Seva As a Form of Faith-Based Social Work in India
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Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: C Sociology & Culture Volume 14 Issue 7 Version 1.0 Year 2014 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Seva as a Form of Faith-Based Social Work in India By Samta Pandya Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India Abstract- This paper looks at seva as a form of faith-based social work in India. I identified a random sample of 1017 followers of Hindu faith-based organizations having social service projects. These followers are also doers of seva as a form of engagement with the organizations. My purpose was to understand seva through their lens particularly with a focus on their profiles; engagement chronicles (initiation, duration, type of seva, motivation) and perceived implications for self and society. Seva is viewed as having transcendental benefits for self and as having a unique package of moral philosophy and tangible goals of social development. Keywords: seva, faith-based social work, india, doers of seva, followers. GJHSS-C Classification : FOR Code: 160799 SevaasaFormofFaithBasedSocialWorkinIndia Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2014. Samta Pandya. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Seva as a Form of Faith-Based Social Work in India Samta Pandya Abstract- This paper looks at seva as a form of faith-based Indian civil society (Oomen, 2004). Hindu inspired faith social work in India. I identified a random sample of 1017 organizations are headed by teachers or gurus, whose followers of Hindu faith-based organizations having social charisma is the key to organizational functioning service projects. These followers are also doers of seva as a (Copley, 2000). The leanings are Hindu which are form of engagement with the organizations. My purpose was suitably re-crafted to cater to modern and at times to understand seva through their lens particularly with a focus 2014 on their profiles; engagement chronicles (initiation, duration, secular sensibilities. This is done through the use of the type of seva, motivation) and perceived implications for self parlance of New Age spirituality. The fact nevertheless Year and society. Seva is viewed as having transcendental benefits remains that these organizations are Hindu and for self and as having a unique package of moral philosophy popularize the nationalist ideology of Hindutva (Warrier, 1 and tangible goals of social development. 2003) – referring to the Hindu sentiment. Gurus or Keywords: seva, faith-based social work, india, doers of teachers who head these organizations are believed to seva, followers. be avatars or divine embodiments who have an earthly mission. This mission is to serve society and navigate I. Introduction followers and society at large out of difficulties of ocial work literature has highlighted the contemporary existence. Hence social service emerges importance of culturally appropriate interventions as an important mandate of these organizations – the S(Boyle & Springer, 2001, p. 56). The emphasis on Hindu term for which is seva. This seva is panegyric i.e. cultural diversity has brought out limitations of practice it constitutes a Hindu expression of the topography of models that emphasize on rationalism and individualistic the self where the prototypical act of worship is the approaches in non Western context (e.g. see, Prasad & glorification of the divine (Warrier, 2003, p.288). Vijayaslakshmi, 1997; Tsang & Yan, 2000; Hart,2002). Seva is thus performed with the mandate to The emphasis is thus post materialist and the focus is bring faith back into the public realm and is mediated actively by faith practices combining philanthropy and ) on looking at communitarian sentiments within the C rituals (Vaidyanathan, Smith & Hill, 2011). Norms of ( broader theoretical and epistemological perspectives of Volume XIV Issue VII Version I later modernity (Gray, 2008). Social work literature has community organizing around the faith principle are comprehensively handled the importance of religion and created (Warren, 2009). There is an element of spirituality for practice (see Canda & Furman, 1999; partnership in development goals in a resource limited Sheridan, 2003; Rice, 2005). The contention is that faith setting. The performance of seva is enacted through enables a search for meaning and purpose and the devotees and followers who form the core constituency - move is back to traditional worldviews, collective values of Hindu faith-based organizations. One argument is and sense of community (Coates et al, 2006). Faith has that followers join these organizations in a quest to fill thus been a source of values, virtue ethics and morality the moral-spiritual vacuum created by modernity and a sort of counter view to modernity’s perils. One of (Wilhelm et al., 2007). There is thus a leaning towards a the core perils is the ‘demystification of culture’ (Holden, collective style of volunteering vis-à-vis the reflexive 2002, p. 93) and privatization of faith. This post modern (Hodgkinson & Weitzman, 2003). What is also prominent lens brings faith to the foreground and deploys it for is the bourgeoisie trait – followers and doers of seva practice (Furness & Gilligan, 2010). The connection is belong to social privileged class and ethnic groups established through the practical mysticism of faith and (Author, 2012). They align to the organizations by being the meaning, intention and motivation in social work drawn to the guru/teacher charisma and to counter Global Journal of Human Social Science (Gray & Lovat, 2008). The other aspect is to appreciate existential insecurities arising out of conditions of life in and comprehend the nature of faith based social service high modernity (Knibbe, 2008). Doing service under the provision in varied contexts either complimenting or aegis of these organizations does two things for the substituting state provisions (Crisp, 2013) followers; one, it gives them a premium of well-being and life satisfaction (Dierendonck & Krishna Mohan, Faith in general and faith based organizations in 2006) and second, it provides them with a sense of particular have historically played an important role in contributing to social development through devotion to the teacher. Author : Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Hence for the doers social service is a e-mail: [email protected] component of spiritual development – a ‘meritorious ©2014 Global Journals Inc. (US) Seva as a Form of Faith-Based Social Work in India activity that wears down the egotism and selfishness of included Hindu faith institutions as defined by the modernity’ (Warrier, 2006: 186). It is also a form of organizational vision-mission. In all these organizations, practical spirituality1 (Srinivas, 2008: 258). Here one can followers were engaged in undertaking social service also bring in discourses on impure altruism of seva as it activities along with office bearers/members of the order entails consuming ‘clubbiness’ (communitas/network and were playing varied roles. In the second stage, I formation) as a private good along with philanthropy as used the probability proportional to size sampling to a public good (Rochford, 1989). Seva as Hindu faith sample respondents within each of these institutions based social work in India navigates through the matrix from the lists obtained. With an average response rate of of possible meanings (engaged cosmopolitanism) 75.34%, the total number of respondents is 1017. created by the gurus (Khandelwal, 2012) which allows I used an interview schedule, administered at followers to at once reach out and also personally the respective organizations’ project sites. The schedule transform. comprised of basic questions of socio-demographic This paper is based on a study done of 1017 profile, initiation into the service, seva type, duration, 2014 followers of twelve Hindu faith based organizations training, views on work done, motivation and perceived across the Indian subcontinent that have social service implications of seva for self and society. The questions Year projects.2 Hindu faith-based social work in India on motivation and perceived implications for self and society were open ended. The qualitative responses 2 operates through the agency of followers who are considerably also the actual doers of service. My obtained were then combined into analytical codes purpose was to understand seva through their lens using the Nvivo10 software. The schedule also particularly with a focus on their engagement chronicles comprised of a scale called the Self Report Altruism (initiation, duration, type of seva, motivation) and Scale developed by Rushton (1981). The Cronbach α for perceived implications for self and society. Through the the scale is 0.84 for this study. The Likert-type scale lens of the ground performers, I have discussed the contains a list of 14 items to assess altruistic behavior actual performance of seva as a form of faith-based and respondents are asked to rate the extent to which social work in India. they exhibit listed behaviors (altruistic) on a five point rating {0=never, 1=once, 2=more than once, 3=often, II. Methodology 4=very often}. The score is the arithmetic sum of all the items and