nov 1st
kerala celebrates 50 years of its existence as a state today. alas, it has deteriorated quite a lot in 50 years.
but there have been some landmark books and films
my favorite malayalam books in the last fifty years:
1. thalamurakal, ov vijayan (generations)
2. ini jnan urangatte, pk balakrishnan (and now i shall sleep)
3. mayyazhi puzhayude theerangalil, m mukundan (on the banks of the mahe river)
4. chemmeen, thakazhi
5. oru desathinte katha, sk pottekkat (the story of my land)
6. pravachakante vazhi, ov vijayan (the path of the prophet)
7. ayalkar, p kesavadev (neighbors)
8. pandavapuram, sethu
9. mathilukal, basheer (prison walls)
my favorite malayalam films in the last fifty years:
1. piravi, shaji
2. chidambaram, g aravindan
3. chemmeen, ramu kariat
4. kanchana sita, g aravindan
5. elippathayam, adoor gopalakrishnan
6. yakshi
7. bhargavi nilayam
8. uttarayanam, g aravindan
9. anantaram, adoor gopalakrishnan
6 comments:
Today is Andhra's 50th anniversary of existence too. Andhra did no better in all these years. Naxalism, regionalism, minorityism, corruption, water problem, power problem, drought, floods... you name it, we have it.
I am a Tamil speaking Indian. While there is a definite value-erosion in politics all over - (most pronounced in TN in the past 50 years), I am thinking that much of this is attributable to the very creation of these linguistic states. On the one hand it has given better identities for the Southern states but on the other hand it has paved way for strengthening regional politics at the cost of a larger (though still sub-national) pan-regional identity.
The best leaders these states saw (barring perhaps Andhra) came from nationalistic parties. (for instance Gopalan or A.Balasubramaniam though communists were better than say Periyar or Anna in intellectual acumen and political honesty).
Pasumpon Muthurama linga thevar was a great nationalist- after the dravidian politics rose, this vote bank shifted to ADMK completely.
Smaller divisions always favour and provide great leverages for the minority groups. While this is normally desired, the Nehruvian pseudo-secular policies attempt to achieve these at the cost of majority welfare.
I think the regional identities actually fractured emergence of a united Right wing and paved way for regional + Left wing alliances.
If we have the ability to turn the clock back and change things, with the advantage of hindsight would we still want linguistic states?
Hey, Nov 1st is also AP formation day...
I agree. Karnataka is better administered state in South. It has strong entrepreneurship may be only after Gujrat.
I beg to differ. In AP and Karnataka the entrepreneurship and business development are concentrated in a few pockets. Contrast this with TN where, from Thirunelveli all the way to Chennai, you can find well-distributed economic growth throughout the state.
I do agree that Hinduism is less under attack in Karnataka than in today's Andhra and TN but diversity of economic prosperity is a different story altogether, may be because Bangalore (and Mysore to a lesser degree) is where most of the attention is going to. In TN it is restricted to Vizag or Hyderabad- other areas are mostly agrarian or Naxal-infested. In Kerala, less said about industrial growth is better.
TN, due to 2 harbours, and (among other reasons) close proximity of 3 wealthy cities in the neighboring states - Bangalore, Thirupathy and Trivandrum-has seen much better overall and widespread economic growth.
Correction in my posting: Please read "In AP it is restricted to Vizag..."
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