Normative-Ethical Frameworks of Superrich Philanthropy in India: Towards the Human Rights Cosmopolitan Framework

This chapter is organised into two distinct parts. The first part maps the magnitude of poverty and wealth inequality in India as an illustrative flipside account of growing affluence at the top. An attempt is made to critique the problematic policy approach that focuses on reducing poverty without addressing the rapidly increasing wealth inequality. The second or the analytical part that follows attempts to make sense of philanthropy as the rational superrich response to the larger problem of poverty and inequality in India. The chapter also offers two internal critiques of superrich philanthropy in India. In line with Thomas Pogge’s Human Rights Cosmopolitanism, this chapter attempts to reframe the normative relationship between the superrich and the poor in terms of rights and duties and put forth the central argument in two parts: (a) the legislative and moral framework (based on the national and global doctrine of human rights) bind the superrich in a negative duty to respect the human rights of others, especially the most vulnerable; (b) should India’s superrich fail to fulfil their negative duties or engage in actions that jeopardise the human rights of the poor, the positive duties to alleviate the resultant deprivation would follow. The aim of the chapter is not to negate the freestanding moral duty of the superrich to assist the poor but to highlight its inadequacy in addressing the tangible forms of transgressions which harm the poor.