Gilded Gods

Online Donations

HDFC Bank recently extended its online donation facility to the Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple, its 70th shrine. A. Rajan, the bank’s country head (operations), notes that the bank’s online donation program “started in the middle of 2007. I was invited to attend a seminar with several religious institutions on fund management in temples, and they wanted to speak to me as a banker. That’s when this idea struck me.” In temples in India, people may have to wait for hours in queues to put money into the donation boxes. “I wanted to offer to all our customers the facility to give to temples of their choice electronically,” continues Rajan. Although he declines to offer donation figures, the total number of hits on the 60 plus shrines last year was more than 100,000. Some online visitors gave a dollar, some a hundred times that and others nothing at all. HDFC Bank has added Sikh gurudwaras, Parsi temples, Jain temples, mosques and churches to its list. But the mosques and churches are not garnering as many donations. Rajan thinks these religions are more disciplined and donations are collected when devotees visit the churches and mosques, which they do more regularly. He is extremely skeptical of the data which show that Indians are poor givers. “Indians are equally philanthropic,” he says. “I have doubts on the calculation method used by the studies [that show otherwise].”

The figure in dispute is part of a study by Bain & Company, which shows that Indians give only 0.6% of GDP. Arpan Sheth, partner, Bain & Co, stands by the study’s findings. “I would assert that the ‘unorganized giving’ is not going to make that much of a difference because all the small giving — which happens elsewhere in the world as well —tends to be very small amounts. When you start adding it up, it won’t be substantive. People crib a lot about whether the number is 0.6 or 0.65. [But] it’s as scientific as you can get, because the data is just not there.”

What Are the Right Vehicles?

Actually, the key issue that emerges is not whether India and countries like it are giving more or giving less. What is far more important is whether they are giving right. Can priests and pastors serve better than professionals?

“It is interesting to say I give to my church, I give to my household help,” says Sheth. “It is much more impactful to say I’ve given to an NGO that is focused on pre-natal critical care for newborns. So the whole structure of giving — the maturation of the industry — is the real story. We should talk a lot more about whether we have the right vehicles to ensure that the people who really need it, and the people who this is aimed at, get the benefit out of it.”

Devdutt Pattanaik, chief belief officer of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, feels that you cannot equate churches and mosques with temples. And the confusion starts because people don’t understand this. “Temples are not churches or mosques, meaning they are not community prayer halls,” he says. “They are the abodes of the gods. The deity is a living, breathing person. Wealth given to the temple ensures the livelihoods of priests and artisans and traders involved in the upkeep of the temple. For example, giving cows to the temple ensures the livelihood of a cowherd family. Donating land to the temple ensures livelihood to farmers. The temple was the place where orphans and destitutes got shelter. Temples also patronized artists, singers and dancers. The temple was the medium through which wealth flowed into society, bypassing the traditional exchange routes of the market.”

Falling from Grace

The trouble is that the temple has fallen from its pedestal. Priests are up to all sorts of peccadilloes — from sexual exploits to large-scale larceny. That’s true of Western churches, too: Dozens of defrocked priests are evidence enough. But in the West, the church is not the mainstay of charity any longer, experts note; it is a catalyst. “One reason the U.S. has long been ranked among the most generous nations is the higher rate of citizens active in their religion,” says Jason Wingard, vice dean, Wharton Executive Education. “This leads to more giving to the church itself. But studies have also shown that religious involvement encourages more giving to other causes.”

“Earlier temples were embedded institutions that had meaning and purpose,” says Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and chairperson of the Arghyam Foundation. “Today that is shifting.”