Auroville is going through tough times, but there is much that we can do to collectively protect all that has been realized in 50+ years, while moving towards Auroville’s progress and future.
Here are just a few examples of what you, as an individual, can do:
This website aims to contribute to the community-aligned campaign – Stand for Auroville Unity – and provides resources to help people understand the current conflict around urban development and self governance in Auroville.
Since the Auroville Foundation welcomed a new government-appointed Governing Board and Secretary in 2021, Auroville has been facing arguably its most significant challenges since its inception.
Every facet, from governance to sustainable practices, from community-focused economics to integral education, and from Auroville’s pioneering endeavors to its foundational values, is now in jeopardy. The accomplishments and principles Auroville has upheld for over half a century are currently under threat.
Because the future of this 55-year-old experiment in human unity hangs in the balance. Auroville was founded on the principles of goodwill, peace, and unity in diversity. Auroville is a project officially supported by the Indian government and by the UNESCO. Its success impacts not just its 3500 residents, but the world at large.
Click on the links below to discover how Auroville’s official media liaison team describes the situation at hand.
Summary prepared by the official Auroville Media Liaison team.
Introduction by the official Auroville Media Liaison team.
Check out the latest news from Auroville, based on our Instagram feed!
Click here to check out how you can stay updated with the current crisis.
The conflict in Auroville is a complex, multi-layered one. To understand it, some key notions around town-planning and self-organisation need to be touched upon. Click the links below to learn more.
"Auroville is an intentional city. People join because they share an aspiration towards change and a divine Life. It has to become a global role model for the future.
For this reason the growth of Auroville should be in term of quality of people and not only in term of quantity & numbers. We should consider that Auroville is a different city and the development is not driven by market force. Planning is based on human factors and aspirations and a new strategy has to be brought for. Plan is not only placement of buildings and infrastructure. It should be the creation of an environment conducive to a transforming spiritual experience."
"Auroville:
At last a place where one will be able to think only of the future.
At last a place where one will be able to think only of progressing and transcending oneself.
At last a place where one will be able to live in peace, without conflicts and without rivalries of nations, religions and ambitions.
At last a place where nothing will have the right to impose itself as the exclusive truth."
“If the people who come for this profession of faith are not able to build their own environment it would mean that Auroville is a failure. It is essential that it is being built at the level of individual experience. One could say that the Auroville concept is the opposite of a contemporary urbanism. In our urbanistic conception, one makes a city on paper. The conception is as intelligent as it can be and then one asks people to come and live there. Here the process is inverted: people live the experience and it is from this experience that the environment is created.”
"Auroville is an intentional city. People join because they share an aspiration towards change and a divine Life. It has to become a global role model for the future.
For this reason the growth of Auroville should be in term of quality of people and not only in term of quantity & numbers. We should consider that Auroville is a different city and the development is not driven by market force. Planning is based on human factors and aspirations and a new strategy has to be brought for. Plan is not only placement of buildings and infrastructure. It should be the creation of an environment conducive to a transforming spiritual experience."
"Auroville:
At last a place where one will be able to think only of the future.
At last a place where one will be able to think only of progressing and transcending oneself.
At last a place where one will be able to live in peace, without conflicts and without rivalries of nations, religions and ambitions.
At last a place where nothing will have the right to impose itself as the exclusive truth."
“If the people who come for this profession of faith are not able to build their own environment it would mean that Auroville is a failure. It is essential that it is being built at the level of individual experience. One could say that the Auroville concept is the opposite of a contemporary urbanism. In our urbanistic conception, one makes a city on paper. The conception is as intelligent as it can be and then one asks people to come and live there. Here the process is inverted: people live the experience and it is from this experience that the environment is created.”
"Auroville is an intentional city. People join because they share an aspiration towards change and a divine Life. It has to become a global role model for the future.
For this reason the growth of Auroville should be in term of quality of people and not only in term of quantity & numbers. We should consider that Auroville is a different city and the development is not driven by market force. Planning is based on human factors and aspirations and a new strategy has to be brought for. Plan is not only placement of buildings and infrastructure. It should be the creation of an environment conducive to a transforming spiritual experience."
We are a collective of Aurovilians which, as our name indicates, are committed to standing for Auroville’s unity in diversity. We are an international team composed of both Indians and non-Indians.
What we stand for in these times of turmoil can be summarized as follows:
Recent development work is done without any care nor consciousness, and this goes against the very foundations of Auroville. Auroville wants to become a society of another kind.
Auroville aspires to become the “city the earth needs”, and at times of climate crisis some of the earth’s most essential needs are water, and the protection of the biodiversity.
Auroville has been built first and foremost by its residents. Community participation – with expressions of its rich diversity – is embedded in Auroville’s purpose and raison-d’etre.
If you have questions about what’s happening to Auroville, or would like to help – financially or otherwise – please get in touch!
© 2023 Created by Auroville residents