gods own,,,,,

Once upon a time in kerala, backpacking, white skinned, tourists were a rare sight. We malayalees used to peer at them with wide eyes from wayside teashops, children used to wave wildly at the ‘madhamma’ and ‘sayippu’ who rode past in motorbikes.

But it took only a few years for everything to change. India soon became ‘incredible’ and our very own kerala became ‘God’s own country’ (god help those who coined the term). Tourists and travelers now land on our shores by the tons. Bus loads of air conditioned tourists and hippy backpackers and bikers zoom past us everyday as they hop from resort to resort. Tourism has become one of the most hyped up industries in the country and thanks to vigorous ad campaigns; the ‘tourist’ is no longer a rarity. In the desperate bid of a developing nation to up its economic ‘progress’, tourism has gained tremendous importance and in many instances the down sides of the industry are conveniently neglected.

Take a look at kerala for instance. Every village in kerala worth its weight in coconut palms has now declared itself a tourist destination. Village dames arm themselves with ‘kayi kotti kali’ , tourism committees round up cricket playing boys to teach them traditional crafts and give them ‘stipends’ to keep them from running away; All in a bid to fit into the stereotyped image of a ‘typical’ village without any thought given to the carrying capacity ,infrasrtructure, waste management or resource availability..

Most tourists who come to kerala are people who travel with tour companies and visit a handful of places in the little time they have. The destinations frequented by such travelers have become special zones where every thing that’s anything is tailored to suit the needs of tourists; every shop sells over priced handicrafts, fake antiques and kashmiri shawls, every things packaged to suit the attention spans and interests of the traveler. From dumbed down versions of the kathakali to fake ayurvedic massages, every thing is standardized so that the local population’s identity and culture becomes a commodity to be packaged and sold. The influx of outsiders in search of lucrative tourism revenue and the sudden changes in living costs and lifestyle push out much of the local population.

As the number of visitors increase beyond the carrying capacity of an area, the local population slowly loses access to its own resources and end up as second class citizens. Already in most of the best selling tourist destinations, land prices have become so high due to large-scale buying by big companies that none of the local population could dream of buying a cent more of the land in which they grew up. Even in places which don’t really have much to offer to a tourist, mere rumours of ‘tourism development’ have pushed up land prices. Along with this, other resources like water are also depleted due to pollution and large scale exploitation.

Leave aside the pollution and resource depletion and skyrocketing land prices caused by uncontrolled tourism, what is most shocking is the fact that we Indians, the native population are slowly becoming unwelcome at the most hyped up tourist destinations and resorts. Instances are many when local population is turned away with various excuses from eateries and wayside cafes which target easy to please foreign travelers who would pay outrageous sums to sit in the sun and sample anything spicy and ’Indian’. In large resorts and hotels, the staff complains that Indians ‘dirty the place’. One would expect that the four or five figure sum that ‘Indians’ shell out along with the foreigners would ensure equal hospitality too, but then again , we Indians have always been stingy with tips compared to foreigners. All of these along with the unconscious belief in the superiority of white skin embedded deep within the minds of most of us result in a raw deal for domestic travelers and the locals .Unsuspecting Indians can be seen screaming ‘wasn’t what I paid money?’ after being shocked by second class hospitality. What are we coming to when the local population’s rights are compromised for the sake of dollar bills? This form of ‘apartheid’ is slowly growing in our country as the gap between deep pocketed foreigners and ordinary local population widens. Whose country is this? God’s or the tourist’s?

Well may be we do deserve this. We, who have taken away the native lands and livelihoods of the indigenous tribal populations, are now being pushed to the sidelines by others like us. This is God’s country after all.