus, a normativeclaim can be made that a successful modelwhich emerged from within the Third World might be more appropriatefor other developing societies than models derived from a different historicaland cultural tradition. It is, however, duly acknowledged that histories, culturesand economic systems shouldnot be viewedthrough an essentialistlens, buttaken merely as historicallycontingent and shaped entities. One must deconstructany essentialist claims to anymodel of realityand the Kerala model is noexception. There is nothingessentially unique about Kerala that makes it sui generis andthus unsuitable as amodelof development for other states or societies.Valuable lessons canbe drawnfrom this case forapplying the ® ndings toother states andsocieties in the Third World in a sharedsense ofsolidarity.

Notes Thisis amodi®ed and updated version of apaperpresented at aseminar, `Theª Kerala modelºof sustainable developmentre-assessed’ ,whichwas jointlyorganised by the South Asia Programand the Department of Science &TechnologyStudies at CornellUniversity on 8April1994 while the author was Fellowin Science, Technology,and Global Environment in the Department ofScience andTechnology Studies during 1993± 94. Thanksare dueto Shelly Feldman, Sabu George, Ron Herring and Peter Taylorfor their critical comments on my talk. 1 Fora critical genealogyof the concept of sustainable development, see SLele, `Sustainabledevelopment: acritical review’ , WorldDevelopment ,Vol19, No 6, 1991, pp 607± 621; P Ekins,` Makingdevelopment sustainable’, inW Sachs (ed), GlobalEcology: A New Arenaof Political Con¯ ict ,London:Zed Books, 1993;and M Redclift, SustainableDevelopment: Exploring the Contradictions ,London:Methuen, 1987. 2 Itmay berecalled thatthe ` EarthSummit’ or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development( UNCED)heldin Rio de Janeiro in 1992 gave of® cial blessingto the concept of sustainable development.How the future of the world can beshaped through sustainable development was amply illustratedin the UNCED reportknown as Agenda 21.See UnitedNations, Agenda21: Programme of Action forSustainable Development ,New York:United Nations, 1993. 3 Fora normativecritique of sustainable development, see GParayil,` Environmentand development: a normativeappraisal of sustainable development’ , Philosophyand Social Action ,Vol22, No 2, 1996, pp23± 36; and, Redclift, SustainableDevelopment . 953 GOVINDAN PARAYIL

4 Thefertility rate forKerala in1991, according to A KSen,` Population:delusion and reality’ , New York Review ofBooks ,Vol16, No 15, 22 September 1994, pp 62± 71, was 1.8.The birth rate hadfallen from a ®gureof 44perthousand in the1950s to 18 by1991.A fertilityrate of1.8 and a demographicreplacement netreproduction rate ( NRR)of1 (reached in1985, see Kannan et al,note10) may indicatea negative populationgrowth trend. 5 VKRamachandran,` Anoteon Kerala’ sdevelopmentachievements’ , MonthlyReview ,Vol47, No 1, 1995, pp19± 24; and Sen, ` Population’. 6 Ramachandran,` Anoteon Kerala’ sdevelopmentachievements’ . 7 TVSathyamurthy, IndiaSince Independence: Studies in the Development of the Power of the State: Centre± StateRelations, the Case ofKerala ,New Delhi:Ajantha Press, 1985;I SGulati,` Centralfunding agencies neglectingKerala’ , The Hindu,9October1995, p 5;R WFranke& BHChasin, Kerala:Radical Reformas Developmentin an Indian State ,Oakland,CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1994. 8 Samir Amin,` Fourcomments onKerala’ , MonthlyReview ,Vol42, No 8, 1991, p 28. 9 BAPrakash,` Demographictrends in Kerala’ ,inPrakash (ed), Kerala’s Economy:Performance, Problems, Prospects,New Delhi:Sage Publications, 1994, pp 43±60. 10 KPKannan,K RThankappan,V RKutty& KPAravindan, Healthand Development of Rural Kerala , Trivandrum,Kerala: Kerala Sastra SahityaParishad, 1991. 11 Ibid. 12 Sen,` Population’; Sen,` Indianstate cutspopulation without coercion’ , New YorkTimes ,4January1994; andPrakash, ` Demographictrends in Kerala’ . 13 AKSen,` Freedomsand needs: an argument for the primacy of political rights’ , TheNew Republic , 10 January1994, pp 31±38; and Sen ` Economicdevelopment and social change:India and China in comparative perspectives’ ,DevelopmentEconomics Research Programme DiscussionPaper Series ( DEP No67), London: London School of Economics, December 1995. 14 Kannan et alHealth and Development of Rural Kerala . 15 AKSen,` Theeconomics of life anddeath’ , Scienti®c American ,May1993, pp 40± 47. 16 Foran excellent overview and analysis of the problems of measurement ofdevelopment, see JFelipe& M Resende,` Amultivariateapproach to the measurement ofdevelopment: Asia andLatin America’ , Journal ofDeveloping Areas ,No30, 1996, pp 183±210. 17 ThePhysical Quality of Life Indexor PQLI was developedby theOverseas DevelopmentCouncil (see DM Morris, Measuringthe Condition of theWorld’ s Poor:The Physical Quality of Index ,New York:Pergamon Press, 1979)in order to show the hollowness of economic indicators as measures of(social) development. PQLI is acompositemeasure ofthree social indicatorsof developmentÐ infant mortality, life expectancyand literacy.Each componentof thecomposite is convertedinto a scale of0± 100, and a linearcombination is developedby givingequal weights to thethree indicators,with the lowest performing country assigned the zero valueand the highest performing country the hundred in each category.The or HDI is adeprivationmeasure whichwas constructedby the United Nations Development Programme, HumanDevelopment Report 1990 ,New York:Oxford University Press, 1990.Unlike PQLI, HDI includesper capita GDP as well. The HDI compositeis constructedwith three indicatorsÐlife expectancyat birth(longevity), adult literacy (knowledge)and the log of GDP percapita (standardof living) adjusted for purchasingpower parity. First, a deprivationindex is indicatedon a scale ofone to zero, with a minimum value(the maximum deprivationset equalto one) and a desirablevalue (no deprivation set equalto zero) speci® edfor each ofthe three components. HDI is arrivedat bysubtracting this deprivation composite from 1.In 1991 the ` knowledge’indicator was amendedto include mean years ofschooling (one-third weight) alongwith adult literacy (two-thirdsweight). 18 R W Franke, LifeIs aLittleBetter: Redistributionas a DevelopmentStrategy in Nadur Village, Kerala , Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1993,p 2. 19 EPW Research Foundation,` Socialindicators of developmentÐII’ , Economicand Political Weekly , 21 May 1994,pp 1300±1308; and United Nations Development Programme, HumanDevelopment Report 1994 , New York:Oxford University Press, 1994. 20 House-compoundland is ofgreat economicvalue in Kerala, as Franke& Chasin, Kerala pointout, because income-generatingtrees andfood crops, such as coconuts,bananas, vegetables, cashews, mangoes,cassava andareca nutare grownon these lands. 21 See Sathyamurthy, Indiasince Independence ;andFranke & Chasin, Kerala.Fora historicalaccount of the landreform strugglesin Kerala, see EMSNamboodiripad, Kerala,Society and Politics: an Historical Survey,New Delhi:National Book Centre, 1984; K KNKurup, ModernKerala: Studies in Social and AgrarianRelations ,New Delhi:Mittal Publications, 1988; Kurup, AgrarianStruggles in Kerala , Trivan- drum,Kerala: CBHPublications,1989; T JNossiter, MarxistState Governments inIndia ,London:Pinter Publishers,1988; and R JHerring, Landto the Tiller: The Political Economy of AgrarianReform in South Asia,New Haven,CT: Yale UniversityPress, 1983. 22 RWFranke& BHChasin,` Developmentwithout growth: the Kerala experience’ , TechnologyReview , No93, 1990, pp 42± 51. 954 `KERALA MODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT

23 RJHerring,` Dilemmas ofagrariancommunism: peasant differentiation,sectoral andvillage politics’ , Third WorldQuarterly ,Vol11, 1989, pp 89±115. 24 PHeller, `Fromclass struggleto class compromise:redistribution and growth in a SouthIndian state’ , Journalof Development Studies ,Vol31, No 5, 1995, pp 645±672. 25 See GParayil& WShrum,` Non-governmentalresearch organizationsin Kerala’ , Science, Technology,and Development ,Vol14, 1996, for an empirical studyof the contribution of Kerala NGOsinthe areas of agricultureand environment. 26 See, RDPutnam, MakingDemocracy Work:Civic Traditionsin Modern Italy ,Princeton,NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 1993. 27 GParayil,` Socialmovements, technology and development: a queryand an instructive case fromthe Third World’ , DialecticalAnthropology ,17,1992, pp 339± 352; and M Zachariah &RSooryamoorthy, Science for SocialRevolution? Achievements andDilemmas ofa DevelopmentMovementÐ The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad,London:Zed Books, 1994. 28 GParayil,` ªScience forsocial revolutionº: science andculture in Kerala’ , Impactof Science onSociety , Vol39, No 155, 1989, pp 233± 240; and Parayil, ` Socialmovements, technology and development’ . 29 WorldCommission on Environment and Development ( WCED), OurCommon Future ,New York:Oxford UniversityPress, 1987,p 43. 30 Fora critical viewof thedevelopment of sustainable development discourse as ameans toimpose a global, thatis aWestern,solution to environmental problems in the Third World, see WSachs (ed), Global Ecology:A New Arenaof Political Con¯ ict ,London:Zed Books, 1993. 31 WCED, OurCommon Future , p 1. 32 Herman Daly,` Sustainablegrowth: an impossibility theorem’ , Development ,Nos3/ 4,1990 pp 45± 47, presentsconvincing arguments against economic growth as thesolution to attaining sustainable develop- ment. 33 See, `Whatthe Bank doesn’ t tellyou’ , TheEcologist ,Vol24, No 1, 1994, p 2;S BHecht, `Logicsof livestockand deforestation: the case ofAmazonia’ ,inT EDowning et al, (eds), Developmentor Destruction:The Conversion of TropicalForest to Pasturein Latin America ,Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1992;G Monbiot, AmazonWatershed: The New EnvironmentalInvestigation ,London:Abacus, 1992; G Parayil& FTong,` Pasture-ledand logging-led deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: thedynamics of socio-environmentalchange’ , workingpaper, Hong Kong, 1995; and R Pineda-Ofrenco,` Debtand environment:the Philippine experience’ ,inM CHoward(ed), Asia’s EnvironmentalCrisis ,Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1993,pp 221±233. 34 Fora normativecritique of developmenteconomics within the neoclassical paradigm,see MEdwards,` The irrelevance ofdevelopment studies’ , ThirdWorld Quarterly ,Vol11, No 1, 1989, pp 116±135; D Seers, `The birth,life anddeath of development economics’ , Developmentand Change ,Vol10, No 4, 1979, pp 707± 719;and G Parayil,Development studies, a progressiveresearch tradition, Journalof Science Studies , Vol 3, No2, 1990, pp 47±56. 35 Blamingthe victims for the environmental problems in the Third World has become anaccepted wisdom inthe environment and development ® eld.It has become arespectable positionfor environmental analysts inthe West andsome amongthe Third World elites toblame thepoor people in the Third World for causing deforestation,deserti® cationother environmental problems. See GHardin, LivingWithin Limits: Ecology, Economics,and Population Taboos ,Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1993;Hardin ` Thetragedy of the commons’ , Science,No162, 1968, pp 1243± 1248; P REhrlich& ANEhrlich, ThePopulation Explosion , New York:Simon & Schuster,1990; and G KMeffe &ANEhrlich,` Humanpopulation control: the missingagenda’ , ConservationBiology ,7,1993, pp 1±3. 36 Foran excellent exposition of these issues,see Redclift, SustainableDevelopment ;andG Parayil, `Environmentand development’ . 37 Daly,` Sustainablegrowth’ , p45. 38 Infact, Heller, in`Fromclass struggleto class compromise’ ,showsthat labour mobilisation in the context ofKerala’ selectoral politicshas facilitated theredistributive programmes ofthe state bybeing able to mediate theclass con¯icts, because thelabour movement’ s voicewas takenseriously by the elected governments.The ® scal problemsthe state governmentfaces andthe potential consequences they may have forKerala was analysedby K KGeorge, Limitsto Kerala Model of Development: AnAnalysis of Fiscal Crisis andits Implications ,Trivandrum,Kerala: Centre forDevelopment Studies, 1993. Rachel Kumar, `Developmentand women’ s workin Kerala: interactionsand paradoxes’ , Economicand Political Weekly , No241, 17± 24 December 1994,pp 3249± 3254, analyses boththe gains and losses towomen’s participation inemployment in Kerala. Sheargues that women’ s participationin the employment sector has gonedown lately.Whether a causal relationshipcan befound between thedevelopmental trajectory and this paradox wouldbe an important ® nding. 39 Heller, `Fromclass struggleto class compromise’ .FormerKerala ChiefMinister, A KAnthony,` ªKerala modelºneglected productive aspect’ , The Hindu,25September 1995, p 5,also echoes thesentiment that industrialistsstill harbour the notion of labour militancy in Kerala withoutany basis, and asserts thatKerala is oneof the most (industrially) peaceful states inIndia. 955 GOVINDAN PARAYIL

40 One ofthe major items inthe election manifesto of the Left Frontcoalition which was returnedto power inthe 1996 general election was tomobilise capital withinKerala toinvest in electric powerprojects. For more onKerala’ sdevelopmentalbottlenecks, see Franke& Chasin, Kerala andGulati, ` Centralfunding agencies neglectingKerala’ . 41 RWFranke& BHChasin,` Female-supportedhouseholds: a continuingagenda for the Kerala model?’ , paperpresented at the` Seminar onWomen in Kerala: Past andPresent’ , GovernmentCollege for Women, ,Kerala, 11±15 February 1995, p 1.Franke & Chasinestimate theoutlier to be about 15%of the total population. Signi® cant thoughthis number is, they emphasise that85% bene® ciaries is a `remarkable achievement’ . 42 Ramachandran,` Anoteon Kerala’ sdevelopmentachievements’ ;Heller, `Fromclass struggleto class compromise’ ;Franke& Chasin, Kerala;andT JNossiter, Communismin Kerala: A studyin Political Adaptation,Berkeley,CA: Universityof California Press, 1982. 43 A K Sen, InequalityReexamined ,Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1992;and Sen, ` The economicsof life anddeath’ . 44 Sen,` Population’; Sen,` Freedomsand needs’ ; RJeffrey, Politics,Women and Well-Being: How Kerala Became aModel ,London:MacMillan, 1992. 45 JRatcliffe, `Socialjustice and the demographic transition: lessons from India’ s Kerala’ , International Journalof HealthServices ,Vol8, 1978,pp 123±144; W Alexander,` Prototypefor sustainable development: Kerala’ ,paperpresented at theConference on Varieties ofSustainability, Agriculture and Human Values Society,Paci® cGrove,CA, 9± 12 May 1991. 46 Zachariah &Sooryamoorthy, Science forSocial Revolution? 47 RWFranke& BHChasin,` Kerala state: asocial justicemodel’ , MultinationalMonitor ,Vol16, Nos 7± 8, 1995,pp 25±28. 48 Critics andindependent analysts argue that, as aresultof therecent changesin Indianpolity and economy, thedrive to accelerate economicliberalisation and reduce welfare spendingis cuttinginto Kerala’ sgains. Beingonly a sub-nationalentity, Kerala is notimmune to national policy strictures andpolitical realignments.However, my basic argumentsstand. These new changesare nota resultof the earlier policies thatcreated thenear sustainabledevelopment indicators that Kerala achieved.If theabove-mentioned problemswere caused because ofthe radical reform policies,that would be a differentissue altogether. 49 Theauthor conducted ® eldresearch inKerala in1988,1992 and 1994. For details on Kerala’ senvironmen- tal,natural and social resource base, see Kerala Sastra SahityaParishad, KeralthindeEttam Paddhathi {Kerala’ sEighthFive Year Plan},Trivandrum,Kerala: SocialScientist Press, 1988;Centre forEarth Science Studies (CESS), Projecton Panchayat Level Resource Mappingfor Decentralised Planning with People’ s Participation ,FirstAnnual Report, Thiruvananthapuram: CESS, 1992. CESS is astate-governmentfunded research institution.As partof an agriculture and environment ® eldresearch project, CESS scientists were interviewedby theauthor in June1994. According to the CESS scientists,creating ` landliteracy’ amongthe peopleof Kerala is oneof their major resource mappingobjectives. 50 Itmay betakenas thepower of thegrassroots social movement NGOs like the KSSP thata major hydroelectric projectplanned by thegovernment was blockedand later abandonedbecause offear thatthe project might destroya rainforestcalled the` SilentValley’ .Formore onthis episode, see Parayil,` Science forsocial revolution’; andD D’Monte, Temples orTombs? Industry versus Environment:Three Controversies , New Delhi:Centre forScience andEnvironment, 1985. 51 As Karl Popper, TheLogic of Scienti® c Discovery ,London:Routledge, 1992, pointed out, theories or hypothesescannot be proved true or false. Allwe can dois tocorroborate them throughbetter evidence. Thus,my claim is notthat the hypothesis of the` Kerala model’of development is theonly true version of truthor reality gleaned through a methodof induction or intuition, however self-evident it may appear to be.The objective, simply put, is toprovide evidence to support a hypothesisand to withstand refutation. 52 Foran expanded theoretical exposition of the concept of practical re¯exivity, see RGunn,` Marxismand philosophy:a critiqueof critical realism’ , Capital& Class ,No37, 1988, pp 87± 116. For an example of usingthe concept of practical re¯exivity in social theory,see GParayil,` Practical re¯exivity as aheuristic fortheorizing technological change’ , Technologyin Society ,Vol19, 1997 (forthcoming). 53 See HHenderson,` Fromeconomism to systems theoryand new-indicators of development’, Technological Forecastingand Social Change ,No37, 1990, pp 213± 233; H EDaly, Steady-StateEconomics: Second Editionwith New Essays ,Washington,DC: Islandpress, 1991; and Daly ` Sustainablegrowth’ . 54 Alexander,` Prototypefor sustainable development’ . 55 SAmin,` Fourcomments onKerala’ ,p29. 56 Kerala’ spercapita state domesticproduct ( SDP)has beenincreasing since 1987,industrial growth has improvedand agriculture has seen anannual growth of 7.5% recently. See, `Growthwith dignity: comment’ , India Today,15August 1996, p 5. 57 EMSNamboodiripad,` Kerala modelis oneof deindustrialisation’ , The Hindu,11September, 1995, p 5. Namboodiripad’s claim thatthe Kerala modelis oneof `deindustrialisation’may bea signof exasperation onhis part because ofthe lack ofinvestment in the industrial sector andof its lacklustre performance in jobcreation. However, the situation is gettingbetter as indicatedabove (see note56). 956 `KERALAMODEL’ OFDEVELOPMENT

58 PKVasudevanNair, `Kerala modelneeds follow up’ , The Hindu,18September1995, p 5. pointsout thatthe bottleneck for further progress comes frominadequate investments in agriculture, industry and electric powersectors. 59 FCDeyo,(ed), ThePolitical Economy of theNew AsianIndustrialization ,Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press, 1987.The continuing repression of the populace in several East Asian countrieswith the excuse ofmaintaining stabilityand economic growth is testimonyto this fact.

YB ritish Jo u rn al o f M id d le E a ste rn S tu d ies E D IT O R ND r A drian G ully, University of Exeter, UK AR E V IE W E D IT O R PD r C h ristin e W oodh ead , University of Durham, UK

MT h e B ritish J o u rn a l o f M id d le E a ste rn S tu d ie s is a re fe re e d a c a d e m ic jo u rn a l p u b lish e d b y C a rfax P u b lish in g C o m p a n y fo r th e B ritish S o c ie ty fo r M id d le OE a ste rn S tu d ie s (p o p u la rly k n o w n a s B R IS M E S ). F o u n d ed in 1 9 7 4 a s th e CB R IS M E S B u lle tin , th e B ritish J o u rn a l o f M id d le E a ste rn S tu d ie s assu m e d its p resent title in 19 91 re flec ting its g row th into a fully -fled ged sch ola rly jou rn al. T h e e d ito rs a im to m a in ta in a b a la n c e in th e Jo u rn a l’ s c o v e ra g e b e tw e e n th e Gm o d e rn so cia l sc ie n c es a n d th e m o re tra d itio n a l d isc ip lin e s a sso c ia te d w ith M id d le E a ste rn a n d Isla m ic S tu d ie s. T h e y w e lc o m e sch o la rly co n trib u tio n s o n Na ll a sp e c ts o f th e M id d le E a st fro m th e e n d o f c la ssic a l a n tiq u ity a n d th e rise o f I Isla m . A rtic le s o n th e la n g u a g e , lite ra tu re , h isto ry, p o litic s, e c o n o m ic s, Ha n th ro p o lo g y, so c io lo g y, g e o g ra p h y, a n d th e re lig io n s a n d c u ltu re s o f th e SHre g io n a re e n c o u ra g e d . I T h e B ritish J o u rn a l o f M id d le E a ste rn S tu d ie s a lso in c lu d e s a v ig o ro u s re v ie w se c tio n c o v e rin g p u b lic a tio n s o n a ll su b je c ts c o n n e c te d w ith th e LM id d le E a st. T h is in c o rp o ra te s a w id e ra n g e o f re fe re n c e a n d b ib lio g ra p h ic a l Bm aterial se ld o m re v iew ed e lse w h e re . USU B SC R IP T IO N R A T E S P1997 - Volume 24 (2 issues). ISSN 1353-0194. Institutional rate: £84.00; North America US$124.00 XPersonal rate: £28.00; North America US$48.00 AO R D E R F O R M FPlease send a completed copy of this form, with the appropriate payment, to the address below. RName ...... AAddress ...... C ......

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