This article is dedicated to Professor Sam Moyo, whose work on radical land
reform in Zimbabwe within a neoliberal environment has engaged our attention and
illuminated the subject of our own research, the agrarian question in post-land
reform Kerala.
In Kerala, the experiment of democratic decentralization is now nearly two
decades old. The present article focuses on one of its weakest links, the
failure to generate sustainable livelihood opportunities, in either industry or
agriculture. The crisis in agriculture is best seen as part of a larger process
of structural transformation of the Kerala economy which has blocked agrarian
transition and requires thorough overhauling of the social organization of
production for overcoming the present impasse. Even though local governments
have a major role in resolving the agrarian question, it presupposes greater
involvement of higher tiers of government and deeper cooperation among different
tiers.
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