To charity or not?

So here's a question that has been troubling me for some time now.

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Vinod Khosla and a whole lot of wealthiest individuals and families in America decided to commit to give the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice either during their lifetime or after their death. You can see all those 'donations' on 'The Giving Pledge'.

And then they decided to come to India to ask Indian noblesse to contribute their wealth. When they didn't get a great response the Indian media started to take them to task. And that's what has been troubling me. Is that right? Do the rich have to contribute their wealth? Is that an obligation or should it come from the heart? Are we right to judge those that decide not to contribute?

The answer to this debate gets into the realm of morality and capitalism v/s socialism. In our mass Indian culture, capitalism or the need to amass wealth is looked at with scorn. In line with our spiritual perception we are supposed to be altruistic in nature and also, incidentally, politically right and diplomatic. We are not supposed to flaunt our wealth and people who remain 'the same' inspite of being wealthy are rewarded with kind words and good image as compared to people who 'flaunt' their wealth. Don't believe me? Tell me what you think of Azim Premji or Narayan Murthy and now what do you think of Mukesh Ambani. Believe me now?

Coming back to the topic I have three views on the questions that I raised.

View 1: In US of A, the kids leave the house at 18 and are supposed to make a life of their own. In fact old age homes are a neccesity and taken for granted. Parents take care of themselves and go to an old age home. In such a scenario the thinking is more for yourself as compared to your kids. You have to first take care of yourself. If after that you have money left over, I guess you are at a liberty to think of giving away that wealth for a good cause and indulge in philantrophy. In India we start our lives thinking about ourselves and when we have kids we start living for them. All our success and wealth is tuned towards how we can take care of our children to the best of our ability till we die. We amass wealth to an extent to try and ensure that our children will live a happy life in case they are not able to find success that we did. If they do then they continue to grow the wealth for their kids. It is assumed that our children will take care of us in our old age and hence we do not make 'arrangements' for ourselves. In such a situation the wealth that we are earning is for our children and hence probably the low levels of obvious philantrophy.

View 2: Usually when you have wealth that people think you should share, you have worked very hard to get that wealth. Even if its ancestral if you have grown it, you have worked hard to do that. So I assume one would like to enjoy the wealth that one has worked hard for. If a Mukesh Ambani decides to build an Atilla, why not? he's worked for it. If I buy a new car every few years, I've worked hard to be able to do that. I believe that a person has a right to decide how he/she wants to spend the money that they have worked hard for and we have no right to judge someone who does not do blatant philantrophy.

And View 3: Philantrophy or charity is something that must come from the heart. It cannot be forced on you. Either you want to do it or you don't want to. You don't put a spotlight on someone and ask them to be philantrophic. At the same time, I believe that charity and philantrophy should not be spoken about. If you really believe in it and want to do it, you should do it quietly. Its not something to garner publicity from.

A recent article in Sunday Times resonated with my thinking in some ways and got to pen my thoughts down. You can read more about that here.

So there, at the present time these are my thoughts. Maybe these will change over time. I am sure a lot of you will disagree with some of my views and maybe some of you will agree.

For me charity or philantrophy must come from the heart and must be something that you do for yourself, not to tell others.