Beit Emmett: SAS India

For our first day in Kochi, Kerala, India, my political geography class of 32 students participated in our on-shore, day-long field class. Our first stop was at communist party headquarters in Kochi where we had a very informative and eye-opening visit with mayor Anil Kumar.

He spent an hour telling us about the history of the communist party in India and how it functions at the national, state and local levels. He was very open in noting that India's brand of communism was not the same as that of Stalin or Mao. For example, he praised Stalin's willingness to oppose fascism but condemned his use of mass killings. In my past two visits to Kerla and in preparation for my teaching about South Asia, I had learned about the success of the communist party in leading Kerala to become the state in India with the highest level on the Human Development Index. I had requested that the mayor talk about that. He went into great detail explaining about how over the past several decades Kerala had implemented land reform, promoted education (particularly for women) and improved health care (including access to contraception). With better education and health and more job opportunities Keralans then started to work abroad (mostly in the Gulf) which resulted in an additional economic boost from remittances. The mayor's term in office was to end at the end of December. Kerala mandates that mayors only serve for one five-year term and that there be a rotation between male and female mayors.

My students asked great questions and found the outing to be a very unique and informative opportunity. It also made for good social media posts.

Lot's of advertisements for cool wedding attire for both men and women.

We had a delicious Indian buffet for lunch.

We then visited Bastion Bungalow--a Dutch colonial residence now turned into a nice museum about Kerala.

The primary focus was on the history of Kerala which includes the coming of early Jewish and Christian settlers/refugees from the Middle East and then Arab, Portuguese, Dutch and British colonizers/traders. Spices were the main draw.

The many different peoples of Kerala.

I added a last-minute stop at the oldest Portuguese built church in Kerala. Vasco de Gama was initially buried here before later being interred back in Lisbon.

I liked the juxtaposition of the hammer and sickle flag with the stars and stripes helmet.

With elections just around the corner, all of Kerala was covered with campaign flags and posters--signs of a very vibrant democracy.

We next visited two neighborhoods where migrant groups from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu and another state to the north have long lived in Kerala. Each migrant neighborhood hosted its own places of worship and maintained distinct cuisines, cultures and sources of livelihood. The ethnic/religious mix in Kerala includes Hindus, Christian, and Muslims and multiple languages. That they all get along and participate in peaceful elections and relations is another positive example of what makes Kerala unique.

Neighborhood Hindu temple.

A Hindu temple in another neighborhood.

The migrants form Tamil Nadu were brought in to be clothes washers for the Dutch army. They have kept the laundry business going in their neighborhood for 300 years. Students got to try their hand at using the heavy irons.

Next morning I headed out with 20 other Semester at Sea Voyagers for an exceptional four-day excursion to northern Kerala. We rode a nice express train from Kochi to Kolicut.(Kozhikode)

Delicious boxed lunch. I liked the masala spiced tea.

We were accompanied by a guide and local history professor in our exploration of Calicut--the first landing point of European traders in India and also an important spice port like Kochi. Teyla Trips provided a wonderful four days of touring. https://www.instagram.com/teyla_trips/reels/

No time to stop and barter for a favorite fruit. (buah nona in Indonesian).

We saw how local Halwa was made. I was expecting Arab/Israeli halva made from sesame seeds, but this halwa was more like Turkish delight--firm gelatin encasing nuts and fruits.

Went to a famous, and thus crowded with locals, restaurant that served a delicious biryani.

On the outskirts of town, we then visited a roof tile making factory. Its production line and equipment date back a century. We wandered throughout the whole factory without hard hats and with few safety precautions installed.

In places we had to dodge conveyors. No one was decapitated!

For some reason I felt transported back to the industrial world and era of Charles Dickens.

We felt the heat and inhaled the fumes of tiles in the kiln.

Next up a boat ride in the Lagoon and then a tour of a dhow (Arab originated wooden boats) making facility.

We had to scale a rickety ladder and dodge under an overhang to get up top to see the carpenters at work.

Impressive work. The two big boats we explored were destined for Oman--a country which once made such ships but now relies on cheaper Indian labor.

Back in town we visited a unique seven story mosque and then wandered through the old town.

Day two of our excursion included a leisure float through a mangrove preserve.

We then spent the rest of the day at a Shiburi (Japanese tie die) Workshop at the Tantara Art center. We learned different ways to fold cloth (around wooden shapes if desired) and then tie them with clamps and rubber bands.

My four tie die experiments. The one I liked most was the triangle fold between the orange clamp and wooden forms.

Indigo blue was the one color option.

My four attempts hung to dry. The second from the left (squares and triangles) was my favorite and so I repeated it in a second die session after another delicious lunch.

This time we had the option of adding a second color. I went with blue and white. Mine is on the far left.

We were then entertained by a local dance troop of men who used wooden rods to pound out rhythms as they danced in a circle. Very impressive.

We also got to jump and give it a try.

Took a nice evening swim in the balcony pool of our hotel.

Day three we headed northeastward up and over the Western Ghat mountains to the tea producing region of Wayanad.

So exciting for this geographer to climb up and over a famous mountain range that attracts vital orographic precipitation from the monsoon rains come in off the Indian Ocean.

There were nine hair pin turns on our climb. They were so tight and the road and turn so narrow that busses and trucks had to alternate making the turn without opposing traffic.

Had a nice stroll through a rural area out to a sacred watering hole that is used as a place of worship.

Electrified wires are used to keep elephants out of the village gardens at night.

Relaxing raft ride with boatman towing our raft around that marsh area via ropes.

Visited a beautiful rice producing region.

Photo by Kim Singleton

Local village hosted us with music, dancing (also got to join in) and a ceremonial offering.

Village teens with mobile phones.

Drove through a wild elephant area.

From the bus window.

And there were elephants!

More campaigning.

We spent the night in tents at a hilltop resort in the midst of the tea covered hills of Wayanad. I got up to watch the sun rise (too many clouds) and found these cows still dozing.