Len-den, lena-dena. Taking and giving. The Rekhta dictionary translates it as give and take, transaction, dealing. Its Hindi meanings add sarokar and sambandh, concern and relationship.
Ehsaan. A favor, and the “conferring of obligation.”
Ehsaan-faraamosh. “Forgetful of favours received, unthankful, ungrateful, ingrate.”
Section 70 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, has the heading “Obligation of person enjoying benefit of non-gratuitous act.” It applies “where a person lawfully does anything for another person, or delivers anything to him, not intending to do so gratuitously.”
If the other person enjoys the benefit, the Act says, the latter is bound to make compensation to the former “in respect of, or to restore, the thing so done or delivered.”
In the Kishkindha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama kills Vali and makes Sugriva king. Sugriva has promised to help search for Sita. The rains come and go, and Sugriva does nothing. Rama sends his brother Lakshmana to Kishkindha to remind him.
Lakshmana reminds Sugriva of Brahma’s words: “for the ungrateful, there is no atonement.” He adds, in Arjun Bharadwaj’s translation: “If you wish to repay Rāma’s help, you must immediately look for Sītā.” Sugriva’s wife Tara answers for him: “He is neither ungrateful nor dishonest.” Sugriva then sends out the search parties.
During the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, Rafeeque kept his neighborhood store in Kerala open. “Many of my customers are daily waged and I know that they don’t have jobs during the lockdown,” he told the Centre for Socio-Economic Studies. “Most of them have credit book (known as pattu book in Malayalam) with me and I continue to provide them goods on credit.”
He explained why: “They have to depend on me in the future also, so it is imperative for them not to break my faith.”
When India locked down in 2020, several companies helped their contractors, vendors and dealers. Asian Paints “transferred Rs 40 crore to its 52,000 contractors during the lockdown,” BloombergQuint reported. Volkswagen India said: “We are also providing liquidity by paying out much faster than before.”
Maruti Suzuki described its help to dealers: “We looked at their cash flow and extended as much support as possible.”
In October 2008 Tata Motors decided to move its Nano car project from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat. Many component suppliers had already built factories in Singur. Business Standard reported that “all vendors maintained that they were committed to the project and would relocate with Tata Motors if necessary.”
In February 2009 CarDekho reported that “Tata Motors has decided to compensate Nano vendors who established their units in Singur to supply components for Nano.”
Indian neighbors send each other food in a dabba, a container. The container often comes back with something in it. A columnist in The Tribune described a neighbor who “reciprocates with something special,” and “the same dabba returned once too often with various delicacies.”
The custom has a darker side as well. In Deccan Herald a writer noted that “the same generous souls who want to ply you with goodies can turn curmudgeonly when the containers don’t come back.”
Cash gifts at Indian family occasions, shagun, usually carry an extra rupee, as in 501 rupees instead of 500. The Quint explained in 2015 that “the additional rupee connotes continuity and the hope of future exchanges.”
It also marks a debt. “The lone rupee is a symbolic sign of debt to the receiver.” On future occasions, “the receiver is expected to attend and return the shagun.”