One reason is the depressingly frequent and blunt question I often get asked: "You mean, there is philanthropy in India?".*
I have commented before, (Is US Philanthropy exceptional?)that I think it is a mistake always to think of United States as the model of philanthropy. Philanthropy is a comparative infant United States compared with the rest of the world (India's philanthropy long preceded America). To counter these misapprehensions here are some examples of Indian philanthropists I have met.
Example one, is a husband-and-wife team who started their own foundation after building a successful investment advisory service. Through the foundation, they apply their investment skills to advising, investing, and fundraising for a range of social activities. Three of the social initiatives that they were actively involved in when we spoke were, firstly, an orphanage for children of sex workers in Mumbai. Second, an organisation managing rural ashrams for treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, and other disabled or marginalised people. And, third, an initiative that ran education programs for children Mumbai’s slums. All of these three were initially started and run by local social entrepreneurs.
My second example, is the second generation family owner of a mining company. His family foundation has focused on implementing a social model enabling the families of the company’s workers themselves to manage all aspects - health, education, sanitation and sustainability - of their own village communities. This, self-sufficient management model is being extended to 300 or more similar industrial villages across India. From, this initial focus on village management has grown a larger commitment to the management of wider regional ecosystems. As part of this wider initiative, the foundation is now also building a university, which will provide research and training specific to the region’s challenges. The region is the poorest in India.
A third philanthropist whom I interviewed is the founder of one of India's most successful IT companies. We spoke initially about the philanthropic foundation arm of the international business he founded, which supports health, education, culture, and the destitute. As well, it invests in rural development of some of India’s poorest and hardest to reach areas. Later, more reluctantly, he was encouraged to talk about the substantial gifts he and his wife personally make to universities in India and abroad. And, also their quiet giving to India wide projects in education and sanitation.
Of others I have spoken to, one was the representative of a third-generation philanthropic family. Noteworthy, was her commitment to her personal philanthropic giving to arts and education quite separate from the family's traditional corporate philanthropic support of health, education and the environment.
Two other individuals I met had made fortunes from international careers in finance. Both, with their wives, had made their personal commitment to give away at least 50% of their wealth.
It's way too early to draw any specific conclusions from this small sample. I intend to interview 20 or more others. However, they and other conversations that I continue to have confirm my view that philanthropy is vibrant and strong in India. The fact is that philanthropists in India have for centuries founded universities, schools and education programs, hospitals and healthcare and provided housing and facilities, not just for workers but entire communities.
It is, I suggest, in societies closer to home, with isolated and commendable exceptions, that a culture of philanthropy has yet to take deeper root.
*The research will also contribute to a PhD in philanthropy at the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment & Philanthropy at Swinburne University)
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