Kerala is a small, densely populated state in India.  It occupies a long strip of land along the southwest coast of India.  Kerala is relatively poor in natural resources but rich in scenic beauty.  It has a long literary and artistic tradition.  
Kerala is famous for its poets and musicians, its traditional dance forms, and its distinctive architecture.  Craft workers in Kerala continue the ancient arts of woodcarving and wall-painting. 

People:  For Kerala's total population, see Facts in Brief.  Although Kerala accounts for only 1 per cent of the total area of India, it contains about 3 per cent of the country's population.  The population density of the state is about 655 people per square kilometre, three times the national average.  About 16 per cent of the people live in the cities.  Most of the others live in large, semiurban villages.  

Between 1961 and 1971, the population grew by more than 25 per cent.  But in the 1970's, the growth was only 19 per cent, because of an efficient family planning campaign.  

In Kerala, women are better educated than women in many other parts of India, and enjoy a highly respected position in society.  In the past, it was common for a woman to be the head of a family.  

Religion:  Hindus form the largest religious group in Kerala.  They make up about half the population.  Christians account for about a quarter of the population.  There is a large Muslim minority.  A tiny number of people are Buddhists, Jains, or Jews.  

The people of Kerala are known for their religious tolerance.  The Hindu majority has lived peacefully alongside the Muslims and other religious groups for hundreds of years.  In 1936, Travancore opened its Hindu temples to all Hindu worshippers regardless of their caste (social status).  The city of Cochin followed Travancore's example in 1948.  Temples remain closed to non-Hindus.  

Languages:  Most of Kerala's inhabitants speak Malayalam, a Dravidian language.  Some people speak Tamil or Kannada (Kanarese), Dravidian languages also spoken in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, and in Sri Lanka.  Some of India's least modernized, tribal peoples live in the hill regions of Kerala.  Some of these tribes may be related to the Veddas, the nomadic (wandering) woodland people of Sri Lanka.  Others are probably the descendants of the region's first human inhabitants.  

Arts:  Kerala has a literary heritage dating from the A.D. 100's.  There are a great many works of literature in the Malayalam language, especially poetry.  Kumaran Asan is a celebrated Keralan poet.  Most Kerala dramas are a mixture of poetry, music, and dance, featuring stories from the Indian folk epics.  One of Kerala's best known dance forms is Kathakali.  It is performed by male dancers who train for about six years, learning its movements and gestures.  For performances, the dancers' faces are elaborately painted and they wear stylized costumes and tall headdresses.  

Fine murals decorate churches, palaces, and temples throughout the state.  A notable feature of Kerala's simple but beautiful architecture is the Malabar gable, a triangular projection on the tops of tiled or thatched roofs.  

Onam is a New Year festival and is one of the most important cultural events in Kerala.  It takes place in August and September.  

Education is more advanced in Kerala than in many other parts of India.  About 90 per cent of the people can read and write.  By law, boys and girls must attend school between the ages of 6 and 14.  Education is free, and school attendance is almost 100 per cent.  The state has about 12,000 schools, 200 colleges, and 5 universities.  

Government:  Kerala has 20 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 9 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabah (upper house) of the Indian national parliament.  Kerala's state government is led by a governor and a chief minister.  The state legislative assembly has 140 elected members and one nominated member.

More than 50 per cent of Kerala's salaried and wage-earning population work for the state government.  Many work for Kerala's 21 state-owned manufacturing companies.  Others work in education, local administration, and the health service.  

Agriculture:  Rice and tapioca are the most important field crops, and together account for about half of the sown area.  Other important field crops are ginger, peanuts, millet, pulses (the seeds of various pod vegetables, such as beans, chickpeas, and pigeon peas), sesame, and sugar cane.  Kerala has long been famous for growing pepper, and supplies 98 per cent of India's pepper production.  It also produces about 95 per cent of the nation's rubber.  Commercial poultry farming is also highly developed, and eggs are an important export.  In the central region of Kerala, between the coast and the inland plateau, commercially important trees include the cashew, jackfruit, mango, and palm.  

Kerala's rubber plantations are on the lower slopes of the state's highlands.  The same area also has important plantations of coffee, pepper, tea, and cardamom, a plant related to ginger and used as a spice and in medicines.  

Forests cover a quarter of the land area of Kerala.  From them, the state produces bamboo, ebony, rosewood, and teak.  The forests are also a source of charcoal, resin, and wood pulp.  

Coconut groves cover most of the coastal lowlands of Kerala.  Coconuts are an important part of the local way of life.  The people of Kerala make ropes and matting from coir (prepared coconut fiber).  They use coconut oil to make soap and cosmetics, use the meat (kernel) for food, and feed the copra (dried kernel) to livestock.  In the past, people used the hollowed-out trunks of coconut palms to make canoes.  People still use the leaves of coconut palms for thatching houses, making baskets, brooms, fans, and umbrellas, and as a fuel.  Coconut milk is either consumed fresh or distilled to make an alcoholic beverage or vinegar.  It is also evaporated to make sugar.  

Fishing is important along Kerala's extensive coastline.  About a quarter of India's total fish catch comes from Kerala.  The state exports a number of marine products, especially frozen shrimp.  Local farmers use fish waste as a fertilizer.  

Mining:  Kerala has a variety of mineral deposits.  The sandy beaches contain ilmenite, the main ore of titanium, and rutile (titanium oxide).  There are extensive deposits of white clay and commercially valuable deposits of graphite, lignite (brown coal), limestone, and mica.  Iron ore has been found at Calicut.  Monazite, sillimanite, and zircon deposits are largely undeveloped.  

Manufacturing:  There is little manufacturing industry in Kerala, but the state has set up about 12,000 factories employing about 300,000 people.  Products of these factories include aluminium, cement, ceramics, chemicals, electrical equipment, fertilizers, glass, hand-woven textiles, matches, paper, pencils, plywood, synthetic fibres, telephone cables, transformers, and veneers.  The processing of sugar, tea, and shark liver oil are also important.  

Traditional crafts include processing cashews and coconuts, and weaving.  Coconuts have long been used to produce fibers, soaps, and cosmetics.  Traditional manufacturing crafts still surviving in Kerala include making furniture, mats, and pottery, rattan work, and brass and leather goods.  

Tourism:  Kerala's lively cultural activities and great scenic beauty attract many visitors.  Most tourists come from other Indian states.  Visitors are drawn by Kerala's comfortable climate.  They also come to see the animal life of Kerala.  The crowded coastlands support such birds as gulls and cranes.  The forests of the interior are inhabited by bison, cobras, elephants, panthers, and tigers. 

Kerala has more than 100,000 kilometres of roads.  A national highway and a coastal road connect Kerala with neighbouring states.  The density of motor vehicles on Kerala's roads is four times as great as the Indian national average.  A substantial rail network runs between the northern border and Trivandrum, linking main towns such as Ernakulam and Alleppey.  A railway through the Palghat Gap links Kerala to Madras on India's eastern coast.  

Kerala has three major ports-Alleppey, Calicut, and Cochin.  There are also ten smaller ports.  The ports are served by more than 1,770 kilometres of inland waterways.  Both passengers and freight travel on these waterways.  Passenger ferries are still a major part of Kerala's transportation system, but carrying freight on the waterways has declined in importance.  

The port at Cochin is a natural harbour and one of India's major ports.  It is run by India's central government and, since 1983, it has served as the main exit port for the Inland Container Depot at Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu.  There is an international airport at Trivandrum.  Another airport at Cochin handles domestic flights.  

Kerala has a flourishing local press.  Six daily newspapers are published in the state.  There is also an English language magazine.

Location and Description:  Kerala occupies a 570-kilometre-long strip of coast on the western side of the Indian peninsula.  It lies along the Malabar coast, with the Arabian Sea to the west.  It is bounded by the states of Karnataka in the north and Tamil Nadu in the east and south.  Kerala varies in width from west to east.  It is about 120 kilometres at its maximum and just 30 kilometres at its minimum.  

Land Features:  Kerala is cut off from the rest of India by the mountains of the Western Ghats.  Its highest point is the summit of Anai Mudi, 2,695 metres above sea level.  In the interior, these magnificent mountains contrast with green valleys.  In the west, Kerala consists of coastal plains and a shoreline of sandy beaches and lagoons.  

There is almost no natural forest left, although the game reserve at Periyar has restored a limited area to something like its original natural vegetation.  

Kerala is so densely populated that there is little room for the region's original wildlife.  Elephants, both wild and domesticated, are common.  Bison are found in the game reserves, but other wild species such as tigers and leopards have been greatly reduced. 

Kerala enjoys a pleasant climate, with hardly any temperature changes throughout the seasons.  The average temperature ranges from 21 °C in the upland areas of the interior to 32 °C in the coastal regions.  The annual rainfall produced by the monsoons is nearly 300 centimetres.  This rainfall helps to account for Kerala's lush agricultural fertility.  Most of the rain falls in the northern region of the state.  In the drier southern region, farmers have to use irrigation to supplement the annual rainfall.  

Rivers and lakes.  The chief rivers of Kerala are the Periyar, the Pamba, and the Bharat.  Their rapid flow has allowed them to be used for hydroelectric schemes.  But the generation of electrical power has not always been reliable.  

Where the rivers flow into the sea, they produce sandbanks that protect the coast from the ravages of the Arabian Sea.  The sandbanks provide safe anchorages for small vessels using Kerala's minor sea ports.  Artificial cuts (canals) link the coastal lagoons.  The Vembanad Lake, an important body of water in the state, is an enlarged lagoon.