&gt; British could not plunder Travancore Kingdom in Kerala as much as they would have liked compared to say Kolkata which was another trade port<p>Incidentally, Kolkata is not just a Communist hotspot, but has had the longest-serving democratic Communist government in the <i>world</i>. That has not worked out so well for Kolkata and West Bengal, sadly.<p>Just pointing that out as a counterexample in another Marxist regime.