Reading rooms are common sight
that you come across while walking around villages of Kerala. These I found the
other day on my morning walks. Essentially it will have rudimentary desks, chairs,
and many newspapers pursuing different political interests, sometimes there
will be some magazines. Few decades back these used to have libraries attached
and games room like chess, carroms so on. Libraries have vanished so have
games. What you see now are some elderly people scanning through the newspaper.
It becomes quite active in small towns and cities -public libraries.
Kerala reached high rate of literacy due to various constructive forces coming together. Early advent of christianity, as early as 52AD, and the active involvement of missionaries for spreading awareness to common people through literacy, widespread assimilation of Buddhist values -that ofcourse attempted to create egalitarian space through libraries and humanistic concerns leaving indelible mark on collective memory of society (even the word pallikoodam -school in Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhalese, has Buddhist origin) and expressed through aesthetics of unique temple architecture so on, these though were sidelined by mediocrities of squatters and ensnared into primitive ways. In the mid-20th century communism played a significant role to spread literacy as mass movement. Meanwhile HDI improved with knowledge and grassroot involvement hence strengthening primary health centers and public distribution systems. Practical eating habits rooted to the reality of surrounding helped to achieve high nutritional standards.
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