Abstract:
Plantations are generally considered to be the seat of agrarian
capitalism; creating an enclave economy, trapping the resource and
labor of a peripheral region. The mainstream academic discourse
proposes that the plantation sector and regional development are
antagonistic and rules out the role of plantation as an agent for the
socio-economic and cultural development of an infrastructural deficient,
land locked, hilly area to have development indicators comparable to
the valley regions surpassing the geographical disadvantages. The
regional development of Kattappana and its link with production and
trade in cardamom stands paradoxical to the mainstream theoretical
engagements relating to the interconnectedness between plantation
and regional this paper is an attempt to understand the role that
cardamom as a staple of the region has played in the development of
Kattappana and to identify the potential threats to this model of
development.
