The blessing of good genes

Raj, my guide for a couple of hours, clearly misses the passing of the Chola dynasty, which ruled Tamil Nadu around the tenth to twelfth centuries. He wistfully points to the curvaceous women of their carvings, with their gravity-defying breasts, narrow waists but generous hips, and delicate choicefulness of clothing. Indian women today, he laments, have big bellies. It is due to a lack of exercise, and not enough manual labor. (Though, I am not sure that the Tamil women I have often seen working construction would agree). Raj continued that people in the Chola period lived to 200 years old. They also had great minds, resulting in the stunning multi-storied structures under whose shadows we were talking. Where as today, Raj continued, we don’t achieve anything like the same feats, mentally retarded by the short-cuts afforded us by modern engineering.

But Raj acknowledged that Tamil Nadu is not doing too badly. He explained how the state was second to Kerala in terms of literacy, and stressed that its economy has recently been growing well. The literacy gap between India’s southern and northern states is something that I have never fully understood. I asked Raj his opinion.

His answer was surprising simple: the British, the Dutch and the French. Raj explained how the European powers had traded with southern India for much longer than with its northern states, since the days of Vasco Da Gama in fact. (Had I heard of him? I had. He nodded approvingly). As a result of European influence – both cultural and, importantly, genetic – south Indians have traditionally had a more progressive attitude towards education.

The graph below, from Amartya Sen’s “Development as Freedom,” shows the remarkable product, according to Raj’s theory, of Kerala’s genetic windfall. The challenge Kerala faces today is converting its educational advantage into greater economic prosperity. Hopefully, its European legacy will help here too.