‘You can’t talk about mental health in India without talking about caste’

Raj Mariwala, director of the Mariwala Health Initiative, upends the comfort zones that define Indian giving and tells KAVITHA IYER what mental health can mean for Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi groups, queer people, the disabled, and for climate justice

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Family philanthropies, particularly those associated with large corporate entities, tend to be squeamish about caste, ableism, Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi issues, LGBTQ issues, etc. What makes you so different and unafraid?

It boils down to why you do philanthropy. For me, it is the redistribution of privilege—part of that is wealth, but the other part is the networks and other benefits you've accrued due to that privilege. Also, you can't talk about mental health in this country without talking about caste, because it informs, at a very basic level, how we do mental health work.

The third reason is simply that Indian philanthropy is done through networks of privilege. How many grant-making organisations can you reach without knowing someone in the office? When we started up, the rule was that if anyone tries to get in touch with me or get funds by saying they know my uncle or aunt or somebody else, they are automatically refused. Our processes on how to apply for a grant are on our website, so nobody should need to say they know this person or that family member. I think this is very important if we are to do philanthropy correctly.

Were there any early experiences you had that led you to become so aware of these inequities that exist in Indian society?

As a child I used to be called the communist of the family. But also, I was nonverbal for a certain part of my childhood, neurodivergent, with a learning disability, and I'm queer. In some ways, I therefore found it easier to see certain things. These experiences opened my eyes up to a lot.

Then, once I got into feminist organising, I learned a lot, which has informed a lot of what Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI) does.