Issue Nº398 – News in brief

From the end of July, sections of the paver blocks on the Crown road have been taken up and work has begun on replacing them with new blocks by a contractor appointed by the Public Works Department of the Government of India. The RA-appointed Working Committee asked Satprem, executive of the Earth Institute, to make a detailed study what is being done. On 10th August he published his report. Among other things his report noted that the road is extremely badly done and may cave in after the first rains; that the contractor does not follow the Indian standards; and that the old paver blocks made by the Auroville Road Service are stronger and more water resistant, meaning they are better for heavy traffic. It concludes that the design for the road is highly inappropriate for the climatic conditions of Auroville, and the road will be “unlivable during the hot season because of the heat caused by the sun radiation.”

The Auroville Foundation Office urged everybody who has not done so yet to fill out the Register of Residents (ROR) form as soon as possible. The Chennai High Court has directed that no new policy decision can be taken by any of the authorities of the Auroville Foundation which alters the existing structure and working of the Foundation until the ROR is complete. The Office gave a final deadline of August 31st after which existing residents cannot be entered into the RoR.

On August 18th, the Joint Committee appointed by the Green Tribunal in its judgement of April this year published its report. Among its findings were that:

1) Proposals for having a meandering Crown road or for a further narrowing of the Crown Right of Way (ROW) in some locations were found not to be feasible after consultations with external town development and infrastructure experts, and it was decided to stay with a RoW width of 16.70 metres.

2) However, in the case of Darkali the width of the Crown Road could be restricted to 9.10 metres to conserve trees and the environment. Further, while other ponds here should be relocated, an elevated bridge should be constructed over the main channel, tunnels and canopy crossings for semi-arboreal and arboreal species created, and a speed reduction enforced.

A response to this ruling is being prepared and the next hearing is scheduled for 29th August

On August 23rd, the Auroville Foundation filed an appeal at the Supreme Court of India against the April 28th judgement of the National Green Tribunal Southern Zone Bench [see AV Today # 394 of May 2022 ]

On August 25th, the Auroville Foundation filed an appeal at the Madras High Court against the judgement of the Justice Quddhose [see page 2 of this issue]

From an article in The Hindu newspaper of August 15, 2022, the community learned that on August 13th, a day after the Madras High Court stipulated consultative decision-making among the mandated bodies of the Auroville Foundation, the Auroville Governing Board and International Advisory Council met to deliberate on the steps to be taken to realize The Mother’s vision in a collaborative and harmonious manner.

Meanwhile other groups selected by the RA – the Working Committee, the FAMC and TDC – are continuing their work and have laid out the issues they intend to focus upon.

In the meantime, the Working Committee supported by the Foundation Office has stated that they continue to be the properly appointed WC, and this has not been nullified by the High Court judgment. They write that the removed members of this Working Committee (who are now part of the new Working Committee recently appointed by the Residents Assembly) had no right to call for an emergency RAD and “such a course of action is blatantly illegal and contumacious. Therefore, you are called upon to take notice of the same and refrain from acting against law.”

L’avenir d’Auroville/ Auroville Town Development Council appointed by the Foundation Office also made a statement. “During this time of confusion intensely propagated by a faction of residents, we would like to reassure the residents of Auroville that we, as the duly appointed and legal Auroville Town Development Council, continue to work towards fulfilling the program of works as specified in our first two announcements… While the court cases are ongoing and the divisive faction of residents continue to make noise and try to cause disruption in ongoing works, we call for Mother’s Grace to guide us actively in every step we take and leave the outcome entirely with her. A solid peace, joy and a dynamic and undeterred will to build Her city are our indicators.”

They also informed the community that “while we are figuring out a way for redefining stewardship in Auroville, ATDC’s role as the Planning and Development Body, being the Prescribed Authority as per the Master Plan, supersedes the role of all stewards of all land vested in the Auroville Foundation. The Auroville Foundation and the ATDC are making sure that the land is consolidated, and developed according to the Master Plan…We request all stewards of land parcels to cooperate with the development work without obstruction.”

Meanwhile, more RA-appointed groups have either been abolished or replaced by nominees by the Foundation Office. The Archives team has been replaced, with the exception of one executive, the Budget Coordination Group has been replaced by the Budget Coordination Service, and Auroville Media Liaison Services has been shut down.

Other RA-appointed groups have had their ability to function seriously curtailed. The FAMC lost their office on the first floor of Town Hall, The Entry Service can no longer access its data from the domain auroville.org.in, and the Auroville email address of the Residents Assembly Service has also been disabled. At the same time, a number of Aurovilians have been prevented from posting or accessing Auronet, without any explanation as to why.

However, these affected groups have established new ways to communicate with the community and continue their work.

After the High Court judgment, The Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly called a community meeting to discuss the outcome of the High Court case. They also called for an emergency Residents Assembly Decision to reject the Office Orders, Standing Orders and any other form of orders that have been made and may be made in future by the Office of the Secretary and her appointees without consultation with or approval by the Residents’ Assembly, and affirm support for the groups and appointees by the RA. The RAD process culminated on 22nd August. The result was announced a few days later. In spite of the Foundation supported Working Committee warning that the call for a RAD “is nothing short of a flagrant contempt of court”, and the Residents’ Assembly Service’s Auroville email account having been blocked so that they could not reach out to the community members via their regular mass email communication, this Emergency RAD attracted an unprecedented number of participants. A total of 1161 valid votes were cast, which exceeded the 10% quorum (the 239 votes needed to validate a decision). 97% were in agreement with the resolution, 1% disagreed and 2% abstained.

On 26th/27th August, the Botanical Gardens team invited the community to a ‘Forest Moot’ celebrating, as they put it, “our journey with nature”. The event included an orchid show, talks, kids’ activities and a tour of the gardens.

On August 25th, the community was invited to the Unity Pavilion to enjoy a ‘community fun dance’ – a way of learning Orissa folk dance.

On 14th August, there was an open invitation to the exhibition ‘The city the earth needs: Auroville – the vision takes shape’ in India Space at Bharat Nivas.

Visitors to this exhibition found a 1:100 scale model of the city centre laid out on the floor, including the proposed Line of Goodwill. As the invitation to the exhibition put it, “The buildings in this model are not meant as a final display, but rather as a place for experimentation and immersion, where all architects, designers and anyone with an aspiration can come and play with architecture, interconnectedness of buildings, design of roads and many others.” Dr. Anupama Kundoo, ex-Aurovilian and designer of the Line of Progress, was introduced by the Secretary of the Foundation, and subsequently interviewed by Lakshay about her perception of the city and how it could be manifested. [More about this from Anupama in the next issue, eds.]

Auroville Bharat Nivas held a mela, celebrating food, crafts workshops and performances by bioregion centres and schools of Auroville, including a chanting of the full Bhagavad Gita

The General Assembly of Auroville International (AVI) also took place on 12th August. This year, due to the 150th anniversary programmes and events, there were no special AVI programmes. Many AVI members could not attend this year, mainly due to travelling difficulties occasioned by the high price of flight tickets.

International Youth Day is celebrated annually on the 12th August globally, and marks YouthLink’s largest annual event in Auroville. This year it was celebrated around the world, focusing on the theme of “Intergenerational Solidarity”, which it remains ever so important to be reminded of, even within the Auroville context. Exploring this theme was important to YouthLink as it was as an occasion to honor all that the older generations have set up for Auroville, while also remind the community that youth are here, and that youth keep coming to Auroville; and that they are building their capacity to take on and continue the good work. YouthLink is a Service, located at the Town Hall, which helps empower and integrate young people into Auroville.

This year YouthLink was grateful that the event was held at the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture in the International Zone, this venue was large enough to host its many activities, which were spread around the gardens and inside the various halls. The event included many Workshops on various themes such as – Compassionate Communication, First Aid, Self Defense, Carpentry, Learning Sanskrit, Yoga, WasteLess, and Mandala Art. Each workshop was well attended, with a diversity of youth from Auroville, its bioregion, and even groups from elsewhere in India attending. Overall, the event was attended by a total of about 250-300 youth, and also those from older generations.

The youth who attended these workshops could have a taste of what the topic could include, and hopefully be inspired to sign up to join such activities on a regular basis. The topics were chosen specifically to address local issues such as the trash problem, personal health, expressing creativity, and finding ways to connect to one another.

The event also included a variety of stalls displaying various types of opportunities in Auroville, such as Marganam apprenticeships, Mohanam Heritage handicrafts and women’s group incubation, and Yuvabe, which shared information on climate change. Kailash, a youth housing project in Auroville, also brought a stall of fresh juices and cakes to invite more support to improve Kailash, and remind the community of the importance of such spaces for young people.

As most of the exhibiters were also youth, the event embodied what YouthLink likes to call “for the youth, by the youth” … but staying true to the theme of the year of “intergenerational solidarity,” the event also included elder generations in sharing their knowledge, and invited all age groups to come and enjoy the space together.

There have been a number of community meetings, in addition to the big event on the evening of 15th August. On July 30th there was an invitation to the community to ‘Meet and greet’ the recently RA selected working groups in Unity Pavilion. The meeting was well attended, and as a result of feedback received, the FAMC agreed to create sub-groups to look into how we can support units with various licenses, such as for packaging, food, music, etc., and how to support the small guest houses (registered under Exploration). The Council will also organize open houses where the community can interact with them every Thursday morning

Film wise, in addition to the premiere of the ‘Spiritual History of India’, the fourth in the series ‘Evolution: Fast forward” (see front page), Manohar presented videos he had made in previous years dedicated to events connected with Sri Aurobindo in Auroville, as well as his video of the ‘Dawn’ performance in the small amphitheatre, and there was the premiere on a TV channel of “Sri Aurobindo: the beginning of spiritual journey” based on Sri Aurobindo’s inner and external life in the prison between 1908-1909, related in his own words.

Musically, we were privileged to host flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and his students on 14th August, and there have been many other music performances, as well as Odissi and Bharatnatyam dance performances.

Meanwhile, in addition to the ongoing Art for Land exhibition, there was a Savitri art exhibition at Savitri Bhavan, ‘Echo’, an installation by Bhavyo at Citadines, and ‘Unexpected’, a stone sculpture exhibition by Charles Zanon at Botanical Gardens.

There were many talks, on topics like Sri Aurobindo and the cosmic yagna and the Foundations of Indian Culture. A series of morning conversations, featuring scholars of Sri Aurobindo, sadhaks and long-term Aurovilians were held at Savitri Bhavan, which also hosted a talk by Sri M, the spiritual guide and social reformer, on 14th July.

There have been numerous cultural events, the majority of which have been occasioned by the 150th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s birth. One organizing group took as its theme for the month, Invocation-the Gnostic Festival, in a wish to invoke the various aspects of Sri Aurobindo: the revolutionary, the poet, the guide, the guru and most importantly the modern seer and greater luminary for the future. The majority of programmes took place at Matrimandir, Bharat Nivas, Savitri Bhavan, Unity Pavilion, Town Hall, and various other locations in Auroville