Home state of Yesudas, the Voice of God.
Also a tropical paradise that was the historic center of the global spice trade, home of the ancient Indian science of medicine called Ayurveda, birthplace of the martial art called Kalari, all of which make it a
popular destination for tourists from around the world.
Today it'
s the state ranking the highest in terms of the Human Development Index in
India, where everybody is educated and well aware of things happening around the world, thanks to a significant proportion of Kerala's population expatriating to other countries as skilled professionals - this leads to Kerala being the a great object of envy and bad mouthing on the part of many other parts of
India, especially the underdeveloped areas of North
India where religiously bigoted political parties hold power.
The people of the state and others friendly to them just shrug off such venom and
chill to
cool movies made in Kerala, which also happens to be home to a small, but world class film industry that consistently produces works that regularly win prizes at premier international film festivals, which are a world apart from the banal
crap produced in the North
India-centric "Bollywood".
Kerala is called "God'
s Own
Country" because among other things, the Voice of God, Yesudas (also known as the "Celestial Singer" was born there, even though he now lives in Texas most of the
time.