Why should we care about giving in modern South Asia, and why now? These are among the questions at the forefront of this special issue whose contributors explore charitable practices and philanthropic transformations in diverse historical and cultural contexts across the colonial/post-colonial divide at a time when trade liberalization, the transformation of state welfare-ism, and the consolidation of a global economy has led to a deepening of neo-liberal regimes across the region as well as political and religious fundamentalisms. We also write at a time when non-governmental organizations have proliferated across the region, as has the discourse regarding humanitarian aid for a diverse range of development projects. This special issue, then, seeks to throw light on what is new and different, and what persists in the context of the region's long and well-established traditions of giving. Who gives and toward what purposes and with what stated intentions? How have acts of giving changed over time and across cultural, religious, and regional complexes? What are the institutional frameworks within which specifically local, national and regional mechanisms and instruments of giving intersect with global practices? How do the economic and financial incentives interact with ethical and affective imperatives to give?
Not least, as the enigmatic sculpture by Mumbai-based contemporary artist Atul Dodiya that adorns the cover of this special issue also remind us, giving and receiving are frequently perilous acts that cannot be entered into lightly. A detail from a complex 2014-installation piece, the sculpture recalls the ancient Hindu myth of the demon-king Mahabali who, in some iterations of that much-told story, invites the wrath of the gods themselves on account of his benevolence. They dispatch Lord Vishnu in the shape of the diminutive Brahman Vamana to whom the ‘righteous’ Mahabali gifts three paces of land. When with the first and second steps, that mighty Lord takes over this world and next, the ever-generous Mahabali offers his own head for Vishnu's final step, rather than have his promised gift go to naught. On the one hand, the myth is a cautionary tale regarding the unintended—and uncontrollable—consequences of acts of benevolence. On the other, it also underscores the structures of subjection and submission within which acts of giving and receiving take place, as envisioned as well by many similar stories across the religious and cultural traditions of the region.
The focus of this special issue is South Asia. It is also, however, our conviction that philanthropy as a field of knowledge has to be studied within comparative and global frameworks of analyses. At the same time, because so many of the leading studies on philanthropy are drawn on the Western, especially American, experience and examples, we intend our project to begin pluralizing this field of knowledge by interventions from a location in southern Asia.
The study of complex human acts of giving needs to necessarily to be located in a cross-disciplinary context. The historians amongst us locate ourselves in the colonial period even as they address post-colonial concerns (Birla, Hatcher, Kasturi, Ramaswamy), while others bring ethnographic and anthropological insight to bear on giving in the present (Banerjee and Copeman, Osella and Widger, Taylor, Vevaina). A large number of us are focused on India, but we are also interested in charting developments in neighbouring Bangladesh (Gardner) and Sri Lanka (Osella and Widger), while others have diasporic giving in our times as the primary object of analysis (Gardner, Maunaguru and Spencer, Roohi). Even with the specific case studies that each one of us brings to light, we seek to advance arguments and a repertoire of concepts that we believe holds across the region, and that allow subcontinental practices of giving to connect to global trends of analysis. Some of us are explicitly concerned with institutional mechanisms through and around which giving practices coalesce, such as the association or society (Hatcher, Roohi), the trust (Birla, Vevaina), the will or gift deed (Kasturi, Ramaswamy), and the receipt (Taylor). Others are more explicitly concerned with the politics of affect and the compassion for the stranger that frequently accompanies philanthropic activity (Banerjee and Copeman, Osella and Widger, Gardner), while some others focus on the regulatory framework within which modern giving is conducted (Maunaguru and Spencer). As we learn differently from each discipline's preoccupations and perspectives (with some placing emphasis on ‘charity’, others on ‘corporate social responsibility’, still others on ‘humanitarianism’), it is also our belief that learning about giving compels us to understand the limits and limitations of our numerous disciplines in analysing acts of giving. In the final analysis, though, all of us are interested in demonstrating the value of conceptualizing giving as a productive set of practices, and the productivity of giving in turn for the (re)constitution of self and community across the subcontinent and its diaspora.
