We have all heard various definitions of charity. For me, the best one has always been: “Throwing a bone to the dog is not charity, but sharing the same bone when you are as hungry as the dog.” I have previously shared my thoughts on this, even facing criticism when I posted an article on the subject.
However, when I read what Mahatma Gandhiji wrote about charity, I encountered a definition that was both different and deeply practical. To my surprise, it aligned with the views I had already formed—views that, unbeknownst to me at the time, had been expressed by my Guruji, Mahatmaji himself. Another discussion on this topic once turned into a heated debate between me and someone else. But I do not feel the need to recount those exchanges here, as Mahatmaji’s own words stand far above anything I could have said before reading his perspective.
The following extract from his writings needs no further explanation—Mahatmaji speaks for himself:
More on this see: https://dayanandbharati.in/equality-versus-generosity-charity/
Extract from Mahatma Gandhi’s Writings
Ashram, 28-3-2025
…Another such painful sight was witnessed by me on my visit to Suri, where the reception committee had arranged for feeding the beggars of the district. At the Marble Palace, the crowd that besieged me passed through the line of beggars eating off their dusty leaves spread on the ground. Some almost trampled over them. It was by no means a pleasant spectacle. In Suri, it was a little more decently managed, for the crowd was not to pass through the line of beggars, but the motor car that drove me to my destination was slowly taken through their midst as they were eating. I felt humiliated—more so because this was done in my honor. As one of my friends there put it, I was considered a ‘friend of the poor’.
But what kind of friendship is it if I can accept a world where a large part of humanity is reduced to beggary? Little did my friends know that my commitment to the paupers of India has made me hard-hearted enough to contemplate their utter starvation with equanimity rather than see them reduced to perpetual dependence on charity.
My ahimsa would not tolerate the idea of giving a free meal to a healthy person who has not worked for it in some honest way. If I had the power, I would stop every sadavarta (free food distribution centers), for they have degraded the nation, encouraging laziness, idleness, hypocrisy, and even crime. Such misplaced charity adds nothing to the wealth of the country—neither material nor spiritual—and only gives the donor a false sense of virtue.
How much wiser it would be if donors established institutions where people could receive meals in clean and healthy surroundings—on the condition that they contribute honest labor in return…— Young India, 13-8-1925, from CWMG, vol. 28, pp. 60-61
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