On Malayalis in the Gulf

An alumnus of IIFT Delhi, and a Malayali himself, Abhijith Bhadran had posted this article on Facebook. It got me thinking. I am putting in writing a few thoughts which came to my mind. I would invite comments on them, and definitely wherever people think I am misinformed or wrong.

In India we have three states where the Left has traditionally been strong - Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. However compared to Kerala the other two states are not that well off. I feel there are a number of factors behind this.

Agriculture and manufacturing are two segments of the economy which can employ a lot of people. In all three states there probably have been no major (successful) efforts towards industrialization after the Left came to power. This means that the workforce had to find jobs mostly in agriculture. West Bengal and Kerala have been blessed with fertile soils and water supply to support agriculture. However beyond a point people would not want to remain farmers. Now the next step is either the services industry or manufacturing. IT services were not so popular in the pre-liberalization and pre-dotcom boom days. Tourism and allied industries were also just hobbling along. Hence manufacturing was the obvious other candidate for employment. There were no industries available to gainfully employ the workforce. Hence people were forced to look outside.

For Kerala the Gulf was the closest place which was prosperous economy-wise and stable geopolitically. They seized this opportunity and moved. Bengal and Tripura did not have any such areas like the Gulf closeby. The closest were Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. However I believe a Bengali Singapore (like a Malayali Gulf) did not come up because of a few reasons. Generally (many earlier generation) Bengalis were a content lot and did not aspire for prosperity the way others did. They did not want to move from their hometowns to a new place. Further Singapore developed more because of financial services and trade which require more skilled manpower rather than the Gulf where oil production, a labour-intensive industry dominated. For Tripura the available option was Myanmar, which well, was probably not that great an option, especially after the junta came into power.

I believe another reason for Malayalis' success in the Gulf is religion. Kerala has a significant percentage of Muslim population. As the ET article points out Muslims in Kerala are probably the most prosperous compared to anywhere else in India today. A Muslim Gulf probably was a significant reason why Malayalis were able to prosper. I cannot make a similar case for Bengal or Tripura.

Tripura may not have been able to prosper for another reason - logistics. It is in a landlocked corner of the country. Though Kerala is also at an extreme end this is a very active area, historically, right from Roman times. Due to its location Kerala has been a major gateway throughout history. This also may have had a role to play in Keralites going out the way they have. I am not sure why but traditionally (Hindu) Indians were against crossing the sea. There are still people who hold to this belief. It was said to be polluting or something on those lines, I am not sure what it is exactly.

To summarize, lack of local opportunities, religion (to whatever small extent), a desire to prosper and openness to travel played key roles in Kerala prospering by emigration to the Gulf.

In light of this there are a few things that we need to be cautious about or that we need to do:

1. The Gulf is slowly moving out of oil production into logistics, tourism, financial services etc. This can have a direct effect on our people employed there and forex infows. However I believe, that Indians have happily diversified into these already.

2. Bengal seems to have moved from a militant Left to an equally militant Mamta. She should realize this for the state to prosper. 

3. As part of our engagement with Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh we should focus on majorly boosting infra and trade with the north-eastern states to begin with. The rest of the country can follow after that.