Our scriptures said –
Nakarmana naprajaya dhanena thyagenaike Amrutatwa manushuh,which can be roughly translated as one cannot attain liberation from neither from actions, strength of wealth or people but it is only by sacrifice. Man is social being and he cannot survive on his own. His dependency on society and nature is threefold and he is what today because of society in which he lives and nature he breathes for his survival. He struggle for his existence and get his gain out of same. Indian scriptures asks the man to payback something for the society by which he gained and indeed it is following till date in some way or the other in Indian society. Since the time immortal Indian society has philanthropy in its function. In course of time the facet of the same changed and at some point of time it was defaced and lost its value but it is still alive. Sacrifice for social cause or for good of others is the core value behind Indian philanthropic activities. It is not result oriented. Gate-Buffet initiated pledging portion of wealth for humanitarian works in recent times is the reveal of the same traditional Indian philosophy in present context with face lift.
In good old days to people used to pledge their one fourth of the income to the social causes, one fourth for their own consumption, one fourth for their future need and one forth as investment for their livelihood. The income pledge for the social cause was utilized to plant trees, constructing shelters, travelers’ bungalows, digging wells and other social works which may be an individual effort or by guilds. The process and type of works may differ from place to place but intention of pledging some portion for the society was same in the whole country. There are instance where individual and common efforts are made for noble causes in the history as well as in recent times in the whole country.
In most of the temples and other places of religious importance mid-day meals and suppers are offering to one and all without any distinction. They are collective effort which is working very sound without any assistance from the government. Usually the farmers share their portion to these places and others pledge for their maintenance without any compellation. Many philanthropists run educational institutions and provide free education with boarding and other amenities, superspeciality hospitals with free treatment without any distinction of caste-creed-gender-or any others, water facilities for the whole districts ,wholesome mid-day meals for schools, endowments-scholarships and many others to quote. All these things are done for the social cause by sacrifice keeping in mind without any paybacks.
Now a day’s MNCs are also putting their squirrel efforts in their own ways for social causes. Tata and Sons, Infosys, Wipro are some of those to name. Adaptation of villages for holistic and integrated development, hygiene, community medical camps, awareness programs and other efforts can be seen as contributions of them.
In Indian context, one can see neither result oriented nor responsive philanthropic activities but purely based on self satisfaction or selfless love in action. There are many instances where one can see philanthropy for the sake of name and fame but at large motivating force is love for society. It is part and parcel of livelihood and spontaneous in nature.
Awareness to pledge or payback something to society is recent thought in America and elsewhere in the world but one can trace the same in Indian soil since time immortal. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in recent times came up with pledging for society. Core intent of the actions is similar to Indian thought but expressing in different mode. It is not spontaneous in nature but induced to their lives after some point of time. They have made certain limitations and scope for their target based approach for sustainability. As philanthropist they work in important and limited role. They have priorities and target based approach, responsibly and rigorously if necessary. Technological and scientific inputs are taken for the same if necessary. They motivated many Americans to do so by showing themselves as role models and it has shown good results. As the result many contributions are made globally for the sake of mankind. WHO, UNESCO, and other global organizations appreciated their leadership and result oriented intention of target based approach.
Sir Francis Bacon said that
Charity begins at home but should not end there.Philanthropy etymologically means love for mankind. As the whole Indian context and in particular to Gate-Buffet model, philanthropy is all about sacrifice for good cause of society. They differ in their approach but purpose is same. Thus Gate-Buffet model of philanthropy is paradigm shift from Indian philanthropic thought.
