Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:37:00.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Charity and Philanthropy in South Asia: A preamble

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2018

SUMATHI RAMASWAMY
Affiliation:
Department of History, Duke University, USA Email: sr76@duke.edu
FILIPPO OSELLA
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK Email: f.osella@sussex.ac.uk

Extract

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?

Type
Introduction
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)