Peace and tranquillity greet the dawn along Puducherry’s coastline. The sound of waves recedes as one turns into the French Quarter’s well-laid streets, lit by soft yellow lamps. A grille gate opens into a serene area, where the scent of flowers deepens the silence. Volunteers guide visitors toward the rectangular marble samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa at the iconic Sri Aurobindo Ashram. A 30-minute meditation near the samadhi makes you experience inner peace.
Sri Aurobindo arrived in Puducherry in 1910 to pursue his spiritual quest. His vision and teachings attracted a growing circle of disciples. When he withdrew into seclusion in 1926, the mantle passed to Alfassa, known as the Mother, who carried forward the spiritual torch of Aurobindo’s teachings.
Auroville—a lush, sprawling 57-year-old township with international roots—lies barely 12km away from the French Quarter. A narrow lane dotted with tamarind and neem trees hides the iconic golf ball-like structure at the centre of the township. The Matri Mandir, as it is known, describes the divinity and the serene beauty of Auroville.
Launched by the Mother after Aurobindo’s passing, it was envisioned as a place where people from all over the world could live together in peace and harmony. Situated in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, with parts of the 3,000-acre property extending into Puducherry, the township was designed by the French architect Roger Anger. Auroville is derived from the French word Aurore, which means dawn. It is believed that the Mother brought handfuls of soil from 124 nations and 23 Indian states, and placed it in a lotus-shaped marble urn at the centre of Auroville to mark the laying of its foundation on February 28, 1968.
Auroville’s bioregion has more than three million trees. Over 2,700 people from 50 nations live here. “Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. It belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor,” says Jayanti S. Ravi, secretary of the Auroville Foundation.
The township produces leather goods, ethnic clothing, incense, aromatic oils, semi-precious ornaments and a hundred kinds of trinkets. “It is not just the question of immersing yourself; it is getting out of the materialistic world and working as a community. There cannot be any materialistic desires in Aurovillians,” says Anuradha Majumdar, a member of the working committee of the Auroville Foundation.
From ceramicists to painters, printers, sculptors and craftsmen, Auroville has nurtured a wide variety of experimental creators. It is also home to a semiconductor chip design centre and a music-healing centre. The chips designed by the young team at Auroville led by IITian and PhD scholar Sanjeev Ranganathan were used in drones in the Ukraine war. “I have been at Auroville for over 12 years,” says Ranganathan. “It has helped me synthesise many aspects of my life. I have come here to serve the divine.”
Auroville’s master plan resembles the form of a galaxy with several arms extending from a central region. The form was envisioned by the Mother herself. At the centre is the Matri Mandir, and radiating outward from it are four zones, each focusing on an important aspect of the township’s life—industrial, cultural, residential and international. The surrounding township is a green belt consisting of forested areas, farms and sanctuaries with scattered settlements.
“The Mother got one of the top architects of the time from Paris and she designed this whole city,” says Ravi. “Every little thing was designed by her. She even talked of this element called “the Crown”, where only e-vehicles will go at a [maximum] speed of 16kmph. I don’t think Tesla or any other electronic major existed when she envisioned this.”
The governing board of the Auroville Foundation, led by Ravi and members like Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi and Puducherry Lieutenant Governor N. Kailashanathan, is working towards realising the master plan to turn it into a self-sustained city.
“We believe the galaxy plan envisioned by the Mother is a sacred geometry; it is a yantrik plan,” says Sindhuja Jagadeesh, who came to Auroville to work under the guidance of architect Andre Hababou of Auromodele Atelier.
Auroville has not been free of internal conflicts and disputes, especially in the past three decades. In 1988, the Union government passed the Auroville Foundation Act to introduce a threefold governance structure for the township that comprises the governing board (appointed by the government of India), an international advisory council and the residents’ assembly. All assets are vested in the Auroville Foundation, headed by its secretary. The residents’ assembly handles community life, the governing body has experts overseeing policy based on suggestions from the advisory council. A government-appointed secretary coordinates administration, including resident registration, and visa and legal matters.
The Mother’s vision was to draw 50,000 servitors to the township to pursue the path to realising Aurobindo’s vision. But in these 57 years, only 2,000 have been mustered for the cause. Half of them are Indian, and the rest are mostly French and German. At its peak, the township was home to 3,500 people from 64 nations.
The Auroville Foundation Act was passed with an aim to “protect the community”, but most Aurovillians—particularly the French and the Germans—do not see it that way. “The spirit of Auroville is under threat,” says a French member of the residents’ assembly, who has been living in Auroville for 30 years. According to him, the Union government’s intervention sidelined Auroville’s two important authorities—the residents’ assembly and international advisory council. Since a new governing board was constituted five years ago, Auroville has been marred with protests, evictions, legal battles and power struggles. “It is an obvious imposition of external authority,” says Chali Grinell, one of the members of the “working committee” of protesters. According to Chali, afforestation is happening and farmlands are being ruined to implement new projects that apparently do not align with the vision of the Mother.
Key projects proposed by the governing board of the Auroville Foundation include the launch of the first phase of a 1,000-bed residential complex to house 380 individuals, a tram line, a Crown Road, and a sustainability campus in association with IIT Madras. The government has reportedly invested nearly Rs1,700 crore in the projects. “Several construction projects that the governing board has approved are against the rules laid by the foundation,” says Major Arun P. Ambathy, a resident.
Protesters say afforestation, visa denials and threats are the new norm in Auroville. “The ecosystem in Auroville is known as tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF), which is a rare type of forest indigenous to southeast India. Auroville is home to the largest such in the world,” says Ambathy. “But afforestation is happening at a faster pace here in the name of development.”
Two residents—Navroz Kersasp Mody and Sandeep Vinod Sarah—have obtained a stay order against tree-felling from the National Green Tribunal. “We also offered to collaborate with the foundation and the governing body to work on a trajectory for the Crown that takes into account their concerns [regarding] mobility and infrastructure needs…. But unfortunately, there are people who believe that the Crown must be a perfect circle as indicated in the schematic maps, as they believe a perfect circle has the occult power to accelerate the development of Auroville,” says a foreign resident.
The protesters allege that, over the past three years, at least 300 Aurovillians have either left or been asked to leave the township. The visa renewal of at least 150 residents is pending, and more than 10 Aurovillians are stranded abroad.
“There is a deliberate attempt to quash dissent,” says Abha Tewari, who lives in Auroville with her husband, Claude Arpi. According to Arpi, visa renewals now come with a validity of just two to three months—apparently to make sure that the foreign residents do not get to come back.
Foreigners in Auroville are eligible for two specific types of visas created for them—X-2 and X-3. Frederick Schulze-Buxloh, an 86-year-old German who helped build the Auroville community from scratch, is one of the many people bearing the brunt of visa delays and simmering tensions. He was issued a “Leave India” notice in May this year by the ministry of home affairs. An inquiry committee report has accused him of purchasing benami properties and organising mob attacks inside Auroville.
Jayanti Ravi maintains that visa renewals happen on time. Despite the conflict and the protest, Ravi, an IAS officer, is determined to realise the galaxy plan.
Gautam Goshal, a governing board member, says it was only after Ravi’s arrival that much-needed changes in Auroville happened. “Auroville’s achievements are not to be denied, but it is a fact that there was stagnation and paralysis,” Goshal says. “Auroville, if it wanted to be alive, had to wake up.”