Ethnicity and Religion as Drivers of Charity and Philanthropy in

Colombo

Kalinga Tudor Silva, Department of Sociology, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Outline

1. Sri Lanka as a global leader in Charity and Philanthropy 2. Research Study on Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Colombo 3. Charity and Philanthropy normally understood as “disinterested giving” (Bornstein 2009). 4. Ethnicity and Religion as drivers of CP 5. Social Mobility 6. Social Harmony

Global Index of Giving

• According to Charity Aid Foundation , Sri Lanka is one of the most charitable countries in the developing world.

• In 2013 Sri Lanka ranked 10 in the global index of giving with US as number 1 and Canada and Myanmar jointly as 2

• How do we explain?

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t.org

Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Sri Lanka

Funded by UK’s Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for International Development (DfID) Two year programme including 18 months’ research in Colombo, Gulf, and UK Mix of quantitative and qualitative methods

ww

w.c

harit

yphi

lant

hrop

ydev

elop

men

t.org

Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Sri Lanka

Focus on relationships between giving and receiving and gender, generation, religion, ethnicity and class Stage 1: Preliminary interviews with givers and receivers across communities Stage 2: Surveys of households (750), businesses (350), charitable organisations (50) and government institutions (50) Stage 3: In-depth interviews and case studies Stage 4: Tracing historical dimension over past 200 years

2012 Population in Colombo District by Ethnicity

2012 Population in Colombo District by Religion

Historical background

• Charity and Philanthropy introduced by Missionaries in the colonial era

• Complimented and supplemented Sri Lanka’s comprehensive welfare state.

• Other religious traditions employed their own ideas of charitable giving

• Buddhist concept of dana and Hindu concept of danam and dharmam • Modern innovations like Shramadana • Islamic concepts of Zakath, Sadaka and Waqf

Case Studies of Organizations

• Indian Tamil social service organization among jewellery traders in Pettah

• Charity and Philanthropy delivered by Gangaramaya temple in Colombo

Pettah

• Central Business District of Colombo • Next to harbour and next to transport hubs • Three parallel streets and 5 cross streets • Each street specializes in some trade • Muslim and, to a lesser extent, Tamil domination in most businesses in

Pettah (Amy Chua’s notion of market dominant ethnic minorities) – “Markets concentrate wealth, often spectacular wealth, in the hands of a market

dominant minority, while democracy increases the political power of the impoverished majority” (Chua 2004: 6).

• Ethnic monopolies and cartels in specific wholesale and retail trades

Map of Pettah

Sea Street

• Main centre of jewelry and gem business in town • Some 400 gold houses in all • 350 owned by Indian Tamil traders of estate origin • 48 owned by Muslims • Only two owned by Sinhala traders

History of Sea Street

• Jewelry business, pawning and money lending originally controlled by Chettiyars of Indian Origin

• They lost citizenship in Ceylon and went back to India since 1949

• Indian Tamils of estate origin who had served as shop assistants under Chettiars took over these trades since then

• Model of social mobility through commerce

Sea Street

Social Profile of Sea Street

• Owners of gold houses live in certain suburbs and come to run their shops every day

• About 4000 Shop Assistants in Indian Tamil owned gold houses are also mostly of Indian origin and they live in shop houses in Sea Street

• A certain pattern of social mobility among estate youth as elaborated by Hullop (1994)

• Hindu temples, restaurants and bazaars

Types of C & P among Sea Street Traders

1. Almsgiving to Beggars (Dharmam) 2. Contributions to Welfare and Charitable Work 3. Sponsorship of Kovil activities 4. Special assistance for staff during their family functions and

emergencies 5. Upcountry Education Development Society (UEDS)

Upcountry Educational Development Society • Formed by Sea Street traders in 2006 • Specific focus on promotion of education among estate

children as an avenue of upward social mobility, though activities not limited to estates

• Long-term collective commitment • Mix of charity and philanthropy • Non-political organization • Over 1000 registered members, but only 400 regularly

pay monthly contribution of Rs. 200 • Fund raising activities • Additional contributions when requested by leading

gold houses

UEDS Activities

1. Undergraduate scholarships to estate children 2. Improve facilities in estate schools 3. Tuition classes for Year 5 scholarship and AL examinations 4. Sports promotion in estates 5. Vanavil newsletter for raising awareness 6. Disaster relief primarily in estate areas

Undergraduate Scholarship Scheme

• 140 beneficiaries in 2013 • Each given Rs. 1000 per month • Selected through a formal application process and

consideration of need and merit • In 2011, 50 undergrads joined UP from estate areas and out of

them 20 received this scholarship • Graduates employed also make a voluntary monthly

contribution to the scheme

Key Findings

• More organized than private charity • Collective mobilization of Indian Tamil traders

and workers • Fund raising entirely from within the

community and locally • Unlike CSR, campaigns of UEDS has a specific

community focus on the estate community • Degree of professionalism • Stress on education as an avenue of upward

social mobility

Gangarama Temple

• Started by Rev. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala in 1885 • Belonged to social work tradition of Vidyodaya (H.L. Senervratne

1988) • Good rapport with Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus • Many devotees drawn from different ethnic and religious

backgrounds • Seema malaka was designed by Jeffry Bawa and financed by

Musajees • First printing press donated by J. Holms Pollock, a Christian

businessmen in 1890

Gangarama Temple

Charity and Philanthropy of Gangarama

• Vocational training centre • Assistance to rural temples and pirivenas • Buddhist wedding hall • Free herbal breakfast (kolakanda) for any visitor • Tsunami response • Homes for disabled, elderly and abandoned children • Pilgrims homes in Kataragama • Heritage Project • Dansal

Features

• Neither fund raising nor beneficiary selection limited to Buddhists

• Targeting issues • Some inclination towards “philanthro-nationalism”

Implications for social harmony

• Can be seen as bonding social capital rather than bridging social capital

• Upwardly mobile has a sense of responsibility and obligation towards the poor within one’s own community as evident in UEDS

• However the world of C & P is not entirely demarcated by religion and ethnicity

• During tsunami of 2004 people helped the victims irrespective of their ethnicity and religion

• Also poor helping the poor (in-kind and sharing time) is important in donations in kind and time

Ethnicity and Religion as Drivers of Charity and Philanthropy in

Colombo

Kalinga Tudor Silva, Department of Sociology, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Outline

1. Sri Lanka as a global leader in Charity and Philanthropy 2. Research Study on Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Colombo 3. Charity and Philanthropy normally understood as “disinterested giving” (Bornstein 2009). 4. Ethnicity and Religion as drivers of CP 5. Social Mobility 6. Social Harmony

Global Index of Giving

• According to Charity Aid Foundation , Sri Lanka is one of the most charitable countries in the developing world.

• In 2013 Sri Lanka ranked 10 in the global index of giving with US as number 1 and Canada and Myanmar jointly as 2

• How do we explain?

ww

w.c

harit

yphi

lant

hrop

ydev

elop

men

t.org

Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Sri Lanka

Funded by UK’s Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for International Development (DfID) Two year programme including 18 months’ research in Colombo, Gulf, and UK Mix of quantitative and qualitative methods

ww

w.c

harit

yphi

lant

hrop

ydev

elop

men

t.org

Charity, Philanthropy and Development in Sri Lanka

Focus on relationships between giving and receiving and gender, generation, religion, ethnicity and class Stage 1: Preliminary interviews with givers and receivers across communities Stage 2: Surveys of households (750), businesses (350), charitable organisations (50) and government institutions (50) Stage 3: In-depth interviews and case studies Stage 4: Tracing historical dimension over past 200 years

2012 Population in Colombo District by Ethnicity

2012 Population in Colombo District by Religion

Historical background

• Charity and Philanthropy introduced by Missionaries in the colonial era

• Complimented and supplemented Sri Lanka’s comprehensive welfare state.

• Other religious traditions employed their own ideas of charitable giving

• Buddhist concept of dana and Hindu concept of danam and dharmam • Modern innovations like Shramadana • Islamic concepts of Zakath, Sadaka and Waqf

Case Studies of Organizations

• Indian Tamil social service organization among jewellery traders in Pettah

• Charity and Philanthropy delivered by Gangaramaya temple in Colombo

Pettah

• Central Business District of Colombo • Next to harbour and next to transport hubs • Three parallel streets and 5 cross streets • Each street specializes in some trade • Muslim and, to a lesser extent, Tamil domination in most businesses in

Pettah (Amy Chua’s notion of market dominant ethnic minorities) – “Markets concentrate wealth, often spectacular wealth, in the hands of a market

dominant minority, while democracy increases the political power of the impoverished majority” (Chua 2004: 6).

• Ethnic monopolies and cartels in specific wholesale and retail trades

Map of Pettah

Sea Street

• Main centre of jewelry and gem business in town • Some 400 gold houses in all • 350 owned by Indian Tamil traders of estate origin • 48 owned by Muslims • Only two owned by Sinhala traders

History of Sea Street

• Jewelry business, pawning and money lending originally controlled by Chettiyars of Indian Origin

• They lost citizenship in Ceylon and went back to India since 1949

• Indian Tamils of estate origin who had served as shop assistants under Chettiars took over these trades since then

• Model of social mobility through commerce

Sea Street

Social Profile of Sea Street

• Owners of gold houses live in certain suburbs and come to run their shops every day

• About 4000 Shop Assistants in Indian Tamil owned gold houses are also mostly of Indian origin and they live in shop houses in Sea Street

• A certain pattern of social mobility among estate youth as elaborated by Hullop (1994)

• Hindu temples, restaurants and bazaars

Types of C & P among Sea Street Traders

1. Almsgiving to Beggars (Dharmam) 2. Contributions to Welfare and Charitable Work 3. Sponsorship of Kovil activities 4. Special assistance for staff during their family functions and

emergencies 5. Upcountry Education Development Society (UEDS)

Upcountry Educational Development Society • Formed by Sea Street traders in 2006 • Specific focus on promotion of education among estate

children as an avenue of upward social mobility, though activities not limited to estates

• Long-term collective commitment • Mix of charity and philanthropy • Non-political organization • Over 1000 registered members, but only 400 regularly

pay monthly contribution of Rs. 200 • Fund raising activities • Additional contributions when requested by leading

gold houses

UEDS Activities

1. Undergraduate scholarships to estate children 2. Improve facilities in estate schools 3. Tuition classes for Year 5 scholarship and AL examinations 4. Sports promotion in estates 5. Vanavil newsletter for raising awareness 6. Disaster relief primarily in estate areas

Undergraduate Scholarship Scheme

• 140 beneficiaries in 2013 • Each given Rs. 1000 per month • Selected through a formal application process and

consideration of need and merit • In 2011, 50 undergrads joined UP from estate areas and out of

them 20 received this scholarship • Graduates employed also make a voluntary monthly

contribution to the scheme

Key Findings

• More organized than private charity • Collective mobilization of Indian Tamil traders

and workers • Fund raising entirely from within the

community and locally • Unlike CSR, campaigns of UEDS has a specific

community focus on the estate community • Degree of professionalism • Stress on education as an avenue of upward

social mobility

Gangarama Temple

• Started by Rev. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala in 1885 • Belonged to social work tradition of Vidyodaya (H.L. Senervratne

1988) • Good rapport with Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus • Many devotees drawn from different ethnic and religious

backgrounds • Seema malaka was designed by Jeffry Bawa and financed by

Musajees • First printing press donated by J. Holms Pollock, a Christian

businessmen in 1890

Gangarama Temple

Charity and Philanthropy of Gangarama

• Vocational training centre • Assistance to rural temples and pirivenas • Buddhist wedding hall • Free herbal breakfast (kolakanda) for any visitor • Tsunami response • Homes for disabled, elderly and abandoned children • Pilgrims homes in Kataragama • Heritage Project • Dansal

Features

• Neither fund raising nor beneficiary selection limited to Buddhists

• Targeting issues • Some inclination towards “philanthro-nationalism”

Implications for social harmony

• Can be seen as bonding social capital rather than bridging social capital

• Upwardly mobile has a sense of responsibility and obligation towards the poor within one’s own community as evident in UEDS

• However the world of C & P is not entirely demarcated by religion and ethnicity

• During tsunami of 2004 people helped the victims irrespective of their ethnicity and religion

• Also poor helping the poor (in-kind and sharing time) is important in donations in kind and time