Donation – Something that is given to a charity, esp. a sum of money.
We have often used this word in its right meaning. People donating to charitable institutions. People donating goods to poor people.
However ask a young parent about donation? His understanding of the word will be different. Some of the popular questions that a young parent faces are:
“How much did you pay as Donation?”
“Do you know how much is the donation in that school?”
Schools open as charitable institutions have completely changed the meaning of Donation. Something which was voluntarily done is not only a compulsion, but also it has become the accepted standard.
The same is the case with words like Trust, Trustee. An institution registered as Charitable Trust makes the most profit. A trustee who is entrusted with the job of running the charitable trust is one who makes the most money out of the trust.
Strangely people are so busy with their lives that nobody is raising a voice against it.
Such change in the core meaning of words reminds me of Newspeak in George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ and his quote
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. “
