Explaining the Superior Education Outcomes of Kerala: The Role of State Activism and Historical Endowment

Udayan Rathore and Upasak Das

Oxford Development Studies, 2019, vol. 47, issue 2, 205-221

Abstract: Over time, the state of Kerala has systematically outperformed the rest of India in terms of literacy outcomes, establishing a strong positive record in this respect. Two main, explanations exist for this phenomenon. The first being the unique historical endowment inherited from the pro-education and social policies from the nineteenth century kingdom of Travancore and Cochin (South-Central Kerala) and secondly state activism initiated with the social reforms movement in the late 1950s. Using historical Census data and Employment-Unemployment rounds of the National Sample Survey, we find state activism was critical in achieving mass literacy in Kerala. Though historical endowment established a tradition of competitive demand for education across certain communities which largely explains the existing differences in higher education indicators between the Travancore-Cochin and the Non Travancore-Cochin regions, its contribution to improve education metrics of Scheduled Castes (vulnerable segment) was minimal.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2018.1539471

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