[zozbot234]

"High levels of political participation and activism among ordinary people along with substantial numbers of dedicated leaders at all levels"

It's an interesting point. Political activism has been noted before as a plausible contributor to high social capital (especially as traditional social-capital-providing arrangements tend to recede in modern societies), which in turn is a significant contributor to high quality-of-life.

Of course things are not that great if that very same political activism leads to misguided policies which keep you stuck in the middle-income trap, as we see in so many places in South America. But it seems that a legacy of substantial educational achievement (which is lacking elsewhere) has helped Kerala escape that trap.

[ummonk]

Note that Kerala, like the rest of India, is definitely middle income. It just has much better education rates, public health, etc, than most of India.