Auroville, based on the vision of India’s great poet, philosopher, revolutionary and yogi, Sri Aurobindo, was founded in 1968. His spiritual companion, the Mother of Pondicherry, clearly defined its charter: “Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole…. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity....”
For a decade or so, Auroville developed quietly and organically: there was no guru, no CEOs, no private property (for instance, my wife Namrita and I have no children and our house, where I invested the returns from my articles and books, will go back to Auroville on our death), no circulation of money (Aurovillians get a maintenance credited to an account, from which they can purchase food and pay their electricity bill), and the community, originating today from 60 countries, periodically elected groups that looked after finances, administration, forests, land purchasing, and units and factories.
More than that, the pioneers of Auroville, with little money, no water and no compost, planted three million trees, making out of a barren plateau, the greenest place in the plains of Tamil Nadu. It also gave birth to a hydra-monster: land that was worth barely ₹1,000 an acre in the 1970s is now worth ₹10 crore, and everybody is rushing in — promoters, restaurants, cafés, guest houses and hotels that have often no other interest than commercial gains.
The beginnings of conflict
For a long time, the Government of India did not interfere in the affairs of Auroville. But in the early 1980s, there was a conflict between the Sri Aurobindo Society, a Trust the Mother had created to buy the lands of Auroville and the Aurovillians, mostly westerners at that time.
The Society, contrary to what the Charter of Auroville says, felt they were the ‘owners’ of Auroville and started to impose their views and ideas. This led to a conflict, the police being finally called and 16 Aurovillians (mostly French) were imprisoned in the Tindivanam jail in Tamil Nadu. The Government of India had to intervene: its then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, as well as Mani Shankar Aiyar and Arun Singh were particularly helpful and in 1988, an Act of Parliament was passed. Called the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988, it gave certain powers to the central government but left the management of Auroville to the Residents Assembly, constituted by every adult in Auroville and which is the very foundation stone of the city.
For the 50th anniversary of Auroville, in February 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited it and seemed happy with what he saw.
Many secretaries, generally retired government officials of high ranking, came and went, making sure that the laws of India were respected, but none of them ever interfered in the internal affairs of Auroville.
The impact of the ‘Galaxy’ plan
Then in 2021, Gujarat-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Jayanti S. Ravi, who was serving as Principal Secretary in the Gujarat Health and Family and Welfare Department, was appointed as Secretary of the Auroville Foundation. Everybody seemed happy: Ms. Ravi had worked closely with Mr. Modi, she knew the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and charmed every body at first glance.
However, Ms. Ravi was convinced that it was her sacred duty to implement to the letter and with an iron hand the “Galaxy’ plan of French architect Roger Anger. This plan has some beauty, but was conceived in the mid-1960s when there was no environmental consciousness, no water shortage, no ecofriendly buildings. The Anger plan meant building huge apartment complexes, which would require millions of tonnes of concrete, with the harmful effect to monsoon flow and water conservation that is known today; also massive roads, cutting through Auroville; and a huge lake, when the water tables of Auroville have already shrunk by half.
Apart from cutting the forests of Auroville for roads — that lead nowhere (as all the lands have not been bought) — anybody who opposed these, especially foreigners, was denied visas or ejected out of India.
The Land Board was a committee created by the Residents Assembly of the Auroville Foundation Act — responsible for the purchase, exchange and maintenance of the lands of Auroville — it was working exclusively with funds collected from donors in India or abroad.
Land exchanges and sales
For the last two years, however, there have been several land exchanges and sales done without reporting and without approval from the working groups concerned on behalf of the Residents Assembly.
Auroville has approached, multiple times, the Tamil Nadu Governor, R.N. Ravi, who is also Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, for help in stemming the land sales and exchanges (as recently as three weeks ago, with this writer present in the meeting), but Mr. Ravi has chosen not to listen to our pleas, even though it has been calculated that at least six of these unofficial land exchanges incurred a loss of around ₹250 crore to Auroville.
Auroville needs all its lands, as we plant trees, and trees are life in an India which is rapidly getting deforested by promoters and sharks. Also, Auroville must have a saying in its running. For instance, there is not a single Aurovillian in the Governing Board, which has only outsiders, with no grassroots knowledge of Auroville. At least two senior Aurovillians should be present in that group. Finally, the government must grant some autonomy to Auroville.
Auroville is a unique experiment, one of the last Utopias of this world; a wonder in showing how a barren land can be redeemed in 40 years. Therefore, in the spirit of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam, the World is One Family’, the government of Narendra Modi should not stifle its freedom and kill the dream.
François Gautier is a journalist, writer, and the author of many books on India
Published - November 15, 2024 04:30 am IST
