Structure of Hindu Charity
How much charitable activity do Hindus actually conduct - and what does documenting it reveal about the false narrative that missionaries filled a philanthropic vacuum in India? Field studies measuring Hindu philanthropy in cash, kind, and services across Indian towns and villages.
It is often alleged that Hindus do not engage in charity enough and that is why agents like Christian missionaries and western churches had to fill the gap by providing charity to create educational, healthcare and other fundamental institutions in India. By experience, Hindus know that this is wrong but due to the dharmic injunction of not talking about charity, Hindus are not used to document or showcase their philanthropic activities. Although individually this is a wonderful injunction which is still relevant, at the civilizational level, this is harming us and time has come for Hindus to not just document, but talk about their philanthropic activities.
At Bodha, we intend to conduct field studies in certain towns and villages of India to document the charity that is done in cash, kind and services in an entire year and try to make sense of the quanta of Hindu charity that is being done in India. At first, we intend to do two or three case studies like this, so that it can be replicated and iterated all across India.
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