Are Wealthy Philanthropists Modern Janus?
In March 2011, American billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet visited India to persuade Indian billionaires to join The Giving Pledge, a campaign launched by the two in June 2010 to seek to get fellow billionaires to commit at least half of their wealth for philanthropy. Not surprisingly, there was a cold response from the Indians for the American tutorials on the “culture of giving”. The special visit of Gates and Buffet carries a condescending message. It implies somehow that Indian billionaires require the guidance of American billionaires to act responsibly and in the best interest of their society. What is deliberately ignored by the Americans is that philanthropy is neither a typical American concept nor an alien culture in India, although western media promote it otherwise. There is a rich tradition of giving in India that goes back centuries and still lives on. As Rahul Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Group, says, “India has a very old culture of giving, since the time of Buddha. The concept of philanthropy is not new to us.”
It is true that wealthy people throughout the world are in some way involved in philanthropic activities. Gates foundation, the richest charity in the world with an annual income equal to that of a small country, has undoubtedly been helping a lot of people around the world. However, philanthropy on the scale we see now can only exist in a fundamentally unequal society where a small minority of businessmen owns or controls large
