Solutions to Change

Introduction The moneylending market in Kerala was a natural economic bubble. The bubble grew because the factors favoured it. Very few people can be blamed for it save the State for its inability to predict the case. Why? Because it was empowered with a strong legislation (Kerala Money Lender’s Act 1958) to prevent this growth and which seems was never used until now. There are several questions then on the rising money lending market in Kerala and the actions taken by the state government in the wake of a spate of suicides by borrowers. The state action, to prosecute illegal moneylenders, was widely accepted by the general public. Several people were arrested and prosecuted, and documents including blank cheques and promissory notes worth millions were seized from them. This article proposes to examine two questions in the context of the issue of money lending in Kerala.   1.        Is the current ‘Operation Kubera’ carried out by the state...

The Mature Market of Spiritualism and the Role of the State This piece of writing does not evaluate the merits of the ideology behind gurus and institutions run by them. In fact, people are free to choose the best that suits them under the available conditions. And the freedom of choice allows them to optimally allocate not only there material lives but also their spiritual well-being. Hence critical in this context is not the belief of people but what a matured system of such beliefs could develop into. I wish only to objectively understand this state of development (in the context of Kerala) in terms of employment and production. In this context, I have two questions in mind and I am thinking aloud here: 1.        When most of the spiritual institutions create informal and formal employment; when they provide houses, schools and hospitals; and crucially food; and when it continues to do so; does it reduce the state’s role in all these fronts? ...